“I do not say this lightly... but if you're looking for superpowers, this is the place to start.”
--Michael Curzi, summer 2011 minicamp participant
Who: You and a class full of other aspiring rationalists and world-optimizers, from around the world.
What: Two 3-day weekend minicamps and one 8-day minicamp, filled with hands-on activities for applying rationality to your life, your goals, and the making of a better world. (See details in the FAQ.)
When and where: We're running three camps, so that we can do this for three sets of participants: May 11-13 and June 22-24 for the 3-day camps, and July 21-28 for the eight-day camp, all in the San Francisco Bay Area.
Why: Because you’re a social primate, and the best way to jump into a new way of thinking, make friends, and accomplish your goals is often to spend time with other primates who are doing just that.
- Hang out and explore the Bay Area with two dozen other people like you who are smart, interesting, and passionate about rationality
- Attend bonus sessions about style, body language, and confidence-building.
- Get help charting out career paths; and, entirely optionally for those interested, connect with folks at the Singularity Institute about optimal philanthropy.
Instructors:
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| Eliezer Yudkowsky | Anna Salamon | Julia Galef |
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| Andrew Critch | Luke Muehlhauser | Michael Smith |
Cost: $650 for the three-day programs; $1500 for the week-long program. This includes lodging[1], meals, and tuition.
(Note that this *still* isn't quite enough to make running minicamps sustainable in the long-run; a lodging + meals at retreat centers start at around $90 per person per night, the "three-day camps" include four nights, and these workshops take a staff of about 5 full-time people for over a month each prior to each workshop, most of us at $3k/month, counting curriculum development time (plus miscellaneous expenses). We are trying to strike a compromise between "charge enough that we can run more camps" and staying affordable, especially for our start-up phase; costs will probably go up in following years.)
Three days (or a week) isn’t long enough to learn rationality, but it's long enough to learn how to learn rationality, and to get some momentum toward doing so.
Come meet us, and see what you can do.
1. I’m older. Should I still apply?
Yes! We're aiming for a more diverse crowd and would love to add your wider set of experiences and skills.
2. I’d like to come, but I’m not sure you’ll accept me. Should I still apply?
Absolutely! You can fill out our form in as little 10 minutes. What’s the harm?[2]
3. I’d like to come, but I can’t afford it. Should I still apply?
Yes, you should definitely apply. A limited number of scholarships will probably be available this time, and more may be available later.
(There's also an option on the application form if you want to apply but can't make any of the times - this just says that you want to be part of future minicamps and makes sure we have your application details.)
4. What will we do, exactly?
We're still working out the details. In our current model:
- Daily schedule: Every day, you'll have five hours of core workshop sessions (mostly exercises, divided into morning and evening sessions), meals shared with other participants, and shared activities such as soccer, poker, karaoke, and trips to bay area sites.
- Rationality: You'll practice many specific techniques (e.g. Fermi calculations, applying Bayes' theorem and cognitive biases to daily life, seeing how using fungibility can boost your goal achievement); develop a map of your rationality strengths and gaps; and learn how to continue learning rationality after the program.
- Social effectiveness: Reading and using body language; developing a fashion sense; improving social courage; and understanding why social reality is important.
- Individual meetings: You'll be able to schedule one-on-one appointments to discuss career paths you may want to take (we can help with statistics on earnings in different professions, and strategy for getting in); how to start a LW meet-up or similar community; and, optionally for those interested, how to get involved in existential risks-reducing research and action.
5. I’m new to all this. Will it make sense?
If you’ve read at least fifteen posts from the core sequences, yes it will. If you haven’t: why not read them now?
We’ll also aim for an atmosphere in which everyone is free to make mistakes and to try things, and in which people are receptive to a wide range of skill levels.
6. I’ve already read the Sequences seventeen times, and also I’m a self-made billionaire with three PhDs. Will I learn anything new?[3]
We hope so. We’re covering a good range of material, with much more of a focus on practice and exercise than in the Sequences, incorporating new lessons learned since the LW material was written, and with some instructors who've developed their own takes on rationality.
