Hello to the LessWrong universe.
I’m 23 years old. A lover of music (Last.fm): Ravel, Mozart, Radiohead, Sigur Rós, Animal Collective. And driven to learn.
My goal right now is to become a philosophy professor, and participate in radical, reason oriented movements to influence social change.
I value the intellect, the body, life, and the universe. I value learning—to improve the lives of others and myself, and to live most accordingly with ‘nature.’ I value those who direct themselves in a rational manner.
My rationality quest began when I was a child, always using legos to build new things and drawing. Eventually video games came into my life and problem solving drove me. However, due to immaturity and the social life of a middle/high schooler, I never really progress intellectually despite my love for science and ‘deep’ conversations with friends.
It wasn’t until I was 20, and ended my relationship with a girl that philosophical thought dawned upon me. It was sparked by the breakup, because her family was religious and I molded myself to that lifestyle, but when it was over there was nothing there. I suppose, after losing who I thought was the love of my life, I began to search for ‘purpose.’
A few philosophy courses and a dive into Stoicism pushed me to realms of thought I had never began to contemplate.
Since then I’ve been progressing my learning on my own through literature, philosophical writings, conversation, and free online references. And I found myself here because my StumbleUpon lead me to a blog from a philosophy professor who linked to this site.
I really want to become a value member of this community, to help myself and others.
Well, your biggest step was to even find and join this site. I’m in a similar predicament at the moment, and I JUST found LessWrong last week.
I supposes you could find similar minded people if you try to join community groups/projects that you have interest in. Try sharing your ideas/thoughts on the various social media sites. I’m sure you won’t get a bunch of responses if you have friends similar to mine, and the responses you do get will be sparse and not so worthwhile—but it’s a great way to refine your thinking.
And as others have suggested, try contacting those who plan on going to the Melbourne meetup and see if there is a chance a future meetup could be organized closer to you.
Best of luck.