Sense of connection and being seen is definitely one of the most obvious possible benefits of circling, and many people are in fact starved for these things.
But this is one of the layers of Goodharting I mentioned: I think if a circle Goodharts on sense of connection it’s missing the opportunity to do something different and more interesting for rationalists, which I don’t know how to explain in words (part of the reason it’s easy to miss). The situation is roughly analogous to meditating because it helps you feel calmer, as opposed to the mountains of wacky stuff meditation can do instead.
To make an attempt to put it into a few words (but the topic still needs to have it’s own post at another time):
The relationship that people have to themselves matters. Many people don’t have an explicit model of how they relate to themselves. It’s a blindspot for many rationalists and given that the relationship that people have to themselves affects what the believe, feel and do, that has implications for rationality.
It also trains the core skills involved in Focusing and that’s valuable for the reason that make CFAR teach it.
Sense of connection and being seen is definitely one of the most obvious possible benefits of circling, and many people are in fact starved for these things.
But this is one of the layers of Goodharting I mentioned: I think if a circle Goodharts on sense of connection it’s missing the opportunity to do something different and more interesting for rationalists, which I don’t know how to explain in words (part of the reason it’s easy to miss). The situation is roughly analogous to meditating because it helps you feel calmer, as opposed to the mountains of wacky stuff meditation can do instead.
To make an attempt to put it into a few words (but the topic still needs to have it’s own post at another time):
The relationship that people have to themselves matters. Many people don’t have an explicit model of how they relate to themselves. It’s a blindspot for many rationalists and given that the relationship that people have to themselves affects what the believe, feel and do, that has implications for rationality.
It also trains the core skills involved in Focusing and that’s valuable for the reason that make CFAR teach it.