These days, when I meet someone, I bring a draft. To be honest, it's because I want to be praised.
By draft, I mean something that holds a fair amount of my thinking about what we might do together and the picture I have in mind.
Normally, showing up empty-handed is the natural thing. But I think I subtly want to say, "I prepared this so I could work with you." I'm someone who's moved by that kind of feeling.
There's one more reason I prepare a draft. A draft has to be thrown away once anyway.
An idea of mine that hasn't been checked against the other person needs a lot of fixing. It might need to be thrown out entirely. But what a relief that is. If I bring a draft in advance, I can save, at least once, the time that would otherwise be lost to trial and error.
So for me, a draft isn't something to persuade the other person with. It's closer to something I bring in order for it to be discarded. It's a process of quickly confirming what was wrong and what was right, compressing the time between the other person and me.
It started with wanting to be praised, but in the end, what a draft leaves behind is an understanding of the other person. These days, that's how I'm working to understand the people I meet a little better.
