Learn to play an instrument and start/join a band. Get a dog which needs lots of walks. Make (or buy but that's boring) a bow and start shooting, join a club. B

Learn to play an instrument and start/join a band. Get a dog which needs lots of walks. Make (or buy but that's boring) a bow and start shooting, join a club. Basically find yourself some activity which you can do alone among people. Where there's people there's a chance of meeting someone who fills those gaps in your life. About that "intellectual loneliness" bit I'd pose that a healthy mix of mental and physical - i.e. "dumb", but not really - work is the best way to keep both parts of yourself healthy and sane. I bought a 17th century farm and have been restoring it ever since, I cook on a wood-burning stove and heat the house with wood alone, getting firewood from the forest is a few weeks worth of "dumb" - but not really - work a year. Not everyone will be in the position to get a farm but there are plenty of other "down-to-earth, physical" things you can pick up, things which give some payoff - vegetables, firewood, fish, whatever.