The Origin Story

In 2017, Rovik and Jacob were finishing up their final year at Northwestern. Like most seniors, they were enjoying their last few months as students, prioritizing their time with friends over rigorous coursework. In parallel, their friends did the same - hosting small, semi-frequent gatherings for their friends and introducing them to new people along the way.

While they coasted through senior year, Rovik and Jacob found themselves having more fun and learning more in the last few months of school than previously. They found the new people, the topics, and the dialogue refreshing.

Neither of them wanted to let it end. With graduation looming, they asked themselves: “How can we keep this going? How can we keep meeting and learning from new people?”

They came up with a really loose idea - Deliberate Evolution - and started cobbling it together. It was designed as a simple, low-maintenance format - bi-weekly calls around a book or an open topic. Both of them were busy individuals and didn’t want this effort to suck a ton of time away, but this structure helped organize them. They developed a set of values we both held important, and would encourage critical thinking, open mindedness, and good behavior.

Then, they asked others to join them, forming the first DE Chapter. From there, they've been slowly iterating (or..deliberately evolving) together with the others who join their chapter to figure out what works and what doesn’t. They’re still figuring this out today. What started as a loose idea in May 2017 has now grown into a consistent and dedicated group.

As they went about our lives outside of DE, they shared the concept with others - and it seemed to resonate. People appreciated the space to have open, honest, hard conversations about interesting topics. Today, they’re trying to figure out how to empower others to have a similar experience.

They aren’t really sure what they are building, but they know it’s fun and interesting.