Appreciate the feedback here. Just to add on to what Robert said in the other comment:
You're right that a successful referral is worth much more than a sticker or pin! When we were designing the program, we did consider more substantial rewards. But we also wanted to be careful not to incentivize gaming the system (which gets trickier the more valuable the reward), and make sure the program stayed focused on community-building rather than making it transactional.
That said, I’ve also noticed that people genuinely enjoy the small, fun merch/swag at EAG/x events—stickers, shirts, hoodies with EA-y designs, etc. And because the referral rewards will be unique, they might act as conversation starters or visible signals that quietly prompt others to refer as well.
It’s also worth noting, as mentioned in the post, that many people were already referring friends informally—this program just offers a small way to recognize and appreciate that effort! We're hoping it serves more as a light prompt or nudge than a financial incentive.
Really appreciate you raising this, though—it’s helpful feedback, and we’ll keep it in mind as we move forward.
I recently attended my third course and I echo the idea that Vipassana has made me a better activist (as well partner, friend, son, colleague, etc).
I like your recommendation to implement this at an organizational level. While it might not be practical for all orgs, I think it's a neat idea to incentivize attendance (with the understanding that Vipassana might not be for everyone — though neither is a Project Management online course).
I also think the EA community is overrepresented on having attended at least one Vipassana course, compared to the general population; but that's just a guess/speculation.
The implementation of Feng-Shui for venue spaces was considered to be out of budget; though this is something we will be keeping in mind for future conferences. We are still evaluating Numerology for effectiveness, though preliminary results suggest that the recursive reduction sum of your birth-date may be predictive of compatibility with others e.g. 11/11/1999 DD/MM/YYYY = 5+9+9+9 = 32 (3+2) = 5. Numbers closer to you (imagine 1–9 in a circle) may be more likely to be compatible.
It's been a long haul, but we've finally convinced their CEO (a Pisces), that redeveloping their core architecture to support star-sign matching would be a good business decision.
While our star signs may be relevant for optimizing 1-1 matches (sorry, we're not compatible), we don't have evidence to suggest there's any influence of star signs on the ability to evaluate the use of star signs to optimize 1-1 matches. We therefore recommend against using the lack of knowledge of our star signs as a reason to not believe our claims.
Appreciate the feedback here. Just to add on to what Robert said in the other comment:
You're right that a successful referral is worth much more than a sticker or pin! When we were designing the program, we did consider more substantial rewards. But we also wanted to be careful not to incentivize gaming the system (which gets trickier the more valuable the reward), and make sure the program stayed focused on community-building rather than making it transactional.
That said, I’ve also noticed that people genuinely enjoy the small, fun merch/swag at EAG/x events—stickers, shirts, hoodies with EA-y designs, etc. And because the referral rewards will be unique, they might act as conversation starters or visible signals that quietly prompt others to refer as well.
It’s also worth noting, as mentioned in the post, that many people were already referring friends informally—this program just offers a small way to recognize and appreciate that effort! We're hoping it serves more as a light prompt or nudge than a financial incentive.
Really appreciate you raising this, though—it’s helpful feedback, and we’ll keep it in mind as we move forward.
Mine weirdly only shows on my mobile and not on my PC. Something to do with it being on a different calendar. Maybe that's what's happening for you?
Ah interesting, good to know! What kind of bugs have you encountered? I did some basic tests and it seemed to work smoothly for me.
Long-awaited Swapcard feature releases!
The moment we have all been waiting for (and that I've been pushing on for coming up to two years) is finally here!
You can now:
Note: Calendar syncing needs to be enabled on the Web version of Swapcard.
Thanks for writing this! Well written :)
I recently attended my third course and I echo the idea that Vipassana has made me a better activist (as well partner, friend, son, colleague, etc).
I like your recommendation to implement this at an organizational level. While it might not be practical for all orgs, I think it's a neat idea to incentivize attendance (with the understanding that Vipassana might not be for everyone — though neither is a Project Management online course).
I also think the EA community is overrepresented on having attended at least one Vipassana course, compared to the general population; but that's just a guess/speculation.
Hey Molly,
Thanks for the post!
Definitely agree that it would be valuable to explicate our models of the world, especially numerically!
Heads up that you have a repeat paragraph immediately after the probability graph for the Russian invasion of Ukraine.
"When we’re estimating the risk of an extinction-causing asteroid impact..."
For now, the standard 12 signs is the easiest to implement. However, we will follow up with an Ophiuchus update in due course!
The implementation of Feng-Shui for venue spaces was considered to be out of budget; though this is something we will be keeping in mind for future conferences. We are still evaluating Numerology for effectiveness, though preliminary results suggest that the recursive reduction sum of your birth-date may be predictive of compatibility with others e.g. 11/11/1999 DD/MM/YYYY = 5+9+9+9 = 32 (3+2) = 5. Numbers closer to you (imagine 1–9 in a circle) may be more likely to be compatible.
It's been a long haul, but we've finally convinced their CEO (a Pisces), that redeveloping their core architecture to support star-sign matching would be a good business decision.
While our star signs may be relevant for optimizing 1-1 matches (sorry, we're not compatible), we don't have evidence to suggest there's any influence of star signs on the ability to evaluate the use of star signs to optimize 1-1 matches. We therefore recommend against using the lack of knowledge of our star signs as a reason to not believe our claims.