"Lighthaven East - A Feasibility Study" by JohnofCharleston

As a bureaucrat, my role is to annoy my friends. Someone voices an idea, “Wouldn’t it be nice if…” or “I wonder if we could…” I make a note. I do some estimates. If it pencils out, I’ll bring it back up, week after week. The discussions are fun, but also practical. We’ll test the waters, what would be a minimum viable scheme? What's easy, what's hard? Who could do the hard parts? Over time the idea gets more detailed, specific, feasible. I’ll pull out a calendar. Soon our scheme has co-conspirators, action items, even a budget. It's just good staff work.

I’ve been hearing whispers in the wind for a year now.

• “Imagine if we had something like this in DC.” 
• “Where can I host an event that might get a dozen or a hundred people?” 
• “It's such a pain in the ass to book event space in the Capitol.” 
• “I think this person has started to see what's coming, where can they go to get caught up?”
• “The community seems to be growing but it's all fragmented in group chats.” 
• “How is no one planning an afterparty, that's clearly the highest leverage intervention!?”
• “Why can’t [...]

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Outline:

(02:11) How Lighthaven Works

(05:45) What Does DC Need?

(06:52) A Day in the Life

(10:19) Minimum Viable Lighthaven

(12:04) ...so you mean a Group House?

(14:27) ...so you mean a Co-Working Space?

(16:27) Feasibility Study

(17:35) Property

(22:19) Funding

(24:55) What is the Minimally Viable Funding?

(28:03) Leadership

(31:06) Cultural Fit

(33:21) Name and Brand Positioning

(35:20) Ability to Scale

(37:48) Risks

(41:09) First Steps

The original text contained 2 footnotes which were omitted from this narration.

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First published:
May 31st, 2026

Source:
https://www.lesswrong.com/posts/95NgkvZKJx8tJbtn5/lighthaven-east-a-feasibility-study

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Narrated by TYPE III AUDIO.

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