@ElleGray

This is so lovely, though I wouldn't be the right person for this club. I'm far too chatty.

@ElleGray That's great.

Not really something that spread beyond our family, but related: When our kids were smaller, but already in school, when we went on holidays, most days we would find a nice cafe in the afternoon, have a chocolate or a latte, and read books; all five of us, for hours. In some cafes where we went more frequently we were already known and people were fascinated that even 7 and 9 year-olds were deeply engrossed in their books.

Besides all the things we got wrong with their education, this we got right, and we are so happy that they all still read lots of books, unlike most of their friends.

@ElleGray I love that!

It got me thinking about silent relationships with strangers. In my first college I had 1 class that was just down the hall from the class before it, so I would usually get there a few minutes early. There was always a girl there studying. I just assumed she was in the earlier class, and just stayed behind 'til the next class because it was quiet and convenient. When I came in the room I would say hi and sit down, and she would say hi and go back to reading,.

@ElleGray I forked an open source game project that was in the process of shutting down becaise the original author had no interest/time to work on it any more. Just something to fiddle with in my spare time.

Fast forward 10 years and there's a user base somewhere between 10 and 100 thousand, and ~100 people actively working on it.

Sometimes you do a thing and it's just a thing, and sometimes it sparks fire and turns into something completely different.

@ElleGray

So wonderful that I seem to have something in my eye... 🥲

@ElleGray

Best non-kept secret EVAR!

@ElleGray this is really nice how all the people got that feeling of the world being a good place by reading this. It's just unfortunate that it also highlights either a unicorn rare event that usually won't manifest in your life (or was even simply made up, that little humble brag element is suspicious).

The truth is (and people who have clubs know this) that you really have to put a lot of effort into creating such a thing, which includes sitting there alone, maybe even a lot.

@ElleGray this *kind of* happened to me.

Young days of the web, pub drinks and 'Matt, make a website about mountain bikes'. No ambition at all but people kept getting in touch. 20 years later and all my riding group met online via the website.

For years my wife called them my virtual friends...