Rationality Meetups (session 4): Studies and Statistics

Join us for a series of six open-format meetings, taking place twice a month on Tuesdays from October to December. There’s no need to register in advance; you are welcome to join even if you can’t attend every session. The meetings will feature discussions based on required readings, focusing primarily on the works of Scott Alexander (author of the Astral Codex Ten blog). It’s an opportunity to deepen your understanding of key rationalist topics and explore them with others. English speakers welcome.

What’s the Goal?

The sessions are for both regular participants who want to catch up on classic texts and expand their knowledge, as well as for newcomers eager to dive into valuable rationalist literature. 

The upcoming 4th session: Studies and Statistics (November 12)

The third session will be facilitated by Vojtěch Brynych. Here’s the intro to the chapter on LessWrong:

“Aquinas famously said: beware the man of one book. I would add: beware the man of one study.

For example, take medical research. Suppose a certain drug is weakly effective against a certain disease. After a few years, a bunch of different research groups have gotten their hands on it and done all sorts of different studies. In the best case scenario the average study will find the true result – that it’s weakly effective. But there are also about 5 studies that find that the drug is very good, and 5 studies missing the sign entirely and finding that the drug is actively bad. There’s even 1 study finding that the drug is very bad, maybe seriously dangerous.”

You can see an overview of all the upcoming sessions as well as our other events here: https://www.efektivni-altruismus.cz/kalendar-akci/.

Not able to attend?

If you are interested in the topic but cannot attend due to time constraints, for example, leave us your contact details and we will get back to you with other opportunities (events, discussions, lectures, projects): https://forms.gle/jqVaFWPhcPZmiFFy8.