SSC
Five Years and One Week of Less Wrong
Scott Alexander reflects on five years of Less Wrong, highlighting the community's intellectual progress in various areas of rationality and philosophy.
18 min read 2,683 words
A thread through the archive
akrasia
Essays tagged “akrasia”. Follow an idea across the archive.
Essays on akrasia
11 essaysLW
Approving reinforces low-effort behaviors
Scott presents a framework of 'liking,' 'wanting,' and 'approving' to explain behavior, then shows how people use low-effort approving-influenced actions (like making public commitments) to influence harder behaviors through strategic self-manipulation.
8 min read 1,087 words
LW
Physical and Mental Behavior
Scott explains how thoughts and intentions are reinforced separately from actions, using B.F. Skinner's concept of "mental behavior" to show why people often intend to do things but never actually do them.
7 min read 936 words
LW
Time and Effort Discounting
Scott explains time and effort discounting through examples like candy placement affecting consumption, argues that hyperbolic discounting creates preference reversals, and suggests these are better understood as reward functions rather than true preferences.
9 min read 1,315 words
LW
Conflicts Between Mental Subagents: Expanding Wei Dai's Master-Slave Model
Scott expands on Wei Dai's master-slave model of the mind to explain akrasia and self-deception, proposing that the unconscious (U) uses the conscious mind (C) as a PR agency to signal socially admirable values while pursuing selfish goals, requiring just enough genuine support of C's principles to maintain credibility both to others and to C itself.
21 min read 3,191 words
LW
Would Your Real Preferences Please Stand Up?
Scott argues that the 'Cynic's Theory of Akrasia' (which says people's actions reveal their true preferences, contradicting their stated preferences) is functionally equivalent to the naive theory, just valuing unconscious over conscious preferences, and defends prioritizing conscious preferences because they're rational and morally informed.
9 min read 1,246 words
LW
Applied Picoeconomics
Scott tests picoeconomics theory by creating a formal written oath to study two hours daily, which successfully works by creating the same psychological pressure as serious deadlines, and he provides practical advice for others to try this technique.
10 min read 1,416 words
LW
Beware Trivial Inconveniences
Scott explores how small inconveniences can powerfully shape behavior, from China's Great Firewall to rebate forms to credit card spending, and discusses policy implications including opt-out government programs.
8 min read 1,094 words
LW
What I Tell You Three Times Is True
Scott argues that affirmations (repeatedly stating goals aloud) might actually work based on evidence that subconscious beliefs affect success and that verbal repetition influences subconscious beliefs, though he acknowledges this needs proper scientific study.
9 min read 1,379 words
LW
Where's Your Sense of Mystery?
Scott analyzes why people are more curious about pseudoscience than real science, arguing that our sense of mystery is an evolutionary algorithm that responds to solvability, worldview-altering potential, social status, and human-level problems rather than actual importance.
11 min read 1,562 words
LW
Extreme Rationality: It's Not That Great
Scott argues that "extreme rationality" (x-rationality) - the formal study of rationality beyond normal intelligent thinking - provides much less practical benefit than the rationalist community believes, estimating a correlation of only 0.1 with success.
16 min read 2,477 words