I would just like to invite people here to entertain the notion that community should be doing 95% of the upgrading. You can tell people how to think, but just providing information is very ineffective compared to putting people in a context that will just make them do the thing. It’s not like we still believe our s2 has much of a say, do we?
If I look at the set of things in my life that have upgraded me most effectively, pretty much all of them have been social context. Ordering by positive impact, I would say 1) 2 weeks of hazing/initiation by my fraternity, 2) week long meditation retreats and 3) cfar. All of these, with the exception of cfar, were mostly about putting me in a situation where doing the right thing was just natural, instead of self-directed.
People, even people like us, are very good at doing what they are expected to do. They are not so good at doing what they know is right. I do think community organisers understand this to some extent, but they’re nowhere near using the full power of the idea. People can be made to kill, or to meditate for 6 hours a day enduring the worst of leg pain, so they can be made to systematically double crux on their most deep-seated ideological beliefs for 2 hours too. If we shy away from that because we want to uphold individuality or something, we’re not being consequentialists.
One could say refraining from social coercion is a moral injunction, but I see this working well all over the place, so maybe we should reconsider.
Right—there are reasons why good art is mostly not outsider art. And I’ve completely dropped hobbies that I had been spending a lot of time on once I didn’t have time to keep up with the associated communities.
I would just like to invite people here to entertain the notion that community should be doing 95% of the upgrading. You can tell people how to think, but just providing information is very ineffective compared to putting people in a context that will just make them do the thing. It’s not like we still believe our s2 has much of a say, do we?
If I look at the set of things in my life that have upgraded me most effectively, pretty much all of them have been social context. Ordering by positive impact, I would say 1) 2 weeks of hazing/initiation by my fraternity, 2) week long meditation retreats and 3) cfar. All of these, with the exception of cfar, were mostly about putting me in a situation where doing the right thing was just natural, instead of self-directed.
People, even people like us, are very good at doing what they are expected to do. They are not so good at doing what they know is right. I do think community organisers understand this to some extent, but they’re nowhere near using the full power of the idea. People can be made to kill, or to meditate for 6 hours a day enduring the worst of leg pain, so they can be made to systematically double crux on their most deep-seated ideological beliefs for 2 hours too. If we shy away from that because we want to uphold individuality or something, we’re not being consequentialists.
One could say refraining from social coercion is a moral injunction, but I see this working well all over the place, so maybe we should reconsider.
Right—there are reasons why good art is mostly not outsider art. And I’ve completely dropped hobbies that I had been spending a lot of time on once I didn’t have time to keep up with the associated communities.
How exactly did your hazing “upgrade” you? Practicing self-control?