Thanks to everyone who offered to host a meetup. Full list of cities, times, and places is below. If you’re reading this, you’re invited. Please don’t feel like you “won’t be welcome” just because you’re new to the blog, demographically different from the average reader, or hate SSC and everything it stands for. You’ll be fine!
Some suggestions for organizers:
1. Bring a sign that says SSC MEETUP so people can find you
2. Bring nametags and markers
3. Bring a signup sheet where people can write their names and emails if they want to hear about future meetups.
4. If 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.
5. Please record how many people attend; I will ask for these numbers to help with future meetup posts.
6. If you take a picture and send it to me, I’ll try to post it here. I’ll ask for this later, please don’t email these to me until then.
If a city has **asterisks** around its name, nobody volunteered to host a meetup there, but SSC meetup director Mingyuan suspected you might have interested readers anyway. She chose a time, place, and random coffee shop as a Schelling point for these cities. There won’t be any organizers around, and no guarantee of anyone at all, but you can still go. If you go to these, in order to make it easier for everyone to find each other, try to arrive on time, wear something blue on top (shirt, hoodie, etc) as a signal, and/or bring SSC signs.
If a city’s name is in blue, that means I’ll be attending the meetup. I’ll try to announce each of these on the blog, and some of them might be subject to schedule change, so watch this space. A few people from various rationalist organizations interested in getting to know the further-flung parts of the community might be tagging along with me for some of the way.
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 “@MINGYUAN” so she can find it easily.
LIST OF CITIES
Albany, NY
Time: Saturday, September 21, 10:00 AM
Location: Stacks Espresso, 260 Lark St.
Contact: pellinorew[at]gmail
Amsterdam, Netherlands
Time: Saturday, September 28, 3:00 PM
Location: Grass in front of Weesperzijde 100
Contact: mathijs.henquet[at]gmail; Facebook event
Ann Arbor, MI
Time: Thursday, September 26, 6:30 PM
Location: TBD, check http://bit.ly/2lICqfW closer to the date for updates
Contact: algo2217[at]gmail
Atlanta, GA
Time: Saturday, October 12, 2:00 PM
Location: Hodgepodge Coffeehouse, 720 Moreland Avenue Southeast
Contact: steve[at]digitaltoolfactory[dot]net
Auckland, New Zealand
Time: Sunday, September 22, 4:00 PM
Location: Lim Chhour Food Court, 184 Karangahape Rd.
Contact: benjsmith[at]gmail; +64 22 685-4105; Facebook event
Details: Parking is available at Wilson’s Car Park on Cross Street. You may also find free street parking. There are excellent public transport links from many parts of the city. Please consider perusing the wonderful range of food options and purchasing a drink, snack, or meal to support our hosts. If you can’t fit it in the budget or just aren’t hungry, though, please come anyway as we’d love to have you!
Austin, TX
Time: Monday, September 30, 6:00 PM
Location: Central Market North Lamar, 4001 N Lamar Blvd.
Contact: azavoluk[at]gmail; Google group
Details: Either upstairs on the balcony or outside in the courtyard. Will email the google group, but we should be easy to spot.
Baltimore, MD
Time: Sunday, September 29, 7:00 PM
Location: 4th Floor, UMBC Performing Arts and Humanities Building
Contact: rivka[at]adrusi[dot]com
Bangalore, India
Additional search terms: Bengaluru
Time: Sunday, September 22, 4:00 PM
Location: Matteo Coffea, Church Street, Near MG road Metro Station
Contact: m.nihalmohan[at]gmail
Barcelona, Spain
Time: Saturday, September 21, 4:00 PM
Location: Plaça d’Espanya, 08004 Barcelona, Spain
Contact: ana_bcn[at]protonmail[dot]com
Details: We meet in Plaça d’Espanya at the big tower closest to Fira. Then depending on the weather we can go to Montjuic or Arenas. Feel free to send me an e-mail even if you can’t attend, so that we may catch up at another time.
Berkeley, CA
Time: Thursday, October 10, 6:00 PM
Location: “Event Horizon” (private residence), 2412 Martin Luther King Jr. Way
Contact: mingyuan[at]uchicago[dot]edu; Facebook event
Berlin, Germany
Time: Sunday, September 22, 7:00 PM
Location: Turmstr. 10, 10559 Berlin
Contact: ssc[at]alphabattle[dot]xyz
Details: The place is a club house for a club I’m in (JVB), so a store window, hard to miss. I’ll put up an SSC sign. Bus stops right in front, or subway to Turmstr or S-Bahn to Bellevue. You can buy drinks at ~cost. There are various takeaway options around if you want to bring something or order in. We’ll have the place to ourselves and can easily seat 30 people.
Boston, MA
Time: Friday, September 20, 7:00 PM
Location: 199 Harvard St Apt 2, Cambridge (about 8 minutes walk from Central MBTA station)
Contact: boston-lw-organizers[at]googlegroups[dot]com, Facebook event, Less Wrong event
Boulder, CO
Time: Monday, September 16, 7:15 PM
Location: The Rayback Collective, 2775 Valmont Rd.
Contact: Meetup.com
Details: I will have some sort of sign or folded paper that says “LW RRG” on it or something similar. Look for a tall man with long hair and a beard. We usually sit in the Southwest corner if possible, or in one of the couch circles along the west wall.
**Brighton, UK**
Time: Saturday, September 21, 2:00 PM
Location: Starbucks, 201 Western Rd.
Contact: None
Details: Meet in the upstairs seating area.
Brisbane, Australia
Time: Friday, October 11, 7:00 PM
Location: Level 1/210 Wickham St, Fortitude Valley QLD 4006, Australia
Contact: jarred.filmer[at]gmail
Details: The Boiler Room, Fortitude Valley, the bar behind the mural of Bill Murrary at Tomcat. Head up the stairs then curve left, you’ll see it.
