You might need to travel to find them: I've found conferences are a good way to find interesting people. And not necessarily programming conferences, it's good

You might need to travel to find them: I've found conferences are a good way to find interesting people. And not necessarily programming conferences, it's good to know smart people in other fields. Also, as patio11 once suggested, just contact people you think might be smart / interesting and invite them to chat over coffee or drinks. I did that while I was travelling through Berlin and invited folks I'd talked to here on Hacker News. I got some really useful advice from it personally, and they at least got free drinks & snacks from me (and hopefully interesting advice / ideas too). Check out Patrick's standing invitation for ideas on how to connect with people: http://www.kalzumeus.com/standing-invitation/ http://www.kalzumeus.com/standing-invitation/