Meet inside The Shops at Waterloo Town Square—we will congregate in the seating area with the trees sticking out in the middle of the benches at 7pm for 15 minutes, and then head over to my nearby apartment’s amenity room. If you’ve been around a few times, feel free to meet up at my apartment front door for 7:30 instead. (There is free city parking at Bridgeport and Regina, 22 Bridgeport Rd E.)
Topic
This week, we’ll be discussing the topic of “weirdness points”. This concept was from fairly early on in the rationality community, and I think it’s an interesting way to think abut things. We’ll also discuss a new piece that discusses the drawbacks of weirdness in .
Things to think about:
How much do you agree with the framing of “weirdness points”?
What do you choose to spend your weirdness points on?
How tolerant of weirdness should we be, in the EA community, the rationality one, and in our regular lives? Does your monkey brain and your rational brain disagree on this topic?
If you’re really drawn to a article, do a close reading and analyze the text using the 3-2-1 method:
3 things/arguments that you liked or agreed with
2 things/arguments that you disliked or disagreed with
1 question that the text inspires you to ask
We will go over the responses we have at the meetup.
Readings
If you’re short on time, just read the first and last article.
Weirdness Points
Meet inside The Shops at Waterloo Town Square—we will congregate in the seating area with the trees sticking out in the middle of the benches at 7pm for 15 minutes, and then head over to my nearby apartment’s amenity room. If you’ve been around a few times, feel free to meet up at my apartment front door for 7:30 instead. (There is free city parking at Bridgeport and Regina, 22 Bridgeport Rd E.)
Topic
This week, we’ll be discussing the topic of “weirdness points”. This concept was from fairly early on in the rationality community, and I think it’s an interesting way to think abut things. We’ll also discuss a new piece that discusses the drawbacks of weirdness in .
Things to think about:
How much do you agree with the framing of “weirdness points”?
What do you choose to spend your weirdness points on?
How tolerant of weirdness should we be, in the EA community, the rationality one, and in our regular lives? Does your monkey brain and your rational brain disagree on this topic?
If you’re really drawn to a article, do a close reading and analyze the text using the 3-2-1 method:
3 things/arguments that you liked or agreed with
2 things/arguments that you disliked or disagreed with
1 question that the text inspires you to ask
We will go over the responses we have at the meetup.
Readings
If you’re short on time, just read the first and last article.
You have a set amount of “weirdness points”. Spend them wisely. (Peter Wildeford, 2014)
https://www.lesswrong.com/posts/wkuDgmpxwbu2M2k3w/you-have-a-set-amount-of-weirdness-points-spend-them-wisely
On Weird Points (Ozy, 2015)
https://thingofthings.wordpress.com/2015/04/14/on-weird-points/
The economy of weirdness (Katja Grace, 2015)
https://meteuphoric.com/2015/03/08/the-economy-of-weirdness/
EA’s weirdness makes it unusually susceptible to bad behaviour (OutsideView, 2023)
https://forum.effectivealtruism.org/posts/jFnyqaLAtgfWpATeJ/ea-s-weirdness-makes-it-unusually-susceptible-to-bad
Read the comments in this thread as well, a lot of fairly well known EAs disagree with the post for good reasons.