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Thought-Provoking 'Dinner Table' Talks

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Last summer, inspired by the incredible range of topics explored in depth on the Wait But Why (WBW) site, I wanted to start a local, personalized instance of 'Dinner Table'. The plan was to have a 4-hour get together every week with 5-6 people in a private space. At this gathering, we would enjoy a home-cooked meal, discuss a single topic (pre-arranged and agreed on by participants), transcribe the conversation into a summarized post, and then share the post to serve as thinking fodder.

In the end, the level of involvement required to arrange guests, topics, and logistics turned out to be too much for me to take on given my then circumstances. What ended up coming to life was a scaled-down version of this, where people got together weekly at a set location, at a stupidly early hour of the morning, and on a drop-in basis, to share in conversation about whatever they fancied. Throughout the four months of summer sunshine we had in Vancouver, we got together and enjoyed some really great conversations.

Earlier this week while browsing WBW, I saw the Wait But Hi full report which was about an event that took place on August 14, 2016. Here's how WBW describes it, "on Saturday, it all happened at once—over 3,500 people participated in over 400 events that took place in 168 cities... And Sunday was big group day, with large picnic gatherings in cities all over the world." where WBW readers got together. Really think about that for a moment... this was a ton of amazing conversations with people who are "smart, curious, and thinky" while being "not that serious" (WBW Dinner Table). Wow! 

In the spirit of this, I've gone back to dig through my notes to find what I'd initially put together for a local Dinner Table series. If you'd like to incorporate this sort of thing in your life, you are welcome to take this template and adapt it for your own. If you decide to summarize and share the conversation details, please do share them along - I'd love to read it! 

Peace ✌

Initiative Overview

  • To hold respectful, thought-provoking discussions in a private space where a small group of people with diversity of perspectives can truly explore ideas in-depth.
  • To share summarized, anonymized notes in order to promote open-mindedness and purity of curious thought as a community.

Details of Commitment

Every participant in this thinky dinner table thing agrees to commit to the following:

  • From list of available topics, pick sessions you're interested in.
  • Commit to two thinky dinner table thingies:
    1. Participate in one session as an attendee.
    2. Host, provide food for, facilitate, and write summary for one session.
  • Prepare for the session in advance, researching as requested (up to 4 hour commitment).
  • Follow rules of the session and facilitator upon arrival.
  • Focus discussion on the topic at hand, branching only when relevant to the trunk.
  • Maintain anonymity of other attendees after conversation.

What to prepare as the main organizer

  • List of local invitees, carefully balanced for being thinky while having diversity of perspectives.
  • Commitment document, to be signed by all attendees.
  • Pre-determined list of topics (can source some from guest list, then top N are selected).
  • ocation (e.g. Drive, Dropbox) where session summaries prepared by individual host/facilitators will be posted.

Sample Topics of Discussion

  • Sustainable future food sources (insects, plant-based products, etc.)
  • State of waste management (spoiler: as-is system mostly sucks), and what better solutions are available/proposed.
  • A world without boundaries (no borders, global transit infrastructure, etc.).
  • What is the true self? (e.g. adapted personalities for work/family/friends, self as depicted on social media, etc.).
  • 100% accessibility in the workplace (all work 'places' from restaurants to offices, and considering all forms of accessibility challenges).
  • How the future with virtual / augmented reality pragmatically may be.
  • Top 3 skills/traits to have as a human being in 20 years.
  • How monogamy came to be the social norm, what the other forms of relationships are (e.g. bigamy, polyandry, polygamy, polyamory) and where they have merits/challenges/flaws.