Not to be glib, but has this guy never heard of IRC? First thing I do if I'm learning a new language is join the IRC channel. Frankly, there are smarter peopl

Not to be glib, but has this guy never heard of IRC? First thing I do if I'm learning a new language is join the IRC channel. Frankly, there are smarter people in there than you're likely to find at a local meetup. It sounds more like the OP's problem was more along the lines of 'didn't have any coder friends', which is a much less universal problem.