Thank you for writing this. I think your statement of the fundamental puzzle is basically accurate. I don’t know what to do about it. If I felt that by investing in NYC (or some other place) I could build up a community I’d want to be a part of in the long term, I’d devote effort to that, but I don’t know how to prevent my work from being raided and destroyed by Berkeley, so I don’t do the work. Hell, I don’t even know how to get those people to stop recruiting me, or my wife, every chance they get. Mentioning ‘the fire of a thousand suns’ and writing many articles about this does not seem to prevent it causing direct stress and serious damage to my life, on an ongoing basis, even after the posts this references.
One idea is to try to differentiate the NYC ‘product’ from the Berkeley ‘product’. For example, the advantage of Vancouver over the Bay Area is that you can live in Vancouver if you’re Canadian. The kernel project attempted to differentiate itself through e.g. a manifesto. In the same way, you could try to create an identity that contrasts with the Bay Area’s somehow (for example, figure out the top complaints people have about the Bay Area, then figure out which ones you are best positioned to solve—what keeps you in NYC?) Academic departments at different universities are known for different things; I could imagine a world where rationalist communities in different cities are known for different things too.
It’s a good idea if there’s something we can come up with that’s a sufficient draw and is actually raid-proof. The other issue is that trying and failing is a disaster—e.g. MetaMed was an attempt to do many things, this was one of them (even if that wasn’t the intent), and its failure cost us several key community members like Sarah+Andrew.
Thank you for writing this. I think your statement of the fundamental puzzle is basically accurate. I don’t know what to do about it. If I felt that by investing in NYC (or some other place) I could build up a community I’d want to be a part of in the long term, I’d devote effort to that, but I don’t know how to prevent my work from being raided and destroyed by Berkeley, so I don’t do the work. Hell, I don’t even know how to get those people to stop recruiting me, or my wife, every chance they get. Mentioning ‘the fire of a thousand suns’ and writing many articles about this does not seem to prevent it causing direct stress and serious damage to my life, on an ongoing basis, even after the posts this references.
Hell, the latest such attempt was yesterday.
[Brainstorming]
One idea is to try to differentiate the NYC ‘product’ from the Berkeley ‘product’. For example, the advantage of Vancouver over the Bay Area is that you can live in Vancouver if you’re Canadian. The kernel project attempted to differentiate itself through e.g. a manifesto. In the same way, you could try to create an identity that contrasts with the Bay Area’s somehow (for example, figure out the top complaints people have about the Bay Area, then figure out which ones you are best positioned to solve—what keeps you in NYC?) Academic departments at different universities are known for different things; I could imagine a world where rationalist communities in different cities are known for different things too.
It’s a good idea if there’s something we can come up with that’s a sufficient draw and is actually raid-proof. The other issue is that trying and failing is a disaster—e.g. MetaMed was an attempt to do many things, this was one of them (even if that wasn’t the intent), and its failure cost us several key community members like Sarah+Andrew.
I’m sorry that happens to you.
Thank you. I appreciate that.
That’s interesting. I would expect that New York would be a large enough city that it should be possible to build up a strong community there.
It was – but as Zvi says, it keeps getting gutted.