Sounds great, and I’ve thought about this too. But what does it look like?
Seminar series. Probably in the workplace—this would not be so scalable but for me would be highly targeted.
Video lectures. Costly, probably get wide reach though. Maybe better done in short form, slick and well marketed.
Podcast. IMHO hard to beat Rationally Speaking. However, this content should be more introductory so perhaps more of an audio series than a podcast.
How to assess what the main topics should be though? I feel the pedagogy for rationality is lacking, because for many people who are interested they picked up the basics by osmosis before getting into it in a more organised way. I.e. what is the first thing someone should learn, the second etc. For me, everything revolves around an understanding of probability—but that’s a long and somewhat indirect road to walk.
I realize I’m replying to a very old comment, but have you had any follow-up thoughts on this? I and some others are thinking of “making rationality more accessible” in a local context; we’ve all read LW/SSC/ACX etc for years but don’t really have any good ideas on how to introduce the material to beginners effectively.
My quick answer would be: since writing the comment I noticed plenty of people made first contact via hpmor :D
I still don’t know the answer though. I’d guess a startupy algorithm to answer this might lookw like:
identify audience (is it local folks, all peeps on web, ‘agenty’ people) and desired outcomes (more active community members, or just spread the concepts)
find channels to first reach that audience (go viral on tiktok or guest lecture at stanford)
funnel into a broader learning programme (is it a mooc, a YT playlist)
But obvs this is a pretty involved effort and perhaps something one would go for a grant for :o
“Making rationality more accessible.”
Sounds great, and I’ve thought about this too. But what does it look like?
Seminar series. Probably in the workplace—this would not be so scalable but for me would be highly targeted.
Video lectures. Costly, probably get wide reach though. Maybe better done in short form, slick and well marketed.
Podcast. IMHO hard to beat Rationally Speaking. However, this content should be more introductory so perhaps more of an audio series than a podcast.
How to assess what the main topics should be though? I feel the pedagogy for rationality is lacking, because for many people who are interested they picked up the basics by osmosis before getting into it in a more organised way. I.e. what is the first thing someone should learn, the second etc. For me, everything revolves around an understanding of probability—but that’s a long and somewhat indirect road to walk.
I realize I’m replying to a very old comment, but have you had any follow-up thoughts on this? I and some others are thinking of “making rationality more accessible” in a local context; we’ve all read LW/SSC/ACX etc for years but don’t really have any good ideas on how to introduce the material to beginners effectively.
My quick answer would be: since writing the comment I noticed plenty of people made first contact via hpmor :D
I still don’t know the answer though. I’d guess a startupy algorithm to answer this might lookw like:
identify audience (is it local folks, all peeps on web, ‘agenty’ people) and desired outcomes (more active community members, or just spread the concepts)
find channels to first reach that audience (go viral on tiktok or guest lecture at stanford)
funnel into a broader learning programme (is it a mooc, a YT playlist)
But obvs this is a pretty involved effort and perhaps something one would go for a grant for :o