Thank you for opening this discussion—this feels like a really important topic. I’ve never been religious, and my parents moved around a lot when I was young. So I didn’t have the experience of growing up in a community, but it has always seemed really appealing to me. One thing I’ve been particularly glad about being surrounded by EAs is that it’s so accepted that living in group houses is a good idea. My parents generation, and even my non-EA friends, tend to feel that it’s weird to live with other adults, particularly when you’re married. But I’ve found living with friends to be immensely supportive and an easier way than usual to forge strong, lasting friendships. At the extreme of this, when I had a late term still birth my housemates cleared all evidence of baby away before I came home from hospital, made sure that all the friends I wanted to be told knew without me having to talk about it, bought groceries and cooked for me. This kind of community seems immensely valuable, quite apart from it being cheaper to share houses!
Yeah I wonder if there is any home-finding app in the EA community. I’d love to live with some people with similar views. (I am equally wary of going from one strict ideology to another but there we are)
There are Facebook groups for EA houses in specific cities, though I’m not aware of any that cover wider areas. Is there a specific place you’d want to know about?
Thank you for opening this discussion—this feels like a really important topic. I’ve never been religious, and my parents moved around a lot when I was young. So I didn’t have the experience of growing up in a community, but it has always seemed really appealing to me. One thing I’ve been particularly glad about being surrounded by EAs is that it’s so accepted that living in group houses is a good idea. My parents generation, and even my non-EA friends, tend to feel that it’s weird to live with other adults, particularly when you’re married. But I’ve found living with friends to be immensely supportive and an easier way than usual to forge strong, lasting friendships. At the extreme of this, when I had a late term still birth my housemates cleared all evidence of baby away before I came home from hospital, made sure that all the friends I wanted to be told knew without me having to talk about it, bought groceries and cooked for me. This kind of community seems immensely valuable, quite apart from it being cheaper to share houses!
If you haven’t come across it yet, you might be interested to go to Secular Solstice gatherings (https://www.lesswrong.com/posts/ERboWueanAyqwKbiQ/boston-solstice-2018). They talk about challenges humanity has overcome and ones we still need to face, and sing songs like these (https://www.lesswrong.com/posts/ERboWueanAyqwKbiQ/boston-solstice-2018). Unfortunately they’re just once a year though!
Yeah I wonder if there is any home-finding app in the EA community. I’d love to live with some people with similar views. (I am equally wary of going from one strict ideology to another but there we are)
There are Facebook groups for EA houses in specific cities, though I’m not aware of any that cover wider areas. Is there a specific place you’d want to know about?