San Diego Rationalists

Welcome to our annual Spring ACX Everywhere meetup! If you only come to one event a year, go to the ACX Everywhere meetup in the fall. But if you want to come to TWO events a year, add this one to your calendar.

We talk about rationality, thinking, reasoning, relationships, science, math, economics, technology, and everything else. If you're interested in thinking and talking about ideas, we'd love to hear what you are thinking about. We love to share ideas, discuss, debate, learn and grow together. Don't worry about being the "right" kind of person - you most definitely are. Please join us!

In this meetup, let's talk about Astral Codex Ten posts that we've enjoyed. Here are some recent ones that I liked:

* https://www.astralcodexten.com/p/why-i-am-not-a-conflict-theorist
* https://www.astralcodexten.com/p/why-recurring-dream-themes

And a recent one that I totally didn't get:
* https://www.astralcodexten.com/p/tegmarks-mathematical-universe-defeats

Join us as we discuss a new book, UNSONG by Scott Alexander. UNSONG is a fictional work set in a world where Kabbalistic magic shapes everyday life, blending elements of theology and fantasy. We'll aim to read the entire book for this meetup. If you can't read it all beforehand, that's OK, we'd still love to have you join. See you there!

Join us as we discuss Why Nations Fail by Daron Acemoglu and James A. Robinson.

Blurb:
Translated into 40 languages since its publication, and based on fifteen years of original research, Why Nations Fail, coauthored by Daron Acemoglu and James A. Robinson, answers the question that has stumped the experts for centuries: Why are some nations rich and others poor, divided by wealth and poverty, health and sickness, food and famine? Is it culture, the weather, geography? Perhaps ignorance of what the right policies are? Simply, no. None of these factors is either definitive or destiny. Otherwise, how to explain why Botswana has become one of the fastest growing countries in the world, while other African nations, such as Zimbabwe, the Congo, and Sierra Leone, are mired in poverty and violence? Acemoglu and Robinson conclusively show that it is man-made political and economic institutions that underlie economic success (or lack of it).