7. What evidence is there that I'll be glad I went?
After last year's minicamp, participants completed an anonymous exit survey. (With the instructions: "We're asking you these questions to learn how to run camps; please be honest; it'll help us more if you're accurate than if you're positive.") Here are their answers to the most relevant questions:
- In answer to “Zero to ten, are you glad you came?”, the median answer was 10 (mean was 9.3).
- In answer to “Zero to ten, will your life go significantly differently because you came to mini-camp?” the median answer was 7.5 (the mean was 6.9) [This was the response that was most positively surprising to me.].
- In answer to “Zero to ten, has your epistemic rationality improved?”, the median answer was 7 (mean 6.9).
- In answer to “Zero to ten, are you more motivated to learn epistemic rationality, than you were when you came?”, the median answer was 8.5 (mean 8.1).
- In answer to “Zero to ten, have you become more skilled at modifying your emotions and dispositions?”, the median answer was 7 (mean 6.3).
- In answer to “Zero to ten, are you more motivated to modify your emotions and dispositions, than you were when you came?”, the median answer was 9 (mean 8.3).
- In answer to “Zero to ten, have you gained social skills since coming?”, the median answer was 7.5 (mean 7.2).
- In answer to "Zero to ten, did you like spending time with the other participants?", the median answer was 9 (mean 8.8).
We also asked participants for testimonials -- statements designed to be shown to others, in case they wanted to recommend such camps. They wrote:
“This was an intensely positive experience. This was easily the most powerful change self-modification I've ever made, in all of the social, intellectual, and emotional spheres. I'm now a more powerful person than I was a week ago -- and I can explain exactly how and why this is true.
At mini-camp, I've learned techniques for effective self-modification -- that is, I have a much deeper understanding of how to change my desires, gather my willpower, channel my time and cognitive resources, and model and handle previously confusing situations. What's more, I have a fairly clear map of how to build these skills henceforth, and how to inculcate them in others. And all this was presented in such a way that any sufficiently analytical folk -- anyone who has understood a few of the LW sequences, say -- can gain in extreme measures.”
--Matt Elder / Fiddlemath
“I expected a week of interesting things and some useful tools to take away. What I got was 8 days of constant, deep learning, challenges to my limits that helped me grow. I finally grokked that I can and should optimize myself on every dimension I care about, that practice and reinforcement can make me a better thinker, and that I can change very quickly when I'm not constrained by artificial barriers or stress.
I would not recommend doing something like this right before another super-busy week, because I was learning at 100% of capacity and will need a lot of time to unpack all the things I learned and apply them to my life, but I came away with a clear plan for becoming better. It is now a normal and easy thing for me to try things out, test my beliefs, and self-improve. And I'm likely to be much more effective at making the world a better place as well, by prioritizing without fear.
The material was all soundly-researched and effectively taught, with extremely helpful supplemental exercises and activities. The instructors were very helpful in and out of session. The other participants were excited, engaged, challenging, and supportive.
I look forward to sharing what I've learned with my local Lesswrong meetup and others in the area. If that's even 1/4 as awesome as my time at the Mini-Camp, it will make our lives much better.”
--Ben Hoffman / Benquo
“I really can't recommend this camp enough! This workshop broke down a complex and intertwined set of skills labelled in my brain as "common sense" and distinguished each part so that I could work on them separately. Sessions on motivation, cognition, and what habits to build to not fool yourself were particularly helpful. This camp was also the first example that I've seen of people taking current cognitive science and other research, decoding it, and showing people what's been documented to work so that they can use it too. It feels to me now as though the coolest parts of the sequences have been given specific exercises and habits to build off of. This camp, and the people in it, have changed my path for the better.”
--David Jones / TheDave
You can also read the full testimonials from everyone who chose to give one.
