How to Run a Successful Less Wrong Meetup Group Tips and tricks for starting, running, and growing a successful Less Wrong meetup group by Kaj Sotala and Luke Muehlhauser Acknowledgements Our thanks to Alex Demarsh, Alexey Morgunov, Axel Glibert, Benjamin Noble, Bill McGrath, Danny Hintze, David Perry, Hermione Davies, Erica Edelman, Julia Galef, Julian Pulgarin, Nisan Stiennon, Sam Bhagwat, William Ryan and Zvi Mowshowitz, as well as everyone else who is quoted in this document or who has commented in the feedback threads on Less Wrong. Special thanks to Stanislaw Boboryk, who created the design for this document. How to Use This Document This document is written for anyone who wants to organize a Less Wrong meetup. We have written most sections so that they can help you whether you want to start a new group or improve an existing group. Do you have additional suggestions? Are you encountering problems not solved by the advice in this document? Please contact [email protected] — we will incorporate your feedback and try to solve your problems with the next version of this document. II Contents: Why Organize a Meetup? 1 Getting help 1 Announcing and Organize Your Meetups 1 Choosing avenue 1 Making the announcement 2 The first meetup 3 Beyond the first meetup 3 Pioneering new meetups 4 Restarting dead or inactive groups 5 How to build your team of heroes 6 The organizer 7 The welcomer 7 The learning coach 7 Content providers 7 The visionary 7 The networker 8 Retain members by being a social group 8 Long-term Meetup Group Maintenance 8 Informative social activities 8 Sharing stories, feelings and ideas 9 Name tags 10 Touch 10 Working and playing together 10 Types of conversations 10 Gender ratio 11 Comfort zones 11 Encouraging participation 11 Conflicts within the group 12 Learn to recognize status conflicts 13 How to attract new members 14 Advertising your group 14 Group norms and epistemic hygiene 15 Solving specific problems 15 How to get other people to help in running the group 15 How to move from just hanging out to planned content 15 III Meetup Content 16 Discussions and Presentations 16 Presentations 16 Topical discussion 17 Discussion groups 17 Meta discussion 17 Games and Exercises 18 Biased Boardgaming 18 Behavioral Analysis 19 Bust-a-Distortion 20 Calibration Game 20 Cause and Belief 21 Fermi Calculations 22 Five-Minute Debiasing 23 Hypothetical Apostasies 23 Liar’s Dice 24 Other Bluffing Games 25 Paranoid Debating 25 Prediction Tournament 26 Rationalization game 26 Rejection therapy 27 Repetition game 27 Status exercises 28 Zendo 28 General bacchanalia 30 Example activities 30 Projects 31 Recommended Reading 33 IV Why Organize a Meetup? Why Organize a Meetup? “We are a group of friends [who] try miracle fruit, dance ecstatically until sunrise, actively embarrass ourselves at karaoke, get lost in the woods, and jump off waterfalls. Poker, paintball, parties, go-karts, concerts, camping... I have a community where I can live in truth and be accepted as I am, where I can give and receive feedback and get help becoming stronger. I am immensely grateful to have all of these people in my life, and I look forward to every moment I spend with them. To love and be loved is an unparalleled experience in this world, once you actually try it.” - Will Ryan, Less Wrong NYC: Case Study of a Successful Rationalist Chapter Humans are social animals, and even introverts want Almost everyone can benefit from being in a com- to enjoy the company of others. Human relationships munity, but not every community can benefit every- are one of the few factors that have a lasting impact one. It’s easiest to feel comfortable with people who on our happiness. A pleasant social environment and share your values and interests. People who might be close friends make us consistently happier. interested in attending Less Wrong meetups tend to have strong interests in judgment and decision-mak- ing, philosophy, and self-improvement. Great things can happen when people with strong common goals come together and learn from each other. Getting help You can ask Less Wrong for help with any questions that you might have. Don’t hesitate to create a new top- ic in the Discussion section of the website and explain the issue you’re facing. Additionally, there is a Google Group for meetup organizers, found at groups.google. com. To have your membership approved, Just state that you’re a meetup organizer. Announcing and Organize Your Meetups Choosing avenue There are basically two kinds of meetup sites: public to have regular