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Why Our Kind Can't Cooperate — LessWrong

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From when I was still forced to attend, I remember our synagogue's annual fundraising appeal. It was a simple enough format, if I recall correctly. The rabbi and the treasurer talked about the shul's expenses and how vital this annual fundraise was, and then the synagogue's members called out their pledges from their seats. Straightforward, yes? Let me tell you about a different annual fundraising appeal. One that I ran, in fact; during the early years of a nonprofit organization that may not be named. One difference was that the appeal was conducted over the Internet. And another difference was that the audience was largely drawn from the atheist/libertarian/technophile/sf-fan/early-adopter/programmer/etc crowd. (To point in the rough direction of an empirical cluster in personspace. If you understood the phrase "empirical cluster in personspace" then you know who I'm talking about.) I crafted the fundraising appeal with care. By my nature I'm too proud to ask other people for

x Why Our Kind Can't Cooperate — LessWrong The Craft and the Community Coordination / Cooperation Social & Cultural Dynamics Group Rationality Community Frontpage 321 Why Our Kind Can't Cooperate by Eliezer Yudkowsky 20th Mar 2009 11 min read 211 321 From when I was still forced to attend, I remember our synagogue's annual fundraising appeal. It was a simple enough format, if I recall correctly. The rabbi and the treasurer talked about the shul's expenses and how vital this annual fundraise was, and then the synagogue's members called out their pledges from their seats. Straightforward, yes? L

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