Do you have a dumb question that you're kind of embarrassed to ask in the main thread? Is there something you're just not sure about?
This is your opportunity to ask questions. No question too simple or too silly.
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Notes -
How long have you been around rationalist-adjacent spaces?
I found Scott in 2013 or 2014, possibly via LJ. I remember discussing "Universal Love Said the Cactus Person" with a friend IRL who brought it up and he previously had never mentioned reading SSC. Somewhere in there I found /r/SSC because in 2016 I saw a notice for a meetup taking place 5 minutes away from my house and didn't go because I found many people active in /r/SSC off-putting. I stopped paying close attention to Scott after the 2017 Kolmogorov entry. I remember /r/theMotte being created and then /r/SneerClub with the latter being distilled perfection of what I didn't like about so many /r/SSC posters to start with plus reddit overall. I guess that's about where I stopped paying close attention because it was only much later that I became aware of this site starting separately to escape reddit, the TW/schism hullaballo, and some other subsequent happenings.
Because I have a strong memory that works in strange ways, it's a bizarre feeling to recognize a few user names from ancient /r/SSC days (Zorba, Hlynka, gattsuru, etc.), or look into /r/SSC now and see a few users I dislike still plugging away, and realize I've been paying attention (or at least mildly aware) of their written output for a decade.
Discovered HPMOR and subsequently Lesswrong During the summer after my 1L year, so this would have been 2012.
It was timely, I was struggling with where I was going to aim my career and life goals and having an epistemic crisis (I had no idea how to figure out what I wanted to do, because I felt unable to accurately judge the information I was given). I absolutely credit the Sequences and the other figures in there for helping me figure out my life enough to get where I am now, quite comfortable with my current position. And it eventually helped introduce me to the people who are ACTUALLY part of my (Red-tinged grey) tribe, and I feel accepted there.
I was rat-adjacent for a while, now at best I'm adjacent to the rat-adjacent b/c there's a current in the ratsphere that is kind of toxic to anyone who isn't neurodivergent in a very specific way. Most humans are just not going to be able to adopt their way of thinking, and exposure to it can have very negative effects in their life.
The Effective Altruists got out of hand for a while there and some of them blew up in ways that I considered foreseeable. Let's not speak of the Zizians.
So I'm happy to remain on the periphery because the skills they teach are extremely valuable, their insights are useful, but many of them seem completely lost when it comes to applying those to effect positive change in the real world, and they often actively oppose those who are effecting (mostly) positive change.
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