I would love to attend at “The Rational Ritual Retreat” but I expect it will not be near Austria or Bavaria :(
AnnaLeptikon
Karma: 115
The general problem of fasting and extremely reduced intakes is that the metabolism slows down. Also you first lose a lot of muscles, then a bit of fat—when going on eating normal you burn less than before (because of less muscles) and therefore gain more fat. So for your body’s composition I would say: Don’t do it. (There is this great German book called “Die Physik des Abnehmens” = “the physics of weight loss” in which a physicist explains all this things very nicely)
However: I personally tried fasting for the mental effect, I was able to concentrate even better than normal, I liked the feeling of being “independent” from food and of being able to get through all of this things. (But I will not do it again because I try to get less body fat :) )
Review about the Rationality Meetup in Vienna on 23.08.2014
People who were there: Marko Thiel, Monika, Andreas, Matthias Brandner, Viliam Búr, Ivan, Manuel Moertelmaier, Pascal, Anna Leptikon, Marianna, Adelheid Gfrast, Jana and Austin Franzoni
We did the “open microphone” idea again and had our first meetup at Andreas’ and Moni’s place—thank you again for organizing it and all the food and drinks :)
Our (official) topics on Saturday were:
“money creation” by Andreas
“time” by Lea
“remembering and experiencing self” (Kahnemann) by Andreas
“money and happiness” by Matthias
We still have this open mic topics open:
absolute morality, antitheism, Esperanto, motivation hacker
We defined this topics for a full meetup in the future:
“Superintelligence” (Marko Thiel)
maybe Motivation Hacker? (Moni & me)
introduction and current research about happiness (me)
I collected this feedback ideas (from me and other people) during and after the meetup:
defining “homework” for the next meetup to have a better base for upcoming topics (like reading specific articles)
trying more settings in one meetup so it “feels like doing more” (for example going for a walk, changing sitting positions et cetera—we had the idea because of “remembering vs experiencing self”)
before starting a specific discussion about a topic first thinking about which level of thinking is the best/most important one
after each topic or 30 “open mic” minutes → thinking what this new information means for myself/how I can use it
Review about the Rationality Meetup in Vienna on 19.07.2014:
People who were there: Marko Thiel, Heinrich, Erik Unger, Monika, Andreas, Matthias Brandner, Peter Mühlbacher, Viliam Búr, Axel, Ivan , Manuel Moertelmaier, Anna Leptikon, Andreas Villarreal, Tom Madl, Marianna, Lio Kaufman
We tried the “open microphone” idea by Manuel the first time (which means: we collect topics people have to offer in the beginning, vote which ones we want to hear and every speaker gets 30 minutes—discussion included—for his topic) Donclusion: more information density and variety—so it’s a great idea and we should do it more often, but there also is a need for meet ups with just one topic (it’s more relaxed and some topics just can’t be discussed and explained in 30 minutes)
Our (official) topics on Saturday were:
evolutionary economics by Lio
review of the London LW Meetup (I was there for a trip) + introduction for “Superintelligence” by me
the most rational search for a perfect (? ;) ) partner by me (here a summary: http://annaleptikon.com/what-is-the-most-rational-way-to-find-a-partner/)
why you should never feel guilt by Heinrich
We didn’t have time (officially) for the topics: absolute morality, antitheism, debating, Esperanto and money creation (but I think it was discussed later anyways, some will follow the next meetups)
Skype conferences and private talks spreading the know-how in a pyramid scheme should be as effective as flying there—and it’s a lot cheaper!