[dan00]

> It may be trite, but it seems like strong social ties, community, and having a family are pretty key to filling that gap.

That's certainly true, and without my partner life would be a lot more bleak.

I've a bit of a hard time with communities, because I would really like to be part of more, but have often issues with their narrow mindedness, which seems to be the needed bound of communities. Well, also being a bit of loner doesn't help connecting to a community. But nevertheless I've a strong emotional desire to be part of one.

It might be one of these mismatches, when your desire and the reality just aren't compatible.

[gonehome]

It could also be that you just haven't found a community that you like yet.

I like HN (most of the time), Scott Alexander's blog, and LessWrong.

It's hard to find the same kind of thing in-person though, plus have to overcome the social anxiety/social skills bit of actually finding and going to a place with new people which is an entirely separate (though worthwhile) skill.

I haven't succeeded with this either (though I like the people I work with).