First Lighthaven Sequences Reading Group

post by Ben Pace (Benito), Aella, Ronny Fernandez (ronny-fernandez) · 2024-08-28T04:56:53.432Z · ? · GW · 14 comments

Contents

  Some questions to ask yourself about the essays as you read them
  For the future
None
14 comments

Come get old-fashioned with us, and let's read the sequences at Lighthaven! We'll show up, mingle, do intros, and then split off into randomized groups for some sequences discussion. Please do the reading beforehand - it should be no more than 20 minutes of reading.

This group is aimed for people who are new to the sequences and would enjoy a group experience, but also for people who've been around LessWrong and LessWrong meetups for a while and would like a refresher.

This meetup will also have dinner provided! We'll post ahead of time with the food so you know if it works for you, but it will cover meat-eaters, veggies and vegans alike. Please RSVP to this event so we know how many people to have food for.

For this Sept 5th meetup, we're reading from the first book of the sequences highlights [? · GW]. The mandatory readings are

  1. The Lens That Sees Its Flaws [? · GW]
  2. Your Strength as a Rationalist [? · GW]
  3. What do we mean by rationality? [? · GW]
  4. Twelve Virtues of Rationality [? · GW]
  5. Optional bonus: Use the Try Harder, Luke [LW · GW]

These are quite short and should take around 15-20 minutes to read all together.

The meetup starts at 6pm. We'll split into discussion groups around 6:30, and dinner will be served at about 7:30pm, after which point we'll hangout around the fireside as late as we feel like.

You can come without having read the essays from the sequences, we do want you to get to join, but then you will have to do a punishment. (And then you still have to catch up on reading the essays during the meetup.)

Some questions to ask yourself about the essays as you read them

For the future

We want to make this a weekly meetup! If you'd like to get notified of future events, you can subscribe to our meetup below to get an email whenever we add another one.

14 comments

Comments sorted by top scores.

comment by Matt Kramer (kramerposts) · 2024-09-06T07:06:26.817Z · ? · GW

Had such a great time meeting y'all and discussing the sequences tonight! Thank you to Ben, Ronny, and Aella for organizing and Lighthaven / Oliver for hosting. Highlight of my week. (and the pizza was delicious too) 
- Matt

Replies from: Benito
↑ comment by Ben Pace (Benito) · 2024-09-06T17:15:12.197Z · ? · GW

Glad you came! I'm excited to keep these going, I really had some excellent conversations, and came up with ways to better practice several virtues (curiosity, argument, noticing confusion).

comment by Yaniv256 (yaniv-ben-ami) · 2024-09-02T03:34:01.440Z · ? · GW

I'm starting a synced version of this in the Twin Cities. We're going to shamelessly also have fire pits. https://www.meetup.com/saint-paul-acx-meetup-group-unofficial/events/303186245/

comment by Matt Kramer (kramerposts) · 2024-08-29T23:14:25.428Z · ? · GW

This is right up my alley! I love reading and discussing things with people and am relatively new to the rationality community, this sounds like the perfect starting point. I'm excited to attend and meet y'all, thank you for hosting and organizing this :)

comment by Ronny Fernandez (ronny-fernandez) · 2024-09-30T21:40:48.437Z · ? · GW

Also, please note that I will be giving a class at 7:30 after the reading group called "The Bayesics" where I will teach you the basics of intuitive Bayesian epistemology and how to do Bayesian updates irl on the fly as a human. All attending the reading group are welcome to join for that as well.

comment by Quinn (quinn-dougherty) · 2024-09-05T22:18:57.378Z · ? · GW

Alas, belief is easier than disbelief; we believe instinctively, but disbelief requires a conscious effort.

Yes, but this is one thing that I have felt being mutated as I read the sequences and continued to hang out with you lot (roughly 8 years ago, with some off and on)

comment by girllich · 2024-08-29T16:46:47.512Z · ? · GW

You are overlapping with the thursday night meetup, fwiw

Replies from: Benito
↑ comment by Ben Pace (Benito) · 2024-08-30T04:00:33.010Z · ? · GW

Oops! Sorry about that. I couldn't find an event that night, but I see now there's a Thursday Dinners group [? · GW].

The meetup would be very welcome to come join our sequence reading group this week, and we're serving dinner :)

comment by Heron (jane-mccourt) · 2024-08-28T20:24:58.112Z · ? · GW

Any chance of it being recorded, or online ?

Replies from: Benito, Three-Monkey Mind
↑ comment by Ben Pace (Benito) · 2024-08-30T04:32:31.317Z · ? · GW

I think this will just be for chatting with each other. But I will encourage people to write up LW comments or shortforms if they have ideas or responses they think are worth sharing!

↑ comment by Three-Monkey Mind · 2024-08-30T04:30:07.640Z · ? · GW

While I can imagine why others would want to see this sort of thing, it seems to me that "this will go on your permanent record" would be a strong disincentive to engage seriously with the text or mention anything aloud that you wouldn't be comfortable with anyone in the world, ever, knowing about you.

comment by segfault (caleb-ditchfield) · 2024-08-31T04:34:00.736Z · ? · GW

I won't be attending as I (Caleb Ditchfield) have apparently been banned from the Lighthaven campus.

Still awaiting a response to my email as to why; hosting my own in the meantime at my house.