SSC Meetups 2018: Times And Places

Thanks to everyone who offered to host a meetup. We’re scheduled for meetups in 85 cities (and one ship!) in 25 countries, soundly beating last year’s list. Full list of cities, times, and places is below.

Most people who are on the fence have said they’ve enjoyed going. Most people who felt intimidated about going have said they’ve enjoyed going. Most people who felt they were too different from the median SSC reader to fit in have enjoyed going. Most people who worried they weren’t smart enough to fit in have enjoyed going. Etc. Some tips from past experience with these meetups:

1. If you’re the host, bring a sign that says “SSC MEETUP” and prop it up somewhere on a table.
2. Bring blank labels and pens for nametags.
3. Collect everyone’s name and email address in a spreadsheet (template), so you can start a mailing list to make organizing future meetups easier.
4. If it’s the first meetup, people are probably just going to want to talk, and if you try to organize some kind of “fun” “event” it’ll probably just be annoying.
5. Some things that have worked for later meetups include people giving short presentations on topics of interest to them, or discussion of some particular blog post.
6. Nothing is going to get done unless there’s a Schelling point for who has to do it, and right now that’s the meetup organizer.
7. It’s much easier to schedule a second meetup while you’re having the first compared to trying to do it later on by email.
8. Surprisingly many people will love you forever if you bring stim toys.
9. In case people want to get to know each other better outside the meetup, you might want to mention reciprocity.io, the rationalist friend-finder/dating site. It runs off Facebook, so you have to Facebook friend the other person first.
10. If you have a vague location like “in the mall” or “at the North Park”, nobody will ever find each other. Give a specific place (eg “at the North Park, by the big oak tree in the northwest corner”) and be carrying a sign saying “SSC MEETUP”. If you were too vague in your description, comment with a better one and I can edit it in.

Please look over your meetup to make sure it’s correct. If you have corrections, further details, or a new meetup to add, please post a top-level comment below containing the text “@SCOTT” so I can find it easily.

LIST OF CITIES

(all times are local, and PM if not indicated otherwise. You can also search geographically using the map on the LW/SSC meetup page)

Amsterdam, Netherlands
Time: Saturday, August 11, 3:00
Location: On the grass in front of Weesperzijde 100
Contact: mathijs[dot]henquet[at]gmail[dot]com, Meetup page, Facebook group

Ann Arbor, Michigan
Time: Saturday, August 11, 7:00
Location: All Hands Active, 225 East Liberty
Contact: 7343520125

Atlanta, Georgia
Time: Saturday, September 29, 2:00
Location: Hodgepodge Coffee House, 720 Moreland AVE SE, Atlanta GA 30316
Contact: steve(at)digitaltoolfactory.net

Austin, Texas
Time: Saturday, September 1, 1:30
Location: Central Market, 4001 N Lamar
Contact: ???, but see Google group

Bangalore, India
Time: Sunday, August 26, 4:00
Location: Matteo Cafe, Church Street
Contact: m.nihalmohan[at]gmail.com

Berkeley, California (Bay Area central meetup: Oakland, San Jose, Silicon Valley, etc)
Time: Saturday, September 8th, 3:00
Location: Empty field at the intersection of West Circle and Free Speech Bikeway on UC Berkeley campus
Contact: scott[at]shireroth.org, Facebook event

Berlin, Germany
Time: Saturday August 18, 5:00
Location: St Bart, Graefestraße 71, 10967 Berlin
Contact: buddabrotler[at]gmail.com, Facebook event

Birmingham, UK
Time: Saturday, August 25, 3:00
Location: Caffe Nero, 8-9 Lower Temple St, Birmingham B2 4JD
Contact: askew.thomas[at]gmail.com, or see Facebook event

Boston, Massachusetts
Time: Saturday, August 11, 3:00
Location:  Starbucks, 66 Beacon Street
Contact: ardeibel[at]gmail.com

Boulder, Colorado
Time: Saturday, August 11, 3:00
Location: Private home, 3143 Eastwood Ct
Contact: Call corticalcircuitry at 14159883608, Meetup page

Brisbane, Australia
Time: Friday, August 31, 7:00
Location: The Ovolo Inchcolm bar, 73 Wickham Terrace, Spring Hill QLD 4000
Contact: jarred.filmer[at]gmail.com

Bristol, UK
Time: Sunday, September 2, 3:00
Location: Pinkmans Bakery, 85 Park Street, BS1 5PJ Bristol
Contact: whatagoodemailaddress[at]gmail.com, or see Facebook group

Brussels, Belgium
Time: Saturday, September 1, 2:00
Location: North part of the Parc de Bruxelles
Contact: arthur@milchior.fr

Buffalo, New York
Time: Sunday, August 26, 11:00 AM
Location: Five Points Bakery, 44 Brayton St
Contact: spetey[at]gmail.com

Cambridge, UK
Time: Friday, August 17, 6:00
Location: The Burleigh Arms
Contact: aeluncrombie44[at]gmail.com, or see Facebook event

Canberra, Australia
Time: Friday, August 24, 7:00
Location: 9/8 Walsh Place, Curtin
Contact: arunbharatula[at]outlook.com, or call +61 432356733

Charleston, South Carolina
Time: Sunday, August 12, 3:00
Location: Marion Square
Contact: reilly dot steven at gmail dot com

