"seek out other people who are passionate about it"
ding ding ding ding ding. This is what networking is. Purposefully interacting with people whose passions, and goals overlap your own.
It saddens me that so many tech folks do exactly what you did: writing a screed about how networking is useless, in which you explicitly note that you networked, and that your network is responsible for all of your big career successes.
It's also a little sad to see a bunch of people going to events they're not passionate about because they hear "networking is important". Unfortunately that happens a lot: people mistake effect ("I got involved in things that interested me, and met a lot of interesting people doing that") with cause ("I should go out and meet lots of people because then I'll be successful.")
ding ding ding ding ding. This is what networking is. Purposefully interacting with people whose passions, and goals overlap your own.
It saddens me that so many tech folks do exactly what you did: writing a screed about how networking is useless, in which you explicitly note that you networked, and that your network is responsible for all of your big career successes.