[SandB0x]

When I was a minion at a medium sized software company, if you had emailed me at my work address I would have either not replied or would have done so very cautiously.

If we had met through friends or at a meetup, I'd have been happy to talk to you much more openly about my job and the workplace.

The best developers I know have contacts all over town. They occasionally go along to meetups and user-groups on things they are interested in - not in a cynical way, they just enjoy chatting to like-minded folk and learning.

I would suggest you start doing the same, with the warnings about appearing desperate as mentioned in jonnathanson's comment. You don't have to sacrifice your personal/family life, just go along to a meetup on some technology/language/topic of interest once or twice a month, be friendly and personable, swap details with any like-minded people and stay in touch with them on occasion.

[joe_the_user]

The best developers I know have contacts all over town. They occasionally go along to meetups and user-groups on things they are interested in, not in a cynical way, and just enjoy chatting to like-minded folk.

Interesting. Seeing it laid that way, one could easily see that as selection bias. The good developers you know have contacts all over town. The good developers you don't know don't have contact all over town and so you don't know and can't compare them to the developers you know.

Not that this an argument against socializing, just the opposite.

[SandB0x]

I understand what you're saying but I am referring to people I've worked with.

I'm not saying that there is no bias in that observation or that a certain kind of networking will somehow turn into you an amazing developer. Maybe people who make themselves part of a community will learn (or learn about) useful skills from their friends/peers. Maybe some people like sharing and talking about their skills and creations. Maybe people who only interact with their immediate colleagues in their current place of work are prone to developing bad habits.

Maybe this is not the typical case but all I know is that the best people I have worked with have maintained a group of friends/peers/colleagues in the software industry outside the walls of their place of work.

[nahname]

Passionate people enjoy what they do and are better at it than non-passionate people. Seems obvious.

[pavlov]

An active social life is not an indicator of passion for work. Are the best artists the ones who spend the most time in bars?