Ask HN: How important is it to be social prior to launching a company?

I'm pretty comfortable socially but haven't really been to too many of the startup focussed social events and often wonder how important is it to meet and interact with people before I even have an idea worth pursuing.

Is it terribly important to be out there and known before actually coming up with an idea? Can I postpone this to later? I understand connections are always good but how important are they?