The New York Times had an article that had some relevance to the idea of technical communities. Bicycling may be the unofficial sport of Silicon Valley (and I can testify that it is great place for bike riding). Groups of engineers and entrepreneurs ride their bikes together and this becomes an important part of the community. One engineer was quoted as saying:
“Connecting with people is important to what I do, and you can learn a lot about a person, and from a person, on the bike,”
The article also talks about how people who want funding for a new idea will pitch their idea to venture capitalists while they are on a bike ride. There are a number of organized rides in Silicon Valley where people ride and network. But your ability to be a part of this network depends on your cycling ability. People’s cycling times are posted on the Strava app, and if you aren’t a fast enough rider, you may not get invited to join. So no matter how good you are technically, your career may be affected if you don’t like to (or cannot) ride a bike. An earlier article in the New York Times talked about how cricket played a similar role among South Asians in Silicon Valley. Golfing used to play this role for businessmen and it often excluded women. (The article on biking had a picture with a woman biker in it.) One might wonder if it would be possible to build less exclusionary communities.
Author’s Note: In Silicon Valley there is a popular mountain route and the time that a biker takes to climb this route is one of their defining characteristics to the biking community. When I was out in Silicon Valley giving a talk at the Computer History Museum, I did it in 29 minutes.