Michael: “The closest thing that I have found to a secular church really is probably a gym.”
Perhaps in the short run we could just use the gym directly, or analogs. Aristotle’s Peripatetic school and other notable thinkers who walked suggests that having people walking while talking, thinking, and socializing is worth some experimentation. This could be done by walking outside or on parallel exercise machines in a gym (would be informative which worked better to tease out what it is about walking that improves thinking, assuming the hypothesized causality is true). Michael, I realize you are effectively already doing this.
-Rob Zahra
Agree with and like the post. Two related avenues for application:
Using this effect to accelerate one’s own behavior modification by making commitments in the direction of the type of person one wants to become. (e.g. donating even small amounts to SIAI to view oneself as rationally altruistic, speaking in favor of weight loss as a way to achieve weight loss goals, etc.). Obviously this would need to be used cautiously to avoid cementing sub-optimal goals.
Memetics: Applying these techniques on others may help them adopt your goals without your needing to explicitly push them too hard. Again, caution and foresight advisable.