>> “There’s only so much withering critique a given builder is interested in receiving (frequently from those who do not themselves even build!) before eventually they will either stop building entirely, or leave to go somewhere where buildery is appreciated, rewarded, and (importantly) defended.”
Perfect summary of my experience co-founding and directing a summer program affiliated with the rationality community (the summer program is ongoing to this day). I quit and left after two years. For a long time, I thought building summer programs inevitably meant a bunch of armchair critics.
Then I built another summer program with people who’ve never heard of rationality, and they actually respected my work rather than belittling it! People helped me build the program rather than casting stones from the sidelines! I’ve never worked for the rationality community again.
One summer program had a ton of issues that pop up on Twitter, that my non-rationalist friends ask me about and I still have to answer for—even though I haven’t been involved for 5 years. The other program gives me nothing but good press. I’ll let you guess which is which
(First time posting on LW, and this is an inevitably simplified story. I was far from a perfect camp founder or director. But that was also the case for the non-rationalist summer program! and somehow one experience was significantly more constructive and empowering.)
>> “There’s only so much withering critique a given builder is interested in receiving (frequently from those who do not themselves even build!) before eventually they will either stop building entirely, or leave to go somewhere where buildery is appreciated, rewarded, and (importantly) defended.”
Perfect summary of my experience co-founding and directing a summer program affiliated with the rationality community (the summer program is ongoing to this day). I quit and left after two years. For a long time, I thought building summer programs inevitably meant a bunch of armchair critics.
Then I built another summer program with people who’ve never heard of rationality, and they actually respected my work rather than belittling it! People helped me build the program rather than casting stones from the sidelines! I’ve never worked for the rationality community again.
One summer program had a ton of issues that pop up on Twitter, that my non-rationalist friends ask me about and I still have to answer for—even though I haven’t been involved for 5 years. The other program gives me nothing but good press. I’ll let you guess which is which
(First time posting on LW, and this is an inevitably simplified story. I was far from a perfect camp founder or director. But that was also the case for the non-rationalist summer program! and somehow one experience was significantly more constructive and empowering.)