[esperent]

For me, the best way to meet people is exercise. I don't enjoy competitive sports, but there's plenty of non competitive sports and exercise out there, e.g. climbing, yoga, workout classes, hiking, cycling running, martial arts, dance etc.

You might say you have no interest in these, to which my response is: stop complaining and damn well develop an interest! Your body needs to be taken care of, and if you ignore that you might get through your 20s and 30s, but past that you're gonna start having serious health issues. So you can both improve your future and develop a social life.

Rather than just finding people in your narrow interest groups - Linux, coding, whatever - you'll meet people from all different walks of life. Some hyper focused on exercise, but mostly just normal people with a healthy outlook on taking care of their bodies.

[johnnyanmac]

I'm sure it's YMMV but I haven't met a friend through exercise since college. And I've done cycling classes, hikes, and some sports. Dynamic just feels so different with adults who want to be "around" people but not necessarily form new connections.

[defrost]

It's possible, anecdotally in Australia both myself and other family members have formed new friendships that have lasted and had breadth outside of purely physical activity from Canoe Clubs (on the Swan River), Biking (Pedal and motor), and Walking Track maintenance (local 1,000 km volunteer managed walking track).

To be clear those friendships formed more from a common interest in organising activities and club events than just the pure unadulterated physical activity part.

[johnnyanmac]

Yeah, I can believe you. That's a bit of the frustrating parts of forming friensdships (especially for neurodivergent individuals): there's no particular "formula" to follow. You could try to follow all steps to a T and get nothing, and instead you just trip over someone on the streets and they are your best friend for decades. The only certainty is getting outside of the house.

>To be clear those friendships formed more from a common interest in organising activities and club events than just the pure unadulterated physical activity part.

Interesting. I'm potentially intereted long term, but I simply lack the time, energy, and financial stability to really start doing that. I'll keep that in mind.