Feedback: I’m interested in this but will not attend.
Why: I’m a professional in another city with limited vacation time. I could potentially go to the Bay Area for this, but it’d be expensive in money, time, and vacation not spent elsewhere. I believe it might still be worth doing it, but am not convinced.
However, I AM convinced that if one were held in my city (in this case, Seattle) for a similar price, I would be very interested. The cost could be offset because lodging/travel by the instructors would be paid instead of the attendees. If the workshops were something like Thursday/Friday evening and all weekend, so much the better.
Suggestion for the future: Check interest for doing these locally in other major cities and run the numbers to see if it’s worth it. It might not make sense, but if it did, count me in!
...I don’t know if I’ll have the next chapter by May 13, and if there are other advance chapters after that they’ll probably be horrible cliffhangers, but I’ll consider it.
Actually, quick check—was it clear from the text that there are two 3-day weekend camps and one 1-week camp? Hopefully a 3-day camp wouldn’t be that expensive in terms of vacation time not spent elsewhere. Go ahead and ignore this comment if it was already clear, but if it wasn’t clear from the text let me know and I can try to emphasize it more strongly.
I would prefer the weeklong one but am considering the weekends. The cost of airfare is the same.
Another question: Is there any particular reason why you are including the hotel costs into the fee? I can see the marketing value from “single number”, but for those already in the Bay Area (or with friends/family there), reducing that cost by a bit and staying elsewhere would be helpful.
If activities/teambuilding are going late, that makes sense, but that was not clear on a single read through (I could read through again to find out, but figure the feedback on this not being clear might be helpful).
Clarification: the weekend/weeklong distinction was NOT clear from the dates listed, I saw dates and skimmed for more information. It wasn’t until I got to the costs section that I realized it and went back up to the dates.
However I’d like to mildly dispute “Hopefully a 3-day camp wouldn’t be that expensive in terms of vacation time not spent elsewhere”.
...some of us come from another country (quite a few actually) - and the travel time alone is equal to the 3 days we’d spend on the actual camp. Plus a day or so adjusting to jetlag enough that we could even stay awake for the first day.… I’d estimate that for me to attend even the three day camp would be, at minimum, a seven day vacation.
Factor in the significant cost of the airfares, and we’re starting to talk a lot of vacation-opportunity-cost.
Obviously, attending the longer camp would be a better signal-to-noise ratio… but would still be a serious undertaking.
PS: that’s not to say, of course, that’s it’s not still worth the effort. Personally I’m looking into my options to see if I can pull it together to get to the week-long one this time…
The main point is just not to forget that a significant number of LW readers are in a quite different situation to your own and thus the difficulty of attending should not be inadvertently trivialised.
Feedback: I’m interested in this but will not attend.
Why: I’m a professional in another city with limited vacation time. I could potentially go to the Bay Area for this, but it’d be expensive in money, time, and vacation not spent elsewhere. I believe it might still be worth doing it, but am not convinced.
However, I AM convinced that if one were held in my city (in this case, Seattle) for a similar price, I would be very interested. The cost could be offset because lodging/travel by the instructors would be paid instead of the attendees. If the workshops were something like Thursday/Friday evening and all weekend, so much the better.
Suggestion for the future: Check interest for doing these locally in other major cities and run the numbers to see if it’s worth it. It might not make sense, but if it did, count me in!
This may happen in the future, depending on how this year goes; we’re pretty sure it’s not happening this year, so it’s not a good thing to wait on.
Thanks. I doubt I will go this year for the reasons I listed above. Next year when I have more vacation time built up I’d consider doing it.
Although if you’d like to include “read advance chapters of HPMOR” into the benefits, I’m in.
...I don’t know if I’ll have the next chapter by May 13, and if there are other advance chapters after that they’ll probably be horrible cliffhangers, but I’ll consider it.
I was mostly kidding (but I can’t deny that it would be an awesome perk).
Actually, quick check—was it clear from the text that there are two 3-day weekend camps and one 1-week camp? Hopefully a 3-day camp wouldn’t be that expensive in terms of vacation time not spent elsewhere. Go ahead and ignore this comment if it was already clear, but if it wasn’t clear from the text let me know and I can try to emphasize it more strongly.
FWIW, it was not clear from a skim.
Okay, went in and fixed.
Yes, it was clear to me.
I would prefer the weeklong one but am considering the weekends. The cost of airfare is the same.
Another question: Is there any particular reason why you are including the hotel costs into the fee? I can see the marketing value from “single number”, but for those already in the Bay Area (or with friends/family there), reducing that cost by a bit and staying elsewhere would be helpful.
If activities/teambuilding are going late, that makes sense, but that was not clear on a single read through (I could read through again to find out, but figure the feedback on this not being clear might be helpful).
Clarification: the weekend/weeklong distinction was NOT clear from the dates listed, I saw dates and skimmed for more information. It wasn’t until I got to the costs section that I realized it and went back up to the dates.
It is clear now.
However I’d like to mildly dispute “Hopefully a 3-day camp wouldn’t be that expensive in terms of vacation time not spent elsewhere”.
...some of us come from another country (quite a few actually) - and the travel time alone is equal to the 3 days we’d spend on the actual camp. Plus a day or so adjusting to jetlag enough that we could even stay awake for the first day.… I’d estimate that for me to attend even the three day camp would be, at minimum, a seven day vacation.
Factor in the significant cost of the airfares, and we’re starting to talk a lot of vacation-opportunity-cost.
Obviously, attending the longer camp would be a better signal-to-noise ratio… but would still be a serious undertaking.
PS: that’s not to say, of course, that’s it’s not still worth the effort. Personally I’m looking into my options to see if I can pull it together to get to the week-long one this time…
The main point is just not to forget that a significant number of LW readers are in a quite different situation to your own and thus the difficulty of attending should not be inadvertently trivialised.