Discussion article for the meetup : First Philadelphia Meetup of 2012

WHEN: 08 January 2012 02:00:00PM (-0500)

WHERE: 8620 Germantown Ave Philadelphia, PA 19118

Hello Philadelphian Less-Wrongers!

A couple of people have expressed interest in restarting regular Philadelphia-area Less Wrong meetups, so I thought it would be fun to hold one once the December holiday season has wound to a close.

Tentative date is Sunday, January 8th at 2 P.M.; if you're interested in coming, please fill out the Doodle poll at http://www.doodle.com/s2afikbngrz3d42z to give me an idea of how your schedule looks for the week (may be handy in determining if a better time will work after all).

Location is also flexible; the meetup is currently scheduled at the Chestnut Hill Coffee Company for its pleasant atmosphere, proximity to free Chestnut Hill parking, and - as the name might suggest - excellent coffee, but other ideas are also quite welcome.

Formal agenda will include general introductions, picking a time and place for regular meetups, and deciding what content we want to pursue at them: I was thinking that a combination of discussions of rational methods, project planning, and self-improvement a la Overcoming Bias NYC might be a good place to start, but we can obviously discuss this more in person.

Have a very Happy New Year, and I look forward to meeting all of you soon!

Discussion article for the meetup : First Philadelphia Meetup of 2012

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11 comments, sorted by Click to highlight new comments since: Today at 6:40 PM

That's a good time for me, and an adequate place. I'd rather somewhere closer to south Philadelphia, but I don't know how that would work for everyone else.

I won't be available to meet anyone until after Jan 17th, unfortunately. I hope there will be more meetings because I would love to attend!

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 will be back at college on the 17th, in Radnor. I have a regular schedule, and can say right now that Thursdays and Sundays I will be busy every week. Friday and Saturday I am almost always free all day, but the rest of the week I get out of classes at 4, so I would be unable to meet earlier than around 5 (depending on public transportation).

I assume other people will come to this, so their schedules need to be taken into account as well, but a Friday or Saturday would generally be best for me.

Same exact thing for me! Can't wait for a Philly meet up, but I won't be in the area until the 17th. Weekend meetups would also work best.

I'm also very interested in these meetups, but couldn't make the first one on Sunday. I just filled out the Doodle poll.

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. :-)

I've been pretty excited to meet other LessWrongians for a while. Most "rationalists" in my life are so on a strictly titular level, though many of them are otherwise bright. Since I'm in Camden county I'm more or less restricted to the Philly area and I'm glad meetups are starting again. The biggest problem is that I work out of town every weekend and probably won't be able to attend any of them unless I get enough notice to request time off. I'm serious about this and would gladly eschew work responsibilities for a LW workshop. Otherwise, what is the likelihood of a meetup being planned for a Tuesday or Wednesday?

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!

Can't come this time, either, but count me in for future meet ups.

Awesome! I'm in center city and so would prefer to meet there, but it looks like this coffeeshop is right next to a train station so that works.