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beoShaffer comments on Open Thread, October 1-15, 2012 - Less Wrong Discussion

1 Post author: David_Gerard 01 October 2012 05:54AM

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Comment author: chaosmosis 06 October 2012 12:43:32AM *  11 points [-]

As long as I'm demanding that LessWrong provide me with the answers to my personal problems, I find myself becoming more and more misanthropic as time goes on. I genuinely like only about five people out of everyone I've ever met, two of whom are family. I feel like almost everyone else is borderline homogeneous, originality seems extremely scarce and I'm bored whenever I try to talk to most people.

Context: I'm in college and not making friends. This is largely because I don't drink or follow or play in sports, I think. I'm bad at small talk. It's also because I'm unhappy with lots of what's perceived as normal around here (eg the subtle dehumanization of women).

I don't really know what to do. I believe humans are social animals and that I'd be happier with friends, but at the same time I really don't like any of the people who I talk to here. Any social advice at all would be useful for me, and anything that deals with the specifics of my situation doubly so. Misanthropy is obviously bad, but I don't know how to transition from my dislike of most people to becoming friends with them, nor am I positive that it's the right thing for me to do in this situation.

Comment author: beoShaffer 06 October 2012 03:45:04PM 1 point [-]

I take it you don't have a LW meetup near by. Do you think you could start one?

Comment author: chaosmosis 06 October 2012 08:38:25PM 1 point [-]

Having friends seems more or less like a prerequisite, I'm also not confident about my ability to lead a group like that. It might be a good long-term goal.

Comment author: John_Maxwell_IV 08 October 2012 07:16:31AM *  2 points [-]

LW meetups don't have to be large or formal events. See Starting a Less Wrong meetup is easy. You could even write in the meetup post that it's going to be highly informal, to set expectations.

Comment author: maia 12 October 2012 03:12:22PM *  0 points [-]

Having friends seems more or less like a prerequisite

Nope!

my ability to lead a group like that

If you can send emails to people saying "There will be a meetup on X day, with Y activity," you're most of the way there. Seriously. If there's anyone in a 100-mile radius who is interested in meetups, making them happen is not hard, and in fact is probably easier than many other social activities. You could make a post on LW to gauge interest in your geographic area :)