Thanks everyone for coming. It was an intense discussion with quite a few points for me to mull on (and more important a few things I will do). I hope everyone had fun.
It looks like there will be another meetup at 2pm tomorrow (Sunday 12th) in the same place (Shakespeare's Head Holborn). I hope to see you all there.
Some of the points discussed (I'm not saying I agree, simply pointing them out):
If you can program computers then get part-time freelance 'rent-a-coder' work online. This is good because it will give you a strong safety net to take risks (e.g. quit work to try doing ..., be able to follow through on leaving if you don't get a raise, whatever). It is also good as you can earn while travelling the world (which you should do). I have also realised that it helps make trade-off decisions easier (e.g. I should hire a cleaner IFF the amount I pay them is less than I can earn doing freelance work in that time).
Drugs are good (unless you are an idiot or addict). Psilocybin mushrooms and weed were mentions to expand or change thoughts. Dexadrin and similar were mentioned to work well for learning (not sure if that is keeping focused, memory retention, or other).
Quick happiness hack: send thank you letters to people who you should thank.
All our special guests talked about about creating a movement, bringing together smart, dedicated people.
http://www.fhi.ox.ac.uk/ The Future of Humanity Institute (University of Oxford) is worth visiting and chatting to the people there.
There was a discussion (Rikk and others) about having another sort of meetup where we do stuff rather than talk. Or even plan stuff that we then go and do rather than talk. I am strongly in favour of this.
I'm sure there was more that I didn't manage to hear.
Thanks Cat, Michael and Jaan.
Discussion article for the meetup : London Special Guests: Jaan Tallinn and Michael Vassar of MetaMed
WHEN: 11 May 2013 01:00:00PM (+0100)
WHERE: London (Shakespeares Head, Holborn)
We have three specials guests! Jaan, Michael, and Cat (see below) are flying in to the UK and will be joining us for a meetup. As usual, it is simply a few people with common interests chatting for a few hours. Anyone can come along, don't feel like you need to have read the sequences. It's a fun way to spend a few hours. It's also nice to have people to bounce ideas off - we are a friendly bunch. Hope to see you there, For more information see our google group (link below) or message me (kerspoon) Guests: - Jaan Tallinn, who participated in the development of Skype and Kazaa. - Michael Vassar, the former president of the Singularity Institute and current Chief Science Officer of MetaMed. - Cat Lavigne, CFAR instructor. See: https://groups.google.com/forum/?fromgroups=#!topic/lesswronglondon/_h6lGBjnO9Q http://lesswrong.com/r/discussion/lw/had/michael_vassar_in_europe/ http://lesswrong.com/r/discussion/lw/h95/want_to_have_a_cfar_instructor_visit_your_lw_group/
Discussion article for the meetup : London Special Guests: Jaan Tallinn and Michael Vassar of MetaMed