Has anyone had any experience with http://sundayassembly.com ?
I’d love to hear some first hand accounts. It sounds like all the things I enjoyed about going to church when I was a Christian, with the Christianity part.
Goobahman
Karma: 178
thanks for the reply/message.
it looks like Sydney lacks a regular meetup at the moment.
Thanks for that. It’s fascinating to get a glimpse of what rationality looks like in the real world rather than just online interchanges.
Note aside, I’m a big fan of your work. Reassures me to know rationalists are on the team for dota 2
bah I really want to get in on these, but I’d have to train it in from Ballarat!
Is it worth the effort? Who will attest?
I’m guessing this is one of Luke’s ways of bringing some focus to the research of Rationality in the Academic world, and its significance to the LW community.
I hypothesize that he see’s a gap there that needs more bridging.
(just my humble estimation)
If you send me your email I can send you a copy of a powerpoint I made a while back when I was running a short talk on Bayes Theorem.
most of it I got from here however:
http://commonsenseatheism.com/?p=13156
<3 lukeprog
I’ll give this a quick go.
I’m Michael. I’m 24 and live in West Sydney. I’m in LW because I pretty much stalk Lukeprog. I’m an ex-christian, who got married way too young, but got lucky in that me and my wife have grown out of faith together and really come to a place where we really support each other in everything we want to do. I love learning and all subjects, but I’m not really an expert on anything, except maybe people, which is probably one of the best places to be an expert. I’m studying professional writing next year. I find communication fascinating, and like exploring ways to close inferential gaps between people. I’m a bit of a co-ordinator. I’ve hosted weekly discussions groups pertaining toward Rationality and Political issues, but I find that I’m still not disciplined enough to keep persevering in them. Soon I will be changing states, and moving to Ballarat, Victoria. I plan to start attending the Melbourne LW meet up when I do (come january). The good thing about this move is that it gives me and my wife a chance to re-invent ourselves without the expectations of our friends and family defining us. I like video games, and getting good at them, but this eats more time than it’s worth, so I’m aiming to quit entirely (after Diablo 3). I’m a brilliant musician, but have never been able to take it too seriously, due to the industry being flooded already, but also by getting burned by a band that had the potential to go international but was saboutaged by immature members with drug addictions. Now I just use it as a form of therapy and creative expression.
I mostly lurk on LW, I personally don’t have a lot to add to the conversation here, but I think once I start going to a meet-up there will be a lot I can contribute.
That’ll do for now.
This is a great idea. the LW community has great content but lacks the personal connection that makes other communities so sucessful, and this addresses it directly. It’s fascinating to see what people on this site are like, what ‘types’ it draws and keeps.
me too :)
I follow Luke around everywhere tbh.
I feel that this deserves greater celebration.
Hey Luke,
This is great to hear. What drew me to you and your works initially was your extraordinary ability to take concepts foreign to me and make them accessible, easy to understand and even enjoyable. It’s good to see that you intend to capitalize on this talent, and I can’t wait to see what more comes of it. That being said seeing how far you’ve come already in the past few years is mind-blowing.
You really make me want to do better. Thank you.
Alas I must cancel. important family gathering on that evening. Hope you get a good turn out
I’d love to come but we’ll see.it’s quite a trek for me.
“Irrationality offers all the things rationality does not: creativity, a sense of “magic”, ecstasy, revelation, cosmic awe, passion and pure psychic power”
i think you misunderstand what we mean by rationality. If we wanted these things, which most of us do, then it’d be rational to be irrational. using the words that way is just silly.
Thanks Kaj, That’s some useful stuff.
Could you please direct me to your source, if you have one?
Hey Luke,
Thanks again for your work. You are by far the greatest online teacher I’ve ever come across (though I’ve never seen you teach face-to-face). you are concise, clear, direct, empathetic, extremely thorough, tactful and accessible. I am in awe of your abilities. You take the fruit that is at the top of the tree and gently place it into my straining arms! Sorry for the exuberant worship but I really want to express my gratitude for your efforts. They definitely aren’t wasted on me.
Heavy questions for someone who merely wrote:
“This should be of interest to a few members of this forum”
To understand the potential for bias allows you to be cautious of it, which is good, but this type of critique can be counter-productive and a conversation killer. If a post as simple as this encounters this much scrutiny at initial submission, then we’re going to have less and less contributions and discussion.
One of the big things about improving rationality is ‘Getting Crap Done’ and I think the problem is that for an online community wherein most of us are anonymous, there’s not a lot on here to help us with that.
Now this site has helped me conceptualize and visualize in a way that I didn’t realize was possible. It helped me to see things as they are, and how things could be. The problem is that whilst I’m flying ahead in terms of vision, I still sleep in and get to work late, I still play world of warcraft over going to the local toastmasters meetup, I still haven’t opened up my online trading account.
It’s like I know what to do, but in terms of generating the willpower and committment and motivation to do it, this site just becomes another of many shiny distractions. The thing is as an online community I’m not sure how much you could remedy that.
The Meetups however I think is possibly the best thing to come out of this site so far, as it has inspired me to start my own, which has come to great success, even after a somewhat rocky start, and provides a way for those who feel isolated to find a network of support.
Just my two humble cents.
It’s hard to articulate all the benefits it’s had in my life, but I’ll name some that I’ve really noticed:
Self evaluation and development: Many of the posts on Bias and human behaviours have helped me understand myself as a very primal creature, and in distinguishing the difference between the rational logic in my head, and the very human part of me that exists in day-to-day, and because I have the tools to understand those subjective parts of me, I can essentially ‘manipulate’ myself for my own benefit. For example, Luke’s article on The Good News of Situational Psychology helped me to understand how influenced I am by my situation, and that I need to pro-actively place myself in situations that will encourage me to make better decisions. Also the ability to be objective about myself and my emotions allows me to do a cost-benefit analysis on what parts of me need the most work.
Social interaction: Many of the same tools have given me a stronger understanding of humans as social creatures, with many similar behaviours and mannerisms as animals, and being able to see things in that light has allowed me to take advantage of these social norms, even in terms of encouraging positive behaviours in my friends and family, and optimizing our lives.
Those are the main two, but they sort of underly everything else that goes on in my life as well....
There’s certainly a lot of webcomics produced nowadays that explain concepts in an amusing and simple manner.