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If you want to have an impact in tech, build the tech. Relying on dinner parties for connections is always going to be too try hard. Socialites live and die by dreams. We are engineers. We build utilities, not relationships. Of course, take it from the guys whose very existence depends on relationships and you'll be gaslit into an entirely different perspective.

Code doesn't care about whose hands you shook. Just build the infrastructures you want to see. Shake hands later.

Hoo boy is this bad advice. There’s lots of die hard pure technical minds out there who would benefit from being even incrementally more cognizant of the softer aspects of the technology business.

Value = build + persuade

Anyone focusing on the “build” part alone (without a partner who handles “persuade”) will struggle to have a truly significant economic impact. You can still have a perfectly good life by just being a builder, but it will be rate-limited.

I really don't think so. Building entails everything. Build persuasive patterns. Really not hard. Ads these days, viral marketing. Everything is about building. As we know, programmers aren't one trick ponies. If you can do build infrastructures for apps or websites, you can build infrastructures for engagement. Of course it helps to have other people to parallelize work. But that doesn't mean you need to be in SV, get funding, network with the bronies, etc.
can you give an example of how an infrastructure like you mention can be built?
By writing code you can do virtually anything these days. Cryptocurrency, though filled with a lot of scandalous projects, is still one of the cheapest ways to do remittance (currency transfer.) The initial founders of Bitcoin and Ethereum have profited immensely and have been able to raise money through their development foundations without any real socialite stuff. Vitalik Buterin is a stellar example of "want it? build it" programmer mentality.

For a more concrete `startup` example, which is what I think you were asking, just look at Gumroad:

https://www.indiehackers.com/interview/i-started-gumroad-as-...

Your question is rather vague and some may see it as innocuous but given your reputation, I sense that it is a leading question meant to be followed up with bad intention. You already know this: there are a myriad of Show HN projects posted all the time that are netting in good sums of money, that simply started as utilities built by programmers who were fulfilling a need they had noticed. Any of them can be capitalized at any time but most of these developers know that any path involving drinking parties and bosh hooey is likely to be a deal with the devil. To each his own.

> Your question is rather vague and some may see it as innocuous but given your reputation, I sense that it is a leading question meant to be followed up with bad intention.

I am more interested about you mentioning my ‘reputation’. Do I know you from elsewhere?

Jaleesa Garland moved to Tulsa in October, decamping from Berkeley, California. Living in the expensive Bay Area was a grind since she shared a house with anywhere from four to six roommates, shelling out $1,150 for a tiny bedroom.

"I shared a bathroom with at least three other people at any given point in time," she says. "Yeah, it was rough."

Rough got rougher when the pandemic hit and she and all her roommates all worked from home. Garland knew it was time to find a new city. She considered somewhat cheaper places popular with millennials like herself — such as Austin, Texas, and Portland, Ore. — and then she heard about Tulsa Remote. The program, which is funded by the George Kaiser Family Foundation, hosted her for a visit in July. And she was sold. https://www.npr.org/2020/12/20/944986123/you-want-to-move-so...