Chengdu, China
Time: Sunday, August 12, 3:00
Location: The Beer Nest 2, near Tongzilin Metro Station
Contact: campbellnilsen on WeChat

Chennai, India
Time: Sunday, August 26, 11 AM
Location: Pumpkin Tales, Alwarpet (vegan friendly!)
Contact: fufstsahil at gmail dot com

Chicago, Illinois
Time: Saturday, September 8, 12 noon
Location: Art Institute South Garden, by the fountain
Contact: rkrzyzanowski[at]gmail.com, or call 312 618 0316, or Facebook event

Cleveland, Ohio
Time: Saturday, August 18, 1:00
Location: Pour Cleveland Cafe, 530 Euclid Ave
Contact: ferbfreeman[at]gmail.com

Cologne / Köln, Germany
Time: Saturday, August 11, 5:00
Location: Marienweg 43 50858 Köln
Contact: marcel_mueller[at]mail.de

Columbus, Ohio
Time: Saturday, September 8, 3:00
Location: Private residence, 397 Eldridge Ave, Columbus, OH, 43203
Contact: james.thomas.hays[at]gmail.com

Copenhagen, Denmark
Time: Friday, September 28, 5:00
Location: Churchwing of Studenterhuset, Købmagergade 52, 1150 Copenhagen
Contact: mathias@bonde.dk, or call +45 93 93 42 43, or see Facebook event

Denver, Colorado
Time: Tuesday, September 4, 7:00
Location: Apartment common room, 5151 E Yale Cir, Denver, CO 80222-6934
Contact: embrodski[at]gmail.com

Detroit, Michigan
Time: Saturday, August 18, 6:00
Location: Private house. For address, please email contact.
Contact: matt.mattarn[at]gmail.com

Dublin, Ireland
Time: Tuesday, August 14, 6:00
Location: Gingerman Pub, Finean St
Contact: soneillm[at]tcd.ie

Durham / Raleigh / Research Triangle, North Carolina
Time: Wednesday, August 15, 7:30
Location: Ponysaurus Brewing Company, Durham
Contact: willdjarvis[at]gmail.com

Edinburgh, Scotland, UK
Time: Sunday, August 12, 6:00
Location: BrewDog, Lothian Road (table booked under the name “Hughes”)
Contact: ???, but see Facebook group

Edmonton, Alberta, Canada
Time: Saturday, August 11, 1:00
Location: Garneau Remedy Cafe, 8631 109 St NW
Contact: ???

Escazú, Costa Rica
Time: August 25, 2:00
Location: Food Court in Multiplaza, Escazú
Contact: Jorge via WhatsApp at +506 6219 9230

Grand Rapids, Michigan
Time: Saturday, August 25, 3:00
Location: Downtown Market
Contact: ???

Helsinki, Finland
Time: Tuesday, August 28, 6:00
Location: Dubliner (Kaivopiha)
Contact: schelsinkimeetup[at]gmail.com, or see website

Honolulu, Hawaii
Time: Saturday, August 11, 12 noon
Location: Starbucks 680 Ala Moana Blvd A101
Contact: richelson.david[at]gmail.com, 520-369-3359

Houston, Texas
Time: Sunday, August 26, 10 AM
Location: Agora (Coffee Shop), 1712 Westheimer Rd
Contact: alex.m.weldy[at]gmail.com, or see Facebook group

Irvine / Orange County, California
Time: Friday, August 10, 6:00
Location: Center of Aldrich Park, UC Irvine
Contact: gabeaweil[at]gmail.com, or call Gabe at (202) 681-1383

Istanbul, Turkey
Time: Sunday, August 19, 2:00
Location: Espresso Lab in Istiklal Cd., Taksim (across the street from the French embassy)
Contact: vsural[at]gmail.com

Jersey City, New Jersey
Time: Saturday, August 11, 11 AM
Location: Apartment at 30 Newport Pkwy
Contact: 37davidg[at]gmail.com , 4088579822

Kansas City, Missouri
Time: Sunday, August 19, 12 noon
Location: Mud Pie Bakery, 1615 W 39th St
Contact: fustruly[at]gmail.com

Kyiv (Kiev), Ukraine
Time: Saturday, August 11, 11 AM
Location: Bookshop at Lobanovskogo avenue, 6 A (“Дім Книги”), ask for Marichka
Contact: chernyshenko123[at]gmail.com

Lexington, Kentucky
Time: Sunday, August 19, 7 PM
Location: Blue Stallion Brewing, 610 W 3rd Street
Contact: hellernathan19[at]gmail.com

London, UK
Time: Sunday, August 12, 2:00
Location: Private house, 48 St Paul’s Crescent, NW1 9YA
Contact: philip.hazelden[at]gmail.com, or see Facebook group

Los Angeles, California
Time: Wednesday, August 29, 7:00
Location: Wine Bar next to Landmark Theater in Westside Pavillion, 10850 Pico Blvd #312
Contact: betterscale[at]protonmail.com, or see Google group, or contact T3t on Discord

Madison, Wisconsin
Time: Saturday, August 18, 6:00
Location: The Roman Candle, 1054 Williamson St
Contact: cmfrayne[at]gmail.com, Facebook event

Madrid, Spain
Time: Saturday, September 15, 12 noon
Location: Crepes and Waffles, Calle de Fuencarral, 105, Madrid
Contact: pavill01[at]ucm.es, or see meetup page or Facebook group

