Hi, Ivy Astrix here. I saw some of my work referenced here so figured I’d pop in and do an AMA. I did harm reduction at Vibecamp 1/2, and Vibegala 1/2. Happy to answer what I can as long as it doesn’t violate confidences or isn’t in service of personal grievances.
ty, I’ve heard her name here and there but didn’t look too deeply into a lot of CFAR internals.
My master theory has become that there are really two groups of people, impressionable children in adult bodies, and a lot of people who have become post-economic via something else (startup exits, sex work, poker championships) and that gets used as social proof when it comes to convincing people they know what they’re doing in other areas.
That is why it is important hearing from people who have been in these spaces, because my impression was that the leading writers and organizers rely on wage or freelance income, often funded by grants and donations but sometimes by venture capital like when Substack gives bonuses to Scott Alexander. Many of them have jobs they love which pay USD $100k-600k/yr but I thought that below the very-rich (Thiel, Tallinn, McClave) only Curtis Yarvin was both living off capital and someone anyone outside the scene has heard of. However, I don’t want to lead this conversation away from your experiences of sexual assault and poor responses by rationalists.
I think it’s an important thing to be generally aware of; MIRI pays Yud ~600k/yr as chair of the board, emergent ventures gives out a lot of grants to adjacent ppl, etc
There’s a lot of in-network stuff that happens too ie chaosprime was in a position to give vibecamp 18K, so I think the money part is important as it might allow some of the worst ppl to buy their way out of trouble