I haven’t participated in CFAR workshops, I’m working from your written posts and my experience in other communities, so take these comments with the appropriate grains of salt.
I read the shift you describe as being from getting people on board with a largely preset agenda towards a more collaborative frame (and that the results have been promising so far). I wonder if the underlying issue here may be format-intent alignment. If CFAR has specific rationality techniques it believes are valuable and wants to teach, there’s an inherent directiveness to that goal. Workshop/discussion formats, however, signal exploration and reciprocity. When the intent is directional but the format signals collaboration, participants can experience a disorienting mismatch.
I’m curious whether CFAR has considered hybrid formats that are explicit about which parts are directional and which are truly collaborative, or if you are leaning entirely on shifting intentions to fit the existing format—even if that means letting conversations drift away from anything adjacent to rationality or x-risk. I don’t think there’s an inherently right answer here, but understanding where you are on the spectrum and being transparent about this choice could help participants set their expectations, or self-filter regarding whether CFAR is a good fit for them at all.
Seeing this as a spectrum rather than a binary seems important because it prevents participants from running into “invisible” restrictions. Mutual learning and meeting people where they are at are great, but it doesn’t seem realistic to try to be all things to all people. It’s therefore important to be ready to say “this is what we offer, these are our constraints, respond as you will” even if where you think it is best to draw those lines has a wide range of valid answers. Sometimes a person is incompatible with an organization and that doesn’t have to be anyone’s fault.
A second, arguably more complex and charged dynamic I am wondering how you intend to navigate is responsibility for managing participant capacity. Is CFAR explicitly working to build participants’ ability to recognize misalignment, maintain their sense of agency while in seemingly asymmetric power dynamics, and advocate for their needs? Or is the plan for CFAR to create sufficiently careful environments that participants won’t need those skills? Or to screen applicants for having the capacity for self-advocacy already? Your post makes it sound like you are primarily taking the second approach, which is fine, but I am wondering how you are assessing the trade-offs involved.
For transparency, I personally believe in building capacity for self-advocacy and agency, with community care supporting that development and acting as a fallback when capacity isn’t present, but I recognize that different approaches work for different purposes/people. What I am pushing for here is an explicit articulation of the balance you are striking so that participants can make a fully informed choice as to whether they wish to join.
In any case, I appreciate the thoughtfulness of your post and willingness to share CFAR’s evolution publicly.
I haven’t participated in CFAR workshops, I’m working from your written posts and my experience in other communities, so take these comments with the appropriate grains of salt.
I read the shift you describe as being from getting people on board with a largely preset agenda towards a more collaborative frame (and that the results have been promising so far). I wonder if the underlying issue here may be format-intent alignment. If CFAR has specific rationality techniques it believes are valuable and wants to teach, there’s an inherent directiveness to that goal. Workshop/discussion formats, however, signal exploration and reciprocity. When the intent is directional but the format signals collaboration, participants can experience a disorienting mismatch.
I’m curious whether CFAR has considered hybrid formats that are explicit about which parts are directional and which are truly collaborative, or if you are leaning entirely on shifting intentions to fit the existing format—even if that means letting conversations drift away from anything adjacent to rationality or x-risk. I don’t think there’s an inherently right answer here, but understanding where you are on the spectrum and being transparent about this choice could help participants set their expectations, or self-filter regarding whether CFAR is a good fit for them at all.
Seeing this as a spectrum rather than a binary seems important because it prevents participants from running into “invisible” restrictions. Mutual learning and meeting people where they are at are great, but it doesn’t seem realistic to try to be all things to all people. It’s therefore important to be ready to say “this is what we offer, these are our constraints, respond as you will” even if where you think it is best to draw those lines has a wide range of valid answers. Sometimes a person is incompatible with an organization and that doesn’t have to be anyone’s fault.
A second, arguably more complex and charged dynamic I am wondering how you intend to navigate is responsibility for managing participant capacity. Is CFAR explicitly working to build participants’ ability to recognize misalignment, maintain their sense of agency while in seemingly asymmetric power dynamics, and advocate for their needs? Or is the plan for CFAR to create sufficiently careful environments that participants won’t need those skills? Or to screen applicants for having the capacity for self-advocacy already? Your post makes it sound like you are primarily taking the second approach, which is fine, but I am wondering how you are assessing the trade-offs involved.
For transparency, I personally believe in building capacity for self-advocacy and agency, with community care supporting that development and acting as a fallback when capacity isn’t present, but I recognize that different approaches work for different purposes/people. What I am pushing for here is an explicit articulation of the balance you are striking so that participants can make a fully informed choice as to whether they wish to join.
In any case, I appreciate the thoughtfulness of your post and willingness to share CFAR’s evolution publicly.