Manchester, UK
Time: Saturday, August 18, 3:00
Location: The grass patch next to the Wharf Pub in city center M15 4ST coordinates 53.473975, -2.256884
Contact: kernelmanchester[at]gmail.com, or message Ben on Facebook

Melbourne, Australia
Time: Friday, September 7, 6:00
Location: The Queensberry Hotel Dining Room, 593 Swanston St, Carlton
Contact: Call Jugemu, 0438 869 257, or see Facebook group

Miami / Fort Lauderdale, Florida
Time: Saturday August 11, 5:00
Location: Passion del Cielo Coffee, 3301 NE 1st Ave #100
Contact: contact[at]postlibertarian.com, or see Facebook group or Facebook event

Montreal, Quebec, Canada
Time: Saturday, September 1, 2:00
Location: Private house, 810 Avenue Duluth E, Montréal, QC H2L 1B3
Contact: mathieu.roy.37[at]gmail.com, or see Facebook group or Facebook event

Moscow, Russia
Time: Saturday, August 25, 4:00
Location: Kocherga rationality time-club at Bolshaya Dorogomilovskaya, 5 building 2 (https://kocherga-club.ru/#contacts for directions)
Contact: Alex at nikkou.postbox@gmail.com

Munich, Germany
Time: Saturday, August 11, 5:00
Location: Guddenstraße 7, Munich
Contact: lw[at]1platz.de, or see meetup page or Facebook group

Nashville, Tennessee
Time: Tuesday, August 21, 7:00
Location: Industrious, 1033 Demonbreun Ave, Suite 300
Contact: james[at]writechem.com, or see Facebook event

New York City, New York
Time: Saturday, August 18, 3:00
Location: Hudson Eats Food Court, tables near the Black Seed Bagel (will have a sign at the tables), Brookfield Place, 2nd Floor, 230 Vesey Street, Manhattan (map)
Contact: Rachel at (650) 534-7354, or see Google group

Norman, Oklahoma
Time: Saturday, August 11, 6:00
Location: Barnes & Noble 540 Ed Noble Pkwy
Contact: fischerjoe855[at]gmail.com

Northampton, Massachusetts
Time: Saturday, September 8, 6:30
Location: The Roost (cafe), 1 Market Street
Contact: alex[at]alexliebowitz.com

On Board The Battleship USS Iowa
Time: Saturday, September 8, 1:30
Location: Battleship USS Iowa Museum, 250 S Harbor Blvd, Los Angeles / San Pedro
Contact: Who do you think?

Oslo, Norway
Time: Thursday, August 23, 7:00
Location: Starbucks on Aker Brygge
Contact: anders[at]huitfeldt.net

Ottawa, Ontario, Canada
Time: Friday, August 10, 6:00
Location: Art House Cafe, 555 Somerset Street W, Ottawa, Ontario K1R 5K1
Contact: StefanDeYoung[at]gmail.com, or see Facebook group

Oxford, UK
Time: Thursday, August 16, 7:15
Location: The Swan & Castle
Contact: hbesceli[at]gmail.com

Paris, France
Time: Saturday, September 1, 3:00
Location: 48°51’37.9″N 2°17’11.8″E (map)
Contact: Call Jules at +33.6.soixante-quinze.99.65.84

Phoenix, Arizona
Time: Saturday, August 25, 10 AM
Location: 2933 N 17th Dr
Contact: Text Wong at 740 346 9664

Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
Time: Thursday, August 30, 6:00
Location: Tir Na Nog Irish Pub, 1600 Arch Street
Contact: dmcbriggs[at]gmail.com

Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania
Time: Saturday, September 15, 12 noon
Location: Private home, 326 Lincoln Ave, Carnegie PA
Contact: mirandagavrin[at]gmail.com, please RSVP if attending

Portland, Oregon
Time: Saturday, August 11, 12:30
Location: Private residence, 3246 NE 57th Ave (cross street is Klickitat)
Contact: nwalton125[at]gmail.com, encouraged to RSVP

Prague, Czech Republic
Time: Sunday, August 26, 6:30
Location: Tea Room Dharmasala, Peckova, 296/15
Contact: nadvornik.jiri[at]gmail.com, or see Facebook event

Pune, India
Time: Saturday, August 11, 3:00
Location: Cafe Coffee Day outlet at IISER campus
Contact: 7rat13[at]gmail.com

Rochester, New York
Time: Sunday, August 26, 1:00
Location: Wegman’s Market Cafe Food Court, 745 Calkins Road
Contact: christopherjpohlman[at]gmail.com

Sacramento, California
Time: Sunday, August 12, 5:00
Location: 1627 16th St, Sacramento, CA 95814
Contact: amethyst.eggplant[at]gmail.com

Salt Lake City, Utah
Time: Saturday, August 11, 3:00
Location: City Creek Food Court
Contact: wearenotsaved[at]gmail.com, or see Facebook event

San Antonio, Texas
Time: Saturday, August 11, 2:00
Location: Local Coffee @ 7338 Louis Pasteur Dr #204, look for the table with the monster on it
Contact: waffles.he.waffles[at]gmail.com

San Diego, California
Time: Saturday, August 11, 2:00
Location: Bonita Cove Park
Contact: the.god.empress.celestia[at]gmail.com or see Facebook page or Google group

San Francisco, California
Time: Monday August 13, 6:15
Location: 855 Brannan St, lobby across the street from REI
Contact: Call 203-503-7508

