The reader’s shortlist
Essays ranked by captured source likes. Essays without a saved count are listed last.
Scott analyzes how technology can make previously profound experiences feel cheap and commonplace, using examples from medieval art to AI-generated images, while suggesting that maintaining wonder is still possible through individual effort.
Scott Alexander eulogizes Scott Adams (Dilbert creator), analyzing his life as a tension between being a brilliant humorist and desperately wanting to be seen as more, leading through failed business ventures and self-help philosophies to eventual cancellation and death.
Scott Alexander describes deleting his blog Slate Star Codex due to a doxxing threat, the aftermath, and his decision to return to blogging under his real name.
Scott Alexander methodically rebuts Steven Pinker's arguments against AI risk concerns and documents fifteen years of what he considers misrepresentations and bad-faith arguments from Pinker about the AI safety community.
Scott Alexander recounts his journey to fatherhood, blending personal experiences with broader reflections on progress, rationality, and the future his newborn twins will face.
Scott Alexander examines the surprisingly broad effects of GLP-1 drugs like Ozempic, exploring their mechanisms and speculating on why they seem to impact so many different conditions.
Scott Alexander examines Nietzsche's concepts of 'master morality' and 'slave morality', analyzing their modern manifestations and exploring potential compromises between these opposing moral frameworks.
A woman reviews her experiences dating men in the Bay Area, analyzing how society's failure to provide clear paths to manhood has created various categories of lost men, and proposes solutions to help future generations.
Scott uses eight game theory scenarios to show that excuses are evaluated not on truth or morality, but on whether accepting them would undermine credible commitment to rules, since accepting one excuse means accepting all equally good ones.
Scott Alexander explains why 'doing something' about mentally ill homeless people is more complex than it seems, detailing current processes and challenges in implementing alternatives.
Scott investigates Moltbook, a social network for AI agents, showcasing their surprisingly creative and philosophical posts while questioning whether their interactions represent genuine experience or sophisticated simulation.
Scott examines why young people feel economically hopeless despite economists saying things are fine, testing various explanations like housing costs and wages, and concluding the truth involves both real factors (harder competition, expensive cities, recent mortgage spikes) and media-driven negativity.
Scott reflects on having young children and how they've inherited specific traits, preferences, and quirks from both him and his wife in surprisingly precise ways.
Scott Alexander responds to a New York Times article about him, addressing what he sees as unfair claims and misrepresentations.
Scott argues that Viktor Orban's election loss doesn't vindicate him or disprove concerns about democratic backsliding, since autocrats can do many undemocratic things and still lose elections.
Scott Alexander provides fifteen pieces of writing advice for aspiring bloggers, emphasizing authenticity, avoiding microdishonesty, mastering basic disciplines before breaking rules, and finding original angles on common topics rather than recycling blogosphere content.
Scott argues that worrying about escaping a "permanent underclass" after AI is misguided, and that instead people should focus on the real opportunity: making meaningful contributions during this pivotal moment in history that will be remembered by future civilizations forever.
Scott Alexander satirizes Bay Area culture through a fictional house party filled with eccentric characters and outlandish startup ideas.
A couple used ChatGPT to help diagnose their unexplained infertility, with the AI suggesting an MRI that revealed a previously undetected fibroid; after its removal, they successfully conceived.
Scott Alexander discusses the dangers of relying on 'Heuristics That Almost Always Work' through various examples, highlighting their limitations and potential consequences.