Also, I used to be really scared to invite people to do stuff. I didn’t think people would want to go out. Maybe they were saying no cos they secretly hate me. Maybe I’m bothering them by inviting them places. Just silly anxiety fears. Now, I just throw stuff out there and see what sticks.
What I want is a platform where I can randomly chat with people who have common interests. Think Omegle, but without 95% of the userbase being teenage boys who, for some reason, think it's a good way to meet women and get laid.
Think of hallways conversations at conferences. I like conferences -- including well-run virtual ones -- and I'd like to be able to drop in on them anytime.
I like my coworkers, including former ones. Think of the watercooler at work.
When I want to chill, I sign on, and I get connected to a random someone, but a random someone who has something interesting to talk about.
I wouldn't even mind being able to designate a few people I want to hook up with, in the intellectual sense. If we happen to sign on around the same time, we'll chat.
I'd build it, but I'm busy.
You can meet a friend for coffee just to talk and catch up. You could even just schedule a phone call, so you don't even have to be physically together. Many people will play online multiplayer games together to have an excuse to talk with friends.
I have friends, but little time. My friends have little time too. The odds of us having time to schedule together at the same time are close to zero.
The same thing was actually true in college too -- I went to an intense school -- but we had lounges in the dorm. When I was tired or burnt out, I'd drift into a lounge. There was usually someone else in one of the lounges.
That's kinda what I want. Only virtually.
If there were a way to do so privately, I'd love if it worked from my web browsing, Youtube, etc. history as well -- things I did recently. If I just read an awesome article about the war between Azerbaijan an Armenia we all missed among COVID19, of if I just spent a few hours playing with Webcomponents, I wouldn't mind chatting with someone who did the same.
I think a service like this would quickly learn how to peer people for fruitful conversations. A key would be to keep this multidimensional; if you line up 65% with software engineers, and 55% with cricket players, you should get peered with both (or have a choice). A lot of the recommender systems seem to bucket me in just one place.
I explicitly want zero focus on relationships. This should not be a dating service. The instant anything like that shows up, things go south very quickly. The standards should be the same as e.g. in your work environment.
Over time, you have different people for different activities: the athletes, the stoners, the foodies, the geeks, the gamers and so on. It becomes a lot easier to plan.
My advice is don't keep score for a while but also recognize if it's remained or become one sided.
Learning to meet new people is a great skill too because it means you're not stuck with friends who you don't like. I used to be friends with people who I didn't particularly like. But I was afraid to lose them because I didn't have a lot of friends. When you learn to make friends, you realize that it's not worth keeping people around whose presence you don't enjoy. You can cut them off and make new friends.