San Jose, California
Time: Saturday, September 1, 2:00
Location: Private house, 3806 Williams Rd
Contact: ddfr[at]daviddfriedman.com

Santa Rosa / Sonoma, California
Time: Saturday, August 25, 3:00
Location: 4656 Quigg Dr, Santa Rosa
Contact: adrian@smithdev.io or VivaLaPanda#6386 on Discord

São Paulo, Brasil (Brazil)
Time: Saturday, August 25, 2:00
Location: Vanilla Cafe, R. Antônio Carlos, 452 (near Metro Consolação)
Contact: gusbicalho[at]gmail.com, or see meetup group, Google group, or Facebook group

Seattle, Washington
Time: Sunday, September 9, 2:00
Location: Private house, 5238 11th Ave NE
Contact: speeze.pearson+ssc[at]gmail.com, or see Facebook event

Sheffield, UK
Time: Sunday, September 30, 12 noon
Location: Private house, Crookesmoore, S10 1DJ
Contact: jwhiteley1[at]sheffield.ac.uk

St. Louis, Missouri
Time: Saturday, August 25, 2:00
Location: Coffee Cartel, 2 Maryland Plaza
Contact: djcart137[at]gmail.com, or call 636-219-0944

Stockholm, Sweden
Time: Saturday, August 11, 3:00
Location: Cafe Dox, Stora Nygatan 31, 111 27 Stockholm (if closed, Grändens Cafe, Yxsmedsgränd 2)
Contact: ???, but see Meetup page

Sydney, Australia
Time: Thursday, August 16, 6:00
Location: 565 George Street, level 2, “Fishbowl Room”
Contact: Call Elo at +61438481143

Tel Aviv, Israel
Time: Monday, August 13, 7:00
Location: Melchett 23, Tel Aviv (3rd floor, apartment 12, building code 7890 ‘enter’)
Contact: hi[at]davidkatz.me

Toronto, Ontario, Canada
Time: Saturday, August 18, 5:00
Location: Prenup Pub (St George & College Street)
Contact: Ryan at (647) 562-7358

Tuebingen, Germany
Time: Wednesday, August 18, 8:00
Location: Willi Tübingen, Wilhelmstraße 3/1, 72074 Tübingen
Contact: y.muehlhaeuser[at]gmx.de

Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada
Time: Saturday, August 11, 3:00
Location: Central Library, downtown Vancouver, meet just inside main entrance
Contact: goodtown.r[at]gmail.com

Vienna, Austria
Time: Saturday, August 18, 3:00
Location: Kaisermühlenstrasse 24. “The meeting room is on the ground floor of the apartment buidling which is across the road from the Stadlau station. The room entrance is on the opposite (eastern) side of the building, between Erich-Fried-Weg and Fahngasse. (map) ”
Contact: moses.skoda[at]gmail.com, or see Facebook group

Washington DC
Time: Saturday, August 25, 7:00
Location: 616 E St NW
Contact: robirahman94[at]gmail.com or see Google group

Wellington, New Zealand
Time: Thursday August 16, 6:00
Location: Enigma, 128 Courtenay Place
Contact: 021 885 180

Zurich, Switzerland
Time: Saturday, August 25, 4:00
Location: The Bäckeranlage Park
Contact: juri2mol[at]gmail.com

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96 Responses to SSC Meetups 2018: Times And Places

  1. stronico says:

    @Scott
    Atlanta Georgia USA
    Time: Saturday Sept 29th, 2018 at 2:00 PM
    Location: Hodgepodge Coffee House, 720 Moreland AVE SE, Atlanta GA 30316
    Contact: steve(at)digitaltoolfactory.net

  2. Jorge says:

    Unless someone contacts me by tomorrow (Monday 20 Aug) Escazú, Costa Rica is canceled. So far only 1 person has contacted me and they will be out of the country on the 25th.

    • Jorge says:

      @SCOTT

      sorry, should have included that before:

      Unless someone contacts me by tomorrow (Monday 20 Aug) Escazú, Costa Rica is canceled. So far only 1 person has contacted me and they will be out of the country on the 25th.

  3. MathiasBonde says:

    The Copenhagen event will be on the 28th of September at 5:00 pm in the churchwing of studenterhuset:
    – Købmagergade 52, 1150 Copenhagen

    I’ve created a facebook event, by pressing attend you will make it easier for me to gauge just how many snacks I should buy 🙂

    https://www.facebook.com/events/663552214029994

    contact email: mathias@bonde.dk
    contact phone: +45 93 93 42 43

  4. StefanDeYoung says:

    Ottawa

    The meetup on Friday, August 10th was a great success with double our usual attendance (12 vs 6). Staff at the cafe asked us to book the room in the future if we anticipated attendance greater than 6.

    There are additional meetups on August 15th and August 24th. The August 15th meetup will be 6pm at the Art House Cafe, 555 Somerset Street West. The August 24th meetup may be moved to a private residence to avoid having to book space.

    Please see the facebook group (https://www.facebook.com/groups/1756221964428105/) or contact me (stefandeyoung@gmail.com) to keep abreast of future events.

    @MichaelBishop: A bunch of us showed up to Sconewitch yesterday and missed you. Contact me, so we can meet up at future SSC/LW events!

    • StefanDeYoung says:

      I have not booked the room for the August 15th meetup. If we have to move, we will move at 7pm. We will move either to Dundonald Park or to The Pour Boy. We will post on the facebook group if we do, and you can contact me via email to request updates.

