Ask HN: Where have you found community outside of work? • Hacker News Board

Re: Ask HN: Where have you found community outside of work?

#331

Post by anon7725 » Wed, May 31, 2023, 12:20 AM UTC

CoastalCoder wrote: post #177

LouisSayers wrote: post #164

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Deciding what's true can be a challenge. It's not too hard when you hear ridiculous stories and treat them as if they were to happen today. The one I remember from the church event was about a big guy that couldn't be subdued and then ended up breaking through chains. So many questions from a single statement. Everyone else literally sat there and didn't blink an eye.

> It's not too hard when you hear ridiculous stories and treat them as if they were to happen today. Maybe it hinges on which parts of the stories you imagining happening today. E.g., if Jesus rose from the dead next week, I'd find it pretty thought-provoking. If he were merely crucified but stayed dead, I'd cross Christianity of my list of plausible world views. I.e., a lot really depends on whether or not those mir…

> if Jesus rose from the dead next week, I'd find it pretty thought-provoking. If he were merely crucified but stayed dead, I'd cross Christianity of my list of plausible world views.

In today’s environment, how would you evaluate the truth value of a claim like that? It seems like the only way to 100% convinced of the truth would be as a first-hand witness, unless there was some kind of detailed and airtight evaluation.

Maybe the foundation document for the next world religion will be a 100-page paper that definitely establishes causality.

Re: Ask HN: Where have you found community outside of work?

#332

Post by Zpalmtree » Wed, May 31, 2023, 12:26 AM UTC

uoaei wrote: post #161

mcook08 wrote: post #153

F3 https://f3nation.com I was feeling very lonely working remote. We moved to a Memphis TN to be closer to family and I was struggling with feeling like an outsider. I grew up playing sports and tried CrossFit but hated paying so much for a gym. F3 workouts are free and I thought I was going for the fitness aspect, but the fellowship is what really stuck. Guys hung out after workouts and it was great to meet so many…

I've heard these quickly become alt-right incubation machines. The "fellowship" becomes "brotherhood" and then you got a cult-militia going pretty easy after that.

God forbid people have different political opinions to you... they must be those scary militias

Re: Ask HN: Where have you found community outside of work?

#333

Post by SamWhited » Wed, May 31, 2023, 12:27 AM UTC

I've found the local Swing Dance scene to be very welcoming; the same with local bicycle group rides (you see a lot of the same people at different rides and make friends really quick), the local bike repair co-ops where you can learn/teach mechanical skills, the local blues dance scene has been great, etc.

Pick something that interests you and go do it! Find a nerd store that has a gaming night and sit down at a random table and ask to join their DnD campaign, or ask around and find the local rock climbing gym that does community building nights, etc. whatever catches your fancy I guarantee there are others out there that also like the same things and want to connect!

Public social infrastructure like your local library is always a good place to go too: they'll have book clubs, lecture series, parent meetups, etc. check out their programming schedule and see if anything sounds interesting to you.

Re: Ask HN: Where have you found community outside of work?

#334

Post by SamWhited » Wed, May 31, 2023, 12:30 AM UTC

osdoorp wrote: post #114

Volunteering. And before you brush it out skeptically, like "oh yeah right, those people", it really doesn't have to be anything you don't care about. I volunteer at a boat house on the city lake nearby, just putting kids on pedal boats and kayaks. I don't even call it volunteering, I just love kayaks and water. It's amazing how your perspective of time and people and service shifts, when you spend some time being "i…

+1 to this; some of the best people I've met in my city are from the local DIY bike co-op. I started out walking in to check it out and see if they had any good bikes, and now I open the shop and teach bike repair there once a week with several friends I wouldn't have otherwise met.

Re: Ask HN: Where have you found community outside of work?

#335

Post by thepasswordis » Wed, May 31, 2023, 12:32 AM UTC

silisili wrote: post #88

My neighborhood. When we moved in we sat out front every evening, and made small talk with every single person who walked by. Some were caught off guard, some kinda just waved and moved on, but most stopped to talk. What's interesting is that people who had lived in that neighborhood nearly 20 years together had never talked, and met for the first time as both stopped to chat at nearly the same time. Then we started…

Based and grill-pilled.