Bristol, UK
Time: Thursday, September 26, 7:30 PM
Location: The Robin Hood, 56 St Michael’s Hill
Contact: Facebook event
**Brussels, Belgium**
Time: Saturday, September 21, 2:00 PM
Location: The Judgy Vegan, Rue des Capucins 55
Contact: None
**Budapest, Hungary**
Time: Saturday, September 21, 2:00 PM
Location: Starbucks, Egyetem tér 4, 1053 Hungary
Contact: None
Details: Meet in the outdoor seating area, if the weather allows
Buffalo, NY
Time: Sunday, September 29, 10:00 AM
Location: Five Points Bakery, 426 Rhode Island St.
Contact: spetey[at]gmail
Calgary, Canada
Time: Sunday, September 22, 1:00 PM
Location: Weeds Cafe, 1903 20 Ave NW
Contact: ssccalgary[at]yahoo[dot]com
Details: Please email me if you are going to attend. I live over an hour away, and would just like to make sure I don’t have to do the long drive if nobody will be attending, as the amount of interest in Calgary might be on the low side. Similarly, I would like to encourage anybody who is on the shy side, or who might be anxious about a small turnout to attend as well. To this end, if it looks like we’re going to have a group of 3 or less people, I will let you know beforehand and you can reconsider attending if you like; this way, you won’t have to worry that you’re going to be the only one to show up.
Cambridge, UK
Time: Wednesday, October 16, 7:00 PM
Location: The Burleigh Arms, 9-11 Newmarket Rd.
Contact: rlm72[at]cam[dot]ac[dot]uk
Canberra, ACT, Australia
Time: Wednesday, September 25, 6:00 PM
Location: The Snug Room at King O’Malley’s in Civic Centre
Contact: andy.bachler[at]gmail
Details: I have booked the Snug Room at King O’Malley’s which is a quiet room behind the bar. Should be low key and quiet enough to allow easy conversation.
Cape Town, South Africa
Time: Saturday, September 28, 11:00 AM
Location: Haas Coffee, 19 Buitenkant St, Cape Town City Centre
Contact: rashtayob[at]gmail
**Champaign-Urbana, IL**
Additional search terms: UIUC
Time: Saturday, September 21, 2:00 PM
Location: Illini Union Basement
Contact: None
Charlotte, NC
Time: Monday, September 16, 7:00 PM
Location: The Mighty Meeple, 8440 Pit Stop Ct NW #180, Concord, NC 28027
Contact: nospam[at]catallaxymedia[dot]com
Details: Mighty Meeple is a game store with a large backroom area of tables as well as a ton of free board games to play during this time frame for their Board Game Night. You can also bring your own food, although they have drinks and snacks available for purchase. My plan will be to sit at a long table with my young adult family and play games with a sign reading SSC so you can find us. There will be at least 4-6 people already. We can chat and/or play various games together. Please email me to introduce yourself or RSVP. I’ll reply-all just before so everyone attending knows what to expect.
Chicago, IL
Time: Saturday, September 28, 6:00 PM
Location: South Loop Strength & Conditioning, 645 S Clark St.
Contact: todd[at]southloopsc[dot]com
Details: The location is my gym, so we’ve got a large open space ripe for exercising socializing.
Cleveland, OH
Time: Saturday, September 28, 1:00 PM
Location: Tabletop Cleveland, 1810 W 25th St.
Contact: ferbfreeman[at]gmail
Cologne, Germany
Time: Saturday, September 21, 5:00 PM
Location: Marienweg 43, 50858 Köln
Contact: marcel_mueller[at]mail[dot]de
Details: Private venue, everyone who wants to attend is welcome. If you are unable to find us call +491788862254.
Columbus, OH
Time: Sunday, September 22, 6:00 PM
Location: 397 Eldridge Ave.
Contact: james.thomas.hays[at]gmail
Details: Private residence. Food will be provided. RSVPs preferred to help with planning purposes, but not required.
Copenhagen, Denmark
Time: Saturday, September 21, 7:00 PM
Location: Studenterhuset, Købmagergade 52, Denmark
Contact: soeren.elverlin[at]gmail
Dallas, TX
Time: Sunday, September 15, 5:00 PM
Location: Magic Cup Cafe, North Jupiter Road, Richardson, TX
Contact: tayfie[at]pm[dot]me; LessWrong
Darmstadt, Germany
Time: Sunday, October 20, 2:00 PM
Location: Wilhelminenstraße 17
Contact: ssc.darmstadt[at]outlook[dot]de
Denver, CO
Time: Saturday, October 5, 6:00 PM
Location: 1520 1/2 Lowell Blvd
Contact: fsjdnjdnsjkuuoqq[at]aol[dot]com
Dublin, Ireland
Time: Saturday, September 21, 2:00 PM
Location: Starbucks, Stephen Court, GF1, St Stephen’s Green, Dublin 2, D02 N960, Ireland
Contact: enagohan[at]gmail; Facebook event; LessWrong
**Edinburgh, Scotland**
Time: Saturday, September 21, 2:00 PM
Location: Starbucks, 124 High St, Edinburgh EH1 1SG, UK
Contact: None
Details: Meet in the upstairs seating area
Fairbanks, AK
Time: Sunday, October 6, 9:00 PM
Location: Starbucks, 3755 Airport Way
Contact: scott[at]slatestarcodex[dot]com
Details: May or may not happen; await details on blog the day before
Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada
Time: Saturday, September 21, 7:00 PM
Location: Uncommon Grounds, 1030 South Park Street
Contact: ahobata[at]gmail
Hamburg, Germany
Time: Saturday, September 21, 5:00 PM
Location: Troy Office, Maienweg 310, 22335 Hamburg, Germany
Contact: gunnar.zarncke[at]gmx[dot]de
Details: We are meeting in the small company office of the fintech startup troy in the 4th floor. Just ring at “troy”. Depending on the weather we can sit on our nice balcony. It would be nice if guests could bring blankets. This is not an official company event but privately organized. Some foods and drinks might be provided, but I’d appreciate if you contribute. There will be some prepared ice breakers and discussion topics, but you are free to contribute or just meet and talk.
