Just out of curiosity, where are you located that you've had that experience? It's not a mirror-image of mine, but it's fairly close. I'm in El Paso, TX (US).

Just out of curiosity, where are you located that you've had that experience? It's not a mirror-image of mine, but it's fairly close. I'm in El Paso, TX (US). In my area, there are almost no professionals of any field, let alone software engineering. You've got doctors and lawyers, but that's about it. So language barriers aside (most speak English and Spanish here but you do run into a fair amount of Spanish-only), the biggest hurdle I run into relating to people - not even dating, just general day-to-day stuff - is education and IQ. Most are just very, very poorly educated at best. And yeah there's a lot of addiction to vapid pop-culture nonsense as well, which presents an immediate barrier to me because...ugh, no thanks. But ultimately, most people just have a lackluster ability to grasp even the most basic of things (I had to explain who the Romans were once, I kid you not). Not saying they're all stupid or anything, far from it. I think it's a socioeconomic problem, caused by generational poverty being a barrier to higher education. There's a university here (UTEP), but it's way out of reach for easily 80-90% of people born and raised locally. Those who do go there leave the area almost immediately (and I can't blame them, I will too, and soon). Damn shame, too. There are some really nice, big-hearted folks in this town and they deserve a fair shake.