(You can totally fill out the application in just 10 minutes, so you might want to fill in the blanks right now -- we'd like to announce the first acceptances (for May) in the next week)
[1] More exactly, we provide a bed in a shared room at a house or retreat center rented by SIAI.
[2] Sometimes people say they’re “afraid of wasting our time” by sending in an application. In a word, no. If you’re interested in us, we’re interested in you. It takes just seconds to read someone’s form, and our experience shows that many of our highest-value people have been the ones who hesitated to apply.
[3] Okay, fine, this isn’t really a frequently asked question. But seriously, we’ll be covering a lot that isn’t in the sequences -- and the flesh-and-blood experience of meeting other aspiring rationalists is hard to duplicate.
ETA: CMR is still looking for good teachers and curriculum designers. If you're interested, please especially consider coming to a minicamp; we're hoping to find some good hires there.
ETA2: We will probably have answers to all applicants within about two weeks (i.e., by April 16 or so), with answers to the May folks probably earlier than the others. If for some reason you need your application processed *faster* than this, please shoot me an email: annasalamon at gmail.
I attended the 2011 minicamp.
It's been almost a year since I attended. The minicamp has greatly improved me along several dimensions.
I now dress better and have used techniques provided at minicamp to become more relaxed in social situations. I'm more aware of how I'm expressing my body language. It's not perfect control and I've not magically become an extrovert, but I'm better able to interact in random social situations successfully. Concretely: I'm able to sit and stand around people I don't know and feel and present myself as relaxed. I dress better and people have noticed and I've received multiple comments to that effect. I've chosen particular ways to present myself and now I get comments like 'you must play the guitar' (this has happened five times since minicamp haha). This is good since it loads the initial assumptions I want the person to load.
I've intentionally hacked my affectation towards various things to better reach my goals. For years I never wanted to have children. My wife said (earlier this year, after minicamp) that she wanted to have kids. I was surprised and realized that given various beliefs (love for wife, more kids good for society, etc) I needed to bring my emotions and affectations in line with those goals. I did this by maximizing positive exposure to kids and focusing on the good experiences...and it worked. I'm sure nature helped, but I came to a change of emotional reaction that feels very stable. TMI: I had my vasectomy reversed and am actively working on building kid version 1.0
Minicamp helped me develop a better mental language for reasoning around rationalist principles. I've got tools for establishing mental breakpoints (recognizing states of surprise, rationalization, etc) and a sense for how to improve on weak areas in my reasoning. I have a LOT of things I still need to improve. Many of my actions still don't match my beliefs. The up side is that I'm aware of many of the gaps and can make progress toward solving them. There seems to be only so much I can change at once, so I've been prioritizing everything out.
I've used the more concise, direct reasoning around rationality at my job at Valve Software. I use it to help make better decisions, concretely: when making decisions around features to add to DOTA 2 I've worked particularly hard at quickly relinquishing failed ideas that I generated. I have developed litanies like 'my ideas are a product, not a component of my identity.' Before I enter into interactions I pause and think 'what is my goal for this interaction? The reasoning tools from minicamp have helped me better teach and interpret the values of my company (which are very similar). I helped write a new employee guide that captures Valve values, but uses tools such as Anna Salamon's "Litany for Simplified Bayes" to cut straight to the core concepts. "If X is true, what would the world look like?" "If X is not true, what would the world look like?" "What does the world look like?" I've been influential in instituting predictions meetings before we launch new features.
