People tend to be members of many different circles and these circles have different functions. You might have friends that are great to get drunk and do silly things with, and you might have friends that you rely on to get you out of messes that you dove into head-first, but they are probably not the same friends.
In meatspace there is a lot of functionality overlap because there is a limit on how many people you can be close friends with. But that doesn’t hold online. It’s perfectly viable to spend some time on the *chans for the lulz and spend some more time on high-brow forums discussing the hermeneutics of some ancient text.
The point is that one circle does not and can not do it all. Circles tend to specialize. LW is one of such specialized online circles. It does not and should not attempt to provide a full-service replacement for meatspace friends (though it might introduce you to potential candidates).
The “guarded” aspect is a function of two things. First, attention and time are valuable. By posting crap you’re wasting the attention and time of many (potentially very many) people. Therefore there are strong incentives to post high-quality content and not unguarded “I had a peanut butter sandwich today”. Second, this is the internet where all you post is both forever and can and will be used against you. If you want to be unguarded, do it somewhere where no permanent record of your unguarded behaviour is created.
Where is the chilling and watching all the Lord of the Rings movies together?
Let me remind you of what you said in this very post: “I don’t even know any rationalists in meatspace”. This is an entirely sufficient condition for being unable to chill and Netflix together with other rationalists.
People tend to be members of many different circles and these circles have different functions. You might have friends that are great to get drunk and do silly things with, and you might have friends that you rely on to get you out of messes that you dove into head-first, but they are probably not the same friends.
In meatspace there is a lot of functionality overlap because there is a limit on how many people you can be close friends with. But that doesn’t hold online. It’s perfectly viable to spend some time on the *chans for the lulz and spend some more time on high-brow forums discussing the hermeneutics of some ancient text.
The point is that one circle does not and can not do it all. Circles tend to specialize. LW is one of such specialized online circles. It does not and should not attempt to provide a full-service replacement for meatspace friends (though it might introduce you to potential candidates).
The “guarded” aspect is a function of two things. First, attention and time are valuable. By posting crap you’re wasting the attention and time of many (potentially very many) people. Therefore there are strong incentives to post high-quality content and not unguarded “I had a peanut butter sandwich today”. Second, this is the internet where all you post is both forever and can and will be used against you. If you want to be unguarded, do it somewhere where no permanent record of your unguarded behaviour is created.
Let me remind you of what you said in this very post: “I don’t even know any rationalists in meatspace”. This is an entirely sufficient condition for being unable to chill and Netflix together with other rationalists.