This is way too complicated. All you have do is show up to the same place regularly to places where other people also show up regularly. School, work, dog park, gym, etc.
I know plenty of people who go to work or a gym or whatever every day, but don't come away from it with close friendships.
Friendship happens, if through shared experience, interest or just chance. True friendship doesn't happen because you woke up one morning and "Make a Friend" was at the top of your todo list for the day.
Some people just do not work this way - maybe it's being somewhere on the autism spectrum, but whatever the cause, some people need to take a more methodical approach to do this.
I think what this blog post shows is that such an approach really can result in true friendships.
It's a bit like online dating I suppose. That idea is abhorrent to some (or used to be - the stigma has reduced considerably over time), but when it works, there's nothing preventing the resulting relationship from being as genuine as one that started any other way.
There are a lot of bad things about drugs and alcohol but one of the reasons I like them is they tend to enable/accelerate these moments.