Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

Thinkers and Drinkers

literaryreview.co.uk

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

11–20 of 26 posts

Re: Thinkers and Drinkers

#11

Post by debatem1 »

bluejellybean wrote: post #2

I've recently moved back to Ann Arbor and one of the goals I set was to create some type of social club that is in a similar vein as the one described in this article. Essentially I hope to create a chill 'third-spot' for the mingling of smart minds from different disciplines and age groups. Somewhere to openly argue or perhaps share the wealth of their obtained knowledge. Has anyone on HN attempted anything similar?…

The key seems to be the same with these as everywhere else: you have to recruit and hold onto smart people, and be able to tell actually smart ones from people who love to talk.

In the setting described here, joining such clubs conferred considerable status and status was a desirable commodity. That made both attracting and retaining people who by and large had a lot to do much easier. On the other hand, it sounds like they struggled to keep the talkers from talking.

Today I think the situation is reversed. You have essentially no way to generate anything valuable for your members outside of the direct value they get from the club, which is necessarily inversely proportional to their contribution to it. And because specialist knowledge is so much more valuable now, your focus probably has to be on keeping the people who don't want to talk talking rather than shutting up those who would talk to an empty room.

The closest I can name to something like this is toastmasters, which has an aspect of self-improvement that seems to keep it going, or the Rotary Club which provides business connections. Neither (AFAIK) is in a growth period.

Re: Thinkers and Drinkers

#12

Post by arcticbull »

jpm_sd wrote: post #4
TeMPOraL wrote: post #3

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Has anyone on HN attempted anything similar? Any advice on what worked well and what failed? I used to be on the board of a local Hackerspace for couple of years. Hackerspaces are sort-of similar places, they encourage a lot of smart people to get together and tinker with stuff. However, in context of interdisciplinary exchange, due to the technology and community focus, there's way too many programmers and way too…

The main downside of the Hackerspace is the tragedy-of-the-commons aspect. Lots of tools and toys just asking to be lost or broken. Tends to create lots of rules and dampen the social atmosphere a bit.

Noisebridge seems to do a decent job of keeping tools available and impressing on people that it's not their stuff. I'm constantly surprised by the quality and functionality of what they have.

Re: Thinkers and Drinkers

#13

Post by scottlocklin »

bluejellybean wrote: post #2

I've recently moved back to Ann Arbor and one of the goals I set was to create some type of social club that is in a similar vein as the one described in this article. Essentially I hope to create a chill 'third-spot' for the mingling of smart minds from different disciplines and age groups. Somewhere to openly argue or perhaps share the wealth of their obtained knowledge. Has anyone on HN attempted anything similar?…

Join an old social club: you can use antique physical and cultural resources to jump start things like this. I did it; it works.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_gentlemen%27s_clubs_in...

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Category:Clubs_and_societies_i...

Hackerspaces are wrong -those are educational institutions, not "getting things done" institutions for grownups.

Re: Thinkers and Drinkers

#14

Post by krageon »

jpm_sd wrote: post #4
TeMPOraL wrote: post #3

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Has anyone on HN attempted anything similar? Any advice on what worked well and what failed? I used to be on the board of a local Hackerspace for couple of years. Hackerspaces are sort-of similar places, they encourage a lot of smart people to get together and tinker with stuff. However, in context of interdisciplinary exchange, due to the technology and community focus, there's way too many programmers and way too…

The main downside of the Hackerspace is the tragedy-of-the-commons aspect. Lots of tools and toys just asking to be lost or broken. Tends to create lots of rules and dampen the social atmosphere a bit.

This heavily depends on your audience and where you are located. In my experience it has always been mostly to get people to be present consistently: Without constant effort a lot of the regulars can occasionally just drop away for a few weeks and if you don't have a huge amount of people that will dampen the social aspect a lot.

