There is a lot of diversity within the LW community. Some people just read the web. Some people run companies (yes, plural). You say you have already read the web, but have you also been at meetups? Join some, and ask people what they are working on.
That is, “LW meetups” may be the one step closer to your goal from “LW website”.
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I find your approach fascinating. Like, my immediate reaction is “this cannot possibly work”, but then I struggle to explain why exactly (so maybe I am wrong). Uhm, if you happen to find the “Illuminati” this way, please be so nice and come back here and post a pointer for the rest of us. I mean, if they don’t mind being found, they might benefit from being contacted by more LW readers.
I guess my intuition says that if you want to meet some extremely impressive people, and want them to pay attention to you, you better have prepared some presentation about what makes you impressive and worth of their attention. Because you probably won’t be the only person who wants to meet them. And if they are insanely ambitious and winning systematically, they are probably not sitting on their butts and waiting for someone like you to join them. Rather, they are probably very busy working on their plans already, whatever those can be. They might need people with certain skills.
Also, I think there is a high chance you may find a group of overconfident people who believe they are winning systematically, but actually are just some form of cult or scam.
Meetups, possibly LW ones, might just be the next step. In general, the idea of networking in person has come up a few times now, but my hope was to jump from forum to forum until I end up on e.g. some discord server with a handful of people doing what I’ve described. I’m reasonably certain that that kind of server exists somewhere and has for some time.
One would think that this is a simple graph problem, but I’ve so far only got really few answers that actually would get me to jump into another server—most people just love to discuss everything about this but potential answers to my question. Which is fun, but doesn’t really get me closer to my goal. But if I find a magic combination of words to use in my posts that fixes that problem and gets me to the Illuminati, I’ll drop a hint on here.
>you may find a group of overconfident people who believe they are winning systematically That’s a good point. There might be a bunch of failure modes that stem from me incorrectly identifying the place I’m at as something I’ve been looking for. I’ll have to ponder that one.
I’m reasonably certain that that kind of server exists somewhere and has for some time.
I doubt that. Productive people usually do not spend much time online. And when they do, it is usually focused, so would expect their online time to consist of:
video conferences with selected people,
discussing on private forums,
watching selected YouTube channels,
and maybe occasionally reading an article or two on websites such as LessWrong, but rarely leaving a comment unless it is something personally interesting for them.
People who spend a lot of time debating online are usually:
procrastinators who do this instead of being productive (this includes me and probably also you),
salesmen, journalists, and other kinds of people for whom writing online is an essential part of their business, i.e. they are advertising their products or creating controversies that will help sell their products.
So I am afraid you will only find people who talk about systematized winning online.
Look at it from the opposite perspective: Imagine that you have already become very productive and successful. And you also know other productive and successful people that you like to discuss with, because you inspire each other and cooperate effectively.
I think you would prefer to meet them and talk in person, because that is way more efficient (assuming there is a lot you want to discuss) and also better from the privacy perspective than leaving a public written record on some forum (some topics are better to keep secret, such as the details of your financial situation, or how you handle your physical and online security, which is what successful and productive people would definitely discuss among other things). If meeting in person is inconvenient (e.g. living in different countries), something like Zoom would be the next best option.
Also, people who are productive in something typically go to conferences, not really to listen to the lectures (those are probably also available online) but to meet other people interested at the same things, so that they can discuss afterwards.
Also, successful people are usually successful at something specific. They may be interested in wide rage of things, but there will be a thing or two that they spend most time doing, and that is the source of their income or face. Even if you were talented at hundred different things, talent is nothing unless you actually do the necessary work, and there is not enough time in a day to work at hundred different things and accomplish something nontrivial. So you might find these people at forums dedicated to the specific thing they do. Choose the thing you want to do, and find a related Reddit forum, read the wiki and the top voted posts. -- But this is a different paradigm: such forum will not be a “successful group”, but rather a group containing a few successful individuals (plus many bystanders). So you want to get the attention of those individuals. Either post something impressive and hope they notice, or maybe contact them directly and ask for some kind of advice or mentorship.
