Campus & Meetup Groups

Being a part of a real-life community of other people excited about rationality is far more transformative than reading about rationality on your own. Groups create social norms of intellectual honesty and careful thinking — in a culture where people admiringly say things like, “She’s great at updating her beliefs based on evidence!” everyone’s more motivated to walk the walk of rationality. And groups can practice “group rationality,” the very important skill of figuring out a difficult question collaboratively.

Being in a group also means having other people to help you figure out how to apply rationality to your own problems and goals, and to help you follow through on your plans. And it means being connected to a network of other smart and effective people who can collaborate with you professionally. That’s why CFAR considers groups to be an essential part of a rationality movement, and why we’re going to be devoting resources to helping create new groups around the world and supplying them with course material, speakers, and advice.
 

CFAR is focusing particular attention on student groups, because students exhibit some of the greatest enthusiasm for using rationality to change the world, and because they have the greatest potential to benefit from rationality by starting early. We’re excited to start leveraging the energy of the world’s most promising students, by helping them develop the tools and connections that they need now to optimize their careers and their positive impact on the world.