ACX
Apply For An ACX Grant
Scott Alexander announces ACX Grants, offering $250,000 to fund promising research and projects, with potential for additional funding through partnerships.
9 min read 1,256 words
The reader’s shortlist
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Most liked essays
2,008 essaysACX
ACX
When Will The FDA Approve Paxlovid?
Scott Alexander critiques the FDA's slow approval process for Paxlovid, a promising COVID-19 treatment, despite its proven effectiveness.
9 min read 1,382 words
ACX
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
LW
2014 Less Wrong Census/Survey
Scott announces the 2014 Less Wrong Census/Survey, encouraging all community members including lurkers to participate in the main survey and optional extra credit questions, with a monetary reward available.
3 min read 420 words
ACX
"Is Wine Fake?" In Asterisk Magazine
Scott Alexander announces the launch of Asterisk Magazine, highlighting various articles from its first issue, including his own piece on wine tasting.
5 min read 655 words
ACX
Links For February 2024
A compilation of 55 diverse links and brief commentaries on various topics, including scientific studies, historical anecdotes, cultural phenomena, and technological developments.
33 min read 5,036 words
ACX
Your Book Review: Addiction By Design
A review of 'Addiction By Design' examines how gambling machines are engineered for addiction and draws parallels to other digital technologies.
36 min read 5,435 words
ACX
2023 Subscription Drive + Free Unlocked Posts
Scott Alexander announces a subscription drive for Astral Codex Ten, offering samples of subscriber-only content to encourage new subscriptions.
4 min read 584 words
ACX
Janus' GPT Wrangling
Scott Alexander discusses Janus' experiments with GPT-3, exploring its capabilities, quirks, and potential implications.
17 min read 2,491 words
ACX
ELK And The Problem Of Truthful AI
Scott Alexander examines the Eliciting Latent Knowledge (ELK) problem in AI alignment and various proposed solutions.
42 min read 6,490 words
ACX
Model City Monday 8/1/22
Scott Alexander examines several model city projects, including Saudi Arabia's Neom, criticizing its unrealistic plans and discussing other developments in crypto-friendly zones and floating cities.
21 min read 3,172 words
LW
2013 Less Wrong Census/Survey
Scott announces the 2013 Less Wrong Census/Survey, urging all readers to participate in the main survey (10-15 minutes) plus optional extra credit questions, with clear instructions for standardized responses and a deadline of December 31st, 2013.
4 min read 473 words
LW
2013 Survey Results
Scott Alexander presents comprehensive results from the 2013 Less Wrong community survey, covering demographics, beliefs, and behavioral patterns of 1636 respondents.
38 min read 5,884 words
LW
Rationalists Are Less Credulous But Better At Taking Ideas Seriously
Scott uses Less Wrong survey data to show that experienced rationalists are actually less likely than newcomers to believe cryonics will work, yet more likely to sign up for it, demonstrating that rationalist training teaches people to act on beliefs rather than making them more credulous.
7 min read 977 words
LW
That other kind of status
Scott proposes that people don't just seek status itself, but rather seek mental states that allow them to believe they have status, explaining why people adopt low-status beliefs like conspiracy theories.
8 min read 1,193 words
ACX
More Memorable Passages From "The Man Without A Face"
Scott Alexander shares memorable anecdotes from Masha Gessen's Putin biography, highlighting Russian politics, culture, and Putin's character.
15 min read 2,202 words
ACX
Pascalian Medicine
Scott Alexander examines the concept of 'Pascalian Medicine', weighing the pros and cons of taking multiple unproven but potentially beneficial treatments.
17 min read 2,505 words
ACX
Highlights From The Comments On Tegmark's Mathematical Universe
Scott responds to comments and criticisms of his post about Tegmark's Mathematical Universe Hypothesis and its implications for arguments about God's existence, addressing technical points about Boltzmann brains, simplicity measures, and philosophical objections.
40 min read 6,150 words
ACX
Links For September 2023
A diverse collection of links and brief comments on recent developments in science, technology, politics, and society, ranging from climate change to AI developments to social experiments.
28 min read 4,250 words
ACX
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
ACX
Welcome Polygenically Screened Babies
Scott Alexander discusses the birth of the first polygenically-screened baby and explores the current and potential future applications of this technology in IVF.
9 min read 1,321 words
ACX
Weyl Contra Me On Technocracy
Glen Weyl responds to Scott Alexander's critique of his technocracy essay, clarifying his position and defending his arguments while acknowledging some limitations.
8 min read 1,183 words
LW
Why Real Men Wear Pink
Scott explains Bell's theory that fashion functions as status signaling, where the upper class deliberately adopts outrageous or lower-class styles that the middle class wouldn't dare wear, creating fashion cycles and explaining phenomena like men wearing pink or the 'ghetto look.'
7 min read 1,051 words
ACX
Apply For An ACX Grant (2025)
Scott Alexander announces the 2025 ACX Grants program offering $1M in microgrants for charitable and scientific projects, with a new equity-sharing component for projects that become startups.
13 min read 1,864 words