Will future universities will look more like dinner parties than classrooms?
I worked at a tech company where we hired a couple guys to bring a big block of ice into the office, and cut it into cubes to put into whiskey drinks topped with a shaving of orange peel. We had an in-house chef. We had different food each day that was better than Google's food, and better than many restaurants I've been to. We celebrated even small launches and small wins with lavish abandon. We did wine tasting, rented boats, went on Safari.
The most interesting person in the company was this bearded economist who nearly always had a paper in his hand. He could barely stand me, but I nearly worshiped him. He introduced me to Tyler Cowen’s podcast, which led me to Robin Hanson (probably through this podcast episode), and then to LessWrong and Slate Star Codex.
I’ve made a few smart (but extremely introverted) friends in the last year or so. I hope they can call me their friend? I almost didn’t find them. I saw a LessWrong group and cold emailed them. Turns out there were like 5 people in the group. I’ve been going nearly every week.
A few weeks ago I took a look at my Amazon wishlist and ordered 13 books from a library. Well, actually I had to get them shipped in from various libraries in the state. My city's public library network has 30 locations. Only 1 of the 13 books could be found in this network. I brought the entire pile to the group sort of to show off? A couple guys already read the book Exit, Voice and Loyalty, which was on my list.
One of the guys had his eyes turn glassy when describing how he would sometimes get in his car to go for road trips by himself and no place in particular. He'd stop by gas stations for snacks before going on. He described it as something enjoyable, but there was another feeling in there. I've gone on trips like this too.
This group has been doing BBQs for the last few weeks. As far as parties go, they’re small, “lame”, and the house is a mess, but I look forward to them every week. Last week we talked about our guiding life philosophies. One of the guys said something I didn't quite understand about a proof of the metaphysical and the indispensability argument. Another said he saw the universe as a big number and a state transition function that changes that number. We did this over beers and steak, but the real meat was in the air.