This is a great question, and one that I think everyone should be asking themselves and each other. It would be very easy for these things to devolve into an aimless free-for-all, which wouldn’t be great.
I think you’re probably the best judge about whether you’d get value from coming. But, to give you a personal example, at the Global retreat a) I realised why I ran a meetup at all, b) my goals became much more ambitious, and c) I’ve doubled down on putting effort into making my group succeed. I’ve since started a regular applied-rationality dojo, which may-or-may-not have happened without the inspiration of seeing others’ success. My group is growing, and attendee balance is improving. Also, I’ve found it very useful to have the support of an international community of rat-ty organisers.
This is a great question, and one that I think everyone should be asking themselves and each other. It would be very easy for these things to devolve into an aimless free-for-all, which wouldn’t be great.
I think you’re probably the best judge about whether you’d get value from coming. But, to give you a personal example, at the Global retreat a) I realised why I ran a meetup at all, b) my goals became much more ambitious, and c) I’ve doubled down on putting effort into making my group succeed. I’ve since started a regular applied-rationality dojo, which may-or-may-not have happened without the inspiration of seeing others’ success. My group is growing, and attendee balance is improving. Also, I’ve found it very useful to have the support of an international community of rat-ty organisers.