About
CFAR is a Center for Applied Rationality — a nonprofit organization focused on creating a space in which to explore and practice better ways of thinking. We run programs to gather rationality hobbyists, try out thinking and doing techniques together, and geek out about how our minds work, etc. Some of us also write blog posts. If you'd like to volunteer an hour of your time to help us test "rationality techniques," you can sign up here.
Workshops
From 2012 through early 2020, CFAR ran about 60 4.5-day immersive workshops, teaching a particular style of “rationality techniques.” Then, we declared narrative bankruptcy. Now, in 2025, we are inviting people to gather and forge something new with us. We have been mulling on Eliezer Yudkowsky’s Sequences (still); on the constructive role beauty plays in codebases and other projects; on pride, believing in, and organism-level wholeness; and on how maybe teams and functional minds must be honed via doing real things in the world. We welcome your schools of thought, your personal cool stuff you’ve built up over time, your beefs with “the rationalists” if you have them, or whatever else you want to geek out about to do with making sense of ourselves and our world.
Upcoming Workshops
Information on upcoming 4-day workshops
Reviews from our Classic (pre-2020) Workshops
"I went to the July workshop. I think it was probably the most useful week of my life in terms of exposure to things I could be doing to be more productive and effective."
"As a founder of a company with a similar mission to CFAR’s – making people more awesome – ... CFAR’s Rationality for Entrepreneurs workshop did not disappoint."
Number of workshop alumni
1317 and counting
Average participant rating based on the question "Are you glad you came?"
9.2 out of 10
Increased life satisfaction
0.17σ after 1 year
Organizations we've collaborated with
