Hello fellow readers.
I've been enjoying LW for a while now, and I can confidently say that many of the ideas on in this community have done much to better my life.
However, I live in some isolation from like-minded individuals. I lack social groups that aspire to the same values of rationality that I have come to treasure. My nearest meet-up is Melbourne, but that takes approximately a hour and a half to get to, and would require more time and money than I can reasonably afford at the moment.
I find it difficult to immerse myself and live out many of these ideas when I do not have the social support to back me.
Anyone have any tips for managing rationalist isolation?
I'm in a similar situation. My nearest meetup is in Melbourne, too. But for me Melbourne is 9 hours' drive away. I'm not just looking for friends - of which I have a few already, I'm also looking for a partner. Of all the woman I've met in the last decade (taken or otherwise), I've only met one who would not be turned off by this stuff and that one was taken.
On the friends front, I've sent messages to the two Less Wrong members that I could find who live in Adelaide, but no response yet. On the partner front, I recently had a date with a woman who asked me what I believed about the beginning of the world as an atheist. I said I open the science book and see what it says and then reread it every few years to get up to date. This led into a discussion of rationality, after which things cooled off. I haven't heard back from her since then.
So do I need to keep my mouth shut about the things I think about? Or just wait for the statistically unlikely occurrence of a rationalist, un-taken woman who is also interested in me?
Do you think you came across in a wrong way? Maybe too condescending, or too cold, or too calculating? Maybe you overused some LWish jargon, like "utility function"? Did you let her express her views and did you empathize with them?