How do I find/make programming friends?

Question

I recently got my first programming internship and was extremely excited to finally be able to talk with and interact with fellow programmers. I had this assumption that I would find a bunch of like minded individuals who enjoyed programming and other aspects of geek culture. Unfortunately, I find myself working with normal people who program for a living and never discuss or show interest in programming outside of their work. It is incredibly disappointing, because I do think one of the best ways to progress in life and as a programmer is to talk about what you enjoy with others and to build bonds with people who enjoy similar things. So how do I go about finding/making programmer friends?

Answer 1

User Groups Every month I go to my "Geek Group" to learn the next secret of .NET from the ninjas around town.

Answer 2

Visit user programming groups local to you. I have met quite a few interesting people in the one near me, and the developers who tend to go to user group meetings tend to be the ones who are more interested in programming beyond the bare minimum requirements for their jobs.

You can also meet many people online via Blogging, Twitter, StackOverflow, forums, and many other resources.

Answer 3

You can participate to some Open Source projects...

Answer 4

Depending on your career level, consider switching jobs. Sometimes taking a small pay cut to be in an environment where you can thrive and grow is a great career and personal move in the long run.

Answer 5

I go to school for computer science so pretty much everyone around me has the same interests, most people there enjoy talking about programming.

Answer 6

Find bars near places that hire lots of developers. Go drink there. You'll meet coders.

Answer 7

Code Camp 4 times a year I spend the big bucks to go to a bigger city in the Northwest to Geek out in the big city. 4 code camps is < $ than 1 conference.

Check out http://codecampjunkie.com/ for dates.

Answer 8

I wouldn't rule out conferences - not all of them are terribly expensive. I bet some conferences offer student discounts.

Google IO registration this spring was $50.

Answer 9

From looking at your profile, it says you're in Atlanta Georgia. I would recommend using the web site meetup.com. Just doing a quick search, I found a JavaScript meetup in Atlanta. Depending on what you're looking for, I'm sure you could find a group that's more suited to your particular language or interest.

I can speak for the scene in Boston, and that there are lots of meetups that offer something for every kind of developer.

Answer 10

One of the most effective ways to kill your enthusiasm for anything is to do it for a living. That, and eventually life just starts to throw more interesting stuff your way.

Answer 11

Create your own tech blogs and participate on other tech blogs, Follow programmers on twitter, Go to programming community sites like codeproject, codeplex etch.., Share codes, Browse other programmer's codes, make comments to other programmer's codes, participate in a development projects

Answer 12

Open Spaces - Go to a local small conference, a.k.a. code camp, and attend some Open Spaces events. You'll learn a lot and it's a great way to meet people. You just missed a great event not far from you: CodeStock, but there's another event next month that's also not far: DevLink. They're both very affordable events.

Answer 13

Companies and teams within companies do vary quite widely, and you can find places where people do take a lively interest in technology. When it comes time to search for your first full-time job, ask your interviewers to see if employees give technical talks, go to conferences, and so on. (You might even be a bit cheeky and ask them how they personally keep up with technology!)

Then there's the "birds of a feather flock together" approach. If you get fired up by somebody's ideas, see where they work and consider applying there. For instance I like many of Joel Spolsky's writings, and his blog has a companion job listing. I'd bet some of those companies would be places you'd love to work.

Also, technical groups meet in larger cities ouside of work. Here in Chicago the IEEE is particularly active, plus more specialized groups like the Midwest Speech Technology Association and the Chicago Usability Professional's Association.

Answer 14

I have the same problem, I've attended code camps and user groups but since I am pretty young (24) and I live in LA, I just haven't been able to fit in with everyone else.

Answer 15

Work for a company that sells software products or services, as opposed to a company that employs programmers only for internal business data processing, their web site development, etc.

Also read The Psychology of Computer Programming by Weinberg.