The independent Scott Alexander archive
Essays, arguments, and unexpected connections. An independent archive of Slate Star Codex, Astral Codex Ten, and LessWrong.
The post provides a comprehensive overview of Reactionary philosophy and its critiques of modern progressive society, attempting to present these controversial ideas fairly for the sake of debate.
Scott Alexander discusses his brain's arbitrary division of sleep into 'sleep mode' and 'nap mode', which interferes with establishing a normal sleep schedule, and asks for others' experiences and solutions.
Scott Alexander humorously profiles potential papal candidates from an atheist's perspective, focusing on their quirky aspects rather than theological positions.
Scott Alexander announces the launch of MetaMed, a company offering personalized medical research, and describes his positive experiences with their rational approach to medical questions.
Scott Alexander is organizing a new 'Dungeons & Discourse' philosophical role-playing game campaign, seeking players and DMs with specific preferences and philosophical knowledge.
Scott Alexander describes how Amazon Prime has simplified and improved his product selection process, expressing surprise at its effectiveness and reflecting on feeling like an active economic participant.
Scott shares his monthly collection of interesting links spanning science, technology, history, and culture, with commentary on each story's significance or peculiarity.
Scott Alexander releases the Third Edition of Dungeons and Discourse, a philosophy role-playing game, detailing numerous improvements and changes.
Scott Alexander defends logical positivism, arguing that despite its flaws, it points to useful ideas about dividing meaningful statements into scientific and logical categories.
Scott Alexander discusses his anxiety about potentially not getting a US medical residency and explores various backup career options and plans.
Scott Alexander criticizes the humorous adaptations of Lovecraft's work in geek culture, arguing they miss the author's intent to create a sense of the strange and transcendent.
Scott Alexander discusses the concept of gender identity, relating it to his personal experience and scientific understanding, and poses questions about the nature of gender identity in cisgender individuals.
Scott Alexander examines the claim that '90% of medical research is false', arguing it's an exaggeration while acknowledging real issues in the field.
Scott Alexander examines Google Correlate, finding it produces both obvious and nonsensical correlations, and explores its potential uses and limitations.
Scott Alexander humorously explores the potential for arbitrage in papal betting markets, noting legal and religious obstacles, while highlighting some curious odds and betting options.
The post investigates claims about Abraham Lincoln's involvement in spiritualism, finding evidence for his attendance at seances while debunking more extreme claims.
Scott Alexander reviews a bizarre historical book claiming Abraham Lincoln had ape-like features and used spiritualism to become president.
Scott Alexander introduces his new blog, Slate Star Codex, and explains its ethos of 'charity over absurdity' in intellectual discourse.
Scott presents comprehensive results from the 2012 Less Wrong Survey of 1195 respondents, covering demographics, beliefs, IQ measures, and a concerning calibration test showing poor performance at avoiding overconfidence bias.
Scott announces the 2012 Less Wrong Census/Survey and encourages all readers to take it, emphasizing that the optional extra credit questions shouldn't prevent anyone from completing the main survey.
Scott announces the draft of the 2012 Less Wrong Census/Survey and requests community feedback on question clarity, suggestions for additional questions, and recommendations for an internet IQ test before the official launch.
Scott Alexander introduces 'Guilt by Association' as a fallacy where people judge things negatively based on category membership rather than actual shared features, using examples like calling MLK a 'criminal' or abortion 'murder' to illustrate when this reasoning fails.
Scott proposes the "noncentral fallacy" as a candidate for the worst argument in the world: applying emotional reactions from archetypal category members to non-archetypal examples, illustrated through examples like calling Martin Luther King Jr. a "criminal."
Scott examines neurological theories explaining delusions like Capgras syndrome through Bayesian reasoning, arguing that damage to the right prefrontal cortex causes patients to ignore priors and base their beliefs solely on explanatory adequacy.
Scott presents six game theory scenarios demonstrating how strategic thinking can force rational actors into seemingly irrational outcomes, ranging from theoretical examples like evil plutocrats and hostile takeovers to real-world applications like dollar auctions and the Golden Balls game show.
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