  5. A1987dM says:

    The Brussels meetup is on the list but not on the map.

  6. Ryan Khurana says:

    Wanted to provide contact info for Toronto, Canada’s Meetup. My number is (647) 562-7358. Sorry for not providing earlier. Thanks, Ryan.

  7. strangepoop says:

    @SCOTT

    Chennai, India
    Tentative time and venue: 11 AM Sunday August 26th, Pumpkin Tales, Alwarpet
    (vegan friendly!)
    Contact: fufstsahil at gmail dot com

    I don’t know the city very well yet, so email me if you’d like to suggest another place.

  8. matt_512 says:

    @SCOTT I doubt anyone would come in such a small city, however:

    Iowa City, IA
    Time: Early September
    Location: TBD
    Contact: reddit.com/u/matt_512 OR reply to this comment

    If anyone is interested, I’m sure we can figure something out!

  9. Steven E. Landsburg says:

    Thanks for making this happen.

    The Rochester meetup is scheduled for the non-existent Saturday, August 26. Presumably this means either Saturday, August 25 or Sunday, August 26. It would be good to know which. Unfortunately, the organizer has not responded to my email requests for clarification. Can you somehow help?

  10. yossarian says:

    Anyone SSC’ing in Hamburg? I’ve seen a few German locations, but I can’t make it there.

  11. @SCOTT:
    San Jose, CA. We are having another meetup on September 1. 3806 Williams Road, San Jose 95117, starting at 2:00 P.M. Details.

  12. finlay says:

    I didn’t post in the organising post partly because I’ve been away and partly because I don’t expect to get enough people for a proper meetup, but if anybody in Nottingham, UK, fancies meeting, feel free to get in touch. My email address is finlayfoodle [at] yahoo [dot] co [dot] uk.

  13. jaimeastorga2000 says:

    Just came back from the Miami meetup. It was very nice. There were five guys total and we met and talked about a bunch of rationalist topics (ems, AI, existential risk, cryonics, EA, life extension, etc…) for two hours. And all I had to spend was $4 on the parking garage!

  14. mp says:

    Did the Vancouver one happen? I only noticed this post and the date for the meetup this morning, tried emailing but didn’t get a response. Showed up anyway, wandered around the large covered area near the library entrance then went inside and waited. Thought maybe I was somehow missing another entrance and circled around the building. Went back around to what was definitely the main entrance and eventually left.

  15. Rm says:

    We did it! And one of us drew Scott’s imagined portrait! Which, assumedly, cannot be mistaken for himself!

    Wish you luck, other people!

  16. Alexander Lyzhov says:

    @SCOTT

    I’m Alex and I’m organizing a meetup in Moscow, Russia at 4PM local time on 25th of August (Saturday).
    The venue is Kocherga rationality time-club at Bolshaya Dorogomilovskaya, 5 building 2 (https://kocherga-club.ru/#contacts for directions)
    Contact: nikkou.postbox@gmail.com

  17. Alex Zavoluk says:

    Just posting to confirm that the Austin LW email list is active and sending an e-mail to it will get you a response.

    edit: but I can post my personal contact info here if people would like.

  18. Optimization Process says:

    @SCOTT — Sorry, could I trouble you to change the Seattle Facebook event link to https://www.facebook.com/events/1803392936413170 ? I messed up the permissions, preventing non-Seattle-Rationality-Facebook-group-members from RSVPing or posting.

    Thanks so much! You are good.

  19. mupetblast says:

    Promoting here because it doesn’t conflict with SSC meetups in the bay, but there’s a Quillette reader meetup this Sunday August 12th in San Francisco. Details here: https://imgur.com/a/gJlkGre (FB page isn’t public.)

  20. oh_moses says:

    @SCOTT

    contact for the Vienna, Austria meetup: moses.skoda[at]gmail.com

    • b_jonas says:

      I’ll go to the Wien meeting from Budapest. If you’re also coming from Budapest or its general direction, you may contact me at ambrus@@mmaatthh..bbmmee..hhuu (remove one of each duplicated character) to organize to meet on the train. I’ll also stay in Wien for the next day and spend it in the Kunsthistorisches Museum.

  21. loriphos says:

    @SCOTT

    A couple of changes for the Boston meetup:
    1) Because of the rain, we are moving the meetup to the Starbucks at 66 Beacon street.
    2) We also changed organizers (the person who was originally going to do it had something come up). The new contact is ardeibel [at] gmail.com

  22. macedonia says:

    @SCOTT

    I created the following facebook group for Houston, which I’m organizing:

    https://www.facebook.com/groups/1816070091838828/

  23. askwho says:

    Birmingham meetup facebook event.

    For any questions contact: askew.thomas@gmail.com

  24. ksteel says:

    Imagine my surprise reading in my office in Tübingen that there is a meetup just a few hundred meters away. Our little town has to be by far the smallest place on the list (seriously, barely 90k people).

    Unfortunately I cannot attend this evening but I wish everyone there a lot of fun.

    • a_lieb says:

      Northampton, MA has 30k people and 3–5 people on board already! Seems like this may be more doable in low-population areas than it appears.

      (Northampton is a college town with other small towns nearby and close to a larger metro, but that also describes Tübingen.)

  25. A Definite Beta Guy says:

    8. Surprisingly many people will love you forever if you bring stim toys.

    ????

