Organizer, Austin LessWrong/ACX austinlesswrong.com
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Austin, TX Petrov Day and Potluck 2026
Time: Doors open 6pm, ceremony starting ~8pm Location: Private residence at above location; street parking is available Every year the Austin LW/SSC group (mailing list) holds a Petrov Day ceremony and potluck, using a revised ceremony procedure. The ceremony reflects on the progress of, and threats to, civilization, and our hope for the future. See also our previous year's event. Please join us if you're in the area. RSVPs appreciated.
Austin, USA - ACX Spring Schelling 2026 — LessWrong
The host has requested RSVPs for this event
Austin LessWrong Meetup: Legal Systems Very Different From Ours — LessWrong
This Saturday we will be doing a Partitioned Book Club of the book Legal Systems Very Different From Ours. In a partitioned book club, different participants read different chapters and then summarize them for the group. We will take turns giving short summaries of the chapters, and then have a general discussion about the ideas in the book. All of the chapters have already been claimed by regulars, but anyone is welcome to attend.
Austin LessWrong Cafe Meetup: Applied Rationality Techniques — LessWrong
Coming off the heels of a local CFAR workshop, I'll lead us in practicing some applied rationality techniques: Resolve Cycles: Setting a timer to see how much of an important goal you can accomplish within the limit. Pride/Self-Recognition: Turning everyday annoyances into a part of your identity you can be proud of. Finding Cruxes: Probing the basis of your beliefs by asking what it would take to change them. Time allowing, we will do more of the CFAR techniques, or save them for another meetup.
Austin LW/SSC Winter Solstice 2025 — LessWrong
The host has requested RSVPs for this event
Austin, TX Petrov Day and Potluck 2025 — LessWrong
Time: Doors open 6pm, ceremony starting at ~8pm. Location: Private residence at address above; street parking is available. Every year the Austin LW/SSC group (mailing list) holds a Petrov Day ceremony and potluck, using a revised ceremony procedure. The ceremony reflects on the progress of, and threats to civilization, and our hope for the future. See also our previous year's event. Please join us if you're in the area. RSVPs appreciated.
Austin, TX Meetup: Rationality-Resistant Domains — LessWrong
We've used the to improve our lives and gain skills. But are there cases where the toolbox seems ineffective? Athletics, social skills, dancing? Share your experience with cases where you've found rationality hard to apply, or where you've defied expectations and pulled it off. For discussion: - What articulable, high-level regularities did you notice? - What are useful hacks to know for newcomers? - What kinds of practice were relevant? *** The meetup is at Central Market, 4001 N.
2025 Austin LessWrong Summer Solstice & Irrationalist Day — LessWrong
Friday at 11:00 PM to Saturday at 5:00 AM GMT The host has requested RSVPs for this event
Austin – ACX Meetups Everywhere Spring 2025 — LessWrong
The host has requested RSVPs for this event
Ausin LW Cafe Meetup 2/1/2025: Investment, AI, and the Future — LessWrong
With recent market gyrations around DeepSeek and nVidia, now is a good a time as any to talk about investment, and how your views on AI relate to it. Is there a way you plan to capture the upside? Are there occupations and investments to avoid? Do you have a hedge against nearer-term crises? Discuss with the group this Saturday! Relevant LW articles: How to (hopefully ethically) make money off of AGI Tail SP 500 Call Options Also this EA Forum article *** The meetup is at Central Market, 4001 N.
Austin LW/SSC Winter Solstice 2024 — LessWrong
For the fourth year in a row (previous event), the Austin group will host a Winter Solstice event. It will involve the usual potluck party with a rationalist-themed performance involving music and speeches. Please RSVP so we can better plan. Date: Friday, December 20th, 2024 Time: Doors open 6pm, Performance begins at 8pm Location: 1518 Parker Ln Unit A. (Note: You cannot park directly on Parker Lane.
LW Austin Cafe Meetup: Thankfulness and Praise — LessWrong
Since it’s Thanksgiving season, let’s use this meetup to share what we’re thankful for. Also take this as a chance to praise other attendees for things you like about them -- just in case you haven't gotten around to it! *** The meetup is at Central Market, 4001 N. Lamar, in the cafe area. Look for the LW and SSC signs. People start arriving at 1:30 pm, and the main activity (such as it is) will begin at 2:30 pm. Please follow in-store signs and guidance.
