Ask HN: What kind of like-minded people are you looking for?

If you're having some niche interests, it's hard to find people to talk to. What is your niche?

My niche is: Large scale collective intelligence and digitally shared mental models to create a deliberative democracy. Please reach out :)

11 points | by manx 994 days ago

15 comments

  • jimmygrapes 994 days ago
    Growing up my mom took me to Bible Study Groups. They started out as people filtered in with small talk, then the designated leader would say "alright everybody ready to start?" and somebody would inevitably pull out an acoustic guitar to begin a few simple songs of praise and worship that most attendees sang along with, as newcomers smiled and learned the songs (or sometimes became visibly uncomfortable, depending on their personalities). After this, someone (usually the person who was hosting, but sometimes deferring to someone else more prepared/knowledgeable) would read a passage from their previously agreed upon version of the Bible. It would then go into a discussion of either the religion's official meaning of the passage, the etymology/history of certain terms or ideas, new ideas, or set up a situation where they go in a circle and everyone puts in their two cents. Then there would be a group prayer, or another circular round of "what would you like the group to pray for?" followed by a social period (usually with food), and finally ending at either a specific time or just whenever everybody left.

    I would like to find something like that, minus the religion. Topic of the day and cover songs or original compositions, sharing of each other's lives and struggles, food.

    • taurath 991 days ago
      If you want a model for similar things, social clubs were very popular from the 50s up until the 80s and 90s. Rotary, elks, etc.

      I suspect when millenials start to age they will come back, minus the culty parts.

      There’s also expat and reiree communities where such things occur. College towns frequently will have public meetings or lectures.

    • joshxyz 992 days ago
      damn i hate to say i miss that. and yes, minus the religion haha
  • RyJones 994 days ago
    I really want to understand color, and how to create it, on the surface of metal via oxidation or structure. AFAIK I'm the first person that's used heat to color inconel[0] to make art; I'm trying to get it to work with tungsten[1], but that's a harder nut to crack.

    0: https://blog.ryjones.org/2021/02/03/inconel

    1: https://blog.ryjones.org/2021/04/04/tungsten

  • markus_zhang 993 days ago
    It's not what exactly indicated by OP but I'd like to share. I would love to get into retro Apple computing especially the original Macintosh and Macintosh plus.

    I use a 2015 MBP for work. It's a company computer so I am not allowed to install personal software. I feel it's a waste as I only run Pycharm and Data grip on it without really "using" and understanding the machine. I'm also a Windows person such that this is the first Apple product I own.

    Somehow I got fascinated and did a bit of research, purchased an iBook G4 on ebay and immediately started to play with XCode. Bit I figured that the original Mac was more elegant and I love the fact that it has constrained resources so people were expected to use assembly from time to time.

    That said, owning an original Mac is expensive plus it requires certain knowledge amd mindset that even iBook can't grow me into. It wad much like in the old days when we owned an IBM PC and everything including the system disk came and went from floppy disks. So I guess it requires a lot more money than I expected and I also need to learn where to turn to if it broke.

  • 7373737373 993 days ago
    I want to specify and create a secure networked virtual machine derived from this: https://esolangs.org/wiki/RarVM with someone.

    When we've agreed on instructions/semantics and a deterministic format, we can send each other programs - suspend and serialize them on one machine and deserialize and resume them on the other!

  • muzani 993 days ago
    Happiness comes from giving, not taking. I want a society that views success by the amount you give, not the amount you hoard.

    I think the race to make as much money as possible is very bad for society. Part of the problem is that people think wealth takes care of them, so they hoard more than they need and avoid risks. They wouldn't think this way if society took care of everyone. Hoarding is unhealthy too; cash is the lifeblood of the economy and it has to flow.

    But I don't want to talk about communism. I'm certain there's a better socioeconomic model for the software/internet era.

    It's mentioned a couple times here too under Government 2.0 and Underserved Communities: https://www.ycombinator.com/rfs

  • gjhiggins 993 days ago
    > collective intelligence and shared mental models

    Mine too. Informal exploration here <https://mega.nz/file/LFVWmIyb#ch1Rw0kMoL90hC8wpKfAifc948aoMM...> (standalone HTML doc)

  • mindcrime 994 days ago
    Semantic Web, knowledge management, collective intelligence, augmented intelligence, GOFAI, and such-like.
  • kowlo 993 days ago
    It would be nice to find someone to work with to create some amazing things at a fast pace.

    I have somehow put together many skills (some at doctorate level) over the years that I can do almost anything... but I believe collaboration is key.

  • tmaly 992 days ago
    I have been learning about video creation for the edtech space. I would like to learn more about storytelling, voice, and presentation skills.
  • bsldld 993 days ago
    I am looking for someone who want to make education accessible to everyone and promote life-long learning/upskilling without putting learners in debt.
  • rishikeshs 993 days ago
    Looking for someone who can help me build Climate Sapiens
    • manx 993 days ago
      Could you elaborate?
      • rishikeshs 990 days ago
        Building a website/platform to educate people about actionable insights on climate change.

        First plan will be to build credibility by creating content and then slowly pivoting to coherts and courses

  • armchairhacker 994 days ago
    idk about niche interests, but I’m looking for like minded people in-person.

    I’ve never really found anyone that thinks like me. Everyone I’ve known is either too mature or too immature, too “weird” or too “normal”. i have trouble making friends because im not interested in hanging out with them and vice versa.

    I don’t think it’s something you can help with, but i wonder how many other people feel like i do. Moreover, how are people finding their friends these days?

    • akudha 994 days ago
      I feel exactly the same. It gets worse as one grows older. At my age, I am supposed to have kids, house etc. I am not interested in those things, and people think something is wrong with me :(
    • methusala8 993 days ago
      What are your interests? How do you think? What makes it different from others?
  • ilrwbwrkhv 993 days ago
    Steampunk, Harry potter, medicinal mushrooms, software performance and speed, uncompetition.
  • the_only_law 994 days ago
    Retro telecom/network stuff: X.25, ISDN, Frame Relay, DS1’s, ATMs, early LAN technology, etc.
  • PaulHoule 994 days ago
    I want a bra for my ket.