❀ the cult of: ➥motivational speakers ➥life coaches ➥personal growth gurus ➥new-age charlatans ➥AWESOMENESS FEST

i honestly wish i could go back to the day i fell down this rabbit hole.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fQHkYbC0ylo

it never gets less strange to keep seeing ppl i know show up on an ilx thread.
also, any one know anything about gamechangers500 ? cos apparently mindvalley is listed on it and it feels very strange to see it listed in the same breath as ummm facebook whole foods zappos and other companies that seem far more famous to me.

meditation room!

kewl beanbags

kewl upspeak rising vocal inflections

almost put this on ILP, but I'm endlessly fascinated with a subculture of wedding photographers that (in my mind) bleeds deeply into the self-help culture - workshops about personal branding and marketing, 'beautiful people'-speak, etc.

ex. - watch the video here:
http://www.jasmine-star.com/#/documentary/

WE'RE GETTING MARRIED!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

is this a missing link between awesomefest + TED?

http://lesswrong.com/lw/b98/minicamps_on_rationality_and_awesomeness_may_1113/

http://measureofdoubt.com/

really trying for that megacycles vibe here

POSSIBLY THE WORLD’S #1 BROTHER-SISTER BLOG ABOUT RATIONALITY, SCIENCE, AND PHILOSOPHY.

Massimo and I discuss the “simulation argument” — the case that it’s roughly 20% likely that we live in a computer simulation

i can't put myself thru another tawdry video today but 20%? where the fuck have they pulled a figure from??

i have read the simulation argument in its original form and they are pulling that number out of their asses.

yeah i've read simulation arguments and i suspect that's where the figure came from

lol science

They are ignoring Havgradot's Law:

"Numbers pulled out of one's ass are always subject to signifigant rounding errors."

Rationality: You'll practice many specific techniques (e.g. Fermi calculations, applying Bayes' theorem and cognitive biases to daily life, seeing how using fungibility can boost your goal achievement); develop a map of your rationality strengths and gaps; and learn how to continue learning rationality after the program.

would really like to know how to apply Bayes' theorem to daily life. Would need a big lookup table for prior and conditional probabilities of real-life events.

using fungibility can boost your goal achievement, cant wait

i do want to say that the rationality people, while a little eccentric, have 100000x more actual stuff to offer than the awesomeness vendors featured in the main body of this thread

everyone has a cult that they're favorably inclined towards

if you were forced to make a decision based SOLELY on the people, and NOT take in to consideration the accommodations, parties, or drugs, who would you rather spend a weekend with:

• Burning Man people
• Awesomeness Fest people

Burning Man, without question

I don't know if those are separable

I mean, the people and the accommodations/location/parties/drugs

was going to say Burning Man immediately, but the ladies of Awesomeness Fest are pretty hot

yeah i dunno... i kicked it w/ a grip of burners last nite and i might have to pick awesomeness fest ppl

not sure which group is more homogenous, though... your burner posse might not be indicative of the thing as a whole

eh that's a good point, burning man is literally 100's of times bigger than awesomeness fest

however there is def a type of person who you know who i'm talking about when i say "burners"

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DM1a7qBgL2c

I feel like awesomenessfest has a lot of people in hotel convention areas in chair watching awesome stuff on stage, whereas if you get tired of interacting or listening to burners you can ride your bike around the desert or w/e

based SOLELY on the people, and NOT take in to consideration the accommodations, parties, or drugs

Burning Man stereotypes are funny

lol shakey is a secret burner

idk if you can separate them, though! like, are we talking about the people they would be at these events, or the same random people just like, standing around in my living room?

yeah i'm talking about spending a weekend with either in a neutral setting

if it were burning man vs. awesomeness fest i'd prob pick burning man

everyone has a cult that they're favorably inclined towards

am hearing this to the tune of "everybody wants a rock to wind a piece of string around" jsyk

I hung out w/some Burning Man people and learned that they can stoke a wood-burning stove, roast some amazing chicken, and drink whiskey. Some of them had awesome stories and were hilarious and some of them were socially retarded. Just like ilx! I have another aquaintance who when asked about burning man told me about her lovers. So there's a down side, obv.

if it were burning man vs. awesomeness fest i'd prob pick burning man

i am planning on going to both this year

If there was any remaining uncertainty about the scumminess of Internet marketing

http://www.theverge.com/2012/5/10/2984893/scamworld-get-rich-quick-schemes-mutate-into-an-online-monster

Werner Erhard's first interview in two decades

The conversation drifts back to integrity and I want to know if seeing it as a factual rather than moral matter makes people behave worse. Surely, I suggest, most people act better when they are following inherited or religious values.
“I don’t buy that for one second. Godammit, Susie, do your research!”
He brings his fist down on to the table and I start to wonder who this Susie is, who makes him so cross.
(the writer's name is Lucy)

http://www.wernererhard.com/integrity.html

The mastery of life includes integrity. Integrity is the process of cleaning up the mess you made. We made a whole bunch of agreements and didn’t keep them. I said I wanted to be a chemist and never kept that agreement. I only made that agreement with myself, but I am very important in my life. So I have to get my agreement that it is alright to let that agreement go. Once I do that, the agreement ceases to exist. I start to look at the things that I agreed that I wanted to be, do and have, and find out that it’s all right not to be, do and have those now, and the agreements go.

I’ve also made some agreements with other people and I will have to handle those agreements. I’ll have to say to whomever I made the agreement, "Look, I made an agreement with you and what I’d like to do now is not to keep that agreement. I’d like to know what you need in order to be willing to accept that."

^^^this is from what is supposed to be the cutting edge of business ethics, according to Werner Erhard and Michael Jensen, and their acolytes

I love Werner. He's such an engaging lunatic.

This is probably the best bit form the interview:

And then he says: “Look, I’m going to do something with you we do in the training. I’m going to ask you where you are, and you are going to say, ‘Here.’ ”

So we do this, and then he asks: “And you are always here, right?”

No, I say, I’ve never been here before. He looks annoyed.

“But you are here. Where you are, Lucy, this object you call Lucy, is here.”

I nod.

“And where Werner is, is there.”

I agree.

“You do see me, do you not? Where is Lucy-seeing-Werner happening?”

On the back of my retina, I say. He shakes his head.

“What you told me is your theory about seeing. I want to know where you seeing Werner is happening. Point.”

I duly point to my brain.

“You have no idea what’s in there, woman!” Erhard jabs an angry finger in my direction. “Godammit, Susie, your seeing Werner is happening where Werner is.”

amazing link, silby!!! still getting through it and the embedded videos but:

http://i.imgur.com/Lqx7w.png

KLurker can you please start posting this on your fbook every day!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

fuck that verge article is amazing. really explains everything tbh

that fucken guy

"It’s really critical," Keuilian says, "that you either go to these seminars or somehow find a way to penetrate their knowledge base because each of them are good at one thing. This is a pretty small community, Internet Marketing, a pretty weird subculture. Everybody knows each other, they all lean on each other’s strength to better their business, and we found that the common denominator amongst all these guys is they’re unemployable.”

[...]

“It’s the same learning disability," he continues. "They lose interest in things quickly. It was interesting to interview them and talk to them and say... you all have the same profile here. And as I see new, up-and-coming internet marketers coming into the industry, no matter what their niche is, they kind of fit into that.”

the whole article is just o_O
i liked this quote that comes before the "learning disability" part too:
"This is a pretty small community, Internet Marketing, a pretty weird subculture. Everybody knows each other, they all lean on each other’s strength to better their business, and we found that the common denominator amongst all these guys is they’re unemployable.”

feel like this thread should be xposted to the current thread about psychopaths tbh