I think you’re underestimating serendipity. In a single rationalist house in a non-hub, you’ll have the benefit of being around a couple cool people who think like you (to a first approximation), but you don’t have many opportunities to make new rationalist connections like you would in a larger hub. I’m not really one to proactively reach out to new people, so having the opportunity to meet them at parties or hangouts or through mutual friends has shaped my experience a a lot.
Plus, I’ve been really grateful for the opportunities to work at value-aligned organizations, which I almost certainly wouldn’t have had elsewhere.
you’ll have the benefit of being around a couple cool people who think like you (to a first approximation), but you don’t have many opportunities to make new rationalist connections like you would in a larger hub.
Does “think like you” mean “rationalist”, here? I would assume that finding “people who think like you” would be relatively straightforward in e.g. any large city with a major university. That’s been my experience in Helsinki (1.23 M inhabitants in the general urban area and a couple of universities) at least. Though it’s true that most of those people aren’t very familiar with Less Wrong or the rationalist scene (even if some are).
What are the benefits you have in mind of making other connections? Intellectual? Hedonic? Networking?
Intellectual: To me, online discussion does a pretty good job providing diversity of opinion and conversation.
Hedonic: I’m under the impression that the 80⁄20 principle usually applies heavily, in the sense of the first 2 people you spend the most time with providing a huge chunk of the value, the next 5 providing a good amount, then there’s drop off, etc. If that’s true, then the marginal rationalist interactions would be filling in the tail end and not providing too much value.
Networking: This does make sense. After seeing Raemon’s comment and sleeping on it I woke up feeling like this could be a big deal. Mostly because of the fact that rationalist organizations do a lot of good for the world. Secondly because although it may be possible to “do networking stuff” remotely, in practice that just doesn’t really happen.
I think you’re underestimating serendipity. In a single rationalist house in a non-hub, you’ll have the benefit of being around a couple cool people who think like you (to a first approximation), but you don’t have many opportunities to make new rationalist connections like you would in a larger hub. I’m not really one to proactively reach out to new people, so having the opportunity to meet them at parties or hangouts or through mutual friends has shaped my experience a a lot.
Plus, I’ve been really grateful for the opportunities to work at value-aligned organizations, which I almost certainly wouldn’t have had elsewhere.
Does “think like you” mean “rationalist”, here? I would assume that finding “people who think like you” would be relatively straightforward in e.g. any large city with a major university. That’s been my experience in Helsinki (1.23 M inhabitants in the general urban area and a couple of universities) at least. Though it’s true that most of those people aren’t very familiar with Less Wrong or the rationalist scene (even if some are).
What are the benefits you have in mind of making other connections? Intellectual? Hedonic? Networking?
Intellectual: To me, online discussion does a pretty good job providing diversity of opinion and conversation.
Hedonic: I’m under the impression that the 80⁄20 principle usually applies heavily, in the sense of the first 2 people you spend the most time with providing a huge chunk of the value, the next 5 providing a good amount, then there’s drop off, etc. If that’s true, then the marginal rationalist interactions would be filling in the tail end and not providing too much value.
Networking: This does make sense. After seeing Raemon’s comment and sleeping on it I woke up feeling like this could be a big deal. Mostly because of the fact that rationalist organizations do a lot of good for the world. Secondly because although it may be possible to “do networking stuff” remotely, in practice that just doesn’t really happen.