All of Blake's Comments + Replies

• I believe that because over 200 people RSVPed for the event, unlike anything else we’ve done. This even eclipses our AI event.

• We’re going to focus on action and reasons for backing Harris vs “rah rah” hype making.

• The open conversation is how to get a candidate elected.

• Most people back a candidate like they back a sports team. They don’t have reasons. We’ll work toward reasons.

I hope you can get political with EU rats.

The idea is that we don’t need to say “Harris is great” because everyone already thinks that if they’re coming. We are only focusing on motivating metrically-defined outcome oriented actions. It’s a game. “Who can get the most votes for Harris?” Different teams will focus on different actions. Post card writing. Fundraising. Voter registration. We’ll optimize and learn.

My life is rooted in a desire to optimize. That’s what I get out of rationalism. Optimization strategies. Politics is new for me. I’m curious to see how the rationalist lens that I’ve used to optimize most aspects of my life (who I married, the job I’ve chosen, ..) can be applied in the political sphere. This is my naive attempt. I will optimize.

Why isn’t it? Our people form tribes over shared intellectual interests like others form tribes over shared affinity for a sports team.

Ah, yes. I meant I am not publicly tying a Rat brand to our event. There is no mention of rationality on the DNC event page.

Most people who attend our meetings just want to find folks who share their interests. That is the tribalistic impulse I'm referencing.

Agreed. I don’t think I’m tying our event with the LW or Rat brand. I am simply saying more rats need to support a candidate.

This is a local event in which I will push my anti-tribalism agenda. My bet is many who attend are not interested in being tribalistic. Myself and those I know who are behind Kamala are largely behind her because we appreciate evidence-based thinking, which Donald Trump has worked against.

Are you saying we shouldn’t even attempt to turn tribalistic thinkers into evidence based thinkers? My own experience at that has been rather successful.

Our New Orleans Rat group grows on tribalistic calls to action. “Donate to Global Health Initiatives,” “Do Art,” “Learn About AI.” At the events we tend to question the foundation of having those interests, working to better stances on the interests we keep or reject.

Example: We led a multipart series on EA for people who were already interested in EA. The series was led by someone who was very much an EA.... (read more)

I am sad this idea is getting so many down votes. More smart people need to engage with politics and you cannot engage in any better way than by backing a candidate.

Your issue seems to be with tribalism, not politics.

Thanks! We’ll see how this goes…

Those are all great questions. I’m going to start by asking the case worker those questions. I imagine they will buy items like diabetes medication, baby formula, and diapers. There my intervention frees up cash for the family to buy other items. Maybe I’ll direct the case worker to ask what they bought with the extra cash they have? I imagine the quality of life increase will come in the items they chose to buy with cash they didn’t have to spend on the necessities I bought.

I have never met the family and don’t plan on meeting them in person. A case worker will be in contact with them. I aim to maintain that distance, merely asking the case worker for data to plug into my spread sheet. The problem is that I do not know what data I should be plugging in.