Registration for SnowCon 2014 is underway… and if you plan to attend, be sure to register by February 16th, as that’s when late pricing goes into effect. You can register here.

Also, I’m pleased to announce the following six lectures for SnowCon 2014:

Friday Lectures

“Reasons for Cultural Optimism” by Ari Armstrong
Friday, 7:00 – 7:40 pm

In his book The DIM Hypothesis, Leonard Peikoff argues that America likely is headed into dictatorship within a few decades. Although he offers some frightening facts to bolster his predictions, he also neglects or downplays various cultural trends that support a more optimistic view. This talk will review trends in religion, secular thought, art, and other areas to see if there’s a basis for optimism.

Ari Armstrong is an assistant editor for The Objective Standard and writes regularly for its blog. He was a recipient of the 2009 Modern Day Sam Adams award and a finalist in the 2011 Hoiles Prize for regional journalism, and he is the author of Values of Harry Potter: Lessons for Muggles.

“Finding the Free Market” by Tim Harvey
Friday, 7:50 – 8:30

These days, it seems like the government has its fingers (claws?) stuck in everything and growing greedier. Trust in the finance industry has rightfully tanked, and the banks that collude with the federal government and were bailed out by taxpayer money still give laughable savings rates, while they rake in cash. The idea of a guaranteed retirement plan has faded away, and the public stock market is no longer designed to benefit the individual investor, to say the least. What can we do to take care of ourselves financially, short of burying gold bars and our heads deep in Galt’s Gulch? Thankfully, parts of our economy act more like a free market than the finance industry we were told to trust. From entrepreneurs to investors, there is tremendous value built by those who reject the status quo, and we can all benefit from this ecosystem.

Tim is a regular blog contributor and CEO coach with the Rockies Venture Club in Denver. He started in finance fresh out of college, and became an investment advisor for individuals and corporate retirement accounts. Eventually he got fed up with the finance industry and decided to move to high tech startups, working as a Fortune 500 consultant and project manager. He earned a degree in Cognitive Neuroscience from the University of Denver, which was a great excuse to ski every weekend. Tim is now working on a Master’s in Engineering (Management) at CU-Boulder, lives in Denver, and still skis all winter.

“The Nature of Humor” by Chris Land
Friday, 8:40 – 9:20

What explains the experience of humor? What is it that all examples of humor have in common, and is not present in everything that isn’t humor? This talk presents a novel overview of the underlying mechanism and explores several unexpected implications.

Like many people, Chris Land hails originally from planet Earth. His interest in humor began as a juvenile. Some feel it stopped there. For his day job, he builds displays for the astronauts onboard the International Space Station. He lives in Houston with wife Lisa and children Alex and Athena.

Saturday Lectures

“Everything You Wanted to Know About Radiology But Were Afraid to Ask” by Paul Hsieh
Saturday, 7:00 – 7:40 pm

Most people have seen cool medical imaging devices such as CT and MR scanners on TV shows. But what the heck do those machines really do? Advanced medical imaging has revolutionized patient care in the past 25 years, allowing doctors to make diagnoses more accurately, quickly, and safely than ever before. In this session, we’ll cover the basics of modern radiology (x-rays, MRI, ultrasound, and nuclear medicine), how these different tests work, what they show about the human body, and how they help doctors take better care of patients. We’ll also have lots of time for Q&A. So if you’ve ever had any questions you wanted to ask a practicing radiologist, here’s your chance! (No specialized understanding of medicine will be required.)

Paul Hsieh, MD, is a board certified radiologist now in private practice. Prior to his current position, he was an assistant professor of radiology at the Washington University School of Medicine. His areas of professional interest include trauma, emergency, and orthopedic/sports radiology — which means that he sees a lot of crazy stuff on a regular basis!

“The Psychology of Productivity” Diana Hsieh
Saturday, 7:50 – 8:30

Most of us want to be more productive and efficient, particularly at work. We want to get more done in less time. Simple enough, right? Yet too often, we struggle with procrastination, distractions, overcommittment, disorganization, and more. In this roundtable discussion, we’ll review our most pressing psychological barriers to greater productivity, seek out their root causes, and explore potential solutions.

Diana Hsieh received her Ph.D. in philosophy in 2009 from the University of Colorado at Boulder. She forsook the glamour and riches of academic philosophy to focus on the application of rational principles to the challenges of real life. Her internet radio show, Philosophy in Action Radio, is heard by thousands of people each week at PhilosophyInAction.com. Diana is also the author of the recently-published book Responsibility & Luck: A Defense of Praise and Blame, which defends the practice of moral praise and blame using an Aristotelian theory of moral responsibility. She lives in Sedalia, Colorado with her husband Paul and a menagerie of beasts.

“Making Mistakes: Rational Responses to Errors of Knowledge and Evasion” by Amy Nasir
Saturday, 8:40 – 9:20

How do characters from The Fountainhead and Atlas Shrugged react to making mistakes? Amy Nasir will discuss two forms of mistake-making – errors of knowledge and evasions – and illustrate both using Ayn Rand’s characters as examples. She will describe how we can apply the virtues of honesty, courage and integrity to face our own mistakes rationally and gracefully – and the rewards we can gain from understanding our mistakes objectively, and responding justly.

