So its hard to tell people to refrain from moving to Berkeley
I apologize for possibly/probably twisting your words a bit here, but I never have trouble telling people to refrain from moving to the Bay/Berkeley. I tell them I lived there for a few years and it’s a pretty unpleasant place, objectively, along any of ten different metrics relevant to comfort and peace of mind. I tell them I never actually developed any sense of belonging with the local Rationalist Community, so it’s not gauranteed that that will happen. I tell them I make a pretty good amount of money in many cities, but since I’m not a Comp Sci grad that doesn’t translate to a decent living in Berkeley. I tell them on top of that, Berkeley is one of the most expensive places to live in the world and if there were some kind of objective ratio of cost of living divided by objective comfort/quality/value-of-a-dollar, Berkeley would be near the top worldwide.
I also don’t find the proposition that you have to literally move to an expensive unpleasant overcrowded dystopian city in order to be rational to be particularly, uh, rational.
If you could turn that warning into a post, I think it might be helpful, especially if you can be explicit about things. Having it come from someone with experience living there helps make the message credible, and helps you craft a better message. I worry my words ring hollow, and I can’t make clear much of what I see.
I don’t tell everyone to move to Berkeley. But if you are heavily invested socially in the rationalist community you are passing up alot of personal utility by not moving to Berkeley. Other considerations apply of course. But I think the typical hghly invested rationalist would be personally better off if they moved to Berkeley. Whether this dynamic is good for the community longterm or not is unclear.
What do you mean by a new branch of the rationality community? John Maxwell suggested in another thread local rationality communities aside from Berkeley could have comparative advantages in specializing in offering rationalists the sort of things they might want but typically can’t find in Berkeley. This has been the intention of other projects to build up like local rationality communities like Project Kernel (which is currently experiencing significant problems).
Alright, that makes sense. I was reading some of Zvi’s other posts on his blog about the rationality community, and I think there are significant advantages to start a new local meetup he was missing. Some of them used to apply to me until the last few months we’ve had success in starting a new local meetup after organization fell through for almost a year.
I apologize for possibly/probably twisting your words a bit here, but I never have trouble telling people to refrain from moving to the Bay/Berkeley. I tell them I lived there for a few years and it’s a pretty unpleasant place, objectively, along any of ten different metrics relevant to comfort and peace of mind. I tell them I never actually developed any sense of belonging with the local Rationalist Community, so it’s not gauranteed that that will happen. I tell them I make a pretty good amount of money in many cities, but since I’m not a Comp Sci grad that doesn’t translate to a decent living in Berkeley. I tell them on top of that, Berkeley is one of the most expensive places to live in the world and if there were some kind of objective ratio of cost of living divided by objective comfort/quality/value-of-a-dollar, Berkeley would be near the top worldwide.
I also don’t find the proposition that you have to literally move to an expensive unpleasant overcrowded dystopian city in order to be rational to be particularly, uh, rational.
If you could turn that warning into a post, I think it might be helpful, especially if you can be explicit about things. Having it come from someone with experience living there helps make the message credible, and helps you craft a better message. I worry my words ring hollow, and I can’t make clear much of what I see.
I don’t tell everyone to move to Berkeley. But if you are heavily invested socially in the rationalist community you are passing up alot of personal utility by not moving to Berkeley. Other considerations apply of course. But I think the typical hghly invested rationalist would be personally better off if they moved to Berkeley. Whether this dynamic is good for the community longterm or not is unclear.
Or you could start a new branch.
What do you mean by a new branch of the rationality community? John Maxwell suggested in another thread local rationality communities aside from Berkeley could have comparative advantages in specializing in offering rationalists the sort of things they might want but typically can’t find in Berkeley. This has been the intention of other projects to build up like local rationality communities like Project Kernel (which is currently experiencing significant problems).
I meant “a new local meetup”.
Alright, that makes sense. I was reading some of Zvi’s other posts on his blog about the rationality community, and I think there are significant advantages to start a new local meetup he was missing. Some of them used to apply to me until the last few months we’ve had success in starting a new local meetup after organization fell through for almost a year.
That seems common. “keep at it” is my only advice. Let us know if you make breakthroughs.