January 29, 2017: Business Call

== Agenda == * Check in * Opening Blessing * Review WWWs * Weekly event logistics * Review Agenda * Imbolc/Riverrain * Newsletter * Daily practice * 2017 travel plans/goals Summer (including Eclipse August 21) * Evaluations * Closing Blessing == Next business call == * Strategy/Tactics Talk * We Believe == Check-in == * Brandon … I couldn't sleep last night … I'm tired * Ben … I had a very nice day yesterday, met with Kathryn and finally set up my new bird feeder == Opening Blessing == May we accept our selfishness, while practicing unselfishness. May we love ourselves and our species, while practicing self-limitation for the benefit of others. May we be who we are, even as we grow toward our highest aspirations. --Blessed Be == WW(W)s from last time == === Ongoing === * Brandon … Bedtime is 9:30 every night with alarm at 5:30, enroll Shelley in it * Brandon … spend 15 minutes every day on Machine Learning * Brandon … make a daily 1 minute video check-in for Ben and Eric * Brandon … Meditate regularly with Eric * Ben … meditate regularly with Eric * Ben … spend at least 15 minutes a day on ''[[Flight in a Cage]]'' * Ben … Send Brandon/Eric a video message each day about what I did * Eric … Watch videos and make mine at 8:45pm before Ben calls * Eric … Send Brandon/Ben a video message each day about what I did * Eric … Work on Buckleberry at least 15 minutes a day * Eric … Meditate regularly with Ben * Eric … Meditate regularly with Brandon === Sometime soon === * Brandon … research our legal status as an informal religious organization === Time-specific === * Ben … check with Aunt Ruth about space in the house for the eclipse … by tomorrow == WW(W)s == === Ongoing === * Brandon … Bedtime is 9:30 every night with alarm at 5:30, enroll Shelley in it * Brandon … spend 15 minutes every day on Machine Learning * Brandon … make a daily 1 minute video check-in for Ben and Eric * Brandon … Meditate regularly with Eric * Ben … meditate regularly with Eric * Ben … spend at least 15 minutes a day on ''[[Flight in a Cage]]'' * Ben … Send Brandon/Eric a video message each day about what I did * Eric … Watch videos and make mine at 8:45pm before Ben calls * Eric … Send Brandon/Ben a video message each day about what I did * Eric … Work on Buckleberry at least 15 minutes a day * Eric … Meditate regularly with Ben * Eric … Meditate regularly with Brandon === Sometime soon === * Brandon … research our legal status as an informal religious organization === Time-specific === * Ben … check with Aunt Ruth about space in the house for the eclipse … by tomorrow * Brandon … invite the Sarvatas and Rico's family to Riverrain … by today * Brandon … add Nag! Or something similar to phone … by today * Brandon … check with Ted about his daily practice (can I do it with him somehow?) … by today == Weekly Events Logistics == :Service rotation: Eric, Ben, Brandon, Rico, Shelley * February 4 Service: 8:00 AM PDT / 11:00 EDT … Rico! * February 5 Business Call: 8:00 AM PDT / 11:00 EDT == Riverrain == * Riverrain hike: 3pm ** Selected location: Tryon Creek State Park ** Main park entrance: 11321 SW Terwilliger Blvd. Portland, OR 97219 * Dinner: 5pm ** La Carreta again * Games: 6:30pm == Newsletter == * Samhain masks: two Yellow-Faced Bees, two Northern Spotted Owls, and an Indiana Bat * Solstice event other than Space Elevator: ** Dinner with the Sarvatas and the Morenos ** Rebirth of the Sun play == Daily practice == * Elephant ** Ben … Brandon, is your elephant afraid that if you work on AI you’re actually helping to bring about the end of the world? ** Brandon … no, my elephant is just tired and wants to avoid hard work ** Ben … I can understand that, I haven’t done hardly any software outside of work ** Ben … Calling each other to remind each other to do our daily practice might help (might also be too pushy) ** Ben … I have trouble with not wanting to work on my novel because the part I'm working on is kind of depressing * Rider ** Brandon … this is what we're using to try to get the Elephant on board and shape the Path ** Ben … but are there any thoughts from the Rider that make it hard for us to do our practices? * Path ** Ben … Setting a specific time helps somewhat (so far not entirely successful) … mine is on the bus home from work on weekdays, and at noon on weekends ** Brandon … I want to make it almost easier to do the practice than not to do it ** Brandon's brainstorming: *** An alarm that goes off 10 times *** A nag until I say I'm done, e.g. a Nag app for my phone *** Decouple it from other things I'm not able to do, like getting up early *** Do it with my family or someone else, maybe Ted *** Measure it, e.g. using http://tdp.me again == Concerning.ai == * Ben: I haven't listened to your latest podcast episode because I haven't watched ''Westworld'' ** Brandon: It's a brutal show, you can skip it ** Brandon: The best thing from our episode is describing when we think human-level AI will arise as a range with a "middle, best guess," e.g. 5-30-70 years with 30 years as the best guess ** Ben: I would say 10-50-200 * Ben: Can you easily find the email with the article about the new story? ** Brandon: You should resend it * Brandon: Here's a graph of our downloads … we've now had about 70,000 downloads ** Ben: Looks like you may have an elbow where it's really started accelerating in the last month == Evaluation == * Brandon … I am excited about the daily practice and feel that that could open some things up for me * Ben … I’m excited about coming to Portland for the first time since the inauguration, and sharing some amount of comfort with you and my family. And I am excited about the summer, both the eclipse and visiting Eric. == Closing Blessing == We are very imperfect beings in a very imperfect universe. We strive toward ideals, but recognize that these are only simplistic fantasies, and what we ultimately achieve will be imperfect. Yet our minds need a simple story, so may we strive to balance our acceptance of our own and the world’s messy nature with an excited, passionate drive to realize as much of our utopian story as possible. -- Blessed Be