I've been afraid of participating in any sort of developer / computer science / code gathering because of how extroverted and quickly moving it appears. Thing after thing is built, and called a different name, and I can't help but wonder whether participating would show me a perspective of something different, or more of the same.
I'm a developer/(non-academically affiliated computer scientist) who spends an excessive amount of time thinking about my field, sometimes over the same concepts for many years. I don't know how many people like me exist; being the non-vocal kind of makes it seem like you don't (which I am quite fine with).
I think it's worth trying it out, if only to step outside your comfort zone. There are a lot more people than you realize who are a bit more thoughtful; the culture just skews towards the loud.
FWIW, I've been studying Haskell and enjoyed the community there. So far, most have struck me as fairly humble and studious.
What Haskell community do you interact with? I spent some time on reddit.com/r/haskell while I was trying to learn some specifics of the language the first go around. I've been thinking of getting back into it.
I'm a developer/(non-academically affiliated computer scientist) who spends an excessive amount of time thinking about my field, sometimes over the same concepts for many years. I don't know how many people like me exist; being the non-vocal kind of makes it seem like you don't (which I am quite fine with).