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Ask HN: How do I plug myself into the Hacker community?
Hi all,
I'm 25 years old and have been writing software since I was 12. While growing up I never did have any close friends that were as enthusiastic and passionate about programming as I am. All of my friends were into football. So, while we'd sit at our high school lunch tables and talk about football players, I would most likely be day dreaming about what my next weekend programming project would be or why my Diablo hack was causing the game to crash - the real fun stuff.
Anyways, I did Computer Science in College and went to a heavy commuter University in North Dallas. Nobody there seemed to really care about programming, either. I'd ask group members and classmates about any cool things they've programmed and most would look at me like I'm crazy. Some didn't even want to go into a computer science job after college, either!
I'm now at my second programming-related job. I worked at Nortel for a year and then we all know what happened to them. I now work at a 6 person company, as one of two developers on staff. It's nothing new-age, or enjoyable, or fun. In fact, I feel like I'm wasting my time there. I feel like I need to be with other hackers. This is what I've always wanted, really. I just figured it would somehow happen.
So there's my question becoming apparent now after this wall of text - how do I plug myself into the hacker community? I'm in the Dallas, Texas area. I'm sure there's tons of things going on out here, but it sounds like everything is happening in San Francisco. Is it going to require me to just do it, and take a trip out there for some monthly hacker get together? Or what about New York, would it be worth heading out there for a monthly get together, also? I wouldn't know anyone out there so I don't even know if that'd be beneficial to just go do. (I don't see how it could necessarily hurt either) Should I focus on just making some cool projects and beefing up a github repo for myself? Should I blog? I've always been more of a "do"-er when it comes to programming so I never did really focus on a blog for myself. I read HN daily and am jealous when I read posts about groups of people living in a house working on websites, etc. That's my eventual goal I guess and am trying to figure out how to get from here to there.
I'm not claiming to be a guru or anything but I do have this gut feeling that if I could wire myself into a community of like minded people then the future would at least be highly enjoyable and worth whatever I did to get there.
Thanks for any advice!
- jeffmould 16y agoTry http://meetup.com http://meetup.com for meetups in your area. Most of these groups are very welcoming to new members and you will start to meet new people. I know it is past, but you can always start to plan for SXSW next year. Great, friendly environment to get out and meet people. Look around for startups in your area. I can't think of any off hand, but I would be willing to bet there is at least one or two. If you can afford to travel, maybe heading to San Fran/Palo Alto for a meetup wouldn't be a bad option. Not that NYC can't be a great place as well, but the costs might be a little more prohibitive (unsure what your budget is).
- il 16y agoTwo months ago I dropped what I was doing, sold everything I owned, said goodbye to my friends and girlfriend and moved from the Midwest to San Francisco. It was probably the best decision I ever made. Not that I was unhappy before, but it's so... different here. It's almost impossible to not get involved in the tech scene and meet hackers in the bay area. Hacking permeates the air, and I'm not just talking about the tech kind. So many people you meet here are building something, creating cool stuff. You will frequently meet people who are working on things you use every day. You can go to tech parties, meetups, hackathons every day and meet new people if you want to. Sure, there are some hackers, user groups, meetups in your area, and people will comment and tell you to go to those. But, trust me... it's not the same at all. As someone on HN once told me, move to San Francisco...whether you know it or not, your friends are already here. You're 25, go for it. What do you have to lose?
- nl 16y agoThe easiest thing to do is plug yourself into language based user groups, simply because they exist in most large cities for most languages. Python: http://wiki.python.org/moin/LocalUserGroups#Texas http://wiki.python.org/moin/LocalUserGroups#Texas Ruby: http://dallasrb.org/ http://dallasrb.org/ Java: http://javamug.org/ http://javamug.org/ .NET: http://ddnug.net/ http://ddnug.net/ If none of that works for you then http://www.dfwuug.org/wiki/Main/Welcome http://www.dfwuug.org/wiki/Main/Welcome might.
- alanthonyc 16y agoHi there, I'm in a similar boat as you, in that my social circle is decidedly non-geek. I've also been on a career path that, although pays well, hasn't been anywhere close to the interesting stuff that I figure I should be working on given my background. So for the past couple of years, I've been working on side projects that have been much more interesting to me than my day job. It's been a bit of a sacrifice in terms of social life and other hobbies, but ultimately worth it. After my current contract ends in January, I'm planning to take some time off from my main line of work to try and get a personal project off the ground. If nothing else, I'll just get even more experience doing interesting stuff. It's up to you to decide on what kind of financial footing you want to be before making any kind of drastic change. Moving from Dallas to SF would (I think) be a bit of a hit on the wallet. I don't think you need to necessarily get out to California in order to get started. There are a bunch of things you can get involved in over the internet so that you can get geared up. That said, the meetups can be motivating, so it would definitely be a boost if you decided to move. In the meantime, maybe you can meet up with other like-minded folks around Dallas as well (or maybe Austin?) Anyway, sorry for the ramble, hope you figure out something that works for you!
- dayjah 16y agoemail me to start with :) ossareh@gmail.com - there are loads of people over here (SF) that need talent - email me your resume or linked in and we'll work on getting you past your current hump.
- user24 16y agoDefinitely start a blog - I start mine 6 years ago and it's been a huge motivator to create cool software projects, and it's connected me to like-minded people. Just get a wordpress install up on some random domain and start talking about your code.