Why can’t I meet anyone who wants a big career that changes the world?

[Anonymous]

Idealists, generally, look like they are financially well-off because of family money.

[Anonymous]

That’s funny because I feel like most people in my social media act like/ post exactly what you are talking about - constant self-promotion and talking themselves up.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:My husband works in climate change, and literally every single one of his colleagues is like this.

I'm a writer, as soon as I published a nonfiction book, I was invited into all of these intellectual circles and have met so many people like this. Through conferences, public events, people reaching out and inviting me to things.

We live in DC proper ("lower" NW)

Do you have young children, and if so, how do you manage going to these events? Are they mostly during the day? Or does your husband watch the kids?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I am not in the DC area but I find it shocking that you don't find people 1) obsessed with their own power and influence and 2) wanting to change the world.

DC is famous/notorious for both.

Translation: I am a dimwit who believes every stereotype I read on the internet.

Nope. Grew up in DC. Worked there for years. People are more arrogant and enamoured with themselves and their professional power than any other place I've lived.

[Anonymous]

I like my job and feel like I’m doing really good important work that is beneficial to the world but I have no desire to talk about it to people I don’t work with directly. I prefer talking about books, kids, and shared experiences rather than work. I guess look for people who make their jobs their entire personality, OP?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I dunno where you are but my group of friends and mom friends at school is amazing. friends working on legislature to improve peoples lives here in the US, voting rights, researchers working on cutting edge vaccines and treatments, doctors and nurses serving under privileged communities, lots of friends working in big name and small nonprofits that actually serve local populations, countries and animal needs. But nearly all of them are pretty chill about oversharing or bragging about their work. Many have been published, features/quoted on the news. None wanted a "big fancy job" and all wanted to do something useful for the world and still be able to be a part of their community and most raise families.

Where do you live? I want to move to your neighborhood! My neighbors talk about book clubs, country clubs, and other boring topics I haven’t found my people here…

OP here. This is exactly what I’m looking for. It’s funny that some posts mention that I need to look for it in more elite circles while others say to look in less elite, further out suburbs. We live in a regular suburb. We lived in a fancy one before and people were pretty arrogant and shallow. Here, people are more down to earth but I haven’t met anyone who likes to talk about their work.

I get that a lot of people choose flexible jobs when parenting, or don’t like talking about work, or the work is too technical. There’s nothing wrong with discussing tomatoes if that floats your boat. But somewhere out there, there must be people who want to talk about new discoveries in psychology, education innovation, effective healthcare interventions and other cool things happening in their industries.

There's so much going on in the world. You aren't going to bump into people on the street following the same specific things you are. Read and watch and chat about things on sites like MetaFilter, Reddit (be selective), YouTube (be selective).
Move to a dense city where there are plenty of people to fills seats in activities and meetups for whatever interest area you have, and you see hundreds of people every day.
People who have kids or jobs are too busy to stumble across you, and people in suburba are at home or in their cars.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:There are a lot of people here doing some astounding things but they can't talk about it.

This is more true than many people realize. People in roles like these associate with one another more than with people on the "outside", and they are necessarily discreet otherwise.

Correct. We're not talking with you or anyone about our jobs, OP. But trust me, you've read about our accomplishments.