Helsinki, Finland
Time: Tuesday, September 24, 6:00 PM
Location: Restaurant Dubliner Kaivopiha, Mannerheimintie 5
Contact: joenash499[at]gmail
Details: We will be in the private room called Guinness Lounge. You can expect something like a normal night at the pub, except with a group consisting of other SSC readers (and without the background noise, since we’ll be in a private room.) You don’t have to contact anyone in advance, you can just show up.
**Honolulu, HI**
Time: Saturday, September 21, 2:00 PM
Location: Starbucks, 680 Ala Moana Blvd A101
Contact: None
Houston, TX
Time: Sunday, September 15, 2:00 PM
Location: Brasil Cafe, 2604 Dunlavy St.
Contact: walambert.work[at]gmail; LessWrong; Facebook group; Google group; Discord server (link expires after 5 uses, please contact me if you want to join our Discord but the link has stopped working)
Indianapolis, IN
Time: Saturday, September 21, 4:00 PM
Location: ShoeFly Public House, 122 East 22nd Street
Contact: molybdenumblue[at]gmail
Iowa City, IA
Time: Sunday, September 15, 1:00 PM
Location: The Java House, 211 E Washington St.
Contact: potentgamer[at]gmail
Irvine, CA
See “Orange County”, below.
**Jacksonville, FL**
Time: Saturday, September 21, 2:00 PM
Location: Starbucks, 1980 San Marco Blvd
Contact: None
Kansas City, KS
Time: Sunday, September 22, 12:30 PM
Location: Panera Bread, 10606 Shawnee Mission Pkwy, Shawnee, KS
Contact: alex.hedtke[at]gmail; Facebook event
Kiev, Ukraine
Additional search terms: Kyiv
Time: Saturday, September 14, 4:00 PM
Location: On the steps to the National Museum of Nature (Underground station “Teatral’na”)
Contact: Marichka, (+38)0976672970
Details: We shall move from there, so better don’t be late.
Kitchener-Waterloo, ON
Time: Sunday, September 29, 2:00 PM
Location: Field of Waterloo CI
Contact: blxxia[at]gmail
Details: I’ll wear red converse and bring some frisbees for those that are athletically (or simply disc-) inclined. We’ll walk the half a block to my apartment at around 3:30ish and have the rest of the meetup there with tea and snacks, if space allows.
Lexington, KY
Additional search terms: Louisville, Cincinnati, Frankfort, Covington, Shelbyville
Time: Sunday, September 22, 7:00 PM
Location: West Sixth Brewery, 501 West Sixth Street, Suite 100
Contact: hellernathanssc[at]gmail
Details: Please email if you’re interested.
Lisbon, Portugal
Time: Sunday, October 6, 4:30 PM
Location: Oriente Station
Contact: ana_bcn[at]protonmail[dot]com; Meetup.com
Details: We meet in the Oriente station in front of the book fair. Then depending on the weather we can go to Parque das Nações or Vasco da Gama.
London, UK
Time: Sunday, September 15, 2:00 PM
Location: Craft Beer Co. Islington, 55 White Lion Street (we have a large room booked)
Contact: philip.hazelden[at]gmail; Facebook event; Facebook group
Los Angeles, CA
Time: Wednesday, October 9, 7:00 PM
Location: Colorado Center Park off 26th and Broadway
Contact: bobert.mushky[at]gmail; Discord server
Details: Also consider coming to the Orange County meetup to meet me [Scott] two days later
Madison, WI
Time: Saturday, September 21, 5:00 PM
Location: 1022 High St.
Contact: mmwang[at]wisc[dot]edu; Facebook event
Details: This is a house (newly painted blue with a red door), very close to the #4 and #47 bus stop. Also the #13 and #5 stop close by. If you need a ride, leave a message on the Facebook event and someone will get you. Some basic vegan food will be served. Bring food for yourself or to share if so inclined.
Madrid, Spain
Time: Saturday, September 21, 4:00 PM
Location: Ferros Café, Calle del Maestro Ángel Llorca, 9, 28003 Madrid
Contact: pavill01[at]ucm[dot]es; Meetup.com
Details: We speak both English and Spanish. About a week before I will post the event details in the Meetup group.
**Manchester, UK**
Time: Saturday, September 21, 2:00 PM
Location: The grass patch next to the Wharf Pub in city center M15 4ST, coordinates 53.473975, -2.256884
Contact: None
Medellín, Colombia
Time: Sunday, September 22, 11:00 AM
Location: Café Revolución, Carrera 73 | Cq. 4 #10, Laureles, Medellín, Colombia
Contact: richard.meadows[at]thedeepdish[dot]org
Melbourne, Australia
Time: Friday, October 4, 6:00 PM
Location: Queensberry Hotel, 593 Swanston St, Carlton VIC 3053
Contact: 0438 869 257; Facebook group
Memphis, TN
Time: Saturday, October 5, 5:00 PM
Location: French Truck Coffee at Crosstown Concourse
Contact: michael[at]postlibertarian[dot]com
Details: It’s in the main Central Atrium of Crosstown Concourse. There are many chairs and tables right in front so we should be able to grab a few. I’m totally ok if only a couple people show up!
Miami, FL
Time: Saturday, October 12, 5:00 PM
Location: Pasion del Cielo (Brickell City Centre location), 701 S Miami Ave #350B
Contact: eric135033[at]gmail; Facebook group
Minneapolis, MN
Additional search terms: St. Paul, Twin Cities
Time: Saturday, September 21, 3:00 PM
Location: The Knoll, 27 Pleasant St SE
Contact: grahamsnumberisbig[at]gmail; LessWrong
Details: This is a park on the north end of the University of Minnesota’s Minneapolis campus, not the apartment building of the same name. Although the forecast looks good right now, in the event of poor weather we may have to relocate – email me if you’re interested so I can get a rough headcount and send updates more easily. Also see the LessWrong post for an editable post that I’ll try to keep up to date if things change.
