Rationalism has certainly been present in my high school and college friend groups: initially with HPMOR and then later with LessWrong posts in the DMs. When my roommates suggested we go to the conference, I was enthusiastic for a shared group activity.

“Being” very intellectual - in the head - is perhaps not a recipe for centeredness and embodiment, which seem essential for knowing what feels true in a moment, and where to go next.

Operating from constructed mental models, rather than gut feelings, seems to result in wiser decision-making, for a set of ways of looking at the world that seem to result in “success” or “happiness”.

It seems essential to balance the rational and the feeling, and to remember to focus on my groups.

This year, I’ve played at a few pianos, singing in groups. The experience is just short of magical. Some songs are assuredly extremely old.

Music people tend to figure out how to flow. A sprinkle of intellectual rigor, mixed with musical flow, seems a plausible recipe for world-class work in just about any domain.

Intellectual norms in rationalist spaces are awesome. Focusing on epistemology (intuition and feeling for how certain you are about a piece of information) as a group norm seems a plausible way to develop an intellectual school that routinely makes the kinds of science/technology breakthroughs that help improve the human condition. I wonder, what could be attributed thus far?

I met and re-met quite a few old university classmates. I made quite a few new friends! I think it remains important to focus on enjoying living, and doing so in a way that enables world-class work in my domain…. continuing endurance cardio seems good, so I think all’s that’s next is to figure out how to optimize for intellectual growth in professional disciplines.

The conference is cool because there are a lot of intellectually stimulating people - smart, cool, engaging, deeply alive, and fun to talk to. Conversations with intellectually stimulating people are an essential nutrient. I should deliberately plan events where I’m likely to find them, and set a goal to develop an intellectual topic that I can work on, talk about at events.

All so abstract, craving concretizations. I’ll talk to my roommates and mentors.