I Just moved to Chicago - Are you interested in meeting up?

My name is Jade, I'm a 20 something male born and raised in Southern CA. I'm a backend developer (primarily ruby). I just took a job in Chicago and I'm excited to meet and work with new people.

LETS TALK

Have a startup or side-project? Want to get involved in the industry? Blackhat hacker? Everybody has something to offer!

For me ; I'd like to improve education. Toward that end I'm working on a way to make learning web-application development accessible to anybody that is motivated to learn. This is a huge and far reaching goal so I don't really have anything concrete - I just know my life's work involves improving education.

HELP ME

I've perused meetup.com for software related groups and I'll likely attend every one I can. However I'd ideally like to start a meetup where the goal is to talk about learning. How do we as engineers learn? What path did you take from noob to expert. How do you learn new technologies? We might even setup crash-course presentations where each member teaches the group something new.

Most meetups I've been to are just marketing presentations by the organizers. We sit there and listen to some guy's startup idea. Help me find the ones (and/or create a new one) that is genuinely interested in making the group better as a whole by encouraging and motivating its parts - the people!

ARE YOU NEW TO PROGRAMMING BUT WANT TO LEARN?

I'm also very interested in meeting people interested in programming but with no background experience - noobs. I will be more than happy to share with you what I know and offer suggestions to get you started. The only requirement is that you are motivated to learn and are serious about making stuff.

THANK YOU!

My email and personal info is in my profile if you need it.