The Rationalist Community: Catching Up to Speed
Note: the below comment is intended for my friend(s) who is/are not on Less Wrong yet, or presently, as an explanation of how the rationality community has changed in the interceding years between when Eliezer Yudkowsky finished writing his original sequences, and 2014. This is an attempt to bridge procedural knowledge gaps. Long-time users, feel free to comment below with suggestions for changes, or additions.
Off of Less Wrong, the perspective of the rationality community has changed in light of the research, and expansion of horizon, by the Center For Applied Rationality. A good start introduction to these changes is found in the essay Three Ways CFAR Has Changed My View of Rationality written by Julia Galef, the president of the CFAR.
On Less Wrong itself, Scott Alexander has written what this community of users has learned together in an essay aptly titled Five Years and One Week of Less Wrong.
The Decline of Less Wrong was a discussion this year about why Less Wrong has declined, where the rationalist community has moved, and what should, or shouldn't be done about it. If that interests you, the initial post is great, and there is some worthy insight in the comments as well.
However, if you want to catch up to speed right now, then check out the epic Map of the Rationalist Community from Slate Star Codex.
For a narrower focus, you can search the list of blogs on the Less Wrong wiki, which are sorted alphabetically by author name, and have a short list of topics each blog typically covers.
Finally, if you're (thinking of getting) on Tumblr, check out the Rationalist Masterlist which is a collated list of Tumblrs from (formerly) regular contributors to Less Wrong, and others who occupy the same memespace
As a newbie around here: thank you, this is quite helpful.
If it's worth saying, but not worth its own post (even in Discussion), then it goes here.
Notes for future OT posters:
1. Please add the 'open_thread' tag.
2. Check if there is an active Open Thread before posting a new one. (Immediately before; refresh the list-of-threads page before posting.)
3. Open Threads should be posted in Discussion, and not Main.
4. Open Threads should start on Monday, and end on Sunday.