After some doubts as to ability to contribute and the like, I went to be an intern in this year's summer program. It was fun and I'm really glad I went. At the moment, I'm back there as a volunteer, mostly doing various writing tasks, like academic papers.

Getting to talk a lot to people immersed in these ideas has been both educational and motivating, much more so than following things through the internet. So I'd definitely recommend applying.

Also, the house has an awesome library that for some reason isn't being mentioned. :-)