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Every Flashing Element On Your Site Alienates And Enrages Users
Scott Alexander criticizes websites using flashing or changing elements, arguing they significantly worsen user experience despite being widely disliked.
7 min read 1,027 words
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Triple Tragedy And Thankful Theory
Daniel Böttger shares his traumatic medical experiences and develops a theory about 'survival-oriented' vs 'thriving-oriented' systems based on computer science concepts, offering insights for improving collaboration.
30 min read 4,649 words
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Sure, Whatever, Let's Try Another Contra Caplan On Mental Illness
Scott Alexander rebuts Bryan Caplan's arguments about mental illness, criticizing the preference/constraint dichotomy and providing counterarguments to Caplan's claims.
35 min read 5,357 words
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The Rise And Fall Of Online Culture Wars
Scott Alexander examines the evolution of online culture wars from atheism to feminism to race, analyzing the dynamics of these shifts and speculating on future trends.
65 min read 10,054 words
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Adumbrations Of Aducanumab
Scott Alexander argues that the FDA is too strict, not too lax, and proposes unbundling FDA approval to allow for more nuanced drug regulation.
35 min read 5,328 words
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Ontology Of Psychiatric Conditions: Taxometrics
Scott Alexander examines taxometrics in psychiatry, finding that most mental health conditions are dimensional rather than categorical, and discusses the implications for diagnosis and treatment.
31 min read 4,710 words
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Conspiracies of Cognition, Conspiracies Of Emotion
Scott Alexander examines two types of conspiracy theories, suggesting they stem from different cognitive processes: unusual evidence processing and emotional priors.
15 min read 2,280 words
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Should People Avoid Whole-Body Screening Info?
Scott analyzes whether whole-body screening MRIs are worth it by doing a detailed cost-benefit calculation, finding they cost about $108,000 per quality-adjusted life-year saved (right around the threshold of cost-effectiveness), and argues that while rich people immune to anxiety might benefit, most people claiming to be rational about medical decisions probably aren't.
30 min read 4,501 words
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A Buddhist Sun Miracle?
Scott Alexander reports on a 1990s Buddhist sun miracle in Bangkok that closely resembles the famous 1917 Fatima miracle, suggesting sun miracles may be a specific psychological phenomenon related to meditation practices rather than divine intervention.
12 min read 1,790 words
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Failure To Replicate Anti-Vaccine Poll
Scott Alexander attempts to replicate a poll claiming high rates of COVID vaccine deaths, finds much lower rates, and concludes such polls are unreliable due to bias.
14 min read 2,073 words
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Know Your Amphetamines
Scott Alexander examines the history, chemistry, and efficacy of various amphetamine-based ADHD medications, comparing their strengths and weaknesses.
22 min read 3,345 words
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My Takeaways From AI 2027
Scott shares his main takeaways from the AI 2027 scenario project, discussing various predictions about AI development including cyberwarfare, geopolitical risks, and the nature of the coming singularity.
22 min read 3,367 words
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Why AI Safety Won't Make America Lose The Race With China
Scott argues AI safety regulation adds only 1-2% to training costs while America has a 10x compute advantage over China, making safety concerns irrelevant to the race; meanwhile, chip exports to China pose a far greater threat that the same critics ignore.
32 min read 4,875 words
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In Continued Defense Of Non-Frequentist Probabilities
Scott Alexander defends using probabilities for hard-to-model events, arguing they aid clear communication and decision-making even in uncertain domains.
23 min read 3,438 words
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Contra The Social Model Of Disability
Scott Alexander critiques the Social Model of Disability as flawed and proposes the Biopsychosocial Model as a more balanced alternative.
23 min read 3,489 words
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Most Technologies Aren't Races
Scott Alexander challenges the idea of an 'AI race', comparing AI to other transformative technologies and discussing scenarios where the race concept might apply.
12 min read 1,754 words
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Book Review: Arabian Nights
Scott reviews 'Arabian Nights', exploring its themes, fantastical elements, and proposing a meta-interpretation of Scheherazade's storytelling strategy.
30 min read 4,617 words
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Practically-A-Book Review: Byrnes on Trance
Scott reviews Steven Byrnes' work explaining how our perception of self and consciousness can flip between different models, similar to optical illusions, which explains phenomena like trance, hypnosis, and spiritual experiences.
28 min read 4,189 words
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Links For February 2026
A monthly collection of diverse links covering AI developments and regulation, COVID origins debates, healthcare policy, cultural phenomena, scientific research, and internet curiosities, maintaining Scott's characteristic blend of serious analysis and entertaining observations.
48 min read 7,327 words
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Book Review: Deep Utopia
Scott Alexander reviews Nick Bostrom's 'Deep Utopia', which explores the concept of a technologically perfect utopia and discusses how to maintain meaning and purpose in such a world.
34 min read 5,137 words
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Contra Skolnick On Schizophrenia Microbes
Scott Alexander refutes Stephen Skolnick's theory that schizophrenia is caused by gut microbes rather than genetics, showing why the evidence better supports schizophrenia being a complex genetic neurodevelopmental disorder.
11 min read 1,619 words
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Riddle Of The Sphinx II: Sustained Release Riddlin'
Scott engages in a battle of wits with a Sphinx, exchanging clever riddles and culminating in an unexpected answer to the classic Sphinx riddle.
3 min read 336 words
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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
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Justice Creep
Scott Alexander examines the increasing use of 'justice' framing in social and environmental issues, exploring its implications and potential societal impact.
8 min read 1,215 words
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The Government Is Making Telemedicine Hard And Inconvenient Again
Scott Alexander criticizes new DEA regulations that restrict telemedicine prescriptions for controlled substances, arguing they will harm patients and legitimate practices while failing to prevent abuse.
12 min read 1,817 words