Do you want to get more specific about what you mean by "tight feedback loops"? I spent a few years focusing on startup things, and I don't think "tight feedback loops" are a good characterization. It can take a lot of work to figure out whether a startup idea is viable. That's why it's so valuable to gather advance data when possible (hence the lean startup movement). If you want "tight feedback loops", it seems like trying to master some flash game would offer a much better opportunity.

As far as I can tell, what actual entrepreneurs have that wannabee entrepreneurs don't is the ability to translate their ideas in to action. They're bold enough to punch through unendorsed aversions, they're not afraid to make fools of themselves, they don't procrastinate, they actually try stuff out, and they push on without getting easily discouraged. You could think of these skills as being multipliers on rationality... if your ability to act on your ideas is 0, it doesn't matter how good your ideas are and you should focus on improving your ability to act, not improving your ideas. It might help to start distrusting yourself whenever you say "I'll do X" and think "hm... am I really going to do X? What's the first step? When and how am I going to take that step? Why am I not taking it now? If I'm not going to take it now, will I ever take it?" (Relevant.)

BTW, one possible explanation for why some people are able to make good decisions in practice but not in theory could be the near/far thing Robin Hanson likes to bring up.

Lots of people are successful at many things, but that doesn't mean that for any particular person, like Oprah, there will be generalizable insights about success to be gathered from their life. For example, maybe what caused Oprah to skyrocket to billionaire status (instead of being a regular old driven, fairly successful person) was that she came up with a great gimmick. I'm not sure studying her example would provide much insight in to how to be successful for non-talk show people. But if you think it would, there are lots of biographies of famous, successful people you could mine for success insights.

singularity.org, recently acquired after a rather confused and tacky domain-squatter abandoned it

I would not have described the previous owner of singularity.org as a domain squatter. He provided a small amount of relevant info and linked to other relevant organizations. SI/MIRI made more of the domain than he had, but that hardly earns him membership in that pestilential club.

He sold the domain rather than abandoning it, and behaved honestly and reasonably throughout the transaction.

I feel like the closest kin to MIRI/CFAR outside the existential risk world is the efficient charity world: GiveWell, GWWC, 80,000 Hours, Efficient Animal Activism etc. There's also this: http://gcrinstitute.org/

Bonus incentive: I give a free upvote to every comment that includes an expectation of attending!

Judging by https://groups.google.com/forum/?fromgroups=#!topic/melbourne-less-wrong/2dFTXTJRHZY and posts here (thanks Maelin) it's going to be a quiet one. I'll bring a couple of games in case we don't get critical mass for a raging storm of rational self improvement.