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Ask HN: How did you connect with passionate people?

by wadd1e on 1/30/23, 8:33 PM with 19 comments

Hey HN, apologies in advance for the long post, the first paragraph should be sufficient to read for those that do not want to read the entire post.

I am in my final year of high school/12th grade/6th form, and I have moved cities(and most recently, countries) and hence schools quite a bit over the years and I have met different kinds of people too. Now that school's coming to an end and I will be going off to university later in the year, I found myself wondering where do I connect with passionate people, especially at uni and later in life? I realise I am part of the much younger end of the demographic, which is part of the reason I am asking, to get some perspective and learn a lesson or two from those who are more experienced than me.

For context, I got the opportunity to attend one of the best high schools/sixth forms/colleges in the country for my last 2 years before uni, and the reason I mention that is that as a result, I am surrounded by bright people who are all excellent students and clear about what they want to do in the future, however, there's a lack of people(who I know of) that are truly passionate about what they want to do; Everyone's just pursuing their subject for the sake of it rather than genuine interest. For example, in a conversation I had with a friend, we were discussing the sorts of things we wrote in our uni applications, and he mentioned how he half-read books for the sake of mentioning them in his application and how he didn't actually find them interesting. Infact, he was a bit shocked when I said everything I mentioned in my application was genuine and that I actually found computer science and maths interesting and rewarding.

Now, I don't expect that sort of thing from people, and I realise that it's not common. But, I personally try to be as curious about life as I can, if someone has something interesting to say, even if I don't know about it(infact especially so) I listen, question and try to understand as much as I can. Again, I don't expect everyone to return the favour, and I enjoy spending time with my friend group and of course respect them a lot as well, but I love maths and computer science and I also love discussing and explaining cool ideas and thoughts I have related to them, and I find myself not having more than a couple of people who I could even bring up something (that I find)cool I recently learnt for example.

Now I don't blame someone for not being interested in listening to me explaining how <maths topic that most people would find uninteresting>, time is valuable. But it does leave me wondering, where can I find others who love to talk about their subject(not just maths or compsci, but just passionate people in general) who'd be willing to both, talk about their interests and listen to mine? Infact, if you made it this far, thanks for reading(and as you can guess, I have a tendency to talk a lot).

edited for clarity

  • by knaik94 on 1/30/23, 10:35 PM

    One of the best things I did was staying a little late to ask questions in class and going to office hours. There was one professor I was interested in working with and he had a lab. I got to the the only undergrad that worked in his grad lab. Being in an environment where it's a little competitive is how you find passionate people. A non-academic example, I ended up going to group fitness classes and ended up becoming friends with all of the instructors of my classes. One of the instructors ended up offering me and a group of other people scholarships to get certified as fitness instructors. I met some great passionate people doing that.

    In terms of CS, I went to hackathons basically every weekend. I was lucky enough to go to a Uni where there was a strong culture around hackathons and we also hosted out own. I got to meet passionate people hosting it and I also got to meet great people when we went to the neighboring universities across northeast USA. I noticed that I got along best and had my favorite discussions with people who took on teaching roles, for classes it was professors but in research and clubs it was other people closer to my age. Most Unis have a dedicated work area, sometimes an open lab, where people of your major go to work. My uni had a few, and usually it's near the research library or in a specific building where most of the advanced classes for those majors are. I remember being stuck and having trouble understanding something and I went to those rooms and it was just a bunch of other students working or chilling, they kept one assigned person there to supervise and help but usually there's others there too. I went up to them and asked some CS questions and we ended up having a 3 hour discussion. I probably learned more about CS in that talk than I did throughout some entire semester lab classes.

  • by maximumcomfy on 1/31/23, 4:32 AM

    If you are really passionate you will eventually bump into people who are also really good at it. Example: I was very passionate about photography and ended up invited to a group show, met other photographers. I was very passionate about coding and ended up meeting coders who were just as good as me at work. Your passion will attract other passionate people.

    My advice: work towards that passion and it will attract others. Just be ready to meet some very very talented people and see them as a collaborator not a competitor. When you collaborate with other passionate people (everyone contributes what they're best at) it will attract even more talented people, because then people will know you're both passionate and easy to work with.

    Lastly: Never be afraid to reach out to people, I couldn't find anyone who was as crazy about design as this one legendary guy who I looked up to like he was jesus. I ended up writing him an email and he invited me to have coffee at his house, something that never would have happened if I hadn't worked up the courage to reach out.

  • by evmar on 1/30/23, 10:47 PM

    If I reflect over my life, what has worked is being open and showing passion at every opportunity when meeting people. Most will respond as you’ve described, but with enough rolls of the dice you’re more likely to have a lucky hit. It can be a little exhausting to miss so many times, but I think there was no particularly successful strategy beyond that.

  • by em-bee on 1/30/23, 9:01 PM

    extracurricular activities. people who half-read books just to look impressive (to use your example) don't join extracurricular activities unless there is a tangible benefit. your own passion should let you naturally find those groups and join them because you would anyways, and you'll find others do the same.

  • by psyklic on 1/30/23, 10:40 PM

    Make stuff you think is cool, share it online, and like-minded people will contact you! You can also get involved in smaller communities, like those surrounding new languages or libraries. Since they are not yet big, they tend to have very passionate people involved. At uni, get involved in research.

  • by ravagat on 1/30/23, 10:43 PM

    Ha, your background is similar to mine and wow, I'm amazed you have already found HN in your senior year. That's a good sign. One thing that I've seen help personally and for others is, publishing your interests and thinking more. Being online, on the internet, is one of the best forms of leverage of recent times. It's best to silo/categorise what subjects you'd like published (niche), start with one and continue onto others by relating them. One actionable step to take asap is start your own website whether its wordpress, ghost, or basic hosted html/github pages. I assume you're already writing and have some notes offline.

  • by thagerty on 1/31/23, 1:26 AM

    First of all, you need to find out what you are passionate about, which has been suggested already, but then you have to put in the work. This will open many doors, as people you want to meet understand that learning is important, sharing their knowledge with you, maybe hoping to learn something from you. Don't be afraid to accept offers of collaboration from out of the blue, but keep your standards high. Even if you have to spend some time in a backup plan, keep your wheels moving and be ready to adapt when opportunities come along that fit your goals.

  • by orangesite on 1/30/23, 8:43 PM

    Keep pursuing your passion. It's what will attract other passionate people to you.