Amy Nasir, of Great Lakes Objectivists (GLO), has been a speaker at the 2011 Chicago Minicon, the 2013 ATLOSCon in Atlanta, and the 2013 GLOCon, which she also arranged. She has organized various speaker events, collaborating with local student groups, and engaging in political activism to advocate individual rights. She works as graphic designer with The Undercurrent, alongside other freelance design and web projects. She fuels her spirit by playing bass guitar, drums, and alto saxophone with her husband and lead-guitarist, Robert, and other like-minded friends in various musical line-ups, including Ron Tool & The Capitalists. She also enjoys hosting and moderating monthly GLO supper-club-like meetings at her home.

Again, you can register here… and be sure to do that by February 16th, as that’s when late pricing goes into effect!

(Whoops! I can’t believe that I forgot to post this months ago… but, as I often say, better later than never!)

First and foremost… I’ve set the dates for SnowCon 2014… so mark your calendars! SnowCon 2014 will start in Denver on Friday, February 28th with lectures and social gatherings. It’ll move to Frisco on the morning of Monday, March 3rd for play in the snow and socializing, wrapping up on Friday, March 7th. For further announcements, subscribe to the low-volume SnowCon Email List.

I’m pleased to report that SnowCon 2013 was superduperwonderfullyfabulous!

Let’s start with the pictures… and don’t miss the video of Arthur Flipping a Ginormous Omlet!

Update of 6/27: Unfortunately, I had to remove most of the pictures because I forgot that they were taken and hence owned by … well … a person that I’d not touch with a ten-foot pole today.

We had a small crowd of eight people staying at the SnowCondo in Frisco from Monday to Friday, mostly the same crowd as last year. We skied and snowboarded. We snowshoed. We ate yummy breakfasts and dinners together. We played Cards Against Humanity. We talked. We laughed like crazy. We had a damn good time.

On Friday, SnowCon moved to Denver. 30 people — mostly from Colorado — attended the weekend events. We began with a social gathering (plus dinner) Chez Hsieh on Friday evening. On Saturday, we enjoyed five excellent lectures, then dinner at a local restaurant in the evening. (I particularly enjoyed Howard’s lecture on frac’ing and Pablo’s lecture on opera… and I was not alone!) On Sunday, we had brunch Chez Hsieh, with me making yummy paleo-banana pancakes, and Arthur making omelets to order… shirtless, of course. (See the video!) People stayed and chatted through the afternoon.

For me, this third SnowCon was the most enjoyable and least stressful for me to produce. The schedule was pretty relaxed, particularly in Frisco. For the Denver portion, hosting events at our house and nearby made the work much easier. I was particularly impressed with how well our neighborhood clubhouse worked as a venue for the lectures. We had plenty of space, comfortable chairs, a good wall to display the PowerPoint, and a full kitchen. I was very pleased by the catered (and delivered) lunch provided by Garbanzo too. The meals and snacks I provided got rave reviews too.

Alas, this was the most difficult and stressful SnowCon for me to plan, thanks to our various major house repairs. The house was under construction, without heat downstairs, and a complete wreck until just a few days before we left for Frisco. Next year, we won’t have anything like that going on… I hope!

Mostly, I plan to keep SnowCon 2014 very similar to SnowCon 2013. I’ll likely rent the same condo in Frisco. I’ll host the Friday Social and Sunday Brunch Chez Hsieh. I’ll rent our neighborhood clubhouse for the lectures on Saturday. I have a three major improvements to make too:

• The weekend in Denver will happen before the week in Frisco, as you can see from the schedule at the top of this post. That way, people from out-of-town will be able to acclimate more easily to the altitude. Also, I won’t be obliged to do any last-minute planning for the Denver portion while in Frisco. (That’s always a drag.)
• I’ll start planning and promoting the conference far earlier. That way, more people from Colorado and elsewhere might be able to join us.
• I want to make the lectures even more keenly focused on positive, useful, interesting topics — like awesome new technology, practical ethics, appreciating art, and so on. The lectures were darn good on that score this year, but I want to do even better next year.

If you might be interested in attending SnowCon 2014, please feel free to email me with any other suggestions that you might have. Don’t forget to join the low-volume SnowCon Email List too.

Tomorrow (Friday) is your last chance to register for SnowCon! You can find the full schedule — including events, times, and locations — here: SnowCon 2013.

If you’re local, don’t miss these lectures on Saturday:

• Ari Armstrong on “Who Needs ‘Assault Weapons’ or ‘High-Capacity’ Magazines?”
• Diana Hsieh on “Why You Don’t Want to Be Lucky”
• Howard Roerig on “Frac’ing: What It Is and Why We Should All Embrace It”
• Paul Hsieh on “Concierge Medicine: The Last Bastion of Health Care Freedom”
• Pablo Romero on “What on Earth Is Opera?”

In addition to Friday’s gathering at the newly remodeled Chez Hsieh, we’ll have dinner at Rio Grande in Lone Tree on Saturday night, and we’ll be going to the Denver Art Museum on Sunday.

If anyone wants to squeeze in after Friday, I might be able to accomodate that, but you’ll have to email me. (It will cost extra too!)