The independent Scott Alexander archive
Essays, arguments, and unexpected connections. An independent archive of Slate Star Codex, Astral Codex Ten, and LessWrong.
Scott Alexander explores the difficulties in contextualizing statistics, providing numerous examples to show how the same data can be presented to seem significant or trivial.
Scott Alexander reviews 'America Against America', a 1988 book by Chinese political scientist Wang Huning, analyzing his observations of US society and institutions after a brief stay in Iowa.
Scott Alexander summarizes reader comments on his post about the academic job market, covering topics like hiring practices, historical context, and comparisons to other industries.
A review of 'Why Machines Will Never Rule the World', presenting its arguments against AGI based on complexity and computability, while critically examining its conclusions and relevance.
Scott Alexander shares a diverse collection of links and news items, covering topics from architecture and history to AI developments and scientific studies, with brief commentary on many items.
The post challenges the notion that effect sizes below 0.50 for medications are clinically insignificant, using antidepressants as a case study and comparing them to other common drugs.
Scott Alexander explores various explanations for why some people don't respond to 'woo' practices, questioning whether non-responders are defective or if woo itself might be ineffective or even harmful.
The review examines 'Lying for Money' by Dan Davies, which explores various types of financial fraud and their economic implications, discussing main themes and types of white-collar crime.
Scott Alexander examines hypergamy in modern marriages, finding educational hypergamy has reversed while income hypergamy persists, with strong class homogamy for both genders.
Scott Alexander discusses recent events in prediction markets, including a costly prank on Manifold, debt ceiling forecasts, a study on long-term predictions, and a high-profile hyperinflation bet.
The review explores Jane Jacobs' economic theories from two of her books, focusing on the importance of cities in economic development and challenging conventional wisdom on separatism and large political entities.
Scott Alexander examines the strange dynamics of the academic job market, questioning why colleges prefer new PhDs for tenure-track positions and proposing potential explanations for this system.
Scott Alexander explores the ethics of eugenics and population control through fictional debates, comparing historical figures and policies.
Scott Alexander addresses feedback on his post about bisexuality and Long COVID, discussing alternative explanations and defending his methodology.
Scott Alexander responds to criticism of his post on housing density and prices, refining but largely maintaining his argument that increased density can raise local prices.
Scott Alexander examines Constitutional AI, a new technique for training more ethical AI models, discussing its effectiveness, implications, and limitations for AI alignment.
Scott Alexander presents evidence supporting the legitimacy of bisexual identity, explaining why many bisexuals primarily date the opposite sex despite genuine attraction to both.
Scott Alexander replicates and analyzes data showing higher rates of long COVID among bisexuals, suggesting a significant psychosomatic component to the condition.
Scott Alexander argues that increasing housing density in a city may actually increase local prices due to induced demand, while lowering prices nationally.
Scott examines why fantasy universes share common elements, arguing they're designed to let ordinary people imagine becoming heroes without exceptional skills.
Scott summarizes and responds to comments on his previous article about nerds and hipsters, covering various topics and reflecting on personal identity and social signaling.
The post explores AI forecasting capabilities, compares prediction market performances, and provides updates on various ongoing predictions in technology and politics.
Scott Alexander critiques Sam Kriss's analysis of nerds and hipsters, offering an alternative theory about identity investment in cultural products.
Scott Alexander summarizes and responds to comments on his book review about IRBs, covering various perspectives on research regulation.
Start with a reader favorite, or follow an idea somewhere unexpected.