Next Meetup (Aug 18th)

[Ham Nox]

Hi Everyone! Sorry for the long wait. I'd love to see the meetups going up again, and I'd like to see everyone come to the next meetup if they can. I'm planning for it be on the 18th at 3pm at the Smith Library, though it's not set in stone yet if you'd like to propose a different place/time. It'd be nice for everyone to come say their piece on where they want this group to go, both then and right here in this thread.

First order of business: What Do We Want?

Before you can start optimizing your part of the world, you have to have some idea of what you're optimizing for. An objective, if you will. Sometimes it's easy, like optimizing your efforts to get a high grade on an assignment with a fixed rubric, and sometimes the idea of what we want is a lot fuzzier, like in choosing a worthwhile career. I hate corny mission statements as much as anyone, but there's a reason they're part of the stock advice for running an organization: you have to have some criteria to judge whether you're succeeding or not or you'll never be able to improve.

So the question is, what is it you're trying to do when you come to a meetup? There literally aren't wrong or right answers, only true, untrue, full, and partial ones. Are you coming to make friends, have fun? Are you coming to learn how to be rational? Are you trying to help others improve their rationality? Do you want a sounding board with trusted judgment for your ideas and theories? Do you want to find a tribe that reinforces the things you value like truth, learning, effectiveness? Are you looking for resources to help you with your own optimization plans? Were you on the lookout for a clandestine invitation into the Bayesian Conspiracy? (I'll admit, I had my hopes. The cute assumption about conspiracy theories is that there is, in fact, a plan.)

When we decide what we want, we then can start answering questions about how best we can get achieve it

Second Order of Business: Signing up for presentations.

It's been a while since we had one, and we had a great time listening to the ones by Adam and Kip and Carrie. I acknowledge that it takes time to prepare and no small portion of social bravery to do one, so I'm going to try and keep this as simple and informal as possible. We have three 10-minute slots each meetup where you can sign up to entertain our little group however you'd like. Lead a discussion, give a quick talk or presentation, bring a board game... Whatever you like! You can sign up for more than one slot. If no one signs up for one, then we can just chat about whatever. Or you could sign up on-site and "supervise" the discussion in which everyone just chats about whatever ;-)

Hypothetical Hour Meeting
10 min - Greetings, Quick Agenda and Catchup, Chat, Wait for Latecomers

10 MIN SLOT A

5 min free discussion

10 MIN SLOT B

5 min free discussion

10 MIN SLOT C

5 min free discussion

5 min wrap-up

Go ahead and sign up for A and/or B on the 18th in the comments below. (I'm taking C to hash out an action plan with everyone for future meetups.)


Third Order of Business: Project Momentum

 
There isn't actually a third order of business at the moment, it just feels weird leaving it at two. Project Momentum is a generic name for a Group Project I haven't actually thought of the specifics for yet. It's in my head as some sort of nebulous cross between the idea of "Pay it Forward", mini-camp, and a 365-day workbook.

(You're all going to be in this experimental thing. It's gonna be great!)

[Carrie Joy]

I'm up for all of the above. Smith Library on Aug 18 at 3:00 is now in my schedule.

As for objectives, I like all the ones that you threw out, but my top candidate is clearly "a tribe that reinforces the things you value like truth, learning, effectiveness."

I'll take a slot at the next meetup too, for either a book I'm currently reading or a Less Wrong post.

I'm also keen to hear much more about 1. The exercises at the Less Wrong camps and 2. Understanding Bayes' Theorem.

There's no top limit in my book on how much I want to hear about any topic relating to applying rationality. As much as people can come for that, I want to hear!

Cheers.

[Varun Shankar]

Hi,

I, the lurker, am in as well.

Varun

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[Carrie Joy]

It will be good to see you there, Varun.

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[Christina Smithers]

Sounds cool. See you guys there. Is there anything you would like me to bring?

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[Adam Isom]

Interesting. I'm busy that day.

In fact I have plans - commitments, actually - for the rest of the year 2012, and I am probably not going to add anything Saturdays that could interfere at all with those plans.

I was planning to "start over" with a LessWrong group on, say, the 1st anniversary of this meet ups' first, to be bigger-and-better.....    so if it does in fact grow, before that, so much the better! Good luck.

This is certainly an auspicious start.

[Ham Nox]

Christina: You can bring your wonderful self and any interesting thoughts you'd like to share, same as ever!

[Ima Junryou]

I plan to come.  I haven't managed to attend enough of these to get beyond the "remember all the faces, and the names!" part in order to come up with loftier goals yet, but I haven't seen any listed that I don't like :)

On Sunday, August 5, 2012 4:27:55 PM UTC-6, Ham Nox wrote:

[Darius]

I'm planning on being there, sounds like it should be really good.

As far as my objectives in attending.  I think I'm primarily looking for a group of people that are focused on self improvement that will help reinforce my own improvement minded activities, and reassure me that there are sane people in the world.  Additionally the further development of social skills.

Anyway, looking forward to Saturday.

[Christina Smithers]

Hey guys, I am not sure if I can go or not with recent stuff that has
come up. I hope to see you all, but carry on if I am not present
after the first 5 minutes.

c

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[Ham Nox]

Unknown: If you'd like to take a 10 minute slot just to introduce the concepts and feel out interest or whatever, you can do that.

Darius: Self-improvement is an ambitious goal, and it's never quite complete. We share an interest. Adam and I have been trying to get "chavutras" set up for just that goal. A chavutra would be someone who plays the role of friendly rival, and a pair would work closely to help and challenge each other to exceed in whatever goal they're working towards. For example, a person working towards the goal of developing social skills might lay out a plan of approaching a stranger every day and trying to strike up a conversation. A chavutra would be there to talk to about the other's progress or setbacks. They might critically question and debate the other's strategy, or offer alternative perspectives, and issue challenges to go above and beyond. If two people are chavutras for each other's goals, then competitiveness can become a powerful motivator. Tell me, could you be interested in such an arrangement?

Christina: Hope you can come! Would you like me to message you with a bit of the details from the meetup if you miss it?

[Adam Isom]

Hold on a second: what if everyone is really interested in hearing Kevin's presentation on the rationality camp? That would be very hard to do in 10 minutes, needing more like 30-45. I mean, that's the main reason why I was planning on attending - I couldn't miss something that cool!

Is the plan open to that? And is anyone else especially interested in that?

On Sunday, August 5, 2012 4:27:55 PM UTC-6, Ham Nox wrote:

[Christina Smithers]

That would be fantastic. An effort certainly will be to get over
there though. :)

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[Ham Nox]

I have no doubt Kevin's presentation will be amazing, and that there'll be plenty of interest. I was thinking we would have a separate meetup for that to do it full justice, but I did reserve the room for 2 hours. (Planning fallacy precaution--I was fully preparing to go over the hour long "agenda" with random conversation drift.) There's no reason we can't do Kevin's full presentation, if he's ready and willing.

[Adam Isom]

Hey guys, speaking of planning fallacy.....

I just wrote a blog post some of you may like: http://wp.me/p2wsZT-4l

Check out my blog at adamtpack.wordpress.com

On Sunday, August 5, 2012 4:27:55 PM UTC-6, Ham Nox wrote: