People coming together to work on a common goal can typically accomplish more than if they worked separately. This is such a familiar thing that I am unclear where your perplexity lies.
What conditions must obtain for an interaction between people to constitute “coming together to work on a common goal”? How commonly do said conditions obtain? Are they in effect in all, most, some, or none of the interactions between commenters on Less Wrong?
What conditions must obtain for an interaction between people to constitute “coming together to work on a common goal”?
That people have a common goal, and that they come together to work on it. Ok, I’m being deliberately tautologous there, but these are ordinary English words that we all know the meanings of, put together in plain sentences. I am not seeing what is being asked by your question, or by Zack’s. Examples of the phenomenon are everywhere (as are examples of its failure).
As for how to do real work as a group (an expression meaning the same as “coming together to work on a common goal”), and how much of it is going on at any particular place and time, these are non-trivial questions. They have received non-trivial quantities of answers. To consider just LW and the rationalsphere, see for example various criticisms of LessWrong as being no more than a place to idly hang out (a common purpose but a rather trifling one compared with some people’s desires for the place); MIRI; CFAR, FHI; rationalist houses; meetups; and so on. In another sphere, the book “Moral Mazes” (recently discussed here) illustrates some failures of collaboration.
I do not see how the OP gives any entry into these questions, but I look forward to seeing other people’s responses to it.
People coming together to work on a common goal can typically accomplish more than if they worked separately. This is such a familiar thing that I am unclear where your perplexity lies.
What conditions must obtain for an interaction between people to constitute “coming together to work on a common goal”? How commonly do said conditions obtain? Are they in effect in all, most, some, or none of the interactions between commenters on Less Wrong?
These are non-trivial questions.
That people have a common goal, and that they come together to work on it. Ok, I’m being deliberately tautologous there, but these are ordinary English words that we all know the meanings of, put together in plain sentences. I am not seeing what is being asked by your question, or by Zack’s. Examples of the phenomenon are everywhere (as are examples of its failure).
As for how to do real work as a group (an expression meaning the same as “coming together to work on a common goal”), and how much of it is going on at any particular place and time, these are non-trivial questions. They have received non-trivial quantities of answers. To consider just LW and the rationalsphere, see for example various criticisms of LessWrong as being no more than a place to idly hang out (a common purpose but a rather trifling one compared with some people’s desires for the place); MIRI; CFAR, FHI; rationalist houses; meetups; and so on. In another sphere, the book “Moral Mazes” (recently discussed here) illustrates some failures of collaboration.
I do not see how the OP gives any entry into these questions, but I look forward to seeing other people’s responses to it.