    This seems like the kind of thing not to Google at work.

    • Ozy Frantz says:

      Stim toys (also known as fidget toys) are small items with which you can do soothing, repetitive hand movements. You might have heard of fidget spinners; those are a stim toy. You can look at some other stim toys here. While stim toys are associated with autistic people, they’re also popular among people with ADHD, anxious people, and many neurotypicals.

  26. ASparklingViking says:

    Great to see the Manchester and Birmingham (UK) meetups on different dates, gives me a good chance of making one of them!

  27. Jiri Nadvornik says:

    @SCOTT
    There is a typo in the description of Prague meetup:
    Wrong: Dharamsala
    Correct: Dharmasala
    And can you please add link to our FB event? https://www.facebook.com/events/436296133526831/
    Thanks

  28. a_lieb says:

    Northampton, MA organizer here. For those who missed it, I changed both the location and date toward the end of the last thread—the location because The Foundry cafe suddenly closed last week, and the date because it seems like this one might work better with people’s schedules.

    I have an email RSVP from 2 UMass students. We had one firm RSVP for the original date (SamChevre) and one person who was very interested but said that the date probably wouldn’t work for them (grey_ghost). I don’t have contact info for either of them, so hopefully they catch this. If we get those two on board, we’d be up to 5 people already!

    An email thread is starting to happen, so if you email alex@alexliebowitz.com, I will add you on.

  29. MawBTS says:

    4. If it’s the first meetup, people are probably just going to want to talk, and if you try to organize some kind of “fun” “event” it’ll probably just be annoying.

    Thank you. Jesus.

  30. bassicallyboss says:

    The meetup page listed for Boulder, Colorado does not have an event page for the SSC meetup, and probably will not have one by the time of the event (though I’ll ask the page admin about getting one made).

  31. a_lieb says:

    @SCOTT

    I’m the organizer for the Northampton one. Sorry about the lack of contact info the first time. Name’s Alex; email is alex@alexliebowitz.com

  32. jooyous says:

    @SCOTT Sacramento meetup would like to announce that we’re meeting at

    1627 16th St, Sacramento, CA 95814

    on Sunday, August 12 at 5pm with contact amethyst.eggplant@gmail.com. We’re on the LW page also.

  33. Said Achmiz says:

    Re: the NYC meetup:

    I tried to look at the official map of Brookfield Place, but their website seems to be horribly broken, and I can’t load it in any browser. So, here is a map someone else made:

    https://fashionunfiltered-images.s3.amazonaws.com/production/uploads/article_medium/medium/19510/_embed.jpg

    You can see Black Seed Bagel near the top left of the map, 2nd level.

  34. ganmane says:

    @SCOTT @Scott: I have better info for the Portland, Oregon (PDX) meetup, as I am on the mailing list.

    There is a meetup scheduled for this Saturday, August 11th, at 12:30 pm. It it is held at a private residence. The address is here:

    3246 NE 57th Ave (cross street is Klickitat)

    You are encouraged, though not required, to RSVP the organizer:

    nwalton125 AT gmail DOT com

  35. Cliff says:

    I thought someone offered to host a meet-up in Richmond VA?

    • mingyuan says:

      Unfortunately that person followed up saying that they weren’t volunteering to host anything specific; it was just a vague offer. But if you’re in Richmond and would like to host a meetup I’d be happy to add it to the list!

  36. gbdub says:

    Late to the party, but as far as tips for making these things more approachable / accessible, could I add “Don’t hold it at a private residence” (unless you’re a large well established group)?

    I had lukewarm interest in going to the Phoenix meetup but the fact that a) it sounds like the likely attendance is small b) it’s at a private home in a residential neighborhood a significant drive from my house and c) the only contact info is the organizer’s private phone number kind of pushed me into the “definite no” bucket.

    No offense intended, and of course gratitude to Wong for organizing and offering (presumably) their home to guests, it’s just particularly intimidating to show up at a random stranger’s house to meet a small group of other complete strangers, vs. meeting somewhere public. Plus having to text/call someone is stressful. I recognize this is a personal failing on my part, but I suspect it is not a unique one among this crowd.

    • Jules says:

      What other form of contact would you find better?
      I gave my phone number for Paris, because I consider texts a rather easy form of communication

      • gbdub says:

        Facebook group (private if you want) or email. Phone number (even for text) just always felt more private/personal/intrusive and anxiety inducing. I prefer email or Facebook because I can take my time composing a message, and whoever I’m messaging can reply at their leisure.

      • rlms says:

        I think email is the best form in the Anglosphere at least.

    • wong says:

      Hey, imagine how intimidating it is for a bunch of strangers to show up at THE ACTUAL PLACE THAT YOU LIVE.

      Still, it’s a risk I’m willing to take in exchange for meeting like-minded-folks so rarely encountered in the general population – and Scott’s maximally-encouraging psychiatrist-tone makes me feel that it will all be okay.

      And it probably will! And you should definitely come! I’m sorry I live so far away.

      • gbdub says:

        No you live pretty central for Phoenix, it’s a good location, just that I don’t. And like I said, I appreciate the offer of hosting. Just pointing out it’s a bit intimidating for attendees is all (more so for you – but everybody has their comfort level they’re willing to overcome). I was lukewarm mostly because the weekend isn’t a great one for me. I’ll make it out one of these times.

