Silas Barta

With the eclipse coming up, the theme is astronomy. How much do you know about it, and what knowledge would you like to share on the topic? *** 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 […]

Stacia will be guiding us through investigating a claim using the beta version of her new sensemaking platform, Qrio. Please bring a fully charged laptop. Afterwards, she’d love to get your feedback on the experience. Project Qrio provides a system for people to sort through the noise, bridge information gaps, and make sense of the

As a practice in teaching and learning everyday skills, let’s share our “stable recipes”: some meal you prepare yourself without reference to a recipe. What do you like about it, and what allows you to do it without a recipe? Is there are part of it that’s hard to teach to others? *** The meetup

It’s been a while since we did this one! One test of your skill as a rationalist is how seldom you are surprised. In this meetup, we’ll share stories of times when our model did not quite predict something and so we were, in fact surprised. Then we’ll discuss: was that a one-off, or did

This week we’re running a workshop for meetup topic ideas. Unlike our previous brainstorming session, this one is focused on topics that YOU could run during the Saturday meetup. Something from your professional experience, a hobby interest, or something that piqued your fancy. Anything that you think could interest the group and that you’d want

Another check-in on your calibration level! See whether you can estimate values for a 50% confidence interval and be right 50% of the time (hopefully not more or less). Questions will be drawn from Wits and Wagers cards (e.g. “How many cars were registered in the US in 1920?”) *** The meetup is at Central Market, 4001

Can you believe it’s coming up on 10 years since its publication? Scott Alexander’s “I can tolerate anything but the outgroup” is regarded as a classic of the blog, and a frequent point of contention with his critics. Let’s discuss the article at the meetup and share what insights you took away. *** The meetup

As announced previous by email, we’ll elect a new committee for deciding member bans at this Saturday’s meetup. To reiterate the rules: 1) You may vote as long as you are willing to serve on the committee (or served on this past one). 2) We will use approval voting, so vote for everyone whom you trust to

Twitter (X.com) is an awesome networking and information platform—especially for people in rat and rat-adjacent spheres—that you probably aren’t using to its fullest. This week we’ll discuss Twitter basics, social norms for rat-adjacent communities, and best practices for using Twitter effectively, including: What to do with Twitter (figuring out your goals). How (and why) to

Let’s discuss the future impacts of AI. What is likely to change as the result of the current pace of progress? Will economic growth measurably increase over historic norms? Will large demographics be put out of work? Will inequality increase? Will creative professions successfully incorporate AI or be obviated? What parallels to past technological impacts