Montreal, Canada
Time: Sunday, September 22, 2:00 PM
Location: Loft 111A, 5455 rue d’Iberville
Contact: 1806992[at]gmail; Yohan 514-562-7682; Facebook event
Details: At the front door, dial 800. The meeting place will be at the collective l’Infini, which recently started hosting LW meetups twice a month. Can comfortably host 30 people. Cozy and quiet. Note that the space welcoming the meetup is a sober space, so no drug/alcohol consumption inside. All are welcome to bring/cook food.
Moscow, Russia
Time: Saturday, September 21, 6:00 PM
Location: Rationality Center Kocherga, 5k2, B.Dorogomilovskaya st., Kievskaya, Moscow, Russia
Contact: oknezrob[at]kocherga-club[dot]ru
Munich, Germany
Time: Thursday, September 19, 7:00 PM
Location: Augustiner-Keller, Arnulfstraße 52, 80335 München, Germany
Contact: rlm72[at]cam[dot]ac[dot]uk
Nashville, TN
Time: Tuesday, September 17, 5:00 PM
Location: Frothy Monkey, 12th Avenue South
Contact: james[at]writechem[dot]com
Details: We will be discussing Meditations On Moloch. Any new members who wish to attend, please reach out to the contact given.
New Delhi, India
Time: Saturday, September 14, 5:00 PM
Location: Brown Box Cafe, Shop No. 2, DDA Market, S Block, Panchsheel Park, New Delhi, Delhi 110017
Contact: anujdayal[at]gmail
New Haven, CT
Additional search terms: Yale
Time: Saturday, September 21, 4:00 PM
Location: If the weather is good: the courtyard outside of P&M Market (on the corner of Orange Street + Cottage Street); If it’s raining: Blue State Coffee on Orange Street.
Contact: rip.my.inbox[at]gmail
New York City, NY
Time: Saturday, September 21, 4:00 PM
Location: Pumphouse Park
Contact: tristan[at]thume[dot]ca; 646-480-0618
Details: If it’s raining or we’re otherwise not there go to the main atrium of Brookfield Place, which is adjacent to the park
Norman, OK
Time: Saturday, September 28, 2:00 PM
Location: University of Oklahoma, Bizzell Memorial Library, Room 421
Details: I’m not posting any contact info here, so here are my detailed contingency plans: if nobody shows up to the meetup within one hour, I will leave. If room 421 is for some reason unavailable we will meet in the reading area inside the front (south) doors, north of the front desk. I will fashion a small SSC sign out of a piece of paper or something.
Northampton, MA
Time: Saturday, September 21, 6:30 PM
Location: Packard’s Bar and Restaurant, main dining room
Contact: alex[at]alexliebowitz[dot]com; LessWrong
Oklahoma City, OK
Time: Saturday, September 21, 2:00 PM
Location: Del City Library
Contact: battleshipbean[at]gmail
Details: I’ll be wearing a USS Iowa shirt and hat.
Orange County, CA
Additional search terms: Irvine, Fullerton, Santa Ana, Anaheim, Huntington Beach
Time: Friday, October 11, 7:30 PM
Location: Underneath this mysterious hexagonal sigil at the University Center food court in Irvine, California.
Oslo, Norway
Time: Monday, September 23, 6:00 PM
Location: Starbucks at Aker Brygge, Stranden 7, 0250 Oslo, Norway
Contact: anders[at]huitfeldt[dot]net
Ottawa, Canada
Time: Friday, September 20, 7:00 PM
Location: The Fox & Feather, 283 Elgin St.
Contact: walsh.the[at]gmail; Facebook group
Details: We will book one of the private rooms.
Oxford, UK
Time: Thursday, September 19, 6:00 PM
Location: The Gardener’s Arms, 39 Plantation Road, Oxford, OX2 6JE
Contact: ???
Paris, France
Time: Sunday, September 15, 3:00 PM
Location: 48°51’37.9″N 2°17’11.8″E (https://goo.gl/maps/nBZzEk3uggA2)
Contact: 336.vingt-trois.dix-huit.82.99; Discord server
Details: I hope the weather is going to be nice. Last year it started to be a bit cold after some time, so take a sweatshirt just in case. If the forecast is bad, we’ll change the place to some coffee shop, maybe not in the same area, so check the page the day before.
Philadelphia, PA
Time: Sunday, September 22, 6:30 PM
Location: Tir Na Nog Bar & Grill, 1600 Arch Street
Contact: wfenza[at]gmail; dmcbriggs[at]gmail
Details: The restaurant is inside the Phoenix Hotel, directly above Suburban Station. We have the entire outer vestibule area reserved
Phoenix, AZ
Time: Saturday, September 21, 2:00 PM
Location: Lola Coffee Downtown, 1001 N 3rd Ave.
Contact: benjamin.j.morin[at]gmail
Details: Parking is typically available on weekends, this is also ~5 min walk from the light rail. Contact me if you are coming and I can give you a phone number to help with parking on the day of.
Pittsburgh, PA
Time: Saturday, October 19th, 6:00 PM
Location: 804 Anaheim St
Contact: ssc[at}fr8train[dot]me, mirandagavrin[at]gmail[dot]com
Portland, OR
Time: Tuesday, October 1, 7:00 PM
Location: Cartopia, 1207 SE Hawthorne Blvd
Contact: nwalton125[at]gmail; LessWrong
Details: Cartiopia is a food cart pod with many options — outside, but covered from rain. I’ll get there at 7 PM (or a little earlier), try to stake out table space, and put up a sign for the meetup. The carts are open as late as midnight.
Prague, Czechia
Time: Wednesday, September 25, 6:30 PM
Location: Rationalist coworking space Epistea (walk through tea room dharmasala to get there), Peckova 15, Karlínské náměstí
Contact: nadvornik.jiri[at]gmail; +420 607 690 860; Facebook event
Details: Food will be provided. English friendly.
