I think one of the biggest differences for midwest towns (I'm a native of St. Louis) is that when we meet someone else in our city who has similar interests / p

I think one of the biggest differences for midwest towns (I'm a native of St. Louis) is that when we meet someone else in our city who has similar interests / passion for tech, we're surprised, and automatically form some sort of bond, mostly because there are comparatively few. The OP hits the nail on the head with the introverted part, too—there are many hardware and software devs in flyover country, but it seems like most are the heads-down, family-over-work types, and don't tend to be as public and/or extroverted (thus leading back to my mention of surprise when one of us finds another local). I think I've met a grand total of two other people in my city who have ever commented on HN.