> To me, the most puzzling thing about programming is that there is no real place to actually discuss programming. There totally are. Forums, chatrooms, maili

> To me, the most puzzling thing about programming is that there is no real place to actually discuss programming. There totally are. Forums, chatrooms, mailing lists - they tend to be more niche than simply "programming", because that's simply such a huge topic... you can find better, if more niche, common ground. You don't have "the drinking" community - you have coffee lovers, the wine testers, microbrewers, etc. I spent long enough on gamedev.net and it's associated chat channels (first IRC, now Discord too) for my relationships with people online to bleed out into the real world. It taught me a ton about programming. It got me my first industry job offer, from someone who I helped teach. In passing, I've seen various FOSS communities, programming languages, etc. - often focused strictly on shop talk, but not always. There's a lot of pseudonymity to be sure, and you'll get pushback if the first thing out of your mouth is "hey check out my game/project/community, email me because I'm not sticking around long enough to hear any feedback here" - which happens surprisingly often - but there's plenty people can share relating to their projects, the tech they're using, or having trouble with, or finding new and interesting ways to (ab)use - even from the get go, that can be well received. It's the difference between finding a topic of shared interest to discuss, vs broadcasting a topic of just your interest to talk at people with. The latter isn't a discussion.