Ask HN: Who Do You Chat With? | Hacker News Reader

Ask HN: Who Do You Chat With?

9 pointsxyzzy_plugh5 comments

Since going solo, I am finding the quietness somewhat overwhelming. I'm not sure how to fill the void left by Slack at previous jobs. I miss being able to casually chat or bounce ideas around with like-minded professionals. Who do you chat with throughout the day? Any recommended communities?

I idle on a few public Slack channels for frameworks/languages I work with but I'm finding it difficult to make a connection. I have plenty of friends but they're usually occupied by work when I'm working.

Does anyone else struggle with this?

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During the day I end up at the same coffee shop with a mix of university students, retired professors, and other people in my situation who work from home or independently. I struggle a bit with having the domain-specific exchanges, but for the most part, the engaging discussion on other topics is a better way to break up the day. I’m more productive overall if I make these encounters part of my regular routine.

How do you initiate these at a coffee shop when you know no one? It's probably my personality or maybe it's just the culture of coffee shops around me but I struggle with this a lot

Work at a shared co-working space, go to meet ups and give talks, network with incubators in the area, find regional slack channels.

you can usually find slack channels associated with regional meetup groups. Seattle has a Python programming group with a very active and friendly chat, so does Portland have a startups and entrepreneurs group

Try a different instant messenger? Slack is geared toward people who already know each other/know what they want out of another person. If you try one of the more casual instant messengers with programming communities (think IRC, though a proprietary alternative would be Discord), you might get better results.

Do you have any examples of communities you engage with?

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