On Waterline Culture

Here is the script of a speech I give at the start of meetups when a bunch of new people show up, on what Waterline's discussion culture is like.

Welcome to Waterline! This is a series of biweekly meetups that I hope will run for the foreseeable future in Toronto. Overall, I want Waterline to be a place where excellent discussion happens. According to me, there are three important aspects to get right to facilitate this.

First, giving people an increased level of shared context, so they can share more complicated kinds of thought with each other. This is the purpose of having assigned readings for you to do before attending. As a general rule, you can expect everyone in attendance to have done the readings.

Second are good truth-seeking norms. I do think the people who show up to weekend events that literally assign homework tend to be fairly thoughtful, and having that pre-filter in place is great but not sufficient. When we are here together, I'd like conversations to be approached as if everyone in the discussion is a fellow traveller trying to figure out the truth about the topic of the meetup. The readings hold some pieces, and all of you hold other ones. The readings are likely wrong about some things, and you are likely wrong about some things too. So try to hold your opinions lightly, be open to changing your mind, and also model others as doing that. When everyone is looking for the truth together, it's more helpful to the collective if each person is open about their disagreements rather than deferring to the takes of other people.

Third and lastly, in addition to shared context and truth-seeking norms, there also needs to be good conversational norms. In your conversations, be a good conversation partner. Try to pay attention to the amount of conversational space you're taking up; if you feel like you're talking more than other people, try to give other people more space, and if you feel like you're not really participating, try to contribute a little more. Be curious about what other people are thinking, and ask questions that you genuinely want to know the answer to.

And have fun! I brought you all here and I gave you a topic to discuss, but if everyone's having fun chasing a wild tangent, I don't want you to feel bad or like you're doing something wrong if you end up getting waylaid by it for like half an hour. I think probably the most interesting meetups topics will lead to around 40% tangent chasing. But if you notice that many people in your conversation aren't following a tangent you are on, you should either try to bring the conversation back to the original topic, or, if you think you will just have more fun having this one on one slapfight with another person over like, act versus rule utilitarianism, one other move that is open to you is to go to another area of the house with the other person and leave the main conversation. That is allowed! You're always free to leave and join the conversational groups you're in.

I'll also be keeping an eye on things and making sure that conversations are going smoothly. Thank you all for being here.