[jedberg]

Part of the reason the Valley is so successful is because after work you can pop over to a meetup about your very niche expertise, or meet up for coffee with some old coworkers.

If you only come to the office once a week and otherwise live outside of the valley, that gets a lot harder to do.

I live in the south bay and already feel the pinch, as most of the meetups I'd want to go to are in San Francisco, about an hour's drive away. When I worked in SF, it was no big deal to stick around for a meetup or a drink. Now it's 1/2 a day's outing.

[nine_k]

Are these meetups any useful?

I ignore 99% of such events, and keep communication almost exclusively online. Am I missing much? (I'm an engineer, though, not an entrepreneur.)

[rmason]

I live far from the Valley but every single time I'm in SF I make it a point to attend a meetup three or four nights a week. As a coder I meet the people who wrote the books or headline the conferences. I can walk up afterward and ask for advice.

I meet founders, some of whom will eventually be household names and others not. I've kept up email correspondence with a few of my fellow user group managers and I try to take them out to lunch when I return.

Probably will be in SF in April if any HN'ers want to hit me up, especially those interested in the No Code space.