Screwtape, as the global ACX meetups czar, has to be reasonable and responsible in his advice giving for running meetups.

And the advice is great! It is unobjectionably great.

It's one in the morning. I just ran the east coast rationalist megameetup. A late night spike of my least favourite thing to hear about a meetup I'm running means I'm not going to be able to sleep for a bit. One of my favourite organizers has recently published a list of opinionated meetup takes, saying I have to be reasonable and responsible.

I have to be reasonable and responsible in my advice giving, eh?

I'm the czar. Which one of you proposes to make me?

(Epistemic status: Written at one in the morning, after having slept about twelve hours in the last seventy-two, and a spike of cortisol. The odds I regret posting this are higher than pretty much anything I've put on the internet associated with my name before.)

Run meetups at a time convenient to you, a place convenient to you, and on a subject you find interesting

For a while now Boston has had a regular meetup Wednesday evening. Why Wednesday? Well, because I'm the [...]

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Outline:

(01:13) Run meetups at a time convenient to you, a place convenient to you, and on a subject you find interesting

(02:46) Tell attendees to do the thing you want em to do

(04:20) Tell people who make organizing less fun for you to go away

(05:21) Get someone else to pay for it

(06:54) Optimize for what you want out of meetups, and what you want can be pretty weird

The original text contained 2 footnotes which were omitted from this narration.

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First published:
December 21st, 2025

Source:
https://www.lesswrong.com/posts/PGCe2dsCJQvMggyso/irresponsible-and-unreasonable-takes-on-meetups-organizing

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Narrated by TYPE III AUDIO.

“Irresponsible and Unreasonable Takes on Meetups Organizing” by Screwtape

LessWrong (30+ Karma)