I had alot of fun helping to co-organize the NYC SSC meetup. I was wondering if people had advice on what questions to use an icebreaker when welcoming new people into the rationalist community. Here are two questions I have tried at the SSC meetup:
-”How long have you been reading Scot?” : Some people found this question obvious and uninspired but it worked pretty well.
-”Has Rationality has had direct practical benefits in your daily life?” : I think the later question would have worked better at a “lesswrong” not a SSC meetup. A common feeling was they valued “rationality” in discussion and weren’t especially interested in using rationality for self improvement.
Does anyone have suggestions for better questions?
At the solstice last year someone asked me “What’s your origin story?” which I thought was a pretty cool way to phrase what was in the end a sort of generic question.
I had alot of fun helping to co-organize the NYC SSC meetup. I was wondering if people had advice on what questions to use an icebreaker when welcoming new people into the rationalist community. Here are two questions I have tried at the SSC meetup:
-”How long have you been reading Scot?” : Some people found this question obvious and uninspired but it worked pretty well.
-”Has Rationality has had direct practical benefits in your daily life?” : I think the later question would have worked better at a “lesswrong” not a SSC meetup. A common feeling was they valued “rationality” in discussion and weren’t especially interested in using rationality for self improvement.
Does anyone have suggestions for better questions?
At the solstice last year someone asked me “What’s your origin story?” which I thought was a pretty cool way to phrase what was in the end a sort of generic question.
It’s NSFW :-P
What made you decide to come to the meetup?
What do you expect from the meetup?
What do you think you do that nobody else who attends the meetup does?
A bit harder: Where did you change your beliefs in the last year?
While that’s an interesting question it doesn’t seem like a good icebreaker question. A person might feel bad about having to good answer to it.