Related to: How to build rationalist communities
"Tell 'em what you're going to tell 'em," as it is written:
- Holy Books Don’t Implement Themselves
o Marx needed a Lenin. Fermi, Hahn and Meitner needed a Manhattan Project. The Bible needs a Rick Warren.
o EY and the Sequences need:
§ a Distiller that generates Rationality Projects.
§ some Organizers to help people embark on these Projects.
- Getting People To Do Stuff
o It doesn’t matter what ideas were conveyed in group meeting, the subset that matters is what group members resolved to do
o It doesn’t matter what group members resolved to do, the subset that matters is what you, the Organizer, followed up with.
- Bhagwat’s Law of Commitment
o The degree to which people identify with the group is directly proportional to the amount of stuff you tell them to do that works.
- Head in the Clouds < Making It Rain
o If someone is unable to articulate how they are going to implement a principle into their day-to-day lives, they are unlikely to implement it.
- Herding Cats
o If you don’t let people do something meaningful, they will never be any help.
o Feeling needed as a part of a community is a powerful motive to keep coming to meetings.
o Know the name and face of every newcomer. Have a good conversation with each. Afterwards, send them an e-mail showing them you are glad they came.
- "The Four People Who Do Everything" organization problem
o When you focus on doing stuff, some fandom members become core members.
o Others leave or detach themselves.
o But if you don’t have competent core members who organize, the group falls apart or stagnates.
o Attrition is the organization-killer. Spending tons of time training new people, only to have your old people leave, is a recipe for frustration and stagnation.
- Living Organisms Grow Naturally
o The idea isn’t, ‘how can Less Wrong meetups expand’
o It’s, ‘how can we remove the barriers stopping them?’
What are you all most interested in?
Your solution to the "Four People Who Do Everything" organization problem. This will be immediately relevant to my responsibilities within the next couple months.