There is a lot of diversity within the LW community. Some people just read the web. Some people run companies (yes, plural). You say you have already read the web, but have you also been at meetups? Join some, and ask people what they are working on.
That is, “LW meetups” may be the one step closer to your goal from “LW website”.
*
I find your approach fascinating. Like, my immediate reaction is “this cannot possibly work”, but then I struggle to explain why exactly (so maybe I am wrong). Uhm, if you happen to find the “Illuminati” this way, please be so nice and come back here and post a pointer for the rest of us. I mean, if they don’t mind being found, they might benefit from being contacted by more LW readers.
I guess my intuition says that if you want to meet some extremely impressive people, and want them to pay attention to you, you better have prepared some presentation about what makes you impressive and worth of their attention. Because you probably won’t be the only person who wants to meet them. And if they are insanely ambitious and winning systematically, they are probably not sitting on their butts and waiting for someone like you to join them. Rather, they are probably very busy working on their plans already, whatever those can be. They might need people with certain skills.
Also, I think there is a high chance you may find a group of overconfident people who believe they are winning systematically, but actually are just some form of cult or scam.
Meetups, possibly LW ones, might just be the next step. In general, the idea of networking in person has come up a few times now, but my hope was to jump from forum to forum until I end up on e.g. some discord server with a handful of people doing what I’ve described. I’m reasonably certain that that kind of server exists somewhere and has for some time.
One would think that this is a simple graph problem, but I’ve so far only got really few answers that actually would get me to jump into another server—most people just love to discuss everything about this but potential answers to my question. Which is fun, but doesn’t really get me closer to my goal. But if I find a magic combination of words to use in my posts that fixes that problem and gets me to the Illuminati, I’ll drop a hint on here.
>you may find a group of overconfident people who believe they are winning systematically
That’s a good point. There might be a bunch of failure modes that stem from me incorrectly identifying the place I’m at as something I’ve been looking for. I’ll have to ponder that one.
I doubt that. Productive people usually do not spend much time online. And when they do, it is usually focused, so would expect their online time to consist of:
video conferences with selected people,
discussing on private forums,
watching selected YouTube channels,
and maybe occasionally reading an article or two on websites such as LessWrong, but rarely leaving a comment unless it is something personally interesting for them.
People who spend a lot of time debating online are usually:
procrastinators who do this instead of being productive (this includes me and probably also you),
salesmen, journalists, and other kinds of people for whom writing online is an essential part of their business, i.e. they are advertising their products or creating controversies that will help sell their products.
So I am afraid you will only find people who talk about systematized winning online.
Look at it from the opposite perspective: Imagine that you have already become very productive and successful. And you also know other productive and successful people that you like to discuss with, because you inspire each other and cooperate effectively.
I think you would prefer to meet them and talk in person, because that is way more efficient (assuming there is a lot you want to discuss) and also better from the privacy perspective than leaving a public written record on some forum (some topics are better to keep secret, such as the details of your financial situation, or how you handle your physical and online security, which is what successful and productive people would definitely discuss among other things). If meeting in person is inconvenient (e.g. living in different countries), something like Zoom would be the next best option.
Also, people who are productive in something typically go to conferences, not really to listen to the lectures (those are probably also available online) but to meet other people interested at the same things, so that they can discuss afterwards.
Also, successful people are usually successful at something specific. They may be interested in wide rage of things, but there will be a thing or two that they spend most time doing, and that is the source of their income or face. Even if you were talented at hundred different things, talent is nothing unless you actually do the necessary work, and there is not enough time in a day to work at hundred different things and accomplish something nontrivial. So you might find these people at forums dedicated to the specific thing they do. Choose the thing you want to do, and find a related Reddit forum, read the wiki and the top voted posts. -- But this is a different paradigm: such forum will not be a “successful group”, but rather a group containing a few successful individuals (plus many bystanders). So you want to get the attention of those individuals. Either post something impressive and hope they notice, or maybe contact them directly and ask for some kind of advice or mentorship.