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It would be cool if there was an app that created parties as engaging and diverse as these. In my experience people mostly know each other from work, and it’s n

It would be cool if there was an app that created parties as engaging and diverse as these. In my experience people mostly know each other from work, and it’s not nearly as cross-functional.

TeMPOraL 4y ago
This. Or if not an app, then a way to reliably become participating in them as an adult. I would've loved to be even a fly on the wall of TFA's party. To talk with people with insightful ideas, interesting side-projects, captivating stories, deep models of the world, or encyclopedic knowledge of some random topics. Geeks of all trades. I've experienced something like this once, when couple things mixed up: I was finishing my degree, helped build and run a local Hackerspace, and with the Hackerspace crowd, we mixed up with the local maker and startup communities, both of which were also just forming. For a few years, we've had events and parties somewhat similar to TFA, with people from all kinds of fields, with all kinds of ideas and goals, mixed together, talked and chilled. Ultimately, though, this amorphous maker/hacker/entrepreneur/scientist/artist community started to cool down and split back into multiple, more focused ones. Scientists got back to doing science^W^W chasing grants, makers and artists went to do whatever they do, startup people focused on $$$ and marketing, objective value be damned, and our hackerspace got back to tinkering with Arduinos and 3D printers and feeling smugly superior. I do miss those times, miss those parties. Miss those people, who cared about something interesting, who wanted to do something good - and if not good, then at least fun in an intellectually stimulating way. In contrast, normal conversations with normal people are all just who likes what meal, what's on Netflix, who's dating/marrying/cheating on whom, who has children, who's throwing a wedding, where do we go for vacation, etc. In other words, it's a social equivalent of writing CRUD apps. Yes, it's probably important in many ways, but it is soooo mundane and boring as fuck.
- ryandrake 4y ago
  I'm torn on this: When I originally moved to the Bay Area, it felt refreshing to finally be Among Nerds. My previous hometown had billboards on the highway that said things like "Don't Shake Your Baby" and "Are You Going To Hell?" whereas the 101 had billboards advertising iPhones and programming frameworks. I thought to myself, wow, culturally this is a big step up! But then you go to a few of these "meetups" and you get steeped in the tech culture, and the banality of what everyone is doing here, and you find that people in these parties are just as self-centered, vacuous and insufferable as where you came from--except in addition to droning on about themselves, they throw in words like "blockchain" and "hustle", talk about their sour beer collection, how they might start taking ukulele lessons next month, and how their next startup is really going to crush it in the market this time. Not as stereotypically annoying as the people in this satire article, but very close intellectually to "who's throwing a wedding".
  - mdorazio 4y ago
    Similar experience for me, with the added note that nine times out of ten if you actually dig into what the Bay Area crowd is doing it’s some kind of get rich quick scheme wrapped in breathless self delusion about “changing the world”. Outside the Bay I find a lot more honesty and people just getting on with their lives.
- jrochkind1 4y ago
  Yeah, I hear that. "As an adult" indeed, I think it's more a function of youth/age, than of location. There are older people who still have this social circle. Some artists, for instance. Sometimes I think that _I_ must not be as interesting as I used to be, or maybe I'd get invited to those parties!
  - janalsncm 4y ago
    > Sometimes I think that _I_ must not be as interesting as I used to be, or maybe I'd get invited to those parties! That’s pretty unlikely in my opinion. Some of the most interesting people I know aren’t “party” people even though I enjoy talking to them.
- janalsncm 4y ago
  Are there any meetups for HN people? I’m in the Bay Area myself and if people are half as interesting IRL as they are here it’s definitely worth the beer money.
jrochkind1 4y ago
That's in the first one, https://astralcodexten.substack.com/p/every-bay-area-house-party https://astralcodexten.substack.com/p/every-bay-area-house-p... > “This is an amazing party!” you shout. “How do you know all these people?” “I don’t!” he shouts back. “I’m trying Partyr. It’s a new all-in-one party-throwing service. You give them an address, a time, and an ideal number of guests, pick from one of their preset themes, and they make everything happen.” “Including the guests?” “If needed! The idea is, you have some friends you want to impress by throwing a big party. But you don’t know how many of them will come. And you don’t want only two or three people to come, and then it’s really embarrassing. So you set an ideal number of people to come to the party. Then you see how many people RSVPed, and if it’s less than your ideal Partyr sends you enough guests to make up the difference.” “Where do they get the people? Are they employees?” “No, you sign up to be on standby for their service, and they send you a text if someone needs you.” “How many of the people here tonight are paid Partyr guests?” “About half, I think. I got most of the RSVPs I wanted, I just thought maybe with a few more people it could seem extra popular.” “You definitely succeeded there!” You grab a guest on their way to the food table. “Hey, are you here with Partyr?” “Yeah,” she says. She’s a tall woman in a fashionable dress. “This is my third time with the service. They always come through.” “What’s it like?” “It’s pretty great. You tell them what times and days of the week you’re available. Then if they have a need, they text you a day or two beforehand and tell you where to go. You get to eat other people’s free food, drink their free alcohol, and meet a lot of cool people. Sometimes you meet the same Partyr standby guests a few times in a row and make friends with them. Sometimes they even pay you a stipend. I got to say, it’s a pretty great deal.” “Have you ever used them to throw a party yourself?” “Oh no, there’s no alpha left in generic Partyr parties. I have my own methods.”
- deleted 4y ago
  [deleted]
dgills 4y ago
There is an app - its called Streak https://apps.apple.com/us/app/streak-the-party-app/id1630663647 https://apps.apple.com/us/app/streak-the-party-app/id1630663...

