Great guide.
Alas I have far too many friends and family keeping me in the cities of Australia.
That and all the culture.
If I needed to save 30k desperately and wasn’t married though… I had a friend who did it somewhere in Perth. Earns about half of what I do, saves about twice as much...
Such an interesting discussion. I lurk on LW, don’t really post because to be honest, there’s not much I have to contribute that isn’t already said by others.
But I just wanted to say how interesting it is to compare how this community discusses the subject is in such contrast to almost every other forum, despite the variety of opinions on the matter.
As for the issue, I remember when I was young (really young) I saw a doco on a third world country, where the mothers would kill their babies if they were female, as they weren’t considered an asset in the way that males were, (post birth abortion??) and in my very young mind, it just made striaght forward sense, that a family that can barely survive shouldn’t burden themselves further unnecessarily. which probably means when I was young I didn’t value human life that much. Now I’m really not sure what to think. I see babies as almost pure potential, so there is that element of wastefulness, but then again, most of the time that potential is just wasted. Makes discussions on a place like this all the more interesting though. I also think it depends a lot on what you think of identity. I view myself more as a malleable collection of memes and ideas as opposed to a physical set of atoms, does that mean me as a baby I don’t really identify with as ….me? Are babies anyone yet? (these are non-rhetorical questions btw)
But good show everyone
I echo luke’s sentiments. Thanks Eliezer. www.Lesswrong.com is a resource that truly strikes at the heart of the matter.
Also: The Karma thing is a good way to prevent trolls and other less desirables from flooding the site with crap, plus find the more appreciated and higher contributors. I think it helps maintain the quality of discussion on this site.
My only problem is that I hate commenting unless I have something to add, which @ lesswrong.com is almost never (thanks to the diligence of the community here) but I need at least 2 points to bring up a topic in the dicussion board, where usually I just want to share how I’m using this site to encourage rationality in my local community, and also to ask if there are any Sydney, Australia meet ups.
Thanks for the interest.
Basically I think what the Less Wrong community is doing here is so fundamentally important to self-development that I thought it was worth sharing. I get frustrated enough at my own bias and irrationality, let alone that of others, that I thought it was worth trying to do something about it.
I found there was little I could offer to the LessWrong community, it’s already chockers with brilliance, but the people who need this stuff most are those who are the least likely to find a site like this interesting.
So the way I though I’d best be able to contribute is by getting the good stuff here, and trying to make it appealing and accessible to the average person.
I’ve only just started. First evening had 6 attendants but I’m confident we could get double that number next time. Starting very slowly, and keeping it quite basic and humble. The biggest challenge I think is getting people to understand why Refining your rationality is exciting and important, and on board with that vision.
I’m in Western Sydney, Australia.
will post my results as the group progresses, as i evaluate what works, what doesn’t and seek advice from the LW community. still early days though.
I’m fortunate in that I have friends who are already quite into a lot of things that aren’t too far from rationality as already is, who were previously part of a political discussion group I used to run, so it was easy for them to get on board with a new project.
As I said previously, I think the greatest challenge is making people understand the relevance of what we’re studying and how it’s directly applicable to everything they do. A lot of people tend to think it’s beyond them, or not for them, or be somewhat dismissive, but once you start engaging them on a level they understand and get your passion across, the attitude changes can be really surprising.
Also keeping it humble simple and comprehensive.
Like I said to atucker though, it’s still early days too and I’m no Eliezer, so I’ll no doubt be adjusting and asking for lots of help as I go along. I think it’s got a lot of potential though, and I’m really excited about doing my part in raising the sanity waterline.
Thank you so much for this post. This is absolute gold for someone like me.
I have only just recently begun a Less Wrong meet up group in Sydney, Australia, and have been scouring around for advice and prior models to go of and you pretty much just provided everything in one freaking awesome post!
