What about an online group for high schoolers devoted to refining the art of human rationality?
Discovering LessWrong had a profound effect on me, shedding light on the way I study thought processes and helping me with a more rational approach. As a teenager in high school, I wish I could share LessWrong's teachings and philosophies with others at my level.
It would be awesome if we could create a list for the interests of LessWrong readers who are in their teens/in high school. I think this would allow a rational online community such as LessWrong to help develop more rationalists whether by outlining some plans to start rationality clubs in high school or discussing ways teenagers an approach rationality. I also think it would help more timid readers to express themselves and talk with other teenagers about common interests (adults could be allowed in to, if they are deemed appropriate for the community). Correct me if I'm wrong, but rationality training should start as soon as possible in the development process and what better age group to target than teenagers? Adolescence is a crucial transitional phase psychologically, biologically and culturally. I would love to see more collected articles on the evolution of rationality in the amazing, flexible mind of an adolescent. If the goal of this blog is to train humans to be rational-minded, more importance should be allocated to training teenagers. I do not think it hasn't happened yet for want of need among teenagers and if we concentrate some resources, gather a list of interested individuals and garner some interest we can make this work. This article is a good example of something that could be distributed in the proposed group:
For LW readers under 20: Note that the Thiel Fellowships (20 under 20) are now open for their next round of applications, and as they put it, "you have a huge readership of folk who would make great applicants". More info here. (from http://lesswrong.com/lw/f9r/weekly_lw_meetups_austin_berlin_cambridge_uk/)
There is also this LessWrong Highschoolers Facebook group created by Curtis SerVaas:
https://www.facebook.com/groups/201577993258819/
I recently Skyped (not officially a verb yet?) Anna Salamon who is the Executive Director of CFAR (Center for Applied Rationality). We had begun to develop this proposal. She is on the e-mail list and will be involved as a quasi-supervisor person. You can reach her at anna [at] appliedrationality [dot] org. Drop me a one-line e-mail with your name, age, and situation at [deleted] if you'd like to join the list. Speak up! Teenagers should be the subject of concentrated effort on LessWrong. We are the future, help us to reach the fruits of human rationality.
We could have "rational thinking for teachers", a "rational thinking for programmers", a "rational thinking for musicians", a "rational thinking for women" and a "rational thinking for teenagers" group. At the end you have 10 different groups. I don't think that's a good way to proceed.
I don't see how that discussion would be unwelcome on LessWrong. If you have such a discussion on LessWrong it's likely that people who aren't teenagers contribute their knowledge. That's a good thing for the discussion.
A rational teenager who speaks about how parents are in general overcontroling doesn't need another teenager with the same perspective to agree with him. He profits much more if someone with a different opinion than him contributes to the discussion.
Given that I live in Germany a discussion about US college applications wouldn't have been more valuable to me back then, then it's now.
That's a bit different. The fact that the group exist doesn't show that the people who are members of the group don't feel welcome on LessWrong. 23 people are also not enough to have a functioning LessWrong forum.
Of course it applies. Come and open your discussions about college applications and the workings of the teenage brain right here. You are welcome on LessWrong proper and don't need a separate room to have that discussion.
Not to mention that it carries the implication that the default rationalist is not a member of any of these categories.