Hi HN, I'm just over 4 years into my career as a software engineer and have done various gigs: a unicorn startup, a 3 person startup with good co-workers, and now at google. I was never enamored with programming or technology, I just happened to be decent at it and the pay attracted me to it. I've worked all over the stack, and I think the reason is that I'm not attracted to any particular technology or practice. I've enjoyed my career so far but recently started questioning myself.

I'm on this new team where everyone is super interested in technology/nerd stuff and I feel like an outsider. They stay up-to-date on HN (I never read it). They love Star Wars (never watched it) and Monty Python (I never even heard of it). They like all these obscure board games that I never heard about but somehow they know about all of them. Most of them also seem to be super intellectual. If it makes it easier to understand, I'm in a team with a bunch of systems programmers. I've never dealt with these types of people in my life so I don't know how to gain their respect. I see the leadership team and they are all very similar types of people as I described above. So as I look towards my next 2 years of my career I don't know how I will get promoted and assume leadership position, mainly because I don't see anyone like myself.

What should I do HN?