I like to hang out in IRC channels of things I'm just starting to learn for this reason. I can't answer much of anything in #clojure, for example, and I don't h

I like to hang out in IRC channels of things I'm just starting to learn for this reason. I can't answer much of anything in #clojure, for example, and I don't have much to ask. But I like to scroll up through the channel every few hours or even days to see what people are commonly asking about, or seeing if I can work out the solution to someone's question myself and compare my thoughts to the answers in the channel. It's a nice way to passively learn something. Like hanging out with a group of people who are always doing or talking about something. Mailing lists tend to be nicer for slow or more niche topics. I've seen maybe 10 messages total in all my time idling in ##dsp, but there are several active and friendly mailing lists on the topic. It was surprising to see names of authors of books and research papers just casually responding to questions via email.