Re: Thinkers and Drinkers

#15

Post by dbuder »

kylek wrote: post #6
bluejellybean wrote: post #2

I've recently moved back to Ann Arbor and one of the goals I set was to create some type of social club that is in a similar vein as the one described in this article. Essentially I hope to create a chill 'third-spot' for the mingling of smart minds from different disciplines and age groups. Somewhere to openly argue or perhaps share the wealth of their obtained knowledge. Has anyone on HN attempted anything similar?…

I'm not a Mason but I always assumed this is what Freemasons are about (rather, the lodge setting and a deep/understood openness between brothers - "builders" from all walks of life). I'm probably completely wrong (never inquired, but have known plenty!) so take that with a boulder of salt

The crossover between ambitious people and drug dealers is too high for the Masons to be a respectable organization.

Re: Thinkers and Drinkers

#16

Post by neilv »

krageon wrote: post #14
jpm_sd wrote: post #4

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The main downside of the Hackerspace is the tragedy-of-the-commons aspect. Lots of tools and toys just asking to be lost or broken. Tends to create lots of rules and dampen the social atmosphere a bit.

This heavily depends on your audience and where you are located. In my experience it has always been mostly to get people to be present consistently: Without constant effort a lot of the regulars can occasionally just drop away for a few weeks and if you don't have a huge amount of people that will dampen the social aspect a lot.

I was looking into local hackerspaces the other day, and was surprised to see that one of the best-looking ones communicates this concern about "Presence": https://wiki.artisansasylum.com/index.php/Membership_Agreeme...

Re: Thinkers and Drinkers

#18

Post by brootstrap »

drawkbox wrote: post #10

“I drink and I know things” -- Tyrion Lannister Sometimes you need to step outside yourself and let your guard down on your normal routine to see things more clearly. Humans and sedation have always been a part of one another, it can lead to realizations. A good place or group of friends/debaters can help understanding, analysis and lead to quality of life improvements. Sometimes you need to take the scenic route and…

Scenic route is definitely enjoyed especially in todays society. Even better if you are a little bit fucked up on drugs and traveling safely (train, passenger etc).

Re: Thinkers and Drinkers

#19

Post by deepnet »

arcticbull wrote: post #12
jpm_sd wrote: post #4

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The main downside of the Hackerspace is the tragedy-of-the-commons aspect. Lots of tools and toys just asking to be lost or broken. Tends to create lots of rules and dampen the social atmosphere a bit.

Noisebridge seems to do a decent job of keeping tools available and impressing on people that it's not their stuff. I'm constantly surprised by the quality and functionality of what they have.

Keeping tools highly available and having 'elders' ensuring they are used well and respected was my observation.

Noisebridge are true believers in the democratisation of tools - they have workshops and collaborations have at every level of expertise - it is an awesome social good.

Guests were thankful for the knowledge gained and things mostly worked out.

Re: Thinkers and Drinkers

#20

Post by sbilstein »

bluejellybean wrote: post #2

I've recently moved back to Ann Arbor and one of the goals I set was to create some type of social club that is in a similar vein as the one described in this article. Essentially I hope to create a chill 'third-spot' for the mingling of smart minds from different disciplines and age groups. Somewhere to openly argue or perhaps share the wealth of their obtained knowledge. Has anyone on HN attempted anything similar?…

I invited a collection of friends, not all of them knew each other, to meet every couple of weeks at a mediocre pizza shop in SF and discuss machine learning papers and articles. Some are PhD level experts, some are newbies, founders, all are engineers in industry or academia.

The group has devolved (or evolved) into lots of discussions of ethics in machine learning, online ads, etc. The last two sessions have been entirely centered around philosophy papers.

We've strayed a bit from math but it's a good group to learn with.

I think the choice of a shitty pizza shop is key. It's not popular so we always have room for the whole group of 9, we don't get distracted with exciting food options or drinking a lot. The only thing I don't like is that it's an all male group but hopefully that will change.

Post reply on HN