How do you network as a developer?

Question

I'm returning to the workforce after a sabbatical, and I'm realizing that my professional network is very thin. Former colleagues mostly work at FAANGs where they don't have any pull, or they washed out of the profession and went off the grid.What I've tried:- online meetups: no opportunity to interact meaningfully with others- a local hacker space: very few software engineers hang out there, it's mostly semi-retired former manager types not-really-working on impossible unfunded startup ideas- Rust (IRL, on Reddit, on Discord): very shallow community of mostly students and sycophants, actual Rust devs seem to work in isolation or only communicate on TwitterWhat else should I try?

rrwo · Accepted Answer

Some cities have various regular developer meetings, often devoted to programming languages (e.g. Perl, Python, Java) or areas (web development, embedded devices, even scripting languages).
It might be worth going on a city group on Reddit and asking about any, and otherwise try to start one.
One thing to keep in mind is that different times of day are good for different people.
Evening meetings every month in pubs are popular, but for many reasons a lot of people don't like to go to pubs or drink alcohol with strangers.
Meetings during lunch or morning "techie brekkie" before work are sometimes popular, but ideally in a central location where it's easy for developers can easily get to before work or during lunch.