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Two updates on this for anyone planning on attending (or thinking of attending) who hasn't seen our mailing list in the last two hours or so:
- Paper and pencils should be available for everyone, but feel free to bring colored pencils if you have them.
- Dark chocolate (think Ghirardelli 72-86% cacao) will be available for attendees to enjoy while drawing. :-)
I'll be there. Looking forward to it!
UPDATE: We've moved the location to a Starbucks (also near Suburban station) which closes at 9 P.M., as we discovered earlier this week that the previous location would have closed at 7!
Topic material and start time will be the same...we're just moving the meeting place a short walking distance away.
I'll ask on our mailing list. Will you still be able to get to the event if you can't get a ride?
I'll get there about 5:30 P.M.; look for me to be wearing jeans, a white button-down shirt, and a suit jacket.
Grif, I've added a poll (see my most recent post) that should give us a better idea of who is available on what days. Hopefully this will give us a better idea of what date and time might work best for as many people as possible!
Hi everyone, just a couple of notes before the meetup tomorrow at 2 P.M.:
1) If you would like to have my cell number on hand in case you can't find the place, think you'll be running late, etc., feel free to message me. I should be able to check my inbox up until 1 P.M. tomorrow.
2) Since it sounds like we'll have to do some precision scheduling if we want to schedule regular meetups that most of our members can actually attend, please fill out the Doodle poll at http://www.doodle.com/s2afikbngrz3d42z to let me know what days of the week you are generally available (ignore the exact dates...Doodle wouldn't let me remove them).
3) I appreciate everyone's flexibility with the location for this first meetup; since it sounds like our membership extends from Western Philly suburbs to Center City to South Jersey, we can definitely try some other locations for future meetups to keep everyone's travel time as fair as possible (something we can also discuss tomorrow).
Looking forward to meeting everyone tomorrow! I plan to sit upstairs, and I will have a sign up so we can all find each other. :-)
Not a problem, Michelle; one of the goals for this first meetup is to pick a regular time for future meetings, so if we do our part right there should certainly be more events to attend this year!
For the sake of planning: what part of Philadelphia (or the Philadelphia suburbs) would work most conveniently for you? Is there a general time in the week that works best?
I'm happy to hear it! I'll be announcing a Philadelphia meetup shortly; I hope to see you on the comment thread!
I'm happy to hear it, Nancy. I'll be announcing a Philadelphia meetup shortly; I hope to see you on the comment thread!
Hi all,
I'm a 23 year old male living just outside of Philadelphia, PA, and this is my first post to LessWrong after having discovered the site through HPMoR the Summer of 2010. I have been reading through the Sequences independently for the past year and a half.
To make a long story short, I came to consider myself an aspiring rationalist after I used rational methods to successfully diagnose myself with Tourette Syndrome this past May (confirmed by a neurologist) after my symptoms, which I had exhibited since age three and a half, had been missed or misdiagnosed by my family and medical professionals alike for 20 years. Successfully hacking such an insidious threat within my own mind inspired me to investigate how else rationality might enable me to optimize both my own life and the world, hence my increasing participation on this site.
I am presently doing some independent consulting work while I await audition results from graduate programs in Opera; if I do not gain acceptance to any program which I consider to be worth the time and money, I plan to return to school in the Fall to retrain in Physics (my original major was in Electrical & Computer Engineering and I worked as a software engineer for roughly a year, but my study of rational methods allowed me to realize, upon careful reflection, that my path to this field was quite haphazard and largely influenced by sunk costs. Armed with a better-trained brain, I intend to do better than this going forward).
LessWrong-related topics which interest me heavily (although I still consider myself a fledgling learner in nearly all of these) include Transhumanism and indefinite life extension, mind/body hacking for optimal health and self-improvement, methods for achieving optimal happiness, seasteading, and, as my experience with Tourette Syndrome might suggest, evolutionary psychology and using rational methods to overcome severe genetic and learned biases. I would be particular eager to write an article analyzing the wide prevalence of neurological disorders such as Tourette Syndrome, Obsessive Compulsive Disorder, and ADHD in the general population through the lens of evolutionary psychology once my experience with the Sequences is somewhat more comprehensive.
Other personal interests include music (Classical voice, trumpet, piano, and conducting to varying degrees, with an eye to learning composition), entertainment technology/theme parks, theatre, physics, reading, writing, film, computer science (though not to the level of depth of many on this site), economics, travel, entrepreneurship, and a slew of other topics.
I would be particularly eager to create a regularly scheduled LessWrong meetup in Philadelphia or the Philadelphia suburbs, as it appears that the Philadelphia chapter has lain dormant for more than a year now. Please feel free to comment on this post if you are in the Philadelphia area and would be interested in doing this; I will happily take care of the scheduling logistics if it helps this group become a regular fixture!