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If you have a question, post it in the comments and I’ll do my best to answer.
I’m also looking for suggestions of things to write about. I’m particularly interested in books or papers that you’d like to have reviewed or questions you want a deep dive into, but I’m interested in any suggestion! I promise I’ll take all suggestions seriously, although I reserve the right to not write about something if I know nothing about it.
Two of my favorite recent posts of yours are "cons of polyamory" and "casual sex," I am therefore inferring about myself that I like casual personal anthropological studies.
I think there's plenty of territory here, for example around how people feel about (any of the) recent EA controversies; though I can imagine there are other reasons for you not to write about such things.
Hi Ozy! I love your writing and have been really enjoying the Substack!
A post I'd really enjoy seeing is a retrospective/reflection on the Bay Area community side of the rationalist project ("the village"). My sense is that ~a decade ago, there was a lot of excitement in the ratsphere about building a community that was based around this common set of ideas and interested in trying out different ways of living (polyamory, group houses, psychedelics, circling etc.). And my sense is also that this effort has ended up succeeding in some really big ways (lots of people have found good relationships, made amazing friendships, had big impacts etc.), but has also not lived up to all those dreams. Many people came to the bay and didn't find the community they were looking for, and efforts to improve their experiences (e.g. project Hufflepuff) didn't seem to change that. And there were also more serious problems: Leverage seemingly turning into a cult, the incident at the 2019 CFAR reunion, the suicides of individuals in or adjacent to the community, and accusations of sexual harassment/assault by people in/adjacent to the community.
I'd be curious to hear your thoughts on pretty much any aspects of community history, but a few particular questions might be:
- Are there particular living arrangements, community institutions, or traditions that have worked especially well (or poorly)?
- What advice would you give to community builders in other cities based on the experience of the Bay area community?
- How has the rationalist community's experience compared to that of other intentional communities?
- The rationalist community is uniquely accepting of people with severe mental illnesses, relative to other communities (such as universities) that tend to try and exclude mentally ill people, often for the purpose of avoiding bad PR. Is part of the negative perceptions people have of the rat community's experience just the result of not being willing to screw over people for PR purposes?