The pandemic has updated me in the direction that having any particular place be the center of the physical community is not super important. In some ways, it would almost be better if we less anchored on the idea of trying to get everyone physically together in a single local, and instead thought of ourselves as distributed with many hubs that have strong connections within and between hubs, although those connections within and between look a bit different (local being more about human needs, and between hubs being more about project needs).
For comparison, many businesses operate with multiple offices, the community of academics is highly distributed, and religions have various approaches to this split local/global model. There’s no special reason we all need to be physically together in the same city, so I don’t think it needs to happen and thus won’t.
Put another way, I think of a major rationalist hub that everyone was happy living in as a kind of fairy tale: it’s a nice idea to dream about, but the ground conditions simply aren’t conducive to it, and we should focus on meeting the conditions as we find them rather than hoping we can find a city that probably doesn’t exist that will enable us to have a hub with features that sadly currently sit well beyond the Pareto frontier.
COVID has taught me that I don’t need a big physical community, but it’s ALSO taught me that I am 100% uninterested in virtual replacements. I still e.g. post on facebook, but have not enjoyed virtual hangouts and the like.
If I could have a community of 7-200 people that were on the same street / property / very close, I think that would be my ideal. Being close to other similar groupings would be nice but not necessary. I think a community of about 20 is much stronger than a community of about 100 (the larger number necesitates weaker ties). A major issue is finding 7-20 people who would be a good fit and are willing to do it
I have a blogpost brewing called “The Remote-First Community Hypothesis” exploring some of this in more detail. (although I also do think it’s pretty important to have an in person hub even if it doesn’t work for everyone)
The pandemic has updated me in the direction that having any particular place be the center of the physical community is not super important. In some ways, it would almost be better if we less anchored on the idea of trying to get everyone physically together in a single local, and instead thought of ourselves as distributed with many hubs that have strong connections within and between hubs, although those connections within and between look a bit different (local being more about human needs, and between hubs being more about project needs).
For comparison, many businesses operate with multiple offices, the community of academics is highly distributed, and religions have various approaches to this split local/global model. There’s no special reason we all need to be physically together in the same city, so I don’t think it needs to happen and thus won’t.
Put another way, I think of a major rationalist hub that everyone was happy living in as a kind of fairy tale: it’s a nice idea to dream about, but the ground conditions simply aren’t conducive to it, and we should focus on meeting the conditions as we find them rather than hoping we can find a city that probably doesn’t exist that will enable us to have a hub with features that sadly currently sit well beyond the Pareto frontier.
COVID has taught me that I don’t need a big physical community, but it’s ALSO taught me that I am 100% uninterested in virtual replacements. I still e.g. post on facebook, but have not enjoyed virtual hangouts and the like.
If I could have a community of 7-200 people that were on the same street / property / very close, I think that would be my ideal. Being close to other similar groupings would be nice but not necessary. I think a community of about 20 is much stronger than a community of about 100 (the larger number necesitates weaker ties). A major issue is finding 7-20 people who would be a good fit and are willing to do it
I have a blogpost brewing called “The Remote-First Community Hypothesis” exploring some of this in more detail. (although I also do think it’s pretty important to have an in person hub even if it doesn’t work for everyone)