I live in Zurich
As I said, we can change the city...
if it's going to be fun
Well, I can't promise anything, but what do you expect from such a meeting? I'm genuinely curious, since I'm relatively new here I don't know the usual practice of a LW-meetup.
I'm not sure if I can afford any travel right now, but tentatively I'd be interested. I'd favor moving it somewhere into the Pfalz / near Karlsruhe for my own convenience, but München seems fine, too. I don't care about any specific date.
I live in Berlin and would be potentially willing to travel to Munich (on not-to-short notice). However, during July and August I'm going to be in Spain and unable to come to Munich.
Ok, so far 3 took the survey and 2 of them think that the meetup should take place in August. August is my favorite, too. If nobody objects I'm going to plan for August, which means plenty of time...
Agreed. I think we had enough time now, so let's just go with that. It's a bit late for my taste (I'm lonely now, godsdammit!), but whatever. I'll have no problem getting enough money in time for a train ticket at least.
I've just read some stuff on your blog. I look forward to meeting a former cultist of Azathoth;)
If we are going to do this, we should probably find a date soon. It looks like I will be away from August 7th to September 7th, and from October on I will be busy with uni. Apart from that, most dates are fine by me.
I currently live in Nürnberg, with occasional visits to Berlin, so either is fine for me, as is Munich.
Hm, I don't know maybe it's too soon for a survey, but I make it anyway. Just vote the following comments up, with which you agree.
EDIT: Oh, don't vote those down, with which you disagree! I hope it's simpler that way, (as long as nobody is cheating, so please do not!) and I like my Karma. If this method seems stupid to you, please make a better proposal.
If this Yudkowsky-dude really tries to take over the world, we as Germans can offer some valuable experiences in this sort of business! [1]
[1]If the joke offended someone, I'm sorry! Be glad that I made none about German-Jewish-relationships...
Ähm, da "Yudkowsky" ein äußerst jüdischklingender Name ist (der selbst etwas wie "jüdisch" bedeuten könnte), ich bin ganz nicht sicher, daß dies der beste von Witzen wurde hier...
Trotzdem begrüße ich natürlich die Idee, von weiteren LW-meetups, auch diejenige, die jenseits meines Vermögens zur Teilnahme sind. :-)
To be clear: I know that Eliezer had an Jewish upbringing. The joke should be that dark. I'm sorry, I'm really sorry. I will stop making grim jokes. As I said to Xixidu: I am not a Nazi! I make jokes like that all the time. It was stupid and tasteless, I apologize. I admire Yudkowsky. I love Jews. Almost all my role models are Jews, like Feynman, Einstein or Chomsky.
I liked that bit, it's a pity you took it out! C'mon, nobody really worries about irgendwelche Sympathien or historischen Verantwortung, right? I'd be quite surprised if Eliezer was in any way offended ...
By the way, I'm in Paris so there's a small possibility I might make it to a German meetup if it happens to be convenient, but it's still pretty unlikely (I speak some German, but forgot a lot; I like practicing when I can).
Naturally I find it funny, too;)
But think about it: It's the first time lesswrong members from Germany meet, and they already make jokes about Jews, and how they will take over the world.
I'd be surprised if Eliezer was offended, too, but I guess it just wasn't worth the risk of annoying possible readers. I'm pretty new here and most don't know me very well, so I probably should make such jokes in private or where the chance of misinterpretation is otherwise very low.
I wish I were a Jew, then I could make jokes about Hitler all the time, and everybody would understand that I'm definitely not a Nazi. ( I really envy Matt Stone...)
there's a small possibility I might make it to a German meetup
This would be great!
I can probably attend if the meetup is in Munich.
Maybe I should mention that I have no posts on here besides this one, but I have been following LW for a few months now and I have read some of the sequences.
Er, hello guys, I'll be on a month-long language trip to Berlin, I thought it might be an opportunity to meet up with some of the kindred spirits from here. Anyone interested in setting something up? I'll be there for all of August.
I would really like to come, but can do so only in the beginning of August (until the 20th). Does anyone of you live near Hannover? I would seriously love to make some rationalist friends around here... :)
Apparantly there would be maximally 6-7 participants. To my taste this would be enough, although I had expected more than that... So if you are still interested please participate in the survey.
As a German, the negative connotations of the title and the first paragraph made me cringe. This makes me wonder, are you German?
ETA:
To be clear on this, if you want to popularize Less Wrong in Germany, you will fail dramatically if you do not pay attention to the cultural and historical background. Most people here don't treat this lightly.
I understand, but as a Jew I (personally) can take a joke. I don't think I'm the only one - here is an obligatory bit of Mel Brooks http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ybuKQf9p5jg
Yes, I am. Sorry for that, my humor is pretty dark. I will delete the bad jokes. And, yes the heading is an allusion to the communist manifesto, and I hate communism. And, yes the first paragraph is an allusion to the Nazis, and I hate those, too. Sigh...
Yes, I am. Sorry for that, my humor is pretty dark.
The more official you act the less it is appropriate. Some Nazi references are actually illegal in Germany. For a meet-up proposal it does not look good.
Wonder how many LWers have trouble actually understanding irony.
Sorry for that, my humor is pretty dark.
Naja, ich bin normalerweise nicht so pingelig. Ich wollte auch nicht unterstellen, dass du irgendwelche Sympathien hegst. Aber man sollte schon ein wenig vorsichtig sein, wenn man Treffen abhält die möglicherweise als repräsentativ für die ganze Gemeinschaft gesehen werden könnten.
