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Your Book Review: Njal’s Saga
A review of Njal's Saga explores themes of justice and freedom in medieval Iceland's anarcho-capitalist society, comparing it to modern legal systems and other classic works.
31 min read 4,695 words
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2,007 essaysACX
How Often Do Men Think About Rome?
Scott Alexander analyzes survey results on how often people think about the Roman Empire, finding little gender difference but a significant overall cultural impact.
11 min read 1,653 words
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Your Book Review: The Tale Of Genji
A detailed exploration of The Tale of Genji (circa 1000 CE), arguing against its supposed accessibility while demonstrating the extreme cultural alienness of Heian-era Japan's Imperial Court through discussions of aesthetics, hierarchy, gender segregation, relationship customs, poetry, and translation challenges.
67 min read 10,354 words
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Attempts To Put Statistics In Context, Put Into Context
Scott Alexander explores the difficulties in contextualizing statistics, providing numerous examples to show how the same data can be presented to seem significant or trivial.
9 min read 1,355 words
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What Deontological Bars?
Scott explores what constitutes a deontological bar (hard moral rule) by examining when consequentialist reasoning should be constrained, using debates within AI safety about working with AI companies versus pursuing regulation as his main examples.
11 min read 1,687 words
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Raise Your Threshold For Accusing People Of Faking Bisexuality
Scott Alexander presents evidence supporting the legitimacy of bisexual identity, explaining why many bisexuals primarily date the opposite sex despite genuine attraction to both.
14 min read 2,047 words
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Defying Cavity: Lantern Bioworks FAQ
Scott Alexander reviews Lantern Bioworks' Lumina, a genetically modified bacterium designed to prevent tooth decay, discussing its science, safety, and commercialization plans.
20 min read 3,078 words
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Congrats To Polymarket, But I Still Think They Were Mispriced
Scott Alexander praises Polymarket's election success but argues their Trump odds were mispriced, explaining why Trump's win doesn't significantly validate their numbers over other forecasters.
20 min read 2,993 words
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Sam Altman Wants $7 Trillion
Scott Alexander analyzes the astronomical costs and resources needed for future AI models, sparked by Sam Altman's reported $7 trillion fundraising goal.
15 min read 2,302 words
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Your Review: Participation in Phase I Clinical Pharmaceutical Research
A detailed insider look at Phase I clinical drug trials, revealing how the system's structure encourages participants to routinely lie about their medical history and symptoms to continue participating.
31 min read 4,777 words
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Confidence levels inside and outside an argument
Scott distinguishes between an argument's internal confidence level and our external confidence in that argument, showing that extremely high probability claims should be moderated by the baseline probability that the argument itself is flawed.
13 min read 1,981 words
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Lukianoff And Defining Cancel Culture
Scott Alexander examines Greg Lukianoff's definition of cancel culture and explores its limitations through hypothetical scenarios, arguing for a more nuanced understanding to strengthen anti-cancel-culture coalitions.
14 min read 2,096 words
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Bayes For Everyone
Brandon Hendrickson presents a method to teach Bayes' theorem effectively to everyone by making it visual, intuitive, emotionally engaging, and a tool for rational discourse.
32 min read 4,864 words
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Your Book Review: How Language Began
The review examines Daniel Everett's 'How Language Began', which challenges Chomsky's linguistic theories and proposes an alternative view of language as a gradual cultural invention.
76 min read 11,773 words
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Your Book Review: On the Marble Cliffs
The review analyzes Ernst Jünger's 'On the Marble Cliffs' as a beautifully written allegory of Nazi Germany that offers advice on surviving totalitarianism through appreciation of beauty.
47 min read 7,203 words
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Book Review: Fussell On Class
Scott Alexander reviews Paul Fussell's 1983 book 'Class', which analyzes America's informal class structure and its impact on behavior and preferences.
37 min read 5,591 words
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Selection Bias Is A Fact Of Life, Not An Excuse For Rejecting Internet Surveys
Scott Alexander argues that selection bias, while a concern, is not a valid reason to automatically reject amateur online surveys, as professional studies also face similar limitations.
7 min read 963 words
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Prospectus On Próspera
Scott Alexander examines Próspera, a new charter city project in Honduras, detailing its plans, governance, and potential impact while addressing criticisms and limitations.
88 min read 13,541 words
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Model City Monday 2/3/25
A roundup of recent developments in charter cities and model city projects, including setbacks for Prospera and NEOM, new proposals in the US, and updates on various other projects worldwide.
19 min read 2,856 words
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Your Book Review: The Pale King
A review of David Foster Wallace's 'The Pale King', examining its themes, the author's style and personal struggles, and the reviewer's evolving perspective on Wallace's work and legacy.
45 min read 6,959 words
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Less Utilitarian Than Thou
Scott Alexander explores the misconception of utilitarianism, arguing that many common political actions are more ethically questionable than his own 'utilitarian' views.
7 min read 970 words
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Links For January 2025
Scott shares various interesting links and news items from January 2025, covering topics from AI development and politics to historical curiosities and economic trends.
35 min read 5,422 words
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A Guide To Asking Robots To Design Stained Glass Windows
Scott Alexander experiments with DALL-E 2 to create stained glass window designs, exploring the AI's capabilities and limitations in interpreting complex prompts.
29 min read 4,495 words
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How Natural Tradeoff And Failure Components?
Scott discusses how new schizophrenia genetics research confirms that psychiatric conditions combine both 'tradeoff' components (with compensating advantages) and 'failure' components (purely negative), then argues this pattern is common sense for any multifactorial problem.
6 min read 820 words
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1DaySooner's Trump II Health Policy Proposals
Scott Alexander and 1DaySooner outline potential positive health policy initiatives that could emerge under three key Trump administration health appointees: Jim O'Neill, Marty Makary, and Jay Bhattacharya.
13 min read 1,950 words