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@harrisonqian / Young Builder Resources / wiki/communities.md
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--- visibility: public-edit --- # communities the single most important thing for a young builder is finding other people who are building. not people who talk about building — people who are actually making things. your peer group determines your trajectory more than any program, course, or mentor. here are the communities I'm actually part of and what I've gotten from each. ## communities I founded ### Socratica at my school - **what:** IRL coworking sessions. show up, work on your passion project, demo what you made at the end. - **the backstory:** I started a Socratica chapter at my school in December 2025. Socratica is a global network — started at a Canadian university, now 40+ chapters in 10+ countries. 2500+ people at the 2025 symposium. - **why I started it:** I wanted a community of builders at my school. not a club with officers and meetings — a space where people just show up and make things. - **what I learned:** organizing something is one of the highest-leverage things you can do. you meet everyone, you shape the culture, and you learn logistics. the demos at the end of each session are the best part — you see what everyone's working on and it's genuinely inspiring. - **how to start one:** check socratica.info. they have a toolbox for starting chapters. the format is simple — show up, work, demo. the simplicity is the point. ## communities I'm active in ### Hack Club - **what:** global nonprofit network of high school coding clubs. 1000+ clubs, 80,000+ students. founded by Zach Latta. - **the real value:** the Slack community. hundreds of technical teenagers active at all hours. code review, project feedback, collaborators at 2am. - **honest take:** probably the single best community for high school builders who code. the culture is "ship things" not "talk about shipping things." free, online, genuinely welcoming. - **also:** Hack Club Bank is a fiscal sponsorship platform — they'll hold money for your projects legally. useful if you're running events or need to handle money as a minor. ### Sunday Dinners - **what:** invite-only dinner series for young builders in the Bay Area. - **what I get from it:** these are where you meet people a few years ahead of you. college-age founders, early-career engineers, people starting companies. the conversations are higher-level than high school communities. - **how I got in:** know someone who goes. attend adjacent events. build something notable enough that organizers invite you. see [[mentorship-networking]] for how to make these connections. ### AGI House / SVFounders - **what:** AGI House hosts AI-focused events in SF. SVFounders is a founder community connected through its organizer. - **what I get from it:** the Bay Area has an ecosystem of builder communities that's unmatched anywhere else. as a teen, you won't get into everything, but showing up to public events and being genuinely interesting goes a long way. I won a [[competitions-hackathons|hackathon]] at AGI House which helped. ### Incepto House - **what:** regular hacking sessions. I've been going since December 2025. - **what I get from it:** a smaller, more intimate builder community than the big events. you actually get to know people and work alongside them. the organizer creates a good environment for focused building. ### Twitter/X builder scene - **what:** there's a loose community of young builders on Twitter. you recognize them by the projects in their bios and the threads about what they're building. - **honest take:** twitter is where you build a public identity as a builder. sharing your [[open-source]] work and [[shipping-products|products]] here compounds your visibility. it's also where you find mentors, collaborators, and opportunities you wouldn't find anywhere else. the key: post about what you're building, not what you think about building. show your work. - **how to start:** follow builders whose work you admire. reply thoughtfully. share your own projects. don't try to be an "influencer" — just be someone who builds things and talks about it. ### G4G / Math in the Mountains / math community - **what:** Gathering 4 Gardner is a math/puzzle community. Math in the Mountains is a [[summer-programs|program]] in Jackson, WY directed by a renowned mathematician where I was a counselor (summer 2025). - **what I get from it:** the math community is its own world. the people are some of the most interesting I've met. it's a different vibe from tech — more playful, more curious, less transactional. ### university dorm lectures - **what:** lecture series happening at university dorms. I attend these. - **honest take:** you learn a lot and meet interesting people. the talks tend to be more intellectual than typical tech events. see [[giving-talks]] for how to go from attending to presenting. ## how to actually get value from communities 1. **show up consistently.** the best relationships form over months, not at a single event. 2. **contribute before you ask.** help others with their projects before asking for help with yours. 3. **be the person who [[shipping-products|ships]].** in any community, the person who's always launching things gets the most attention and the best opportunities. 4. **don't community-hop.** pick 1-2 communities and go deep rather than joining 10 and being a ghost in all of them. 5. **organize something.** starting a Socratica chapter was one of the best things I did. organizers meet everyone.