secretsquirrel comments on For-Profit Rationality Training - Less Wrong

24 Post author: ksvanhorn 28 December 2011 09:42PM

You are viewing a comment permalink. View the original post to see all comments and the full post content.

Comments (40)

You are viewing a single comment's thread.

Comment author: secretsquirrel 29 February 2012 02:48:04AM 0 points [-]

Please forgive me if this post doesn't belong here. I want to start a non-profit teaching rationality to a broad audience, starting off as one-day workshops on the weekends. Initially as a hobby, and then see where it goes from there. Can anyone give me practical advice, insofar as market research (nonprofits don't tend to post their annual reports), advertising (how do I make this look good to the average guy who says, "There's nothing wrong with the way I think/I'm not stupid/My life is fine the way it is") and how to present Bayes' Theorem to people who are allergic to anything resembling math? I really want to help do something about the state of intellect of humanity. Again, I apologize if this post doesn't belong here/is redundant.

Comment author: orthonormal 29 February 2012 03:13:36AM 2 points [-]

Welcome! You might be interested in the welcome thread, first of all.

If you're interested in volunteering to speak about rationality topics, there may be easier ways to try it out than starting and advertising a new organization. (Plenty of smaller humanist/philosophy/discussion groups are happy when someone volunteers to present.)

Also, since you have a new account, can I ask whether you've picked up Less Wrong-style rationality fairly recently? It's worth noting that the earliest burst of enthusiasm isn't as reliable as it seems, and one should often scale down one's initial ambition accordingly. There's always opportunity to add more responsibilities later if it goes well. (This Kaj Sotala post touches on that phenomenon.)

Comment author: secretsquirrel 29 February 2012 04:00:44PM 1 point [-]

Excellent advice, thank you very much. I had not considered that option for some reason.

Yes, I am relatively new to rationalism as a whole, I started seriously studying it about a year ago. Nonetheless, it's pretty easy to stay enthusiastic - I just have to read a page of failblog or try to talk to a friend...about anything...lol

Comment author: beoShaffer 29 February 2012 04:22:11PM 0 points [-]

Also, if you remain interested and, specifically like LW's vision of rationality you could try using the curriculum thats currently being developed here http://lesswrong.com/lw/9hb/position_design_and_write_rationality_curriculum/