Project summary

We helped create the rationalist and AI safety communities in our early years (they were already here, but our workshops helped prompt many to move to the bay, go into AI safety work, etc.) They also shaped rationalist culture.

We are trying again ~freshly, using what we know now and didn't know then. (But keeping the good parts: CFAR's format + the best 2/3rds of its classes.)

For a detailed and earnest account of what's up now, see:

Our fundraiser post

Our unsolved problems about our workshop

More about our current workshop

(We put a ton of effort into these posts, and I think they really show what's going on inside our work. They're long but you can skip around. Also very happy to field questions on Calendly.)

What are this project's goals? How will you achieve them?

We aim to run several pilot workshops that test and develop our new take on things, and to create clear, detailed LessWrong posts about it to explain what we’ve found and get feedback and insights from others that will help us develop further.

We will achieve these by:

• Having our ~8 curriculum developers (plus maybe a few additions) continue to run weekly test sessions where we try our stuff one-on-one or one-on-two with volunteers (and try to notice what’s actually going on in our volunteers, that might not be in our theories of how humans work)

• Having our internal colloquium continue to run every two weeks, where our curriculum developers talks and discuss

• Running occasional 3-day instructor curriculum development and workshop prep retreats

• Running pilot workshops (~25 paying participants, ~7 staff, ~5 volunteers, 4.5 days) where we can see what happens when our take on rationality is practiced by a large group all at once. (This is helpful in part because humans are social and hence inhabit cognitive patterns differently when a group is doing it.)

How will this funding be used?

This funding will support our organization as we develop our curriculum, run workshops on participants, and maintain our basic organizational infrastructure (admin, our venue, etc.).

Who is on your team? What's your track record on similar projects?

Our executive director is Anna Salamon, who cofounded CFAR back in 2011. Our team also includes Davis Kingsley, Preston Greene, Jack Carroll, Divia Eden, Stephanie Payor, Galen, and John Salvatier. Many of our team members have been developing and teaching rationality material for years, both at CFAR and in other venues (e.g., Preston taught rationality courses to undergrads while a professor at Singapore University).

What are the most likely causes and outcomes if this project fails?

We fail at our workshop todo items, e.g. because they involve more difficult dynamics than we've realized.

How much money have you raised in the last 12 months, and from where?

We received $150k from SFF in Q2 of 2025 and $166k from a private donor in Q3 of 2025.