What’s really encouraging is that in doing comparisons I already see similar happening in my group. Firstly most of the attendants are very good friends of mine, to whom topics pertaining to rationality come up naturally at almost any occasion, their great fun to hang out with, and most have shown keen interest in a fortnightly Less Wrong meeting. It’s really encouraging to receive some confirmation that what I’m doing does have this potential, and it’s really good to have a precedent to give me some basic idea of what to expect.
I wish I could upvote twice!
I thought ‘PERFECT’ then I remembered I live half a world away.
Chances of a course by correspondence?
I’ve always thought going through a course with some of my friends would be a really good exercise.
I’m in West Sydney actually. Not a lot of reason to travel out that way, but if you happen to find yourself there feel free to drop me a line.
I saw it and had some similar reflections. Got me thinking about what a highly optimized rational man would look like.
It wasn’t perfect by any standards but had some great cinematography and ideas flowing around. If you can forgive the gaping loopholes you’ll enjoy the ride.
NancyLebovitz’s comment I think is highly relevant here.
I can only speak from my personal experience, but I’ve found than part of going through Less Wrong and understanding all the great stuff on this website, is understanding the type of creature I am. At this current moment, I am comparitively a very simple one. In terms of the singularity, and Friendly AI, they are miles from what I am, and I am not at a point where I can emotionally take on those causes. I can intellectual but the fact is the simple creature that I am doesn’t comprehend those connections yet. I want to one day, but a Baby has to crawl before it can walk. Much of what I do provides me with satisfaction, joy, happiness. I don’t even fully understand why. But what I do know, is that I need those emotions to not just function, but to improve, to continue the development of myself.
Maybe it might help to reduce yourself to that simple creature. Understand that for a baby to do math, it has to understand symbols. Maybe that what you understand intellectually, in terms of emotional function your not yet ready to deal with.
Just my two cents. sorry if I’m not as concise as I should be. I do hope the best for you though.
“The largest effect in my life has been in fighting mental illness,”
Hey Armok,
I’d love to hear more details on this. Maybe do a post in discussion? Doesn’t have to be elaborate or anything but I’m really curious.
I agree.
I imagine almost anything would become interesting to me, if I knew that I was doing it with a bunch of (aspiring) rationalists.
I’d vote for starting a company.
The Corporate World is in dire need of companies that aren’t evil, to both change the tone of the industry and to serve as an example to other companies. It just feels like for almost every company the bottom line is always the dollar, but it’d be nice if that stopped being the norm, and I think by running a company the way you’d want to you could contribute to that cause. (I am assuming your company wouldn’t be evil)
Otherwise: Do ’em all at Once!
“It’s been said that being half a rationalist is dangerous. How do you communicate enough rationality for it to not be dangerous? ”
I think this is quite a hurdle. I struggle a lot when I think about how to get others to be more rational, or communicating ideas that people might only understand half of. The Sequences are great but they tend to build from the ground up, and so it’s hard for them to seem relevant. Perhaps a reductive approach? So we try to begin with essays/tools/models that are more relevant to thought processes that the layman would regularly engage in, before asking them to then explore those thought processes.
Meta_ark I would’ve loved to come along, but I’m actually away that entire weekend.
Nice to see a Sydney meetup though and looking forward to attending in the future!
I am in the same boat as VirtualAdept. I’ve been following luke’s blog forever which naturally lead me to LW, and whilst I’m still very in my Rational Infancy, I am hugely grateful for the gradual steps toward maturity that this site affords me, so I think I was due to register. Problem is it also makes me more and more frustrated at the lack of rationality surrounding me, especially as an exchristian with a very devout evangelical family and friend network. I mean I’m no Eliezer, but some of these people....
to have content that is accesible, interesting and easily sharable would be fantastic, because the type of people who need these lessons the most are the type of people who will give up at the slightest difficulty.
So my first step is attempting to be more active in this site, then start ‘evangelizing’ the more accesible parts on mediums like twitter and facebook. after that....the world!
but we’ll see....
Mega kudos to Lukeprog and www.lesswrong.com!!