It would be cool if there was an app that created parties as engaging and diverse as these. In my experience people mostly know each other from work, and it’s not nearly as cross-functional.

TeMPOraL 4y ago

This. Or if not an app, then a way to reliably become participating in them as an adult. I would've loved to be even a fly on the wall of TFA's party. To talk with people with insightful ideas, interesting side-projects, captivating stories, deep models of the world, or encyclopedic knowledge of some random topics. Geeks of all trades. I've experienced something like this once, when couple things mixed up: I was finishing my degree, helped build and run a local Hackerspace, and with the Hackerspace crowd, we mixed up with the local maker and startup communities, both of which were also just forming. For a few years, we've had events and parties somewhat similar to TFA, with people from all kinds of fields, with all kinds of ideas and goals, mixed together, talked and chilled. Ultimately, though, this amorphous maker/hacker/entrepreneur/scientist/artist community started to cool down and split back into multiple, more focused ones. Scientists got back to doing science^W^W chasing grants, makers and artists went to do whatever they do, startup people focused on $$$ and marketing, objective value be damned, and our hackerspace got back to tinkering with Arduinos and 3D printers and feeling smugly superior. I do miss those times, miss those parties. Miss those people, who cared about something interesting, who wanted to do something good - and if not good, then at least fun in an intellectually stimulating way. In contrast, normal conversations with normal people are all just who likes what meal, what's on Netflix, who's dating/marrying/cheating on whom, who has children, who's throwing a wedding, where do we go for vacation, etc. In other words, it's a social equivalent of writing CRUD apps. Yes, it's probably important in many ways, but it is soooo mundane and boring as fuck.

ryandrake 4y ago
I'm torn on this: When I originally moved to the Bay Area, it felt refreshing to finally be Among Nerds. My previous hometown had billboards on the highway that said things like "Don't Shake Your Baby" and "Are You Going To Hell?" whereas the 101 had billboards advertising iPhones and programming frameworks. I thought to myself, wow, culturally this is a big step up! But then you go to a few of these "meetups" and you get steeped in the tech culture, and the banality of what everyone is doing here, and you find that people in these parties are just as self-centered, vacuous and insufferable as where you came from--except in addition to droning on about themselves, they throw in words like "blockchain" and "hustle", talk about their sour beer collection, how they might start taking ukulele lessons next month, and how their next startup is really going to crush it in the market this time. Not as stereotypically annoying as the people in this satire article, but very close intellectually to "who's throwing a wedding".
- mdorazio 4y ago
  Similar experience for me, with the added note that nine times out of ten if you actually dig into what the Bay Area crowd is doing it’s some kind of get rich quick scheme wrapped in breathless self delusion about “changing the world”. Outside the Bay I find a lot more honesty and people just getting on with their lives.
jrochkind1 4y ago
Yeah, I hear that. "As an adult" indeed, I think it's more a function of youth/age, than of location. There are older people who still have this social circle. Some artists, for instance. Sometimes I think that _I_ must not be as interesting as I used to be, or maybe I'd get invited to those parties!
- janalsncm 4y ago
  > Sometimes I think that _I_ must not be as interesting as I used to be, or maybe I'd get invited to those parties! That’s pretty unlikely in my opinion. Some of the most interesting people I know aren’t “party” people even though I enjoy talking to them.
janalsncm 4y ago
Are there any meetups for HN people? I’m in the Bay Area myself and if people are half as interesting IRL as they are here it’s definitely worth the beer money.

jrochkind1 4y ago

That's in the first one, https://astralcodexten.substack.com/p/every-bay-area-house-party https://astralcodexten.substack.com/p/every-bay-area-house-p... > “This is an amazing party!” you shout. “How do you know all these people?” “I don’t!” he shouts back. “I’m trying Partyr. It’s a new all-in-one party-throwing service. You give them an address, a time, and an ideal number of guests, pick from one of their preset themes, and they make everything happen.” “Including the guests?” “If needed! The idea is, you have some friends you want to impress by throwing a big party. But you don’t know how many of them will come. And you don’t want only two or three people to come, and then it’s really embarrassing. So you set an ideal number of people to come to the party. Then you see how many people RSVPed, and if it’s less than your ideal Partyr sends you enough guests to make up the difference.” “Where do they get the people? Are they employees?” “No, you sign up to be on standby for their service, and they send you a text if someone needs you.” “How many of the people here tonight are paid Partyr guests?” “About half, I think. I got most of the RSVPs I wanted, I just thought maybe with a few more people it could seem extra popular.” “You definitely succeeded there!” You grab a guest on their way to the food table. “Hey, are you here with Partyr?” “Yeah,” she says. She’s a tall woman in a fashionable dress. “This is my third time with the service. They always come through.” “What’s it like?” “It’s pretty great. You tell them what times and days of the week you’re available. Then if they have a need, they text you a day or two beforehand and tell you where to go. You get to eat other people’s free food, drink their free alcohol, and meet a lot of cool people. Sometimes you meet the same Partyr standby guests a few times in a row and make friends with them. Sometimes they even pay you a stipend. I got to say, it’s a pretty great deal.” “Have you ever used them to throw a party yourself?” “Oh no, there’s no alpha left in generic Partyr parties. I have my own methods.”

deleted 4y ago
[deleted]

dgills 4y ago

There is an app - its called Streak https://apps.apple.com/us/app/streak-the-party-app/id1630663647 https://apps.apple.com/us/app/streak-the-party-app/id1630663...