The reader’s shortlist
Essays ranked by captured source likes. Essays without a saved count are listed last.
Scott announces the results of the 2025 ACX Grants round, awarding $1.5 million to 42 projects out of 654 applications, covering areas from genetic engineering and disease prevention to AI safety and educational reform.
Scott clarifies his stance on conspiracy theories and expert trust, advocating for a nuanced approach that acknowledges both the value of expert opinion and the potential for misrepresentation.
Scott Alexander suggests that studying human fetishes could provide insights into AI alignment challenges, particularly regarding generalization and interpretability.
Scott Alexander reviews Will MacAskill's 'What We Owe The Future', a book arguing for longtermism and considering our moral obligations to future generations.
Scott Alexander explores various explanations for why some people don't respond to 'woo' practices, questioning whether non-responders are defective or if woo itself might be ineffective or even harmful.
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.
Scott Alexander's monthly links post covers diverse topics from AI developments and genetic research to historical anecdotes and local news, with a mix of serious analysis and humor.
The review of 'The Mind of a Bee' examines the cognitive abilities of bees, raising questions about their intelligence and potential consciousness.
Scott Alexander argues against Erik Hoel's claim that the decline of 'aristocratic tutoring' explains the perceived lack of modern geniuses, offering alternative explanations and counterexamples.
Scott Alexander examines a theory proposing that depression, anxiety, and trauma are characterized by low precision of sensory evidence, leading to overreliance on negative priors.
Scott Alexander presents a satirical list of fictional cryptocurrencies and the humorous reasons for their ban by the SEC.
Scott uses a thought experiment about hypothetical "reformed" Nazis in post-war Germany to explore whether problematic ideologies can be successfully reformed or whether their symbols and texts inevitably carry harmful baggage.
A replication of a 2023 neuroscience study on brain entrainment and learning found that the original effect likely doesn't exist, revealing how the study obscured key issues through statistical averaging and highlighting how AI tools are democratizing scientific scrutiny.
Scott shares an open letter urging the NIH to spend $5 billion in allocated but unspent research funds before the fiscal year deadline.
Scott Alexander investigates the reasons behind the extreme poverty in California's Central Valley, comparing it to Mississippi and analyzing various contributing factors.
Scott analyzes ACX survey data on Internet addiction, exploring correlations between usage patterns, life satisfaction, and parental restrictions, while acknowledging the difficulty of establishing causation in the findings.
Scott discusses the neuroscientific split between 'wanting' and 'liking', showing how wireheads might not actually be happy, and explores the troubling implications this has for economics, philosophy, and AI alignment.
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.
Scott Alexander explains how the vastly higher doses taken by recreational drug users compared to psychiatric patients lead to misconceptions about drug safety in clinical settings.
Scott Alexander uses Kelly betting to argue why AI development, unlike other technologies, poses too great a risk to civilization to pursue aggressively.
A review of 'The Arctic Hysterias' by Edward Foulks, exploring culture-bound mental disorders among Eskimos and their decline with westernization.
Scott Alexander examines Constitutional AI, a new technique for training more ethical AI models, discussing its effectiveness, implications, and limitations for AI alignment.
Scott Alexander explores the universal human drive for discovery and knowledge-seeking, comparing it to 'intellectual minor leagues' and questioning how non-experts can contribute meaningful insights.
Scott fact-checks and disproves a claim that all healthy people have mystical experiences using SSC Survey data.