However, I want to foster a local community at which I can discuss cognitive science, and the applications of microeconomics of everyday life, without new friends getting hung up on the weird beliefs they associate me with.
I am not quite sure what are you saying here. It does sound like you want LW to change so that it becomes more acceptable to your new friends and that seems to me a strange way to approach things.
For the last few years, my friend Eric and I have been part of the skeptic community in Vancouver. He had been involved with the rationalist community for a couple of years before I was, and then I eventually came around. After having each gone to CFAR workshops, Eric, a couple other CFAR alumni friends, and myself returned to Vancouver inspired and excited to seed a community as vibrant as that in the Bay Area. So, we go to other meetups for skeptics, and the like, and discuss their ideas, and tell them if they want to expand the sort of thinking going on at skeptics meetups to novel topics, to join us at our Less Wrong meetup.
We have also reached out to some local university clubs, the local Bitcoin scene, and the life extension community. This has gone phenomenal. I feel like we’re finally putting all the pieces of the correct contrarian cluster puzzle together. ‘Hanging out with my closest friends’, and ‘learning important things with others’ are synonymous in my social life.
However, with the few skeptics groups, with a misplaced explanation of a technological singularity here, and a heated debate on cryonics my other friend had over there, I’ve meet people at parties asking me why I hold peculiar beliefs that I don’t hold. The freethought community in Vancouver is very insular, as over half the city, by census data, identifies as not belonging to a major religious denomination. We got too enthusiastic in growing the meetup, turned some people off, and gossip started. If an article is written poorly, than not for all of Less Wrong, but for my friends, and I, in particular the pattern could become crystallized that we’re kooks only pretending to be freethinkers. This wouldn’t bode well, but in collaboration, I can help decrease distrust, and strengthen bonds between two communities that seem like they should be allies rather than enemies. This doesn’t affect the whole community, maybe just my corner of it. Suggestions are welcome.
Well, my original post started out with one thesis that morphed into another by the time I finished writing it. At this point, with what I’ve learned in dialogue with other users, is that, of course I can’t change Less Wrong. I didn’t want to in the first place, anyhow. However, what’s going on is that Less Wrong was my impetus in generating a conundrum I may now mitigate, and I thought I’d return to Less Wrong to ask for its advice on handling the issue. This makes sense all the more because the community can share with me their maybe similar impressions, or experiences, because the community is made of people.
In this regard, this is how I should have thought from the beginning. What others I know personally think of Less Wrong is a feature, but not the source, of my problem.
If an article is written poorly, than not for all of Less Wrong, but for my friends, and I, in particular the pattern could become crystallized that we’re kooks only pretending to be freethinkers.
Well, I have the same opinion of most of the people calling themselves “freethinkers”.
I am not quite sure what are you saying here. It does sound like you want LW to change so that it becomes more acceptable to your new friends and that seems to me a strange way to approach things.
For the last few years, my friend Eric and I have been part of the skeptic community in Vancouver. He had been involved with the rationalist community for a couple of years before I was, and then I eventually came around. After having each gone to CFAR workshops, Eric, a couple other CFAR alumni friends, and myself returned to Vancouver inspired and excited to seed a community as vibrant as that in the Bay Area. So, we go to other meetups for skeptics, and the like, and discuss their ideas, and tell them if they want to expand the sort of thinking going on at skeptics meetups to novel topics, to join us at our Less Wrong meetup.
We have also reached out to some local university clubs, the local Bitcoin scene, and the life extension community. This has gone phenomenal. I feel like we’re finally putting all the pieces of the correct contrarian cluster puzzle together. ‘Hanging out with my closest friends’, and ‘learning important things with others’ are synonymous in my social life.
However, with the few skeptics groups, with a misplaced explanation of a technological singularity here, and a heated debate on cryonics my other friend had over there, I’ve meet people at parties asking me why I hold peculiar beliefs that I don’t hold. The freethought community in Vancouver is very insular, as over half the city, by census data, identifies as not belonging to a major religious denomination. We got too enthusiastic in growing the meetup, turned some people off, and gossip started. If an article is written poorly, than not for all of Less Wrong, but for my friends, and I, in particular the pattern could become crystallized that we’re kooks only pretending to be freethinkers. This wouldn’t bode well, but in collaboration, I can help decrease distrust, and strengthen bonds between two communities that seem like they should be allies rather than enemies. This doesn’t affect the whole community, maybe just my corner of it. Suggestions are welcome.
So you got pattern-matched to something you’re not. And? That’s very common and will NOT be fixed by any changes in LW.
That still is not something that can be fixed by LW changing.
Also, LW is a global forum. You should expect that a community local to one city will find many strange things in a global forum.
Well, my original post started out with one thesis that morphed into another by the time I finished writing it. At this point, with what I’ve learned in dialogue with other users, is that, of course I can’t change Less Wrong. I didn’t want to in the first place, anyhow. However, what’s going on is that Less Wrong was my impetus in generating a conundrum I may now mitigate, and I thought I’d return to Less Wrong to ask for its advice on handling the issue. This makes sense all the more because the community can share with me their maybe similar impressions, or experiences, because the community is made of people.
In this regard, this is how I should have thought from the beginning. What others I know personally think of Less Wrong is a feature, but not the source, of my problem.
Well, I have the same opinion of most of the people calling themselves “freethinkers”.
Obviously you should ditch your new friends, if they’re not willing to sign on to our awesome community!