Delany was born into a family of African American professionals. The landlord would visit Delany's grandparents at their Harlem apartment twice a year. He would sit and talk, then look over the apartment. They would give him their list of repairs. Resentments would be defused.
Contact is visceral and creative.
Networking is cerebral, inbred, and stagnant. It's a bunch of writers hanging around a conference talking shop. That's Delany's example, not mine. It's not that no one gets laid networking. It's that you've got to earn it.