meetups at a public location to attract (e.g. a café) and private (e.g. someone’s home). There newcomers, and also meet often at someone’s home. are also semi-public locations, such as university class- For example, you may want to hold weekly meetups at rooms (when not being used by anyone else). someone’s home and meet in public once a month. New people may feel uncomfortable meeting new people in a private location. At the same time, people who do know each other usually feel more comfort- able at a private location. An ideal balance might be 1 Announcing and Organize Your Meetups Making the announcement The participants of at least one meetup found the- The most obvious way to announce a meetup is at Less ir agreed-upon location to be unbearably full, and decided to start the meetup by scouting for a better Wrong: that’s what the “Add new meetup” button is venue. Since there was the possibility that some for. When organizing people would arrive late, the meetup split into two a meetup for the first groups, with the first one heading out to the new site time, it helps if you al- and the second staying behind for a while to inform ready know local Less any latecomers of the new location. You’ll want to Wrong users who may avoid this. be interested in attend- ing. Contact them to see if you can find a A public meetup location should be quiet, open, have time that’s suitable for enough room for everyone, and (ideally) offer food. everyone, then create the announcement and ask those Restaurants, large coffee shops and diners are good users to post a comment saying that they’ll attend. Ad- for this, particularly if they are mostly empty dur- ditional people are more likely to show up if they can ing the meetup. Such places do expect most people see that there will be other people present. Don’t get to order something, however, so the site shouldn’t be stuck trying to negotiate an ideal time, however. Use overly expensive. In general, coffee shops are better than a scheduling service such as doodle.com for people to restaurants, as new people may feel intimidated sitting post their preferences, then decide on the time. If you alone at a restaurant while waiting for others. At a coffee don’t know of any other locals, just go ahead and post shop, people can sit down and read a book or use their the notice. computer while waiting for others. It’s also easier to spot a Wherever it is that you are meeting, you’ll want to meetup while walking through a coffee shop. bring a sign so that people can recognize your group. You’ll want to avoid showing up and finding your lo- Mention the fact that you’ll have a sign in the meetup cation already full. If the meetup is going to be at a 5 notice, or offer some other easy visual cue for recog- PM on a Monday, have someone briefly scout out the nizing the group. This way, people don’t need to be meetup site a week or two in advance to see whether nervous about whether they’ll find you. This is espe- Monday early evenings are crowded or not. cially recommended if you’re meeting at a large loca- Students may be capable of reserving university tion. classrooms for their own use, for free. This can be Even regular users of the site may miss an announce- a good option if it’s available. If none of the meetup ment that is only posted at Less Wrong, so it’s good to organizers are students, you can try to find campus establish an alternative communication route as early groups such as “skeptic” or “atheist” organizations as possible. Meetup.com offers an easy way to organize who are willing to co-host an event. As an added and announce meetups, and provides visibility for the bonus, they can advertise the meetup to their own group, but hosting a group there costs a nominal fee. members. You can also use services such as the ‘group’ feature on Public libraries may also have rooms that are avail- Facebook, but there are people who don’t use social able for a meetup. Outdoor locations such as parks networking sites, so you shouldn’t rely on them exclu- are good for more physical activities, from playing sively. Getting everyone to sign up to an e-mail list is frisbee to jogging to fencing, but they require a back- probably your best bet. Such a list can be created using up plan in case the weather is unfavorable. a site such as Google Groups and is an easy, basic alter- Of course, the backup plan may be as simple as “if it native. Don’t just use it for announcing meetups, but rains, we’ll try again next week.” initiate active discussions about topics that people find interesting.