Perhaps, but I’ve found that without a Schelling event like the annual SSC Meetups Everywhere (sadly and obviously canceled this year, maybe I should do something to replace it...), people almost never take that step of reaching out. The map is just so passive, although maybe the real problem is as you implied: that we don’t have critical mass.
In any case, whether or not it would work in normal times, it seems like not a priority right now given the state of the world :P
In any case, whether or not it would work in normal times, it seems like not a priority right now given the state of the world :P
Yeah, I definitely agree with that.
Perhaps, but I’ve found that without a Schelling event like the annual SSC Meetups Everywhere (sadly and obviously canceled this year, maybe I should do something to replace it...), people almost never take that step of reaching out. The map is just so passive, although maybe the real problem is as you implied: that we don’t have critical mass.
Hm, maybe it just needs a kickstart. Like if someone from LW sends out a cold email: “Hey, there are 5 other LessWrongers around you. Interested in starting a meetup?”* From there, if you can get that meetup to happen and the people meet each other in person maybe they’ll keep in touch.
Something like that happened for me with Indie Hackers. They reached out to me with that message, I started a meetup and it was sustained for over a year until covid.
*I noticed last night that you can subscribe to this on the community map, but it’s opt in and difficult to find, and I suspect those two things explain why it hasn’t worked.
Perhaps, but I’ve found that without a Schelling event like the annual SSC Meetups Everywhere (sadly and obviously canceled this year, maybe I should do something to replace it...), people almost never take that step of reaching out. The map is just so passive, although maybe the real problem is as you implied: that we don’t have critical mass.
In any case, whether or not it would work in normal times, it seems like not a priority right now given the state of the world :P
Yeah, I definitely agree with that.
Hm, maybe it just needs a kickstart. Like if someone from LW sends out a cold email: “Hey, there are 5 other LessWrongers around you. Interested in starting a meetup?”* From there, if you can get that meetup to happen and the people meet each other in person maybe they’ll keep in touch.
Something like that happened for me with Indie Hackers. They reached out to me with that message, I started a meetup and it was sustained for over a year until covid.
*I noticed last night that you can subscribe to this on the community map, but it’s opt in and difficult to find, and I suspect those two things explain why it hasn’t worked.