What I still don't get is how to steer a conversation from small-talk phase to more personal topics - esp. in a group setting.
Rosenberg's book gave me a framework that I use to understand the feelings someone is experiencing and to communicate my own experience, which I think is what you mean by "personal topics." The differences between the first and second versions of Schelling Day are strongly informed by this framework, to give an (extremely mechanical and oversystematized) example.
Thank you. There are few hits on LW about NVC. the cover claims 'because it works'. Is that advice backed by deep theories?
I looked at the differences between both:
Removed Confessions and Hopes but addes Background
Allow for limited positive empathize in between instead of at the end
Avoid the open ended sozializing by replacing it with a positive end (eating sweets and then group hug and over).
I understand 2+3 but not 1. Is it relevant? Did I overlook something?
Review of our fifth LessWrong Meetup - Report from Berlin
We had visitors fank1 and just_existing from the Bielefeld/Paderborn Meetup. The meetup was great. It was a continuously lively discussion with everybody contributing personal and/or insightful and/or relevant pieces.
After ashort introduction of each other (because of the guests) we plunged immediately into interesting discussions mostly revolving around LeeWrong topics.
In between I retold my very positive experience from the Berlin LW community event. After a short summary about the effects of meditation we had a Mnemonics session inspired by the Berlin workshop.
One on-going topic was "Extrovert in Training" - techniques for and experience with getting in touch with people. How to start a conversation. What I still don't get is how to steer a conversation from small-talk phase to more personal topics - esp. in a group setting. Though this was not a problem during the meetup.
We also discussed selection pressure on humans. We agreed that there is almost none on mutations affecting health in general due to medicine. But we agreed that there is tremendous pressure on contraception. We identified four ways evolution works around contraception (see appendix for a short summary). We discussed what effects this could on the future of society. The movie Idiocracy was mentioned. This could be a long term (a few generations) existential risk.
There were other topcis which I recollect less clearly. Maybe the participants can comment on them below.
There will definitely be more LW Hamburg meetups. The next step is a joint Skype meetup with the Bielefeld group. I also relayed the Jonas Vollmers advice to get in contact with the Giordano-Bruno-Stiftung.
The meetup ended with a photo and positive impression feedback round (peak-end rule). Afterwards out guests from Bielefeld stayed overnight in my (Gunnars) place.
Four ways evolution works around contraception: