I think Berkeley can afford to have up to 3 Dunbar worth of Rationalists without spiraling out of control.
Ideally, there would be three separate social “domains” that people could compete within, with some crossover spaces to facilitate cross-pollination.
And right now we have that. If we actually directly split the community into X-Risk, EA, and Community / Self Improvement, I think most people wouldn’t feel too much of a shakeup in their tribal configurations.
Maybe that’s the Berkeley optimum, but is it the optimum from an international perspective? My intuition is that 3 dunbar size communities in different cities is still better
From within the Bay’s vantage point (and I think also for basically every city that’s stuck at the “small meetup stage”), a related thing I’m worried about is what to do about the smaller group structure. i.e. meetup-esque things tend to scale to around 12-20 people before they get awkward.
I have more thoughts on this, still mulling it over. Some of it is relevant to the REACH post and I may write the rest of the thoughts there.
The last meetup that I ran that had that people before they get awkward.
Running a meetup with 15 people is different than running a meetup with 30 people but I see no reason why 30 is awkward.
The last meetup that I ran that had that attendance of around 30 people went well. I see no reason why that format wouldn’t scale to 40 people as well.
Sure, but if people ever want the intimacy effects of a 15 person meetup, you either can’t do it, or weird social dynamics come into play about who gets to be in those 15 people.
I also often haven’t had access to spaces that fit more than 20 people, or getting them is at least more work.
I think Berkeley can afford to have up to 3 Dunbar worth of Rationalists without spiraling out of control.
Ideally, there would be three separate social “domains” that people could compete within, with some crossover spaces to facilitate cross-pollination.
And right now we have that. If we actually directly split the community into X-Risk, EA, and Community / Self Improvement, I think most people wouldn’t feel too much of a shakeup in their tribal configurations.
Maybe that’s the Berkeley optimum, but is it the optimum from an international perspective? My intuition is that 3 dunbar size communities in different cities is still better
From within the Bay’s vantage point (and I think also for basically every city that’s stuck at the “small meetup stage”), a related thing I’m worried about is what to do about the smaller group structure. i.e. meetup-esque things tend to scale to around 12-20 people before they get awkward.
I have more thoughts on this, still mulling it over. Some of it is relevant to the REACH post and I may write the rest of the thoughts there.
Running a meetup with 15 people is different than running a meetup with 30 people but I see no reason why 30 is awkward.
The last meetup that I ran that had that attendance of around 30 people went well. I see no reason why that format wouldn’t scale to 40 people as well.
Sure, but if people ever want the intimacy effects of a 15 person meetup, you either can’t do it, or weird social dynamics come into play about who gets to be in those 15 people.
I also often haven’t had access to spaces that fit more than 20 people, or getting them is at least more work.