> "attended tech / startup community events (meetups, hack days, etc)" This really is the key to doing what you love. "Hanging around" leads to opportunities,

> "attended tech / startup community events (meetups, hack days, etc)" This really is the key to doing what you love. "Hanging around" leads to opportunities, whether it's through open source contributions to a project you like, pestering people at meetups, being a particularly keen and vocal user of a product you love.