Pune, India
Time: Sunday, September 22, 6:00 PM
Location: Cafe Coffee Day, IISER Pune Campus, Baner
Contact: 7rat13[at]gmail
Reno, NV
Time: Saturday, September 28, 2:00 PM
Location: Reno Coffee Co, 1300 S Wells
Contact: supervexi[at]gmail
Details: Not sure how much of an SSC following we have here, so please be sure to indicate your interest by emailing me
Research Triangle, NC
Additional search terms: Raleigh, Durham, Chapel Hill
Time: Wednesday, September 18, 7:00 PM
Location: Ponysaurus Brewing Company, 219 Hood St, Durham, NC 27701
Contact: willdjarvis[at]gmail
Riga, Latvia
Time: Saturday, September 28, 1:00 PM
Location: Caffeine, Audēju iela 15
Contact: cerulean.lemniscate[at]protonmail[dot]com
**Rio de Janeiro, Brazil**
Time: Saturday, September 21, 2:00 PM
Location: Starbucks, Av. Rio Branco, 143 – A – Centro, Rio de Janeiro – RJ, 20040-006, Brazil
Contact: None
Details: Meet in the upstairs seating area
**Rochester, NY**
Time: Saturday, September 21, 2:00 PM
Location: SPoT Coffee, 200 East Avenue
Contact: None
**San Antonio, TX**
Time: Saturday, September 21, 2:00 PM
Location: Local Coffee, 7338 Louis Pasteur Dr #204
Contact: None
**Singapore**
Time: Saturday, September 21, 2:00 PM
Location: Starbucks outside Clarke Quay Station, 6 Eu Tong Sen St, #01-29 The Central, Singapore 059817
Contact: None
St. Louis, MO
Additional search terms: Saint Louis
Time: Saturday, September 21, 3:00 PM
Location: Hartford Coffee, 3974 Hartford St
Contact: littlejohnburidan[at]gmail
Details: I have a place to stay if you visit from out of town and need a bed.
Sacramento, CA
Time: Sunday, September 22, 11:00 AM
Location: Crepeville, 1730 L St.
Contact: amethyst.eggplant[at]gmail
Salt Lake City, UT
Time: Saturday, October 5, 3:00 PM
Location: 41 S 900 E #204
Contact: wearenotsaved[at]gmail
San Diego, CA
Time: Sunday, September 29, 3:00 PM
Location: La Jolla Colony Park
Contact: owenshen24[at]gmail; Facebook group
Details: Also consider coming to meet me [Scott] at the Orange County meetup October 11th
San Francisco, CA
Time: Monday, September 23, 6:30 PM
Location: 170 Hawthorne St.
Contact: rocurley[at]gmail; LessWrong
Details: For help getting into the building, please call (or text, with a likely-somewhat-slower response rate): 301-458-0764. We’ll be meeting to give and listen to very short talks! We’ll do 7-minute lightning talks with 3 additional minutes allowed for questions. A talk doesn’t have to be formal, planned, or even something that you’d expect someone to Give A Talk About; it can be as simple as telling the group about something you find interesting or cool.
San Jose, CA
Additional search terms: South Bay
Time: Saturday, September 28, 2:00 PM
Location: 3806 Williams Rd.
Contact: ; Website
**San José, Costa Rica**
Time: Saturday, September 21, 2:00 PM
Location: Starbucks, Costado Oeste del Estadio Nacional, en edificio Clínica 20 20 San José Sabana Oeste, Nunciatura, San José, Costa Rica
Contact: None
São José dos Campos, Brazil
Time: Sunday, September 15, 2:00 PM
Location: Parque Santos Dumont, next to the 14-Bis airplane replica
Contact: emiliobumachar[at]gmail
Details: I will meet even one person in good faith, but will not go if no one contacts me.
Seattle, WA
Time: Wednesday, October 2, 6:30 PM
Location: The Territory (house), 5238 11th Ave NE
Contact: orborde[at]gmail; Facebook event
Seoul, South Korea
Time: Saturday, September 28, 12:30 PM
Location: O’sulloc Green Tea near Gangnam Subway Station
Contact: curtis95112[at]gmail
Details: I would also appreciate it if people who can’t/won’t make the meetup contacted me too, possibly anonymously, because it would be fascinating if nobody replied and I were literally the only SSC reader in a city of 20 million.
Stockholm, Sweden
Time: Saturday, September 14, 3:00 PM
Location: Grillska Huset, Stortorget 3, Stockholm
Contact: Meetup.com
Sydney, Australia
Time: Thursday, September 19, 6:00 PM
Location: Level 2, City of Sydney RSL, 565 George St
Contact: Meetup.com
Details: We sit at a table in the fish bowl across the room from the lifts.
Tampa, FL
Time: Saturday, September 21, 5:00 PM
Location: Felicitous Coffee, 11706 N 51st St, Temple Terrace
Contact: danielbporter[at]gmail
Tel Aviv, Israel
Time: Tuesday, September 24, 7:00 PM
Location: Google Israel office, Electra Tower, 12th floor, Yigal Alon 98
Contact: highpriestessofelua[at]gmail; Facebook event
Toronto, Canada
Time: Monday, September 23, 7:00 PM
Location: Madison Avenue Pub
Contact: team[at]thinkbetter[dot]ca; Facebook event
Toulouse, France
Time: Monday, October 7, 7:00 PM
Location: Eurêkafé, 24 Rue Léon Gambetta
Contact: me[at]jrmyp[dot]net
Vancouver, Canada
Time: Sunday, September 29, 1:00 PM
Location: Picnic area at Trout Lake Park, near the south beach
Victoria, BC, Canada
Time: Saturday, September 21, 2:00 PM
Location: Starbucks, 1301 Government St, Victoria, BC V8W 1Y9, Canada (downtown, at Yates and Government)
Contact: graeme.andrew.hill[at]gmail
Details: I’ll be the lanky white dude with a buzzcut wearing all blue.
Vienna, Austria
Time: Saturday, October 19, 3:00 PM
Location: Kaisermühlenstraße 24, A-1220 Vienna
Contact: strivingforconsistency[at]gmail; Facebook group
Details: We’ll be in the meetup room on the ground floor at the back side of the building. Event and directons to the location will be announced on the Facebook group.
