Loneliness is an epidemic before covid and now exuberated and amplified.

what I find is men just plain suck at "opening" up to a stranger. Paranoid of looking like a idiot looking like desperate to meet someone. Men just suck at small talk. There is only two things men connect on at least here in the States: guns and their fav football team.

Precovid, I got desperate enough to answer a craigslist post. It was just weird I have to say. Nothing really to connect with outside of we were both lonely. I did a few meetups and found every time to be cringeworthy and regrettable.

I'm an implant from the midwest to CA and doing the typical tech co. to tech co. I never really established any long term relationship. they moved, I moved, they moved on in their lives, I was stagnant.

I wish men could just open up and stop thinking you have to be cool or interesting as if you're trying to find a soulmate but in the irony is you kinda are. Up to everything but intimacy of course.

Wish the concept of the original Friendster or FriendFinder didn't turn into what facebook is today. A cesspool of sex and attention starved individuals looking for shallow connection.

Reddit has become the big brother of craigslist but I'm finding most are adolescent sex and attention starved boys who graduated from 4chan. Even in the friends over 40 feels and sounds like 15yrs are present at every post and comment.

I wonder if time has come where one could create a social network for similar interest seeking individuals who wants a deeper connection where they are not looking to compete for attention and are simply looking for something meaningful without feeling creepy? HN is kinda like that but then I'll have to like read and comment on every post hoping like minded will hit me up....

I had an idea where one could goto a cafe and put up a colored one word sign that indicates the topic you're interested. So you're sipping on hot coffee with a sign "AI/ML/CV" and someone who feels connected to those topic and sees a personal connection will start talking. So the premise is I have a site where you sign up and state when/where/topic and you be there. Cafe gets traffic and possible connections made. Yes, men do have physical trait requirements too.

Ok I'm rambling.

truly sad....

I wonder if instead of Amazon saying "people bought this while looking at this item" but say... "Jim bought this yesterday, do you want to connect?" and of course you opt in but then bam..instant same interest at least a start of a conversation.

Sorry, it's late, and I'm aimlessly ranting. I have to say, my wife is my BFF but I'm driving her crazy where yesterday.. she just stood up and said, "I need time to my self" after I ranted about how stupid google home was in understanding basic contextual request it should have figured it out.

I am in Silicon Valley, worked for FAANG+M as eng/PgmMgr/Marketing. Early 40's Married, 2yr old, fulltime dad after quiting mid 2019 way before covid awareness. Now I'm torn between trying to create a passive side prj to pay living cost or make children videos that are truly entertaining but moreover...development enhancing. Ryan kid is making over $26M just opening toys for the last 5yrs.. jesus. then my 2yr can't get enough of a flat color truck ppt video that has garnished over 249M views in 2yrs which at best translates to $10k/1M views which makes it a $2.4M product. Tehy even f*ked up on color orange. $2.4M in 2yrs..WTF?

PS> truly sorry if I don't make sense or even readable. I have one kid and he is driving me to the ground. Scarificed sleep writing this diatribe. How the F** do mothers who have more than one child and a job do this??!?!