The meetup happened today and I think it worked pretty well! Last time we tried an experiment with post-meetup commentary to help make the next meetup better and I wanted to continue that process here.
Anyone who attended, reply to this comment with an observation of something GOOD, BAD or INTERESTING. Please do it like the monthly quotes thread: one “noticed thing” per reply so they can be voted up or down independently. I’ll do a few as examples.
The idea is that we should try to repeat, retain, or follow up on the good stuff, try to fix the bad stuff… and the interesting stuff might be fun to think about or might serve as a valuable intuition pump :-)
INTERESTING: As soon as the pizza was in the process of being ordered, people got up and moved around. It went from one discussion with everyone seated around the table to several discussions with people seated/standing in a more chaotic and casual seeming manner.
I’m not sure what the topic of discussion was in the other groups was, but my conversation at the time started with nutrition and then gradually moved back to rationality related stuff. Maybe people saw it as “oh, well we’re talking a break from ‘rationality talk’ to socialize”.
INTERESTING: We put the moderated suggestions for things to do up on the projector and there was interest but we didn’t really implement any of the suggestions. My guess is that the top rated activity suggestions involved self-revelatory content and we just didn’t know each other well enough to feel really safe talking about that in front of a large group full of new people. If we keep having meetups with the same crowd I think self-revelatory activities will work better, but we might have needed more “ice breaking” kinds of activities?
I’m just one data point, but that wasn’t stopping me. I just couldn’t think of anything worth spending everyone’s time on when unsolicited. Maybe if we had broken into smaller groups for that it’d have been over the ‘worth saying’ threshold, and the groups could get together with whatever interesting stories/patterns they uncover?
BAD: I was caught in traffic and showed up late to the meetup that I announced. At the previous meetup I was there to hand out “Hi my name is...” stickers but this time I snuck in by the back door while someone was already presenting at a whiteboard. I think next time I will try to pad my driving schedule so I’m more likely to be there an hour early instead of an hour late.
GOOD: We had some people from the previous meetup and also lots of new people. The turnout pattern was roughly consistent with the theory that the next couple meetups located in different parts of Southern California will pull in new local people to each one, while people who have been to previous meetups will be more willing to travel. If we keep up the meetups, in new places around Southern California, I think we’ll build up a group whose size, cohesion, and diversity will significantly exceed what we’ve seen at the first two meetings… which were already better than I was initially hoping for :-)
The meetup happened today and I think it worked pretty well! Last time we tried an experiment with post-meetup commentary to help make the next meetup better and I wanted to continue that process here.
Anyone who attended, reply to this comment with an observation of something GOOD, BAD or INTERESTING. Please do it like the monthly quotes thread: one “noticed thing” per reply so they can be voted up or down independently. I’ll do a few as examples.
The idea is that we should try to repeat, retain, or follow up on the good stuff, try to fix the bad stuff… and the interesting stuff might be fun to think about or might serve as a valuable intuition pump :-)
INTERESTING: As soon as the pizza was in the process of being ordered, people got up and moved around. It went from one discussion with everyone seated around the table to several discussions with people seated/standing in a more chaotic and casual seeming manner.
I’m not sure what the topic of discussion was in the other groups was, but my conversation at the time started with nutrition and then gradually moved back to rationality related stuff. Maybe people saw it as “oh, well we’re talking a break from ‘rationality talk’ to socialize”.
INTERESTING: We put the moderated suggestions for things to do up on the projector and there was interest but we didn’t really implement any of the suggestions. My guess is that the top rated activity suggestions involved self-revelatory content and we just didn’t know each other well enough to feel really safe talking about that in front of a large group full of new people. If we keep having meetups with the same crowd I think self-revelatory activities will work better, but we might have needed more “ice breaking” kinds of activities?
I’m just one data point, but that wasn’t stopping me. I just couldn’t think of anything worth spending everyone’s time on when unsolicited. Maybe if we had broken into smaller groups for that it’d have been over the ‘worth saying’ threshold, and the groups could get together with whatever interesting stories/patterns they uncover?
BAD: I was caught in traffic and showed up late to the meetup that I announced. At the previous meetup I was there to hand out “Hi my name is...” stickers but this time I snuck in by the back door while someone was already presenting at a whiteboard. I think next time I will try to pad my driving schedule so I’m more likely to be there an hour early instead of an hour late.
GOOD: We had some people from the previous meetup and also lots of new people. The turnout pattern was roughly consistent with the theory that the next couple meetups located in different parts of Southern California will pull in new local people to each one, while people who have been to previous meetups will be more willing to travel. If we keep up the meetups, in new places around Southern California, I think we’ll build up a group whose size, cohesion, and diversity will significantly exceed what we’ve seen at the first two meetings… which were already better than I was initially hoping for :-)
GOOD: Lots of people showed up.
BAD: It was hard to remember everyone’s name. We should use name tags like we did in the previous meet up.
(Grouped because they are related)
BAD: limited and not-too-healthy choice of food and drink. (It feels presumptuous to post this, as I forgot to bring anything at all.)
GOOD: The venue was quiet and roomy, with comfortable chairs, whiteboards, and an overhead projector, and it was easy to find.