“Do you love Berkeley, or do you just love Lighthaven conferences?” by Screwtape

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Recorded15 Dec 2025

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Rationalist meetups are great. Once in a while they're life-changingly so. Lighthaven, a conference venue designed and run by rationalists, plays host to a lot of really good rationalist meetups. It's best-in-class for that genre of thing really, meeting brilliant and interesting people then staying up late into the night talking with them. I come here not to besmirch the virtues of Lighthaven, but to propose the active ingredient isn't the venue, it's the people. (The venue's great though.) 1. In which someone falls in love with Lighthaven The following example is a composite of several real people, with the details blurred a bit. He found HPMOR and reread it multiple times. Harry James Potter-Evans-Verres was relatable in a way characters before HPMOR just weren't relatable. He went to LessOnline in Berkeley and had an absolutely amazing time, flowing from neat conversation to neat conversation, staying up late into the night talking to strangers who, by the end of the weekend, felt like instant friends. For a few days, it felt like there was nothing between him and just enjoying life. Perhaps he flies back home with great memories, and visits again and again for other events. Each [...] ---Outline:(00:41) 1. In which someone falls in love with Lighthaven(03:16) 2. My arc and what I got(06:40) 3. Possibly move, but perhaps not to Berkeley The original text contained 4 footnotes which were omitted from this narration. --- First published: December 14th, 2025 Source: https://www.lesswrong.com/posts/pvFmjmFdbytfieHL6/do-you-love-berkeley-or-do-you-just-love-lighthaven --- Narrated by TYPE III AUDIO.

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