New ask Hacker News story: I want to learn/build low level software with other people but I don't know any

I want to learn/build low level software with other people but I don't know any
2 by abattleofwords | 1 comments on Hacker News.
I'm new to software engineering. I took a couple of CS classes and did enough Leetcode to get a job. I got bored in my first team and moved to a team working on low level networking software for high performance computing. I work remotely. I love the team. I love the projects. But there's a lot that I don't know. I have a PhD in applied physics. All I used during grad school was Python and MATLAB (yes, MATLAB). I barely know enough Linux to scrape by at my current job. I don't know why data sometimes has to be aligned to cache lines or what cache lines even are. I try to learn these things in my spare time but it's a real struggle. It's so easy to just watch TV or scroll reddit instead of reading a 300 page book on Linux. It was so much easier in school when I was surrounded by amazing people who all wanted to learn. I don't know where to find such people. I've tried going to a lot of networking events to meet CS grads but I haven't found anyone who's interested in the nitty gritty details of Linux. Or in optimizing some C code as much as possible. I don't know how to meet those people. Any ideas?