All of vmehra's Comments + Replies

vmehra10

We are on the 2nd floor.

vmehra10

their work with CFAR seems to me to have been a solid bet at the time

Can you point me to the work they did with CFAR?

vmehra20

Hello everyone,

This is a reminder that we will be meeting coming Sunday, 11th Sept,2022 for the ACX Meetups Everywhere. Here is a rough agenda for the meetup:

  • Greetings and Introductions.
  • For potential newcomers, we will try to provide a bird’s eye view of the “rationality landscape”.
  • Brief background of the fledgling rationality meetup in Hyderabad that meets almost every week.
  • Share your favorite SSC/ACX/Lesswrong post (optional).
  • Optional reading for discussion (it’s totally ok if you don’t find time to read it, I will summarise the post) : A Cyclic Theory O
... (read more)
vmehra20

>so I settled on about 5 weeks, this experiment ran from: 27 December 2021 through 02 January 2022

I am assuming you meant 2nd Feb. 

1Willa
Oops, meant 30 January, editing now to fix.
vmehra10

>The final part there is key - if the student leaves with a good understanding of the ideas in the abstract, but no idea when to think about the ideas again, it’s no better than if they’d learned nothing at all. 

 

Hard disagree.  As you will agree, learning about the world is also supposed to bring excitement and pure joy. That enjoyment doesn't have to always translate into a conscious idea about revisiting the topic again. I have taken a few lectures where my small audience was fully engaged, asking questions and definitely enjoyed their... (read more)

vmehra10

You are probably right about that. But I wanted to start with something and with the first cohort, decided to simply follow the format that most clubs/courses follow on hyperlink (I should say though that I do have some feedback mechanisms in mind).  And it is planned as just an "introduction" to some of these ideas. 

You already mentioned spending more time on fewer topics. Do you have any other ideas in mind in terms of formats that would have the potential to work online? 

3ChristianKl
I think one of the key features of online as opposed to offline is that you already have a computer in the loop.  That means it's easier to send a Google Form around to gather information. Both at the end of a session and at the beginning of a session to gather data about the effects of the last session. While it's possible to create more task optimized systems then Google Forms, Google Forms is likely a good solution for the first iteration.
vmehra*10

 What's the goal of your course why do you think your course will have that effect?

I am less interested in experiments in courses that copy CFAR material and more into experiments that discuss, co-learn and tinker with the ideas that CFAR teaches in their workshop. So initially the "goals" of such experiments will be unclear other than learning if there are ways to extract something useful (online and at a larger scale) out of applied rationality"ideas discussed/authored at CFAR and lesswrong. 

2ChristianKl
I think it's very unlikely that you can do that effectively in a format of one hour per week with different topics every week and no planned feedback mechanism. 
vmehra10

That's the 2019 one, latest is here.

vmehra50

CFAR has put in so much thought/work into creating those workshops in Berkeley for Applied Rationality. Why aren't there any experiments in doing online workshops/discussions/co-learning spaces for the content available in CFAR handbooks? 

Is there any interest among lesswrong members to do online meetups or clubs centered around the content (including other similar ideas posted on lesswrong) in the CFAR handbook?  I am curious about the mediums that will allow teaching/learning of such ideas on a larger scale.  

I started one such experiment ... (read more)

2ChristianKl
From what I heard from CFAR staffs, the point of CFAR workshops is not to teach you a bunch of techniques but to give people agency over the way they think. If you have a 1-hour call once a week that talks about one technique you are very unlikely to get the effect that CFAR workshops are about.  If you want to create some online learning framework you need a theory of action for the framework. What's the goal of your course why do you think your course will have that effect? While it's certainly possible to create something that works well online, that task is not about simply copying CFAR material.  Matt Goldenberg is one LessWronger who actually created an online learning product with https://www.procrastinationplaybook.net
2Viliam
For the record, the CFAR handbook can be found here (not sure if the latest version).
vmehra40

Were you able to finish Part2? Is there a draft somewhere? Curious and unable to find. 

3Ruby
Hey, sorry for the delayed reply! Sorry, I haven't yet. This long post by Scott Young has much of the kind of thing I would write (and likely better written too!). https://www.scotthyoung.com/blog/2020/11/02/motivation/