  37. Jim Hays says:

    @SCOTT

    I am offering to host a meetup for Columbus Ohio.

    Time: 3pm Saturday, September 8th
    Location: Private Residence
    397 Eldridge Ave
    Columbus, OH, 43203
    Contact: james.thomas.hays [at] gmail.com

  38. VivaLaPanda says:

    @SCOTT

    I’m hosting the Santa Rosa meetup. Can you add the following contact info:
    email at adrian@smithdev.io
    or via Discord at VivaLaPanda#6386

  39. Pratfins says:

    A mistake was made. The meeting for St. Louis was changed to:

    The Coffee Cartel
    2 Maryland Plaza

    I had e-mailed Claire, and she sent me a confirmation that it was changed on her end, but I guess you had a separate list? My apologies.

  40. SteveReilly says:

    @SCOTT I’m the Charleston guy. Contact info is reilly dot steven at gmail dot com.

    • SteveReilly says:

      @scott and @ anyone coming to the Charleston meetup. I’ll be seated somewhere near the Holocaust memorial in the southeast corner of the park. I’m not sure if I’ll be there alone or if my wife is coming. But feel free to email me anytime between now and then if you’re worried about not finding me.

  41. mercutio says:

    Hmm. Are you being intentionally obscure by specifying a Berkeley location which Google Maps doesn’t find unless you add “circle” to the name of the street?

    If so, I guess I’ve ruined it… If not, perhaps add “circle” to your description.

  42. liskantope says:

    I almost didn’t even bother to check this list of meetups, since I live in Italy and it seems that the rationalist community in this country is pretty feeble.

    But I wound up skimming this list anyway, and… I noticed there’s an event in Edinburgh this Sunday, and despite having never so much as set foot in Scotland before, I happen to be in Edinburgh this Sunday. Of course the people I’m staying with may have other plans, so I can’t promise I can come, but I’m fairly optimistic. Who else is coming? Roughly how many are expected to be there?

  43. robirahman says:

    Contact address for the DC meetup: robirahman94@gmail.com

  44. Andrew Farrell says:

    > If you have a vague location like “in the mall” or “at the North Park”, nobody will ever find each other. Give a specific place (eg “at the North Park, by the big oak tree in the northwest corner”) and be carrying a sign saying “SSC MEETUP”. If you were too vague in your description, comment with a better one and I can edit it in.

    My priorities when composing a description of a place to meet are:

    0) Access is not blocked by a “closed for business” sign, painfully loud noise, or ongoing acts of violence at the time of meetup. (I’d add offensive smells to this list, but I’m hard-of-smelling and sometimes forget about that one.)

    1) Precisely-described enough that for any given point that reasonably matches a description of the location, you have line-of-sight to any other point that reasonably matches a description of the location.

    2) Not in a concrete bunker, British grocery store, or other structure that blocks cell phone signal.

    3) Near some sort of large legible sign or other highly-visible and describable object or mural.

    4) Within line-of-sight and 90 seconds walk of a place to sit down.

    5) Accessible to someone rolling a heavy thing such as luggage or a body without having to lift the thing over steps.

    6) Within 7 minutes walk of a publicly-accessible toilet.

    7) Not so crowded by people as to make it really difficult to spot a particular person trying to get your attention.

    8) Within 12 minutes walk of a place to quickly acquire mediocre food.

    The priorities of this list change depending on:

    – Possible disabilities and encumberances of the person[s] I’m meeting with.

    – The tendency to be late of the person[s] I’m meeting with.

    – The consequences of being late. For instance, when catching a flight, my rule is “If we dont meet by X time, we’ll meet on the plane.”

    – The thing we are doing.

    – The known competence at communicating about logistics of the person[s] I’m meeting with.

  45. Amakthel says:

    @Scott
    Anyone who is interested in coming to the Ann Arbor one can call me at 7343520125

  46. Charles F says:

    @Scott
    For the madison meetup, there is a facebook event here. Could you add that to the “contact” section? Thanks.

  47. vaaal888 says:

    Looking forward to participate in the Bristol one! 😀

  48. 4thwaywastrel says:

    Brisbane meetup time is 7pm 🙂

  49. Lee Wang says:

    @Scott Alexander

    I have been notified by the organizer in Amsterdam to add the following data:

    1. For the location it should be: On the grass in front of Weesperzijde 100

    Weesperzijde is a street.

    2. Organizer email: mathijs[dot]henquet[at]gmail[dot]com

    • Lee Wang says:

      @SCOTT

      We also have a facebook event now https://www.facebook.com/events/515309278897784/ which is better than the meetup link or facebook group. Also could you maybe obfuscate the email address in the above post, I cant edit it now.

      • Majuscule says:

        I set up a Meetup.com page for SSC Amsterdam a while ago. If you want to take it over, contact me and we can work on that- I’m dmcbriggs at gmail. You might also talk to a guy named Martin, who you might know. He was the last contact for our old Amsterdam group, to see if he’s still running the regular gathering we had going until this spring. I can put you in touch with him as well.

  50. melling says:

    @SCOTT

    We changed the location of the Wellington (NZ) meetup to Enigma, in response to a request from OutsideContextProblem, but the main post mentions the old location of The Library. Could you edit the main post, please?

    See: the thread at https://slatestarcodex.com/2018/07/26/meetups-everywhere-2018/#comment-652490

  51. iamnoah says:

    Wellington’s location is inconsistent.