I've been better able to manage my time, because I'm more aware of the biases and pitfalls that lie before me. I think more about what 'BrandonReinhart2020' wants than what the current me wants. (Or at least, my best guess as to what I think he would want...like not being dead, and being a bad ass guitar shredder, etc). This has manifested itself concretely in my self-education around the guitar. When I went to minicamp I had only just started learning guitar. Since then I've practiced 415 hours (I work full time, so this is all in my spare time) and have developed entirely new skills. I can improv, write songs, etc. Minicamp provided some inspiration, yes, but there were also real tools that I've employed. A big one was coming home and doing research on human learning and practice. This helped me realize that my goals were achievable. Luke gave sessions on how to do efficient research. Critch gave a session on hacking your affectations. I used this to make practice something I really, really like doing (I listened to music I liked before practicing, I would put objects like role-playing books or miniatures that I liked around my practice area -- nerdy yes, but it worked for me -- and I would drink a frosty beer after practicing three hours in a row. Okay so that last one shows that my health beliefs and goals may not be entirely in line, but it served an objective here). Now I can easily practice for 3 hours and enjoy every moment of it. (This is important, before I would use that time for World of Warcraft and other pursuits that just wasted time and didn't improve me.)
I've been in the Less Wrong orbit for a long time and have had the goal of improving my rationality for a long time. I've read Yudkowsky's writing since the old SL4 days. I followed Overcoming Bias from the beginning. I can't say that I had a really good grasp on which concepts were the most important until after minicamp. There's huge value in being able to ask questions, debate a point, and just clarify your confusion quickly.
I have also been an SIAI skeptic. Both myself and John Salvatier thought that SIAI might be a little religion-like. Our mistake. The minicamp was a meeting of really smart people who wanted to help each other win more. The minicamp was genuinely about mental and social development and the mastery of concepts that seem to lead to a better ability to navigate complex decision trees toward desired outcomes.
While we did talk about existential risk, the SIAI never went deep into high shock level concepts that might alienate attendees. It wasn't an SIAI funding press. It wasn't a AGI press. In fact, I thought they almost went too light on this subject (but I came to modern rationality from trans/posthumanism and most people in the future will probably get to trans/posthumanism from modern rationality, so discussions about AGI and such feels normal to me). Point being if you have concerns about this you'll feel a lot better as you attend.
I would say the thing that most discomforted me during the event was the attitude toward meditation. I realized, though, that this was an indicator about my preconceptions about meditation and not necessarily due to facts about meditation. After talking to several people about meditation, I learned that there wasn't any funky mysticism inherent to meditation, just closely associated to meditation. Some people are trying to figure out if it can be used as a tool and are trying to figure out ways to experiment around it, etc. I updated away from 'meditation is a scary religious thing' toward 'meditation might be another trick to the bag.' I decided to let other people bear the burden/risk of doing the research there, though. :)
Some other belief shifts related to minicamp: I have greatly updated toward the Less Wrong style rationality process as being legitimate tools for making better decisions. I have updated a great deal toward the SIAI being a net good for humanity. I have updated a great deal toward the SIAI being led by the right group of people (after personal interactions with Luke, Anna, and Eliezer).
Comparing minicamp to a religious retreat seems odd to me. There is something exciting about spending time with a bunch of very smart people, but it's more like the kind of experience you'd have at a domain-specific research summit. The experience isn't to manipulate through repeated and intense appeals to emotion, guilt, etc (I was a Wesleyan Christian when I was younger and went to retreats like Emaeus and I still remember them pressing a nail sharply into my palm as I went to the altar to pray for forgiveness). It's more accurate to think of minicamp as a rationality summit, with the instructors presenting findings, sharing techniques for the replication of those findings, and there being an ongoing open discussion of the findings and the process used to generate findings. And like any good Summit there are parties.
If you're still in doubt, go anyway. I put the probability of self-damage due to attending minicamp at extremely low, compared to self-damage from attending your standard college level economics lecture or a managerial business skills improvement workshop. It doesn't even blip on a radar calibrated to the kind of self-damage you could do speculatively attending religious retreats.
If you're a game developer, you would probably improve your ability to make good decisions around products more by attending SIAI Minicamp than you would by attending GDC (of course, GDC is still valuable for building a social network within the industry).
Thanks for that. It's fascinating to get a glimpse of what rationality looks like in the real world rather than just online interchanges.
Note aside, I'm a big fan of your work. Reassures me to know rationalists are on the team for dota 2