active networking is the 10th circle of hell,never in my life have I felt so actively disgusted with myself in a social context. how do you do this without the urge to 
or how do you tamp down that urge because oh my god I cannot stomach it, it feels so fucking slimy to do. i can't even do it at events where the sole purpose is networking, my dad pressed me into one and I bailed 15 minutes in after hovering around, it feels so utterly degrading and gross
I've never had anything but a bottom rung position in my entire life so I've never had to deal with this. Instead, I was just treated as sub human by pretty much every customer for nearly two decades of my life. Fun times
Now in the 21st century you need to do a hell lot of networking to nepo your way into that bottom rung postion!
Really cool and good work is treated like an exclusive country club!