Yeah I definitely agree with your points. I was using a machine gun instead of a sniper. I definitely know better now.

I also just recently started going to meetups. The engineering centric ones are much more scarce where I am than the 'startup business networking' ones unfortunately, but... doing my best!!

I really want to attend a hackathon at some point and really have high hopes that that could be my shot. Maybe I'll save up and try and sneak my way in to one in a big city....