Austin LW/SSC Cafe Meetup: ChatGPT fun day! — LessWrong
Another chance to toy around with ChatGPT and related AI LLM bots as a group! Previous times we had fun combining our ideas on how to use these great new tools, so let's do it again! *** The meetup is at Central Market, 4001 N. Lamar, in the cafe area. Look for the LW and SSC signs. People start arriving at 1:30 pm, and the main activity will begin at 2:30 pm. Please follow in-store signs and guidance.
Austin USA - ACX Meetups Everywhere Fall 2024 — LessWrong
This year's Fall ACX Meetup everywhere in Austin. Location: The park by Central Market, 4001 North Lamar, Austin, Texas. We will be by the stone tables. We will have a LessWrong and ACX sign and have some tents set up. You can also park in the parking lot at 3900 Guadalupe St (outside the fenced hospital area). – https://plus.codes/86248746+9C Group Link: https://groups.google.com/g/austin-less-wrong Feel free to bring kids/dogs.
Austin, TX Petrov Day and Potluck 2024 — LessWrong
Time: Doors open 6pm, ceremony starting at 7:30pm. Location: Private residence at address above; street parking is available. Every year the Austin LW/SSC group (mailing list) holds a Petrov Day ceremony and potluck, using a revised ceremony procedure. See also our previous year's event. Please join us if you're in the area. RSVPs appreciated. Use this spreadsheet to coordinate on what to bring to the potluck.
Austin, TX ACX Everywhere Meetup, Spring 2024 — LessWrong
Time: Saturday, May 25th, 12:00 PM Location: The Brewtorium, 6015 Dillard Cir A, Austin, TX 78752, Coordinates: https://plus.codes/862487GM+96 We'll be inside somewhere, just look for the Austin LessWrong and ACX Meetup signs. You can park on the streets in front of Brewtorium or the Milk Bank lot next door. If it really gets full, use the nearby residential streets. We'll be there until at least 5pm!
Build Small Skills in the Right Order — LessWrong
I have always tried to "Build Small Skills in the Right Order", but I think it has been detrimental or even crippling to my learning process in some cases. I'm pretty good at math, but I haven't studied advanced math and would like to begin a program of self-study. I have started a few times, usually reading the first couple of chapters of a high-level calculus book (Apostol or Spivak), or something at a similar level.
Learned Blankness — LessWrong
Related to: Semantic stopsigns, Truly part of you. One day, the dishwasher broke. I asked Steve Rayhawk to look at it because he’s “good with mechanical things”. “The drain is clogged,” he said. “How do you know?” I asked. He pointed at a pool of backed up water. “Because the water is backed up.” We cleared the clog and the dishwasher started working. I felt silly, because I, too, could have reasoned that out. The water wasn’t draining -- therefore, perhaps the drain was clogged.
How to Be Happy - LessWrong
Part of the sequence: The Science of Winning at Life One day a coworker said to me, "Luke! You're, like, the happiest person I know! How come you're so happy all the time?" It was probably a rhetorical question, but I had a very long answer to give. See, I was unhappy for most of my life,1 and even considered suicide a few times. Then I spent two years studying the science of happiness. Now, happiness is my natural state. I can't remember the last time I felt unhappy for longer than 20 minutes.
The Psychological Diversity of Mankind — LessWrong
The dominant belief on this site seems to be in the "psychological unity of mankind". In other words, all of humanity shares the same underlying psychological machinery. Furthermore, that machinery has not had the time to significantly change in the 50,000 or so years that have passed after we started moving out of our ancestral environment. In The 10,000 Year Explosion, Gregory Cochran and Henry Harpending dispute part of this claim.
The Anthropic Trilemma — LessWrong
Speaking of problems I don't know how to solve, here's one that's been gnawing at me for years. The operation of splitting a subjective worldline seems obvious enough - the skeptical initiate can consider the Ebborians, creatures whose brains come in flat sheets and who can symmetrically divide down their thickness. The more sophisticated need merely consider a sentient computer program: stop, copy, paste, start, and what was one person has now continued on in two places.
Markets are Anti-Inductive — LessWrong
So given there have been 9 heads in a row, maybe your average bear would think its more likely to come up heads than it’s genuine expected value, so I would argue that the market would probably overvalue the true likelihood (which according to you is 10/11ths), and so they would bet on heads and you would want to be short (bet on tails) if their expectation/price is greater than 10/11ths. That was the point of the coin flip example.
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