**Warsaw, Poland**
Time: Saturday, September 21, 12:00 PM
Location: Starbucks, plac Trzech Krzyży 16A, 00-499 Warszawa, Poland
Contact: None
Washington DC
Time: Tuesday, September 24, 5:00 PM
Location: Teaism coffee shop, 400 8th Street NW, Washington DC
Contact: robirahman94[at]gmail; Google group
Wellington, New Zealand
Time: Saturday, September 28, 3:00 PM
Location: Glover Park
Contact: benwve[at]gmail
West Lafayette, IN
Additional search terms: Purdue
Time: Sunday, October 6, 6:00 PM
Location: Cafe Literato, 1920 Northwestern Ave.
Contact: lancesbush[at]gmail; Facebook group; Facebook account
Zurich, Switzerland
Time: Saturday, October 5, 3:00 PM
Location: The Sacred/Vegelateria at Müllerstrasse 64.
Contact: ssczurich[at]gmx[dot]ch; Facebook group
Thanks everyone who came to the Canberra meet-up! I have just sent out a message to all the people that left their e-mails.
If you did not receive one or would like to get in on the chain please e-mail me at Andy.Bachler{at}gmail.com
@MINGYUAN: I would like to change the time of the Seoul meetup to 12:30 pm. Could you change the time on the official post? I have contacted the people who have expressed interest. Thanks!
@MINGYUAN: Thanks to you proposing the meetup location in Brussels we ended with 2 people (including me) showing up. I would like to propose myself as organiser of future SSC meetups in Brussels. Should I register somewhere?
Awesome, yeah! If you could fill out this survey I’d really appreciate it, and you’ll have a chance to give your email address and register your group on the big map 🙂 Thanks for volunteering!!
Here is a
I went to the Warsaw meetup. I arrived ten minutes after the meet up time; We were two. And the other guy left after 20 minutes. It seems I did n’t read in enough details and didn’t see that ** means that no one did organize. Too bad.
@Scott
Venue change for Zurich meetup
New venue is The Sacred/Vegelateria at Müllerstrasse 64.
Hi, I would like to update the Tampa meetup, moving it to Kaleisia Tea Lounge. Still at 5:00pm on Saturday the 21st.
Hi roflc0ptic, I’m open to doing this if it’s really important, but consider that changing the location this late in the game might result in a fair amount of confusion. Since lots of people read SlateStarCodex primarily by RSS, they likely won’t see updates, so they’ll probably show up at the original location. Let me know how you’d like to proceed.
Fair. I was imagining that everyone interested in going has already contacted me, but that’s perhaps naive.
I’ll rescind this update, then, and the meeting will remain at the Felicitous off of Fowler, Saturday 21st at 5:00pm.
Darmstadt, Germany
Time: Sunday, October 20, 2:00 PM
Location: Wilhelminenstraße 17
Contact: ssc.darmstadt[at]outlook[dot]de
@MINGYUAN
Now that it’s less than a week from the meetup, could you point the SF meetup link to:
https://www.lesswrong.com/events/X2bXMDtCrowurb72h/san-francisco-meetup-short-talks-2
(This is the url for the specific meetup, as opposed to for the group)
@MINGYUAN
I tried to reach out to Scott last week and recently to inform him there is a Pittsburgh group that is organizing a meet-up.
Here’s our google group.
Here’s our survey for date/time.
We’re not opposed to moving it to your specified time/location, but we’d rather hear back or get more input before finalizing it.
Hi fr8train, sorry, but I’m not quite sure what you’re asking for. Due to privacy settings I’m not actually able to see any useful information in the links you included.
I also think that at this point it’s probably best to keep the meetup at the time and place specified, since lots of people read SlateStarCodex primarily by RSS, which means they won’t see updates. Really sorry if you feel steamrolled or anything like that, that definitely wasn’t my intention. I hope the meetup goes well and that you’re able to organize future meetups in a way that works better for you.
If it’s not too late, the Philly meetup would like to reach out to Scott to offer any assistance he might need with travel logistics (e.g. transport, accommodations). Ping dmcbriggs[at]gmail to let us know if you need a ride somewhere.
I wonder which Bay Area meetup would have the least people? I usually don’t have a good time in large social events, and I’m afraid SSC is too popular hereabouts.
Well, definitely steer clear of the Berkeley one, since Scott will be attending and that always draws crowds. I recommend the San Jose meetup. I’ve only been once, but in my experience: since the meetup was long (lasting from early afternoon through dinner, which is home-cooked), the crowd thinned until there were only a couple people at dinner. In addition, the San Jose meetups are held at a house that has lots of different socializing spaces, which can make one big event feel like many smaller ones. I personally spent the majority of the day out on the back porch with just two or three other people.
The SF meetup might also be fine, but I’ve never been so I can’t comment. Good luck with whatever you choose to do! 🙂
Well dang, I’m running out of reasons not to go. Now the only one is that daviddfriedman.com is somehow unreachable from my VPN.
@MINGYUAN
Hi, please correct Canberra, NSW, Australia to Canberra, ACT, Australia. I didn’t realise I forgot to add the state to my original post.
Thank you
At least in re Boston, you have to be careful to specify the municipality the location is within. There are dozens of Harvard Streets in the metro area, and even within the city of Boston proper, there is more than one Washington Street. Now in this case, the designation “near the Central MBTA station” disambiguates it. But you really should give full postal addresses.
Edit: @MINGYUAN
@MINGYUAN
Please shift the Reno date from 21 Sep to 28 September. I’m unexpectedly traveling for work, and won’t be in Reno on the 21st.
Thanks!
Note to Renoan SSC readers:
I’ve got a couple more responses over email, so it looks like we’ll have a decent little turnout!
If you’re in the area and thinking about maybe coming, please do – it won’t be so few people as to be awkward, and it would be great to meet other readers in the area (with out making the trek West to Sac/SF)!
Thanks, and see you all on the 28th!
The LessWrong link for the San Francisco meet-up is garbled. It should be https://www.lesswrong.com/groups/qQkgmEeEreY6gjd7o.
