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Book Review: San Fransicko
A detailed review of Michael Shellenberger's 'San Fransicko', examining its critiques of San Francisco's progressive policies on homelessness, drugs, and crime.
166 min read 25,602 words
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Essays on book review
221 essaysACX
Your Book Review: The Future Of Fusion Energy
A plasma physicist reviews 'The Future of Fusion Energy', explaining fusion basics and predicting its achievement by 2035-2040 based on recent developments.
43 min read 6,540 words
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Your Book Review: The Dawn Of Everything
A critical review of 'The Dawn of Everything' by Graeber and Wengrow, examining their challenge to standard prehistory narratives and proposing an alternative hypothesis.
63 min read 9,738 words
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Your Book Review: The Castrato
A comprehensive review of 'The Castrato' by Martha Feldman, exploring the history, biology, and social impact of castrati singers in Italy.
63 min read 9,763 words
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Your Book Review: The Anti-Politics Machine
A review of 'The Anti-Politics Machine' by James Ferguson, discussing its critique of development projects and implications for Effective Altruism.
31 min read 4,689 words
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Your Book Review: Making Nature
A book review examining the history of Nature journal and how it became one of the most prestigious scientific publications.
47 min read 7,276 words
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Your Book Review: Consciousness And The Brain
A review of Stanislas Dehaene's 'Consciousness and the Brain', discussing scientific findings on consciousness and their implications.
52 min read 8,040 words
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Book Review: The Gervais Principle
Scott Alexander reviews 'The Gervais Principle', a book offering insights into organizational dynamics through a classification of three personality types, finding it thought-provoking but not entirely convincing.
52 min read 8,006 words
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Book Review: A Clinical Introduction To Lacanian Psychoanalysis
Scott reviews a book on Lacanian psychoanalysis, discussing its theories on desire and human development while expressing both skepticism and interest in some of its ideas.
38 min read 5,813 words
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Highlights From The Comments On "Sadly, Porn"
Scott Alexander presents and discusses diverse reader reactions to his review of 'Sadly, Porn', touching on the book's controversial ideas and writing style.
56 min read 8,675 words
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Book Review: Sadly, Porn
Scott Alexander reviews the obscure psychoanalytic book 'Sadly, Porn', attempting to decipher its core ideas about human psychology and society.
79 min read 12,094 words
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Book Review Contest Rules 2022
Scott Alexander announces the 2022 Book Review Contest, detailing rules, submission guidelines, and prizes for participants.
4 min read 484 words
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Book Review: Which Country Has The World's Best Health Care?
Scott Alexander reviews a book comparing international healthcare systems, finding it informative but lacking in explaining why some systems succeed while others fail.
22 min read 3,362 words
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Practically-A-Book Review: Yudkowsky Contra Ngo On Agents
Scott Alexander reviews a dialogue between Yudkowsky and Ngo on AI alignment difficulty, exploring the challenges of creating safe superintelligent AI.
33 min read 5,013 words
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Book Review: Lifespan
Scott Alexander reviews David Sinclair's optimistic book on anti-aging research, discussing its main claims and potential criticisms.
29 min read 4,441 words
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Book Review: The Scout Mindset
Scott Alexander reviews 'The Scout Mindset' by Julia Galef, a book on rationality that emphasizes seeking truth over defending beliefs and addresses both intellectual and emotional aspects of clear thinking.
35 min read 5,421 words
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Book Review: The Revolt Of The Public
Scott Alexander reviews 'The Revolt of the Public', a 2014 book that predicted the rise of social media-driven mass revolts against elites, finding its insights now obvious but acknowledging its prescience at the time of publication.
29 min read 4,492 words
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Book Review: Modi - A Political Biography
The review examines a biography of Narendra Modi, discussing his rise to power and controversial tenure as Chief Minister of Gujarat, while noting the book's biased perspective.
43 min read 6,627 words
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Book Review: Crazy Like Us
Scott Alexander reviews 'Crazy Like Us', exploring how Western mental health concepts spread globally and whether raising awareness of mental health problems might make them worse.
43 min read 6,581 words
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Book Review Contest: Winners
Scott Alexander announces the winners of the Book Review Contest, lists all finalists, and explains the prizes, including increased monetary awards.
5 min read 674 words
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Highlights From The Comments On "How Asia Works"
Scott Alexander shares and discusses reader comments on his review of 'How Asia Works', covering various critiques and alternative explanations for Asian economic development.
34 min read 5,136 words
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Book Review: How Asia Works
The review examines 'How Asia Works' by Joe Studwell, which proposes a three-part model for economic development based on the success of East Asian countries.
57 min read 8,791 words
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Vote In The Book Review Contest!
Scott Alexander opens voting for the book review contest, listing 17 finalists and providing a voting link.
2 min read 259 words
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Your Book Review: Plagues And Peoples
The review analyzes 'Plagues and Peoples' by William H. McNeill, which presents human history as shaped by the interaction between humans, microparasites, and societal structures.
29 min read 4,492 words
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Your Book Review: How Children Fail
The review examines John Holt's 'How Children Fail', critiquing traditional education and suggesting modern alternatives to improve learning.
31 min read 4,733 words