Manuel Allgaier

@TylerAlterman Thanks for writing this up and sharing! I also heard many success stories from date me docs, though. Approach and mindset seems key. Also, date me docs might work better for hetero women than for hetero men, though I think they can work for all genders and sexualities.

Update on my dating experiment: In August, I launched an "Introduce Me" doc to try to find a wife. I posted it across social media & sent it to all my friends At the bottom of this doc, I put a cute little "chemistry quiz" in case anyone wanted to introduce themselves without a mediator. It got a lot of responses – 250 😵‍💫 (I feel weird writing that, but I want to document things for others who might try similar experiments) So how did it go? It succeeded on the front of connecting me to many incredible women. Some of them will be my lifelong friends However, it did not fulfill my original aim, which was to meet my Yoko Ono, Marie Curie, or Simone de Beauvoir (ie my "visionary partner") here in NYC In large part, I suspect this was a *me* problem. The whole frame of a "wife search" was wrong. It put me in an evaluation mindset that I suspect killed any chance of true romance Even when I felt fully present on some of the dates, and was able to treat them as an end-in-themselves, a couple ppl I went on dates with commented that the doc & public search made them feel like they were on a gameshow like The Bachelor There were also a couple cases where I could see things working out in the future, but the timing is not yet right I've now entered "monkmode" mainly to focus on projects, but also to ease myself out of this dumb wifehunt mindset lol It sounds good in theory to "be intentional about searching for my sweetie." But now I think that if I do end up with a wife, it will be a very non-intentional thing. Or, maybe better put, a wu wei type of thing

@LuiseWoehlke For affinitymatch.org , we have some features that could be built in 40h or less, like a community-powered couchsurfing & sublet platform, or better ways to (AI) match people through mutual interests and contacts. Is he into social innovation / network-y apps?

a friend of mine has committed 40 HOURS to building any full-stack solution I desire to any problem i have, especially if it's AI related. WHAT PROBLEM SHOULD I MAKE HIM SOLVE?!

@LuiseWoehlke What can we do about it? Encouraging or simply just mirroring (helping people see their strengths clearly) can help, as do (female) role models like Luisa Rodriguez (@80000Hours), who also wrote an excellent piece on how she overcame imposture syndrome.

i genuinely believe what holds many women back is lower confidence, i'm one of the most arrogant women i know and i still thought for the longest time that i couldn't work in something technical bc i'm not good enough

@LuiseWoehlke That matches my experience offering career advising to students and young professionals, many EAs are underconfident but women more then men.

@TylerAlterman @ship__toaster Agree that Berlin is nice, lots of kind and caring people. Glad you had a good time here :) Winter sucks, yes, many Berliners leave for Portugal, Mallorca, Canaries, ... . It's easy to mobilize people. Others get by with Vitamin D, sauna routine, community, self-care.

@ship__toaster Berlin actually does much better on the axis I wrote about for NY AND you run into the same 100 people I'd probably still be living there if the level of ambition was higher (provided I had plans to get away during the unlivable winter)

SF & NY ppl mean something fundamentally different by “community”* In SF it means that you will see the same ~100 ppl across a coliving house party, salon on utopian futures, burning man camp, psychedelic ceremony, and startup demo day In NY it means that you have a small circle of friends you’ve known for years who will hold you in grief after your family member dies, help you move apartments, wingman for you, and drop Advil off at your office when you have a headache and can’t get out of meetings** The SF type of community is way more accessible and flashy, which is why I got seduced by it for years. But the NY type of community has ultimately felt better for my soul Footnotes: *this all is very specific to my demographic **this culture is less the case with the latest generation in NYC sadly, probably bc of covid

@TylerAlterman @ship__toaster There are still ambitious Berliners, in (tech) startups, EA, policy etc, but you do need to look harder than in the Bay, and many of the most ambitious Germans do leave for the US. Part of it is probably also due to welfare / socialism, you don't _have to_ work your ass off.

How can you personally prepare for AGI? Well maybe we all die. Then all you can do is try to enjoy your remaining years. But let’s suppose we don’t. How can you maximise your chances of surviving and flourishing in whatever happens after? The best ideas I've heard so far: 🧵

If you're on Bluesky, let's connect there! bsky.app/profile/manuel… Anyone found a way to import contacts from Twitter (or Facebook, LinkedIn, Google contacts) to Bluesky?

@d_boeselager To be fair, you asked 6 (or more) questions at once, I get if she doesn't answer all of them.

Her answers were sadly not strong - I will post the video later. On talent: she didn’t answer… On capital: she did mention procurement, but did not commit on a quota On simplification: she just talked about the EIC Overall, not super strong but in the right direction.

You might be a lot richer than you realise... youtu.be/ekIRVhbpiQw

@Ollie_Base I'd be much more likely to pay if I know what the true costs are, and some indication of how much you actually "need" me to pay. You could add some non-binding contribution guidelines such as "if your income is in the range of xxx $, we suggest you contribute xxx"

In a follow-up email after EAGxNYC, we wrote: "Consider paying what the event was worth to you. Tickets were subsidized and maybe you got more value than you expected" + donation link. How would you feel if you got this email?

@Ollie_Base I like the option of paying what's worth it afterwards (as it's often hard to tell what an event is worth beforehand). Probably better to mention that you'll do that before as well, so it doesn't feel like you're asking for money twice.

@Ollie_Base On the flip side, British culture overall seems very polite, and I and many other foreigners do really appreciate that. I feel like Germans and Dutchies can sometimes be a bit rude, especially strangers in public transport or some government officials.

I think you'd get kicked out of British establishments if you did this x.com/mynamelowercas…

I like this idea in principle, but in practice, we've all coordinated around using these kinds of questions and straying from them kinda robs people of their prepared answers. Or maybe the Brit in me just can't handle the thrill

@Ollie_Base @Ollie_Base Would you like British culture to be more open for direct, deep conversation? How would one go about that? Maybe encourage British students to do a semester abroad in the Netherlands? ;)

@Ollie_Base "Brit in me" - I've noticed these culture differences quite a bit. I personally loved the super direct style of the Dutch and I'd love to have these very direct, deep, sometimes intense conversations with British strangers as well, but most of them would just find it awkward.

@LydNot They're not here in Prague afaik, but if you're generally interested in EA & (large) social movements, then FMP might be of interest to you: en.futuremattersproject.org

Looking to schedule 1:1s to discuss policy/politics, social movements, global cooperation, and/or solutions to collective action problems this afternoon at #EAGxPrague :)

@LarkdownMusic Any plans to upload these tracks to Spotify any time soon? :)

A Fragile Sun soundcloud.com/larkdown/a-fra…

@LarkdownMusic Really nice dreamy sounds! Feels optimistic and carefree. Reminds me of neo classic artists such as Olafur Arnalds or Hania Rani. I'm quite into that, here some of my favorites: open.spotify.com/playlist/4fnFq…