Starting on May 28th, the Singularity Institute ran a one-week Rationality Training Camp. Our exit survey shows that the camp was a smashing success, surpassing the expectations of the organizers and the participants.

Knowledge and skills taught and practiced include:

• Testing one’s beliefs, updating on evidence
• Designing and modifying desires
• Avoiding rationalization and overcoming biases
• Using probability theory, Fermi calculations, and microeconomics in everyday decisions
• Motivation, productivity, and efficient scholarship
• Effective communication
• Body language, social touch, and fashion
• Optimal philanthropy
• Existential risks

Participants volunteered to teach from their own fields of expertise, too, and led lessons on business, martial arts stretching, salsa dancing, and more.

Participants are positioned to have current and future impact on the world in math, artificial intelligence, philosophy, finance, optimal philanthropy, software engineering, and other fields. They continue to share the minicamp’s impact on themselves, and the impact they are having on others as a result, via an online mailing list and regular Skype video chats. There are also ongoing strategic discussions, for example concerning how best to persuade AI researchers of AI risks.

Oh, and we became friends, too.