One thing I’m confused about on the subject of rationalist group houses is whether there are specific failure modes compared to just group houses. Like I’m certain I don’t want to live in a group house, just because I don’t want to have to deal with that many people in the place I live, but the group house being rationalist or not is irrelevant for that.
I’ve lived in both rationalist and non-rationalist group houses and observed a bunch more. In my experience, there are special upsides and downsides that come with ideological/subcultural group houses that you won’t find in e.g. a house formed by a regular friend group or a bunch of people thrown together by Craigslist ads. Those features appear pretty similar whether the subculture is rationalists or animal rights activists or an artistic scene or whatever, and I’ve seen stories similar to the OP’s from several different subcultures. I think communities like these are net positive overall and I expect I’ll be living in group houses in the future, but some people absolutely do get burned and it’s worth being especially careful because of how entangled the social scene is, even beyond the regular roommate issues.
One thing I’m confused about on the subject of rationalist group houses is whether there are specific failure modes compared to just group houses. Like I’m certain I don’t want to live in a group house, just because I don’t want to have to deal with that many people in the place I live, but the group house being rationalist or not is irrelevant for that.
I’ve lived in both rationalist and non-rationalist group houses and observed a bunch more. In my experience, there are special upsides and downsides that come with ideological/subcultural group houses that you won’t find in e.g. a house formed by a regular friend group or a bunch of people thrown together by Craigslist ads. Those features appear pretty similar whether the subculture is rationalists or animal rights activists or an artistic scene or whatever, and I’ve seen stories similar to the OP’s from several different subcultures. I think communities like these are net positive overall and I expect I’ll be living in group houses in the future, but some people absolutely do get burned and it’s worth being especially careful because of how entangled the social scene is, even beyond the regular roommate issues.
Curious to hear more about your view of what the unique up/downsides are.