I actually dislike the focus on pulling in people from physics/computer programming/math. As Dreaded_Anomaly mentions, these are fields which have just as bad of a gender ratio as here. As long as we continue focusing on those fields, I don’t think the gender ratio problem is going to get much better.
Also, I don’t think there’s anything inherent in rationality that means that it requires physics/programming/math types. But I think our current community is generally set up in a way to self-perpetuate that.
I can understand that STEMM types might more frequently lean towards rationality, which is why recruiting from there is often a suggestion. (If you have a .5 probability that a random intelligent STEMM person would be amenable to rationality, but only a .2 probability that a random intelligent person of another field would be, for example.)
A way to get around that: Personally, I’ve found that anyone I have a match of >94% on OKC has a high probability of being the aforementioned Rationalists Who Just Don’t Know It Yet. I myself was “recruited” this way. Dated someone from OKC (We no longer date, but are still REALLY good friends) who I was a 99% match with, and they pointed me toward HPMoR, then LW, etc, all while modeling “proper rationalist behavior” in our discussions. I think that’s all that it takes, often, to get someone interested in rationality (once you filter for interest, whether you use okc for this or not)
Agree that the OKCupid technique probably works too. But I wasn’t suggesting that we put up broad recruiting posters in the math department to solve the gender ratio thingy; I was suggesting that rationalist men seeking convertible mates try to date mathematical women. As Lucas observes, our community is still small enough that this provides a relatively large pool.
Good point! I understand what you are getting at. So long as it is also understood that mathematical does not necessarily equate to rational, and that rational does not require a person to be mathematical, etc.
A way to get around that: Personally, I’ve found that anyone I have a match of >94% on OKC has a high probability of being the aforementioned Rationalists Who Just Don’t Know It Yet.
Really? Back when I first joined I wouldn’t have been surprised by this, but they’ve fiddled around with the match algorithms since then, and 94% matches have gone from extremely rare compatibility to fairly trivial (and yes, I’ve checked against people whose match values I knew from before the algorithm changes to make sure it’s not just a result of a larger userbase.) These days, I could browse through a considerable number of people with that match rating before finding anyone I would expect to relate to.
I actually dislike the focus on pulling in people from physics/computer programming/math. As Dreaded_Anomaly mentions, these are fields which have just as bad of a gender ratio as here. As long as we continue focusing on those fields, I don’t think the gender ratio problem is going to get much better.
Also, I don’t think there’s anything inherent in rationality that means that it requires physics/programming/math types. But I think our current community is generally set up in a way to self-perpetuate that.
I can understand that STEMM types might more frequently lean towards rationality, which is why recruiting from there is often a suggestion. (If you have a .5 probability that a random intelligent STEMM person would be amenable to rationality, but only a .2 probability that a random intelligent person of another field would be, for example.)
A way to get around that: Personally, I’ve found that anyone I have a match of >94% on OKC has a high probability of being the aforementioned Rationalists Who Just Don’t Know It Yet. I myself was “recruited” this way. Dated someone from OKC (We no longer date, but are still REALLY good friends) who I was a 99% match with, and they pointed me toward HPMoR, then LW, etc, all while modeling “proper rationalist behavior” in our discussions. I think that’s all that it takes, often, to get someone interested in rationality (once you filter for interest, whether you use okc for this or not)
Agree that the OKCupid technique probably works too. But I wasn’t suggesting that we put up broad recruiting posters in the math department to solve the gender ratio thingy; I was suggesting that rationalist men seeking convertible mates try to date mathematical women. As Lucas observes, our community is still small enough that this provides a relatively large pool.
Good point! I understand what you are getting at. So long as it is also understood that mathematical does not necessarily equate to rational, and that rational does not require a person to be mathematical, etc.
What is the extra M for? Googling yields a band.
Science, Technology, Engineering, Math, Medicine
Really? Back when I first joined I wouldn’t have been surprised by this, but they’ve fiddled around with the match algorithms since then, and 94% matches have gone from extremely rare compatibility to fairly trivial (and yes, I’ve checked against people whose match values I knew from before the algorithm changes to make sure it’s not just a result of a larger userbase.) These days, I could browse through a considerable number of people with that match rating before finding anyone I would expect to relate to.
A useful corollary of the last point is that anyone with the HPMOR tag on their profile is likely to be a very high match :)