Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

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

news.ycombinator.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

351–360 of 585 posts

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

#351

Post by MichaelNolan »

SaintGhurka wrote: post #208

I joined the Texas State Guard and found a lasting connection with my group. When I'm there I feel like I'm with family. About half the states have a state guard. The organizational structure is military-ish, but we don't have weapons. We wear essentially the same uniform as the national guard, and sometimes work with them, but it's not related to the national guard except that we both report to the governor. The dif…

> When I joined they needed programmers.

How did that work? Unless there is a deployment, the schedule is one weekend a month right? What kind of tech work were you able to do in that timeframe?

You mentioned working in a shelter as well during Harvey. How often were you called into service? It looks likes the number of whether related missions has increased in recent years - https://tmd.texas.gov/texas-state-guard-missions

I just moved to Austin and the idea of joining a state guard is appealing.

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

#352

Post by zdragnar »

slothtrop wrote: post #176
andreynering wrote: post #3

The church is like a second family for me. I made so many great friends there! Of course it will not be for everyone, but if you are open to it you can try.

I expect sect/denomination has an influence here because my experiences in the past were strictly familial, no one made friends there though there are familiar faces. Once service is over, it was Sunday brunch with family. At any rate, potential friendship is a weak rationalization for joining a religion when there are many avenues to do this.

Imagine going to a movie theater, watching a movie, then leaving and not talking to anyone afterwards. Naturally, that is a terrible way to engage in the movie enthusiast community.

On the other hand, if you spend time with some people, go and watch the movie together, and talk afterwards, it'll feel a whole lot more impactful and you'll find the shared experience fosters a sense of community if you do it on a regular basis.

Denominations, and individual churches within a church, will definitely all have different levels of cohesiveness and character to their communities. It begins and ends, however, with getting out what you put into it.

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

#353

Post by neverartful »

DANmode wrote: post #348
neverartful wrote: post #297

Earlier quoted context omitted.

"To be one, ask one" is their common saying about how to join. There are 3 degrees (entered apprentice, fellow craft, and master mason). Typically, someone who wants to join a lodge will contact the secretary of the lodge to express their interest. The secretary should provide information on either 'stated communications' (regular meetings) or some informal event that would be conducive to meeting some of the members…

Used to?

Yes, I am no longer a member. However, I still do my best to follow the teachings.

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

#354

Post by dabluecaboose »

neverartful wrote: post #297
antoinealb wrote: post #35

Earlier quoted context omitted.

How does it work ? I always kind of assumed you had to be invited to join, that it was not something you can just go to and register ?

"To be one, ask one" is their common saying about how to join. There are 3 degrees (entered apprentice, fellow craft, and master mason). Typically, someone who wants to join a lodge will contact the secretary of the lodge to express their interest. The secretary should provide information on either 'stated communications' (regular meetings) or some informal event that would be conducive to meeting some of the members…

Can I ask why you are no longer a Mason?

My great grandfather was a Mason, but having grown up Catholic I understand that there's a bit more nuance and trickiness behind it if I wanted to join. I've been curious about it for a while.

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

#355

Post by seoulbran »

bazzert wrote: post #168
donnfelker wrote: post #160

A fitness community. This could be either a BJJ (Brazilian Jiu Jitsu) place or even a CrossFit gym. I've done both and while I'm not here to promote CrossFit, I am here to say that a group fitness class is awesome for meeting other people and finding a community of people that do something similar as you, but have absolutely nothing to do with your work. I workout with Police officers, Lawyers, Doctors, Dentists, Sta…

Fully agree, the crossfit gym I joined several years ago has become an important part of my life.

I second that. I do a 5:15 am class on weekdays even during the summer when I don't have to take kids to school. My wife pushes me to sleep in a little and do a later morning class but I would miss my 5:15 crew so I keep getting up at 4:30 a.m. I love the community in CrossFit.

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

#356

Post by alach11 »

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…

When my wife and I bought our house last year, we made bags of cookies and visited every neighbor to introduce ourselves. This has paid dividends. In our neighborhood we now have friends we see weekly, people to call upon if we're out of town and need someone to check on the house, and use of two neighbors' pools!

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

#358

Post by lannisterstark »

godelski wrote: post #350
lannisterstark wrote: post #230

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>My neighborhood I have a question. What kind of place do you live in? Is it houses that are apart by some distance -lawns/treelines separating y'all etc-, is it houses that are built next to each other, is it duplexes/townhomes etc?

Maybe I'm inferring a subtext here, but I think you're asking about how environment facilitates this. It's definitely true that homes with lawns make this easier than say apartments. Part of this is that you're more likely to spend time outside owning a home as you need to simply work on the yard. But the main causal factor is likely just seeing people frequently. Like one reason it was easier to make friends in scho…

Right, I currently live in a townhouse and as the other posters posted, the only time we see our neighbors is when they get out of the car and go inside.

On the other hand, when I used to live in a single-floor-only apartment complex (more 'two apartments in a single building' built together), I used to interact with my neighbors quite a lot.

I do eventually want to move to a State where there is less brown and more green (arizona rn - so the prospect of sitting outside isn't that great during summer evenings), and where places are a bit more spaced apart. I like my privacy, but would still like to have okay-ish relationship with neighbors.

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

#359

Post by jamestimmins »

neverartful wrote: post #298
jamestimmins wrote: post #99

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I've been curious about the Freemasons. What type of people do you tend to meet through it?

It all depends on the lodge! Many lodges are struggling to stay alive and are desperate for new members. It's not uncommon to find a lodge of mostly really old men where they lose more (to deaths) than they gain from new members.

That's a bit of a fear of mine in checking it out tbh. "Desperate for new members" gives me some hesitancy.

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

#360

Post by HEmanZ »

adamredwoods wrote: post #280
bsnnkv wrote: post #102

I live in Seattle, Cap Hill. Before I moved here and when I first moved here (from London) people told me that Seattle was a terrible place to make friends and build a community. My experience has been exactly the opposite; this has been the best place I've ever lived for making friends and building community, especially as a sober person. The order of importance, I have found community here in: - Swing dancing, both…

I think it depends on more factors than just location. I am older and live on the eastside of the Seattle metro area, and our neighbors have been generally unfriendly. When we first moved in we invited a number of neighbors to a backyard BBQ, and afterwards, none ever reached back out to us, and even worse, another became extremely aggressive towards us. It's been over four years since. We're thinking of moving, but…

East side as in Bellevue?

I moved from Bellevue to Seattle proper because I found the neiborhoods there to be insufferable. Like you mentioned: no desire to socialize, hostility to any kind of group activity, serious mistrust of neighbors, etc. There is a reason there are almost no neighborhood bars or “social” areas in Bellevue, just tall office buildings and sprawling McMansions.

Seattle proper is much more pro-social and I probably doubled my happiness when I moved across the bridge.

Post reply on HN