The LW community has decentralized and deformalized things to a huge extent. It's not just you - the logistics of participating are much less clear than it used

The LW community has decentralized and deformalized things to a huge extent. It's not just you - the logistics of participating are much less clear than it used to be, and the whole system is far less legible. Honestly the best strategy is attend local meet-ups, come across as intelligent and interested to the people who hold gatekeeping power over the informal non-public groups, and get in the loop that way. This is significantly easier in Berkeley, where a lot of folks end up moving to. You can also skip some of these steps by attending a CFAR workshop, which will both introduce you to many members of the LW community and put you on an alumni-only mailing list which houses a chunk of the general discussion.