The Applied Rationality Unconference started in 2023 as a small unconference-style weekend retreat for CFAR (Center for Applied Rationality) alumni. We had fun, talked a lot about CFAR-style applied rationality and helped each other make genuine progress on some of the most important bottlenecks in our lives. 100% of attendees rated the experience 8/10 or higher, and it was one of my favourite weekends of that year.

In November 2024 we ran a second retreat, this time opening it up to non-CFAR alumni. Attendees were excited enough that they decided to organise several more of these events throughout 2025!

Attendees have been calling these CFARx retreats. The implication being they’re what TEDx conferences are to the official TED conference – smaller, unofficial, less professional, less polished versions of the real thing. 

CFAR have been very helpful and encouraging but we don’t have permission to use their name and branding so we’re naming this the Blackpool Applied Rationality Unconference – which also captures the co-created, DIY nature of the weekend.

Approximately a third of the schedule will be things run by the organisers based roughly on CFAR workshop content. The rest of the schedule will be content organised by participants, fitting the theme of ‘CFAR-style applied rationality’.

The goal is to dedicate a weekend to solving the most important bottlenecks and unsolved problems in your life. An alternate phrasing is: what is lacking in your life, what do you want more of, and how can you get more of it? 

And the secret goal is to make new friends whilst exploring ideas from applied rationality, LessWrong and adjacent intellectual traditions. 

We did get advice and input from the CFAR team on how to run these retreats but this event is not organised, supported or affiliated with CFAR in any official capacity.

Not at all. 

We will send a reading list and some recordings of past CFAR workshops. It’s up to you how much of that you want to consume but it will help if you have some basic background and context.

You might be a great fit for this event if:

• You're curious about applying rationality techniques to improve your life, the way you think and to resolve internal conflicts
• You're excited about dedicating focused time to work on your most important personal challenges and Hamming Problems
• You're excited by the opportunity to be vulnerable and authentic with others in a supportive and safe environment
• You’re excited about supporting and helping other people tackle problems in their lives without judging or forcing your views on them
• You're willing to get stuck in, contribute and help make this weekend a success 

If you feel you don’t fit the typical model of a “rationalist” (whatever that is) in terms of age, gender, sexuality, race, economic or educational background – we really want to encourage you to apply anyway!

I’ll try to answer this honestly even if it sounds a bit cheesy.

I (Henry) left the most recent retreat with a sense of clarity, agency, and excitement that had obviously been missing from my life in the previous few months. In the weeks that followed I made progress on some thorny personal problems I’d been stuck on all year. It was amongst, if not, the most useful weekend in 2024.

Other people reported similar experiences, making progress in areas like work stress, feeling conflicted about career plans, social anxiety, dating, procrastination, and their daily routines.

Part of this I put down to the retreat setting. Spending 3 uninterrupted days focused on a few top problems enables you to go deep in a way that the same number of hours spread out over occasional evenings doesn’t. And part of it was the infectious sense of optimism, hope and anything-is-solvable-energy I got from the other participants.

So the first thing is you might make progress on some important bottleneck, challenge or Hamming Problem in your life.

Secondly, it’s about the friends you make along the way. It turns out putting aspiring rationalists in a house for a weekend and asking them to work on the biggest problems in their lives together is an extremely effective way of getting them to bond and make friends.

2 of the top 5 friends in my life are friends I made through CFAR alumni retreats.

CEEALAR in Blackpool, UK. Approximately 2 hours train ride from Manchester airport.

See the possible dates on the form. Aim to arrive on Thursday afternoon/evening and leave on Monday morning. 

We will officially start on Thursday evening and close on Sunday afternoon. If work obligations make that hard and you need to arrive late or leave early let us know on your application form and we will try to take that into account as we plan the event.

Here’s what CEEALAR and Blackpool look like

CEEALAR will provide vegan dinner. We will have our own kitchen, and lunch will be more of a free for all. There are supermarkets nearby where you can buy anything else you want – and somebody will do a big food shop where you can request items. 

Depending on how much free capacity CEEALAR has you may have your own room or will need to share rooms. We will try our best to match rooms and people based on sleep schedule, preferred genders and need for a single room.

If you have any particularly weird requirements or deal-breakers just note them on your application form.

Tickets are £120 per person which includes accommodation and food. That’s the at-cost price. Nobody is making a profit on this event.

If cost is the only thing stopping you applying let us know. We don’t want that to be a reason someone can’t come.

You also need to get yourself to Blackpool, UK. 

Right now cheap flights from European capital cities to Manchester airport are €80-200 return. The train from Manchester airport to Blackpool is £30 return. 

We might also ask for small donations (~£20 each) towards snacks, drinks and miscellaneous expenses at the end.

Unconference style means there’s a big schedule on the wall on day 1 which everyone is encouraged to add their own workshops and activities to.

Not everyone needs to prepare a workshop (there won’t be space on the schedule) but we do want everyone to try and contribute somehow. 

That could mean: helping with the cooking, keeping the snacks table topped up, designing the feedback surveys, being available to provide active listening and emotional support for participants, sticking around at the end to help clean up or any number of other jobs that need doing.

You won’t get in trouble if your workshops aren’t ‘good enough’; you can work in pairs/teams; and we can provide ideas, templates and guidance if that’s helpful. There will be online co-working sessions you can join in the weeks beforehand where we work on preparing our workshop content together.

The most important thing is just to dive in and contribute by following your natural sense of fun and excitement!

We want everyone to organise the activities they're most excited about… but the theme is ‘CFAR-style applied rationality’.

Here’s the short answer: Anything covered in the CFAR workshops, handbook and adjacent topics are in scope.

Out of scope topics would be things like: random hobbies, very theoretical talks without any practical applications and overly ‘woo’ techniques.

A much longer answer would include: an intellectual history of CFAR (note the focus on System 1 / System 2 integration), a discussion of techniques which help you win by getting your map to better reflect the territory versus helping you win via other means and the particular ways in which key figures in CFAR’s history have conceptualized applied rationality (Anna Salamon, Julia Galef, Eliezer Yudkowsky, Andrew Critch, Eli Tyre, Logan Strohl and others)

And of course, this isn’t an official definition of ‘CFAR-style applied rationality’. It’s what we mean by the words in this context.

We would like you to spend some time thinking about these Hamming Question and Bugs List prompts before arriving. It’s up to you how long you spend on this but we recommend you put aside 1-2 hours.

All together you should expect to spend a few (enjoyable) evenings beforehand preparing for the retreat.

Here's the application process and the rough timeline we're expecting to follow

1. 22nd Feb: You submit this form (at the very latest!)
2. 24th Feb: We tell you which date got chosen
3. By 9th Mar: Quick getting-to-know-you call in the next 2 weeks
4. We send out invites and you book your travel
5. ~10 Mar: some kind of group planning call on Zoom
6. Plan your workshops/activities
7. 4th, 11th or 18th April: Meet at the EA Hotel for the event

We’re not sure how many people will apply but we’re keeping this small (<20 attendees). It’s possible we get way too many applications and spaces end up very limited.

No. This won’t be a good time to work on other projects.

We want everyone to be fully present, and undistracted by the outside world between the opening and closing sessions.

However you don’t have to attend every single thing on the schedule and you should take time to look after yourself, relax in your room, FaceTime your dog, and take walks on the beach as needed.

We ask that everyone take a covid test on the day they travel. If you test positive for covid or if you get ill with another infectious illness please stay home, get better and come to the next one instead. We will refund your ticket but not your travel costs.

Sorry, not really :(

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