TL;DR:

If you enjoy LessWrong (and/or do EA/AI safety field building), you should consider starting a rationality reading group at your university. It's fun, cheap, and a good way to meet like-minded friends, and it can reach rationalist-ish people who’ve never encountered EA or AI safety.
Starting one can be as easy as grabbing a couple friends, picking a time, place, and reading, sending an email blast, and bringing food. The ACX Meetups Everywhere call (organizer form due October 9th) can be a good way to find an initial group.

Context: this post was loosely based on a memo originally written by Noah Birnbaum, and I (Carolanne Jiang) wrote the current version including thoughts of my own. “I” in this post refers to Carolanne, and “we” refers to Carolanne and Noah.

Also, UChicago Rationality is still going! If you are a student at UChicago interested in joining, meetings this quarter are on Wednesdays from 6 :00 – 7:00 PM in the Reg. Noah and I are both no longer at UChicago–for more information, please reach out to Will Kyle at wkyle@uchicago.edu

UChicago Rationality was a huge success: it was very fun, a great place to make like-minded [...]

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Outline:

(01:57) The backstory of UChicago Rationality

(02:56) More reasons on why you should consider running a rationality group

(04:44) Q: I am sold. How do I go about starting one?

(06:05) Appendix

(06:09) Counters arguments to why a rationality group might not contribute to field building for AI safety and/or EA

The original text contained 9 footnotes which were omitted from this narration.

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First published:
October 8th, 2026

Source:
https://www.lesswrong.com/posts/NAHnayEuQ2PdFRXHQ/why-you-should-run-a-rationality-group-at-your-university

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Narrated by TYPE III AUDIO.

“Why you should run a rationality group at your university” by carolanne, Noah Birnbaum

LessWrong (30+ Karma)

“Why you should run a rationality group at your university” by carolanne, Noah Birnbaum