Canberra is not in NSW, it is in the ACT.
Oh man, there’s a Singapore meetup. I definitely want to meet people, but I don’t know if anyone else will be there. I thought there weren’t any of us here.
I’ll show up with a sign, just in case.
I was literally thinking the same. Well, at least there are two of us. I’ll also come wearing blue shirt and a SSC tag. See you there!
Oh heck I completely forgot about it. I’m so sorry D:
Well, if one of you provides any sort of contact info, the two of you could still meet up sometime!
I’m Tetrikitty#2647 on Discord.
Your link for the Austin, TX google group is broken, here’s the correct link: https://groups.google.com/forum/#!forum/austin-less-wrong
Minor detail – the one labeled Boston is actually across the river in Cambridge. I recognize the address because I used to live near there. Maybe I can attend.
Correct. Also, we now have a Facebook event that people can RSVP to (and also a LW event in case anyone’s looking at those).
@MINGYUAN
Thanks to whoever (correctly) adjusted the Melbourne date to the day of the next meetup. I missed mingyuan’s followup comment the first time around.
FYI for the Chicago meet-up, my email is todd@southloopsc.com (as in Strength & Conditioning) not todd@southloopssc.com (as in Slate Star Codex). Thanks to Mark for pointing that out.
Hesitant reader here. I’m just here because I find Scott’s writing interesting; I don’t have much to contribute to the discussions. I keep seeing these announcements of meetups, but despite the assurances I’m hesitant to try any. Largely because I’m unclear about under what auspices they’re meeting. Occasionally I see references to “the rationalist community.” What does that mean, “rationalist,” in terms of what kinds of people you are? Are you libertarians? Ayn Rand devotees? Then there are some references to “Less Wrong.” Less wrong than what? I’ve been to the website of that name and it was no help. Tell me what’s going on here.
Not Ayn Rand devotees. People who are interested in cognitive biases, in understanding the world by means of logic, has been my general impression. I’m familiar with Less Wrong (the website, which is what is meant) but don’t frequent it, and I’ve generally felt welcome. I think we have a higher proportion of libertarians than many places, but I expect libertarians are still in a significant minority; the general pattern seems to be “people who like debate and are interested in ideas” which overlaps but not very thoroughly. I think rationality, as used here, is less a specific political position and more a general approach to understanding the world, which involves valuing truth very highly and aiming at attempting to believe what is true rather than what is convenient (which then leads into debating rather than quarreling, finding cognitive biases fascinating, and so on).
“Less Wrong” is, I think, meant as humility – we can’t presume to always be right, but we can strive to be less wrong. So – less wrong than we used to be. Possibly also less wrong than people by default tend to be. There’s a lot of interest in avoiding common biases.
But um, as far as Less Wrong goes I am completely an outsider and someone who knows more/is more part of the community could probably give you a better answer!
As far as how meetups go – I’ve only been to ours, but it is pretty much people hanging around and talking. Food is provided. One conversation-starter I’ve seen is “What’s your favorite Slate Star Codex post?” but people also talk about their interests in general. Ours tends to have a lot of random historical discussion, because we’re interested in that – last meetup I was involved in a discussion that was comparing Tokugawa’s rules about shoguns and their families staying in the capital city – to discourage rebellions – and the Sun King’s similar policies of drawing all his nobles to court and making himself the source of all status (slight exaggeration, I think, but not too much?). But that happened to be something I was interested in; I’ve heard a lot of conversations on very varied topics.
Is that any help? Let me know if there are any other questions I can answer. (Though again, I really only know SSC meetups, and Less Wrong/generic rationalist ones may vary quite a bit – but if an outsider’s perspective is helpful…!)
This is the way I’ve interpreted it too, for years.
As far as I know, there are rationalist meetups and there are SSC meetups, and these are two distinct things. There is a lot of overlap between the types of people who go to them, since lots of rationalists like to read SSC, but you’d be perfectly fine going to an SSC meetup knowing absolutely nothing about “the rationalist community”.
If you want to know anyway, the five second summary is that “rationalists” describes this fairly loose grouping of people who are interested in… stuff. The stuff is hard to describe. It consists of various topics that Eliezer Yudkowsky wrote a bunch of essays about around 2009 or so, plus a few others:
– Epistemology (study of how we know things)
– Probability theory (specifically the Bayesian interpretation of probability theory)
– The scientific method
– Artificial General Intelligence, and AI safety
– Decision theory
– Game theory
– The long term future of humantiy
– Mathematics, especially Mathematical logic
– Science, especially physics and evolutionary biology
– Goofy thought experiments
– Some other parts of philosophy besides epistemology
– Utilitarianism and effective altruism
– The long term future of humanity
– To maybe a lesser extent: Economics, Linguistics, Politics…
A non-trivial fraction of “rationalists” could be described as libertarians, but probably not more than half. I’m guessing there are very few Ayn Rand devotees.
The rationalist community sprung from the old version of the Less Wrong site, which was centred around essays by a guy called Eliezer Yudkowsky (although other people also contributed some, including our esteemed host). The type of content is similar to some of Scott’s old posts (e.g. Meditations on Moloch, Categories-Man-Man-Categories) but the style is quite different; most rationalist writers do not have Scott’s humility. Less Wrong died several years ago (although there has been a recent attempt to revive it) so the rationalist community now is split between various places (here, other individual blogs, Tumblr, Facebook, revived Less Wrong, and a physical presence in the Bay Area).
At the SSC meetups I’ve been to, most people have been at least somewhat familiar with and interested in other rationalist stuff but not “true believers”. You will still enjoy an SSC meetup even if you don’t know anything about other rationalist stuff.
I would be interested in attending the San Antonio meetup but I will be out of town that day. If anyone is interested is having a San Antonio meetup some other time please email me at frank382[at]protonmail[dot]com
Hey, if anyone is planning on attending the Baltimore meetup, consider just going to the DC meetup instead.
