bootcamps which require application and significant monetary payment have a fairly bad track record of worst case outcomes, with recent semi-negative examples such as CFAR and Leverage both producing fairly notable worst-case outcomes. The warnings about "culty behavior" around lesswrong often relate to groups like that; because it is one of the categories that has had an elevated error rate, I ask for the purpose of shifting attendance towards those who will benefit -
what is your plan for how to ensure that participants do not accumulate habit of taking verbal commands from the event hosts, and that people whose habit-shards crash in the context of this event have enough slack to notice and recover?
Thanks for your comments, we have indeed changed our Bootcamp from paid to free, because: 1) we found our price has greatly limited the quality and quantity of our applicants; 2) we introduced some experimental activities (which are experimental features in our Ultrabrain Principles Assistant) which needs more validation.
In this event, we will be very careful with giving people verbal commands. We make it clear where is the source of our teaching -- which are different ways / methods of "living a principled life" taught by the different schools of thought, and we let the participants to discuss and decide which ones they like to adopt.
If you have seen OpenPrinciples Bootcamp's previous edit of the post, we have made a few changes:
1. We changed the Bootcamp from paid to free, because: 1) we found our price has greatly limited the quality and quantity of our applicants; 2) we introduced some experimental activities (which are experimental features in our
Ultrabrain Principles Assistant) which needs more validation.2. We have changed the program's level of commitment from 5hr/wk to 2.5 hr/wk manditory + 3hr/wk optional activities (1h/wk workshop + 1h/wk group discussion + speaker sessions + other activities) to give participants more flexibility and better-customed experience.
As rationalists, one of the most valuable results of our rational reflections is the principles we like to live by. Here I like to introduce you an opportunity to reflect and apply your principles with the accountability of principled coaches, and reminders from AI and human personal assistants.
If you have problems finding, remembering, or acting on your lessons / life principles / EA principles; or like to build your pipeline and the "second brain" system for storing, discovering, reflecting, strategizing, auto reminding, prompted measuring, iterating and open-sourcing your life principles, then here is an opportunity for you -- OpenPrinciples BootCamp, a free, 3wks, 2.5 hr/wk mandatory + 3hr/wk optional commitment, online program in America & Europe time, starting at Oct 1st.
The first round application deadline is Saturday Sep 17th 23:59 UTC, and the second round application deadline (with fewer spots) is Saturday Sep 24th 23:59 UTC, we do accept applications after that but will only have very limited spots. Apply here: bootcamp.openprinciples.org. If you are interested but the time does not work out for you, please fill out OpenPrinciples Bootcamp Waiting List instead.
This is the 2nd cohort of the program. After our previous 1st cohort program (called OpenPrinciples Fellowship), our attendees reported being 44% more principled on average through our 18 hours of training.
About OpenPrinciples
The Bootcamp is organized by OpenPrinciples, an EA-Aligned Hybrid-Orgnaization made of current and previous organizers of EA UWaterloo, EA IBM, EA Taft, EA Kathmandu University, and EA AI Safety Camp; who are also ADHDers that are using principles to work with their stimulant-seeking brain. It is also a community of effective altruists, ADHDers, entrepreneurs, engineers and community organizers who united through our interests in becoming more principled. Learn more about our crowd-sourced database, community, and AI-human hybrid assistant here.
Why Join the Bootcamp?
The principles-driven method of growth (find, conclude, act, and iterate your life principles) is one of the most effective ways for people to grow. It has been one of the most important growth factors for people like Benjamin Franklin, Ray Dalio, Charlie Munger and Confucius. This way of living is very systematic and has some simple guidelines we can follow.
We all make decisions by principles - they are our values, biases, habits, methods, mental models; or what we define them as “ways of doing”, “ways of thinking”, and “ways of how to see the world”. When we do not pay attention to the principles we use, we tend to have a hard time distinguishing their impact, and live our life following our old habits and grow slowly. The principles-driven way of growth asks us to be mindful of the principles we use, be intentional about their effects, and be active in iterating and adopting better principles.
Curriculum
The 3-week Bootcamp will include:
Testimonials
In our last iteration, we welcomed 30 fellows from 11 countries for 18hours/person of meetings, workshops and meetups; and our attendees reported being 44% more principled on average through our 18 hours of training. Here’s what some of our attendees/speakers have to say:
This is a creative and useful way for people to educate themselves to use their abilities and live better, more positive lives. It is also helpful for creating strategies to apply the learnings. Even at this very early stage, I have found it has a wonderful ability to introduce me to principles from extremely wise, practical and impactful people.
— Chris Watkins
Founder, Appropedia Foundation (knowledge sharing for sustainability and resilience)
The OpenPrinciples Fellowship is an excellent way to develop and further your underlying principles and live a purposeful and full life. There is high value in networking and meeting other members of the OpenPrinciples community!
— Cameron King
Operations Lead and Co-Founder, Animal Advocacy Africa
Head of Operations, Credence Institute (advocacy, publishing and research for animals)
After months of intentional consumption of books, articles, and podcasts, learning about principles for the first time has been the missing piece to tie them all together. The fellowship introduced me to an 8-step Notion system to ensure I put them into action while having a community to stay accountable to in finding and discussing new principles.
— Gwendolyn Ang
Co-Founder, Effective Altruism Taft (university chapter in Manila)
Former HR Director, Archers Consulting Group
OpenPrinciples Fellowship offered really clear frameworks to help guide my own principle creation, streamline my thought process and introduce me to a like-minded community who was a major source of inspiration and intellectual creativity.
OpenPrinciples offers a clear structure for a ‘long-term value thesis.’ This offers a strong principle-driven process foundation for anyone who cares about making a positive impact in the world, coupled with innovative experiential learning methods to really iterate life principles and to apply them in action to help co-design a better world for all. Everyone needs this foundation and network as a guide to build a better future together.
— Vyshnavi Desiraju
CEO of Lagom (Social Enterprise)
As the EA community scales and aggressively pursues a variety of exciting new endeavors, constructing a supporting infrastructure dedicated to the intellectual and emotional growth of EAs will become crucial as they encounter increasingly complex challenges with ever higher stakes. From my experience advising and featuring in some of their programs (OpenPrinciples Fellowship), I believe the OpenPrinciples team is highly dedicated to providing an important piece of this support infrastructure that should synergies well with other efforts to support EAs in their personal growth efforts.
— Tee Barnett
Cofounder of Rethink Charity
Apply for the Bootcamp
The first round application deadline is Saturday Sep 17th 23:59 UTC, and the second round application deadline (with fewer spots) is Saturday Sep 23th 23:59 UTC, we do accept applications after that but will only have very limited spots. Apply here: bootcamp.openprinciples.org. If you are interested but the time does not work out for you, please fill out OpenPrinciples Bootcamp Waiting List instead.