Du hast vielleicht auch bemerkt das es hier einige Leute mit jüdischem Hintergrund gibt und man somit als deutsches Mitglied einer Internationalen Gemeinschaft ein schlechtes Licht auf die Haltung der Deutschen zu Ihrer historischen Verantwortung (darüber lässt sich natürlich streiten, aber hier zählt was die Leute glauben, nicht was vielleicht objektiv gesehen "richtig" ist) werfen könnte. Besonders da dieses anscheinend das erste Treffen seiner Art in Deutschland zu sein scheint.
man somit als deutsches Mitglied einer Internationalen Gemeinschaft ein schlechtes Licht auf die Haltung der Deutschen zu Ihrer historischen Verantwortung (darüber lässt sich natürlich streiten, aber hier zählt was die Leute glauben, nicht was vielleicht objektiv gesehen "richtig" ist) werfen könnte
Danke, dass du mich daran erinnern hast, warum ich hasse, dass Deutsch manchmal alle Verben zum Ende des Satzes bewegt.
Heh, I laughed at the "gesehen werden könnten", it brought back some memories; my grandfather (who was a Prisoner of War in Germany during WW2, but didn't hold any grudge) would complain about how in German you didn't know what was being said until the end of the sentence.
(Apologies to any German speaker offended by me making fun of their language - I assure you, French is way worse, I should know, I had to teach it. Ugh.)
How does learning English (and teaching, if you know) compare to difficulties in learning or teaching German and French?
I don't know from personal experience (I was raised in a bilingual family), but the impression I got was that English was a bit easier than French and German, something like:
Russian, Arabic > French, German > English > Spanish, spoken Mandarin > Esperanto
Hmm, that seems somewhat right (though it probably varies for individuals depending of the starting language).
One of the difficult aspects of English that native speakers tend to underestimate is verbs with particles, like "give in", "give out", "give up" etc. that all have meanings that need to be memorized separately even though they don't seem to require new vocabulary.
(I did briefly teach English in China, but I was a very bad teacher. I did a much better job teaching French, so now I'd probably find teaching much easier)
One of the difficult aspects of English that native speakers tend to underestimate is verbs with particles, like "give in", "give out", "give up" etc. that all have meanings that need to be memorized separately even though they don't seem to require new vocabulary.
Eh, speaking as a non-native speaker, I don't remember ever having problem with those: you just treat it like learning a whole new word, with the added benefit you don't need to learn new spellings or new declensions, because they're all the same: "gave in" "gave out" "gave up"/ "given in" "given out" "given up". Simple!
One thing I did have trouble with was remembering that "in" goes with the year and the month, and "on" goes with days of the week. To remember that one I ended up having to visualize little houses for the years and rooms for the months, while each of the days were just tables.
Du hast recht, und ich bedaure es wirklich. Ich habe nicht lang genug über mögliche Fehlinterpretationen nachgedacht. Es war dumm und unvorsichtig. Anscheinend glaube ich unbewusst, dass ich im Southpark-Universum lebe...
It's been a long time since I regularly spoke German, but here's my attempt at a translation (with no dictionary help or umlaut capability -- sorry if it comes through as "broken German"):
LessWronger von der Deutsch-sprechende Welt, vereinigt Euch!
Nach meiner Kentnisse, hat's keinen Versuch auf eine LW-Treffe in einem Deutsch-sprechenden Land gegeben. Das is verrueckt! Wenn die Yudkowsky-Kerl echt versucht, die Welt ueberzusiegen, koennen wir als Deutscher echt darauf helfen!
Es gibt bestimmt genuege Lesswronger von Deutschland, Oesterreich, oder Schweiz, eine ziemlich gut Gruppegrosse zu schaffen!
Das heisst, wie geht's um eine Treffung in Muenchen? Es ist ungefaehr im Zentrum der drei Laender, aber es ist mir gut, wenn jemand eine andere Stadt vorschlaegt!
Mir ist nicht sicher um die Datum, aber wie geht's um Juli oder August? Wir haetten viel Zeit bis dann. Aber es gefaellt mir wenn jemand eine andere Datum vorschlaegt!
Ich weiss es nicht, ob ich einfach in den Wind schreie, aber ich hoffe, dass es viele willige Rationalisten gibt!
Bitte ein Komment machen, wenn Du Dich auf so eine Treffung interessiert!
Hm, I don't know maybe it's too soon for a survey, but I make it anyway. Just vote the following comments up, with which you agree.
EDIT: Oh, don't vote those down, with which you disagree! I hope it's simpler that way, (as long as nobody is cheating, so please do not!) and I like my Karma. If this method seems stupid to you, please make a better proposal.
The meetup should take place some day in August.
As far as I can tell, there never has been a LW-meetup in a german-speaking country. This is crazy!
There should be enough Lesswrongers from Germany, Austria or Switzerland to achieve a reasonable group size!
To be a bit more specific, how about meeting in Munich? It's relatively in the middle of the three countries, but it's fine if you propose another city!
I'm not sure about the date, but how about sometime in July or August? We would have plenty of time until then. But I'm happy if you propose another date!
I don't know if I'm merely shouting in the void, but I hope some aspiring rationalists are out there!
So If you're interested in such a meeting, please make a comment!
Added: Oh, and if you are not from a German-speaking country you are welcome, too!