I attended the minicamp last summer, at more personal expense than most participants, since I flew in from europe (I did have other things to do in California, so the cost wasn’t entirely for minicamp).
If you want an analogy with minicamp, think of an academic summer school. At the most important level, I think the only thing that really separates minicamp (or an academic summer school) from christian camps is that the things they teach at minicamp (and summer schools) are mostly correct.
I go to summer schools to learn from people who have thought about things that I care about, in greater depth than I have. If you don’t believe that will be true, don’t go. You should be able to make a reasonable guess whether you think you have things to learn by looking at the instructors posts on less wrong.
I definitely agree with many things that the other participants said. I found that minicamp gave me a sense that things that normal people consider insoluble are often not, and a well thought out series of actions can lead you to places that most people would not believe. I also found it inspiring to be around a group of people that really care about improving themselves—something that I have found relatively rarely.
I have one genuine criticism of minicamp. There are reasons to be tactically ‘irrational’ in the real world. As a cartoon example: if disagreeing repeatedly with your boss will get you fired from your well-paid job, and you’re giving significant amounts of money to the efficient charity, then stay quiet.
Now, Eliezer is too smart to fall for this—it’s reading his writing that let me clearly understand the difference between faux-rational (Spock-like dedication to the truth, and getting fired) and truly rational (shutting up). Indeed, the complexities of this are beautifully explored in Harry Potter and the methods of rationality. However, at minicamp, I felt like the less inspiring aspects of being rational were under-emphasised. That is totally understandable, since talking about bending to social domination, lying etc, is low-status. Also, the instructors at minicamp have, quite deliberately, created a community where they are somewhat isolated from having to deal with irrational people, so they probably don’t viscerally experience the importance on quite such a regular basis.
I felt that, at the end of minicamp, there should have been a session pointing out a few aspects of living rationally in an irrational world. I think we needed a lecture from Professor Quirrell, so that we don’t create rationalists that can spot every bias known to psychology (and a few more) but aren’t actually having positive impact on the world, because they don’t know how to get things done.
I’ll end by pointing out that I’ve just asked Anna whether I can go back this year, maybe as a participant, maybe as a volunteer. Hopefully that should let you estimate how I truthfully rate the overall experience.
Have you really never seen this before? I actually find that I myself struggle with it. When you define yourself as the plucky outsider it’s difficult and almost unsatisfying when you conclusively win the argument. It ruins your self-identity because you’re now just a mainstream thinker.
I’ve heard of similar stories when people are cured of various terminal diseases. The disease becomes so central to their definition of self that to be cured makes them feel slightly lost.