Also, to be clear, I have no idea what people mean by describing Manifest as a “rationalist” conference. It doesn’t advertise itself much to rationalists, and I, as the person who maybe next to Eliezer Yudkowsky has the most authority to declare something “rationalist” or not, would not apply that label to that conference, and also have no particularly meaningful control about who shows up to it.
I’m surprised you say you have “no idea what people mean.” The Manifest / Summer Camp / LessOnline trio made Manifest seem closer to “project the LessWrong team is deeply involved with” than “some organization is renting out our space.”
Now that I’m looking at these with a more careful eye, I can see that they all say Manifest is independently operated with its own organizers, etc. I can understand how from the inside, it would be obvious that Manifest was run by completely different people and had (I’m now presuming) little direct LessWrong involvement. I just think it should be apparent that this is less clear from the outside, and it wouldn’t be hard for someone to be confused on this point.
Granted, I didn’t go to any of these, I’ve just seen some stuff about them online, so discount this take appropriately. But my impression is that if a friend had asked me “hey, I heard about Manifest, is that a Rationalist thing?” I think “yes” would have been a less misleading answer than “no.”
Now that I’m looking at these with a more careful eye, I can see that they all say Manifest is independently operated with its own organizers, etc. I can understand how from the inside, it would be obvious that Manifest was run by completely different people and had (I’m now presuming) little direct LessWrong involvement. I just think it should be apparent that this is less clear from the outside, and it wouldn’t be hard for someone to be confused on this point.
Yeah, I think this is fair. I think using the language “no idea what people mean” in exchange for “I think these people are wrong and I think are capable of figuring out that they are wrong” (which is closer to what I meant) is a bad rhetorical move and I shouldn’t have used it.
Sure, we definitely collaborated a bunch! But a core component of our contract and arrangement with Manifest, which they repeatedly emphasized, is that they find it very costly for us to limit their attendance (and this is of course a very reasonable request as a paying client of Lighthaven).
Also, to be clear, I have no idea what people mean by describing Manifest as a “rationalist” conference. It doesn’t advertise itself much to rationalists, and I, as the person who maybe next to Eliezer Yudkowsky has the most authority to declare something “rationalist” or not, would not apply that label to that conference, and also have no particularly meaningful control about who shows up to it.
I’m surprised you say you have “no idea what people mean.” The Manifest / Summer Camp / LessOnline trio made Manifest seem closer to “project the LessWrong team is deeply involved with” than “some organization is renting out our space.”
Among the things that gave me this impression were Raemon’s post “some thoughts on LessOnline” and the less.online website, both of which integrate content about Manifest without clear differentiation.
Now that I’m looking at these with a more careful eye, I can see that they all say Manifest is independently operated with its own organizers, etc. I can understand how from the inside, it would be obvious that Manifest was run by completely different people and had (I’m now presuming) little direct LessWrong involvement. I just think it should be apparent that this is less clear from the outside, and it wouldn’t be hard for someone to be confused on this point.
Granted, I didn’t go to any of these, I’ve just seen some stuff about them online, so discount this take appropriately. But my impression is that if a friend had asked me “hey, I heard about Manifest, is that a Rationalist thing?” I think “yes” would have been a less misleading answer than “no.”
Yeah, I think this is fair. I think using the language “no idea what people mean” in exchange for “I think these people are wrong and I think are capable of figuring out that they are wrong” (which is closer to what I meant) is a bad rhetorical move and I shouldn’t have used it.
Sure, we definitely collaborated a bunch! But a core component of our contract and arrangement with Manifest, which they repeatedly emphasized, is that they find it very costly for us to limit their attendance (and this is of course a very reasonable request as a paying client of Lighthaven).