Forgive me for the rambling that follows. It is not meant as critique, nor complaint, but simply as an observation, one that is amusing to me.

I have been attending bitcoin meetups regularly for one year. There are several where I live (which is the reason I chose to live here) so in that year I've had a generous portion. I have learned a great deal and been fortunate enough to befriend a few people who also attend these. So let me be clear, I enjoy going to the meetups. But, I am not a dev. I am a woman. And I am a writer, which is to say that I have the solipsistic tendency.

For fun, I just want to welcome you inside my head at these functions for one moment, if you'll allow me.

A quote from The Great Gatsby comes to mind often when I am staring out alone at the sea of men around me, their conversations roaring over my head,

I often experience the energy that springs to life during our meetups as the casual watcher in the darkening streets. I think of the person who has no context whatsoever, and I am that person, in the deepest sense. I like this position, the within and without. I'm an introvert who pleasures in my own experience. At the same time, this emboldens me to act as the bridge between what is signified in our meetings and the outside world.

I guess what I'm saying is that given my perspective, I am uniquely positioned to extend understanding to a minor portion of the group of attendees who take themselves too seriously, and in doing so, brandish a punk attitude. I wanna talk to this minority on behalf of others, which may be wrong of me to do, but perhaps it will be an interesting talk anyway. It's this attitude that keeps you from seeing me, or others like me. It's this attitude that keeps us in the dark.

-Admittedly, these are some broad strokes I am painting with- What I have noticed is an atmosphere of importance ballooning around individuals, and all I'm saying is that balloon around you looks kinda silly, and it probably doesn't serve you in the end. I am not writing here to call anyone out. I'm only holding up a mirror. But like I said, I can extend understanding. Bitcoin is important, bitcoin is its own war of ideas. You need to protect your time and energy, and a lot of people come around whose hidden intentions are stanky and not worth a glance. Therefore, letting people prove their intentions over time and earn trust is the model for how this network operates, as interpersonally as it does computationally. So hardening yourself to new people who don't have a body of work behind them makes sense as a practice.

The danger in this practice, I believe, is that you stifle curiosity. You assume that you know where value comes from. You won't take the risk of excavating because you're convinced there's no gold. Translated: you won't ask a girl why she comes to meetups because of some assumption about what she understands. How can you be so sure?

Food for thought. I just think we can grow a lot more without the constraints of a rubbery balloon skin enclosed around us.

There is also a completely understandable alternative explanation for my observation, one that doesn't need to point any fingers at anyone's particular behavior at all, and so it is important to note here as well: People be busy.

Anyway, let me also say being a girl at a meetup is calm, it's not that deep.

TL;DR stay humble, stack sats.