I’ve been to a couple LW meetups at UMBC, and each time there was between zero and one other attendees. The last time they had an SSC meetup, the meetup organizer didn’t even show up to unlock the room or anything, and we just awkwardly wandered the halls and eventually four of us found each other and had a small meeting in the hallway. The meetup organizer didn’t respond to emails or calls to the contact information that was given. (To be fair, the person who organized this “meetup” apologized for this.)
It’s clearly run by and for UMBC students. Like, they don’t even give the address, or parking information. You’re just supposed to automatically know where the building is. How would you know that unless you’re a student there?
I hate to be a player-hater, and put down someone who is trying to organize something, but in my mind, you guys had a chance to organize some cool meetups, and you have just blown it over and over again. Fool me once…
I guess it would be alright if you live by UMBC, but I drove 40 minutes for this?!
The DC meetups, however, are huge, and awesome, and well-organized. If you live near Baltimore you really need to check that out.
We were gonna have a DC meet-up, but Trump grabbed the markers and said the event might now occur in Alabama.
Some links are a bit broken because I’m a bad programmer (slash not a programmer at all). Those should hopefully be fixed soonish, but in the meantime you can still get to the intended destination by going into the URL bar and deleting all the garbage before the http:// – sorry for the inconvenience!
I think I fixed this; let me know if there are any that still have problems.
Sweet, there’s a Bangalore meetup! I shall be there.
If you ever want to come up to the frozen tundra of New Hampshire I’ve got a guest room with your name on it! We have a pretty good rationalist-ish crew up here 🙂
Depending on where in New Hampshire, maybe come visit a Western Mass meetup? Northampton is only an hour from Keene.
I’m extremely shy but interested in attending one. For other shy/awkward people, how have your experiences been with these?
Pretty good. Every so often someone will pressure you to talk just because “you organized the meetup” or “it’s your blog”, but overall people are nice and you can get by just listening to conversation if you want to.
When I went to my first meetup four years ago, I was a shy college student, and I was so nervous and intimidated that I repeatedly changed my mind about whether I should go at all. Turned out that I had an amazing time and it changed my life forever. The meetup wasn’t huge but there were lots of interesting people there, and I was able to just sit at the periphery of conversations without having to contribute. Most SSC readers are quite nerdy and, relatedly, many are quite awkward, so you won’t be out of place on that front. I’ve been surprised to find that putting a lot of similarly awkward people in the same room at these meetups actually results in less awkwardness (like destructive interference?), maybe because people feel they have something in common. And there’s also plenty to talk about with other SSC readers, so that helps a lot! I hope things work out for you as well as they did for me 🙂
Pretty good, but I was an organizer, so I had things to talk about (gardening! Cooking! That harp in the corner!) and also could go hide if it got overwhelming. Ours has a lot of people. They’re generally friendly, though, and IME it’s pretty easy to drift in and out of conversations. People are very nice. And once you’re in a conversation, everything usually runs very smoothly – people who come to SSC meetups tend to be interesting.
That’s all based on our meetup, though.
Exciting news, everybody: I’m going to try to attend the Baltimore one.
Shame you double-booked New York with King Crimson’s concert. I hope you won’t be too offended, but I’m going with the concert.
King Crimson in New York? That’s a dangerous place.
I will be at the Vienna meetup, but the link to the FB group is broken.
@MINGYUAN
For the Dublin meetup, I’ve created an event on Facebook and LessWrong. I will definitely be there, and it looks like enagohan will be as well.
Facebook
LessWrong
If possible, could the asterisks around Dublin be removed and those events added to the contact section? I can also be contacted at “dan (at) danmolloy (dot) dev”.
To whoever is organizing the Halifax meetup – I would like to be there! There’s no contact info but I will assume it’s happening as planned.
I’m not the organizer, but I know him, and the event is still going ahead as planned. I will be attending; you can contact me at ahobata@gmail.com.
For the Dublin meetup, I will definitely be there. 2pm on Saturday the 21st at the St Stephen’s Green Starbucks suits me, but if enough people want to we can change the plan.
Contact me at enagohan (at) gmail (dot) com
I will bring an SSC sign so it should be easy to find me.
Hey, I created a Facebook event for this before I saw your comment (I’ve posted details in a top-level).
Looks like there will be at least 2 people at the Dublin meetup!
Anyone in Manchester UK? I like the wharf area so I’ll probably go along at that time, comment here if you’d like to join.
The link to the Facebook group for the Wien meeting is broken. (I’ve been to the Wien meeting last year, and they told me that they’re organizing frequent meetings, but announcing them only through Facebook. Having to follow stuff on Facebook is just too inconvenient, which is why I haven’t returned yet.)
Cambridge (UK) and Munich have the same contact email address; is that intentional or a copy/paste error?
It’s intentional! Roddy is being hella prosocial and running meetups in both cities!!
Damn your eyes Mingyuan, that is weirdly effective social engineering.
I’ll be at the Victoria, BC Meetup. You can even add my contact info as the “organizer” if you think it will motivate people to show up.
Graeme dot andrew dot hill at gmail dot com.
I’ll be the lanky white dude with a buzzcut wearing all blue.
A suggestion for nametags from a recent meeting I was in. Masking tape makes for *amazing* nametags, is cheap and portable, and sticks to a lot more than a name tag will.
Publicly making known my intention to attend the Champaign-Urbana meetup.
Doing the same.
And my axe! (Same.)
How did it go?
Seven people attended – a professor, three grad students, and three undegrad. We played a game of Zendo and talked about some SSC/rationalish topics. Overall quite pleasant, at least in my opinion.
Are you all attendees planning on meeting again? I couldn’t make it last Saturday but would certainly try to be there if you met again.
We gave our email addresses to the person who got there first and posted the sign (most of us did, a couple people left before then), but the attitude toward a repeat meeting was lukewarm. If another meetup is ever planned in the area I will post such in the latest open thread.
Sydney, Australia
Check out this Meetup with Rationality – Sydney http://meetu.ps/e/.vvmbwpyzmbzb/sqK6x/d
19th sept, 6pm.
Lvl2 565 George St, Sydney
More contact details on meetup.