We've been doing the same. I recently have gotten into brisket smoking, and for the last few weekends, my wife and kids have been out in the yard every Saturday all day smoking meats. At night we offer some to everybody who walks by.

It's really been nice.

Re: Ask HN: Where have you found community outside of work?

#336

Post by moneywoes » Wed, May 31, 2023, 12:33 AM UTC

sublinear wrote: post #241

turkeygizzard wrote: post #94

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Embarrassing / dumb q, but how do you actually get to talking with them in a meaningful way? I can imagine with repeats, it's easier to build up rapport, but I don't think I've ever hit it off so strongly with someone at a coffee shop that we exchange info after one interaction (mine here aren't super social fwiw)

You didn't ask me and I'm definitely not suggesting you exclusively go out to bars but if you're in a nicer neighborhood, especially with patrons that skew older, you can basically flat out ask them for advice like you did here and you'll usually get a dump truck of it and their personal stories in exchange for your name and buying a few beers. You might even get invited to a backyard cookout that same weekend. Alcoh…

“Hey sorry to bother you, did you have a minute, I noticed you around here for a bit and I was interested in knowing how you got up to here”

Something like that? What’s in it for them for telling you. Is it hard to not sound like you’re soliciting

Re: Ask HN: Where have you found community outside of work?

#337

Post by thepasswordis » Wed, May 31, 2023, 12:34 AM UTC

Church.

My wife and I sit in the cry room with out little kids, and have gotten to know the people that are there with us. It's gotten to the point where we have started recognizing these people all over town. Very cozy and nice.

I'll say: having kids is obviously itself incredibly meaningful; as an additional benefit: kids are a fantastic ice-breaker/opener for other families with kids.

Re: Ask HN: Where have you found community outside of work?

#338

Post by anon7725 » Wed, May 31, 2023, 12:35 AM UTC

skulk wrote: post #72

sgt wrote: post #56

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I can't imagine anything worse than going to the gym. What do you do there? Walk on a treadmill like a mouse in a laboratory? Also, you come back starving because you've burned calories, probably eating way more than you should due to being famished. And it's also extremely boring. I've tried it once or twice, but I just can't handle it. Genuinely interested in how some people manage to consistently keep going to the…

Cardio exercise is absolutely dreadful. Try lifting weights, heavy ones (after studying form via YouTube videos and verifying that your form is correct on lighter weights). Pushing your limits is neither boring nor time-consuming. 45 minutes is enough for a vigorous workout.

> Cardio exercise is absolutely dreadful.

Indoor cardio, sure. Walking/hiking/running/biking outdoors is great.

Re: Ask HN: Where have you found community outside of work?

#339

Post by CoastalCoder » Wed, May 31, 2023, 12:36 AM UTC

anon7725 wrote: post #331

CoastalCoder wrote: post #177

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> It's not too hard when you hear ridiculous stories and treat them as if they were to happen today. Maybe it hinges on which parts of the stories you imagining happening today. E.g., if Jesus rose from the dead next week, I'd find it pretty thought-provoking. If he were merely crucified but stayed dead, I'd cross Christianity of my list of plausible world views. I.e., a lot really depends on whether or not those mir…

> if Jesus rose from the dead next week, I'd find it pretty thought-provoking. If he were merely crucified but stayed dead, I'd cross Christianity of my list of plausible world views. In today’s environment, how would you evaluate the truth value of a claim like that? It seems like the only way to 100% convinced of the truth would be as a first-hand witness, unless there was some kind of detailed and airtight evaluat…

Yeah, good point. We're definitely in an age of super-powered disinformation.

Re: Ask HN: Where have you found community outside of work?

#340

Post by marcus_holmes » Wed, May 31, 2023, 12:40 AM UTC

Boardgames. I met my wife at a boardgame meetup. They're really common in Germany, less so elsewhere but there's usually a boardgame group in every city I've travelled to (all over SE Asia, Central America so far). Perfect for us geeks, too, as the more complex boardgames are really scratching that intellectual itch; learning a new ruleset for a complex game and grokking it enough to create a workable strategy for the game is a great intellectual exercise. And a mix of genders and backgrounds, with conversation during the game, it's a great way of meeting people.