Ironically, that’s weirdly close to how it turns out. My current model is that humans are really driven by avoidance of various types of mental anguish (“suffering”), but can use pleasure and “happy things” to distract from suffering instead of removing the suffering. So after a while the pleasure or happiness seems like the goal.

But, if you decide to stop suffering and are able to achieve that, pleasure and “happiness” actually don’t serve much of a purpose anymore, but you still feel really good; it’s more of a “well-being” sensation.

Already mentioned, but Meetup and its kin (Eventbrite, Facebook events) are good gateways into meetups that you’d have enough interest in that the possibility of connecting with someone you’d get along with is high.

Meetup.com. Seriously. A public meetup is probably used to getting the occasional random awkward person, and may have introductions built into its format. I've had good luck with smallish ones, anyway.