    See https://slatestarcodex.com/2018/07/26/meetups-everywhere-2018/#comment-652482

    And

    https://www.lesswrong.com/events/GqihPsKvnwJNcphFp/wellington-ssc-meetup

    Fortunately just a block apart. I’ll be there so I’ll volunteer to be the contact: 021 885 180

    and we’ll check The Library for stragglers before things get going.

  52. tmk says:

    What are people generally like at SSC meetups? This comment section, and especially the subreddit is known for certain political leanings. I intuit the meetups are very different, but I cannot quite explain why.

    • Jules says:

      I think that previous SSC surveys have shown that those leanings are not that prevalent, they just stand out because we’re not used to seeing them, especially to seeing them being engaged with instead of being immediately rebuked as abhorrent.

    • ashlael says:

      Last time for me (Canberra) the group was politically pretty far-left with myself as a distinct outlier on the right. Everyone was really nice and friendly though, I didn’t feel uncomfortable at all. The political discussion was vastly more respectful than what I’ve experienced online, even compared to here.

      Canberra is one of the most left-wing areas in Australia though, so I don’t expect my experience to be fully representative in that respect.

    • The Pachyderminator says:

      I don’t think anyone should be discouraged from attending for this reason, but trouble of this kind is possible. At the only SSC meetup I’ve been to with a sizeable group of attendees, someone spoke at length in defense of Richard Spenser – and this in the middle of a crowded coffee shop in a hipsterish part of town. The experience was sufficiently unpleasant that I now approach SSC meetups cautiously, even though someone else who was there later became a good friend.

    • rlms says:

      The political leanings at my meetups in the UK were not much like those of the comment section, and not at all like the subreddit (if my understanding of it as largely nu-right/libertarian is correct). Most people were Lib Dem ish (the UK’s left-liberal party) but also especially thoughtful and openminded. Unlike the comments section (and as you would probably expect from a SSC readers meetup) they were not at all confrontational; we had polite discussions rather than anything approaching arguments.

    • b_jonas says:

      On the two SSC meetups in Budapest, we had around ten people and most of them were IT geeks. There is certainly some clustering in politics, as is typical in university-educated middle class people. We did talk about politics a bit during the meeting, but it wasn’t too annoying, even I could stand it and I hate to talk about politics these days.

  53. entobat says:

    Soixante-quinze is French for 75. I imagine the phone number is written as-is for similar reasons to emails being listed as “person[at]site”.

    +33 is the international code for France; callers with international phones should dial the 11 digits given in the main post. Callers from within France should drop the +33 from the beginning but prepend a 0 (so it starts 06.soixante-quinze), and also learn how their phone system works well enough that they don’t need an American to explain it to them. My sources inform me that the 11-digit numbers work domestically as well.

    (French phone numbers are 10 digits long and are always written as “xx.xx.xx.xx.xx”. This seems worse than the American system to me from a memorability standpoint, but maybe they say the same thing about ours.)

    • Jules says:

      The soixante-quinze was indeed my equivalent to [at] so that random robots don’t scrape my phone number off the internet to send more spam…

      Using the international version of a phone number also works from within the country. In my experience, numbers displayed as caller ID are automatically in this format.

      We pronounce our phone numbers as a series of two-digit numbers (“thirty-four” rather than “three four”), and three-digit numbers would generally be longer to pronounce.
      Compared to digit by digit, it makes for more complex, but less elements to remember, but also gives more room for mishearing.
      I don’t think the difference is massive, but I think I’ll give you this one.

      • entobat says:

        Thanks for the formatting explanation; despite having called a number of French phone numbers I think I have somehow avoided ever hearing one spoken aloud. Though I’m not sure I buy the “it takes less time to say this way” argument when one of your two-digit numbers is quatre-vingt-dix-neuf 🙂 .

        Keep in mind we do say the numbers digit by digit, but conceptually tend to remember them as xxx-xxx-xxxx. I can certainly tell you the 4th through 6th digits of my phone number (the middle bunch) much more quickly than, say, the 5th through 7th.

        • Jules says:

          I was comparing two-digit numbers to three-digit rather than series of one digit.
          You wouldn’t believe how fast we can pronounce quatre-vingt-dix, though 😉

          • entobat says:

            Believe me, my travels have familiarized (and dismayed) me with how quickly French people speak 🙂 .

          • TenthKrige says:

            I wonder how much that’s quick pronunciation vs. not noticing the syllables because we expect them to be there.

          • The Pachyderminator says:

            Most travelers find that all languages other than their own are spoken incredibly fast. The possible exception is Entish.

      • TenthKrige says:

        I’d never heard the “3-digit numbers are longer to pronounce” argument. I still think 3-digit numbers are easier to keep in short-term memory, at least.

        And your meetup is yet another cool thing happening in Paris that makes me almost want to move to Paris. Presque =] .

        • Jules says:

          I think that two 3 digit numbers are usually longer to pronounce than three digit numbers, because you have to add “cent” for “hundred”, but I could be wrong.

          Do come to Paris, you’ll have a harder time remembering the phone numbers but we have the metric system 😉

          • TenthKrige says:

            Ah, sorry I was too cryptic : I’m french and I live in Lille. I could take the train, it’s only one hour. Plus I have friends to see in Paris.

            I’ll think about it !

          • Jules says:

            please do come 🙂

            And I do apologise, I was the one who wrongly assumed you were American