Want to dive into Scott Alexander's work and his thousands of blog posts? This fan website lets you sort and do semantic search through the whole codex. Enjoy!

See also Top Posts and All Tags.

Minutes:
Pick a custom range (minutes). Leave a field empty for no limit.
–
Blog:
Year:
2026
2025
2024
2023
2022
2021
2020
2019
2018
2017
2016
2015
2014
2013
Tags:
Filter by tag...
Exclude tag...
5252 tags
Links:
Filter by linked site (twitter, substack…)
9 posts found
Compact Mode
Save Reads
Mar 06, 2026
acx
Read on

SEIU Delenda Est

15 min • 2,251 words • 673 comments • 639 likes • podcast (14 min)
Scott argues that California's proposed billionaire tax is actually an extortion scheme by SEIU, which has a history of proposing destructive ballot initiatives and withdrawing them in exchange for concessions. Longer summary
Scott argues that California's 2026 Billionaire Tax Act is not a genuine progressive wealth tax proposal, but rather an extortion scheme by the Service Employees International Union (SEIU). He explains the tax's various problems (including taxing unrealized gains and being retroactive), then reveals SEIU's history of proposing deliberately destructive ballot initiatives targeting healthcare industries, only to withdraw them in exchange for money and union expansion rights. The union has done this repeatedly with hospitals and dialysis clinics, spending millions on initiatives they never intended to pass. Scott suggests the billionaire tax follows the same pattern: SEIU is leveraging Governor Newsom's presidential ambitions and desire to keep tech billionaires happy, hoping he'll offer concessions to make the initiative disappear. Shorter summary
Feb 11, 2026
acx
Read on

Political Backflow From Europe

14 min • 2,052 words • 1,150 comments • 401 likes • podcast (12 min)
Scott examines how American political discourse absorbs European narratives that don't fit the US context, particularly around immigration and crime statistics. Longer summary
Scott argues that American political discourse sometimes absorbs European issues that don't apply to the US context. He gives two main examples: the narrative about generational wealth transfer through pensions (which happens in Europe but not America), and conservative talking points about immigrants being criminals and welfare recipients (largely true in parts of Europe, largely false in America). He provides detailed statistics showing that most US immigrant groups, including asylum seekers, have lower crime rates than native-born Americans, contrasting this with higher rates in countries like Germany. Scott suggests both liberals and conservatives avoid acknowledging this difference because it's politically inconvenient, but argues liberals should directly challenge conservatives to focus on American rather than European data. Shorter summary
Dec 31, 2025
acx
Read on

Highlights From The Comments On Vibecession

68 min • 10,515 words • 374 comments • 174 likes • podcast (56 min)
Scott reviews comments on his vibecession post, exploring when it started, whether it's really about economics or culture, and notably finding that China experiences similar pessimism despite 5-10x income growth, suggesting vibes can be completely divorced from economic reality. Longer summary
Scott Alexander reviews and discusses comments on his previous post about the 'vibecession' (the disconnect between good economic indicators and negative public sentiment). The discussion covers when the vibecession actually started, whether economic complaints are proxies for cultural dissatisfaction, housing and inflation concerns, international comparisons (especially China's similar phenomenon despite massive economic growth), and concludes that vibes may be genuinely divorced from economic reality, though housing prices and partisan political feelings play significant roles. Shorter summary
Dec 10, 2025
acx
Read on

Links For December 2025

51 min • 7,776 words • 592 comments • 260 likes • podcast (52 min)
Scott's monthly roundup of interesting links covering AI policy developments, technology news, cultural observations, and scientific research from December 2025. Longer summary
This is Scott Alexander's monthly collection of links and commentary covering diverse topics. Major themes include AI policy battles (chip sales to China, regulation debates, political campaigns), startup news (Substrate fraud allegations, Tornyol mosquito drones), and scientific updates (COVID origins, Hitler's DNA, lactose intolerance). The post also covers cultural topics like the first millennial saint, Dimes Square commentary, and political polling about ideal Democratic candidates. Scott provides his characteristic mix of straightforward reporting, skeptical analysis, and occasional humor throughout the 53 linked items. Shorter summary
Oct 30, 2025
acx
Read on

Links For October 2025

42 min • 6,423 words • 803 comments • 211 likes • podcast (38 min)
Scott Alexander presents 51 links covering AI progress and safety, political developments, scientific research, cultural oddities, and ongoing philosophical debates about miracles and education reform. Longer summary
Scott Alexander shares 51 links covering diverse topics including AI developments (agents, safety, consciousness research), political news (Ukraine policy, UK politics, Trump administration), science updates (climate predictions, genetics, bacteriophages), cultural curiosities (Shakespeare superfan plastic surgery, Soviet naming conventions, flag cones), health research (Alzheimer's prevention, shingles vaccine reducing dementia, kidney donation), and philosophical debates (Hume's argument against miracles, the Fatima miracle discussion). The post maintains Scott's characteristic blend of serious analysis and quirky observations, touching on everything from Bach's descendants in Oklahoma to the mystery of why AI still struggles with laundry folding despite mastering protein folding. Shorter summary
Oct 24, 2025
acx
Read on

Highlights From The Comments On Fatima

146 min • 22,516 words • 364 comments • 156 likes • podcast (119 min)
Scott explores reader responses to his Fatima miracle post, finding the most promising explanation in Buddhist fire kasina meditation practices that produce similar visual phenomena, while remaining uncertain about how 70,000 untrained people could achieve advanced meditative states instantly. Longer summary
Scott discusses reader responses to his previous post about the Fatima sun miracle, exploring new theories and evidence. The most promising explanation connects the phenomenon to 'fire kasina' meditation, a Buddhist practice of staring at bright lights that produces similar visual effects including spinning, color changes, and complex imagery. He examines the parallel case of Iranians seeing Ayatollah Khomeini's face in the moon in 1978, analyzes various videos of modern sun miracles (concluding they're camera artifacts), interviews a Medjugorje witness, and engages with Ethan Muse's counterarguments about the miracle being an objective phenomenon. Scott also addresses philosophical questions about miracles and Bayesian reasoning, ultimately remaining uncertain but slightly less confused than before, with fire kasina providing the best but still imperfect explanation. Shorter summary
Jun 18, 2025
acx
Read on

ACX Grants 1-3 Year Updates

83 min • 12,838 words • 169 comments • 124 likes • podcast (75 min)
Scott reviews updates from two cohorts of ACX Grants recipients (from 2021 and 2024), analyzing their progress and sharing lessons learned about what makes grants successful. Longer summary
Scott Alexander reviews progress updates from two cohorts of ACX Grants recipients - the first cohort from 2021 (after 3 years) and the second from 2024 (after 1 year). The post methodically goes through each grant's status, with many showing significant progress in areas like AI safety advocacy, animal welfare, scientific research, and political lobbying. Scott then analyzes patterns in what made grants successful, finding that lobbying organizations and animal welfare projects were particularly effective, while scientific grants were harder to evaluate. He concludes that while not all projects succeeded, the $3 million program generated good value through both direct impact and startup creation, and he plans to continue it with some adjustments. Shorter summary
May 02, 2025
acx
Read on

Testing AI's GeoGuessr Genius

28 min • 4,281 words • 483 comments • 406 likes • podcast (37 min)
Scott tests OpenAI's o3 model's ability to identify locations from photos, finding it has remarkable success even with minimal visual information, raising questions about AI capabilities. Longer summary
Scott tests OpenAI's o3 model on increasingly difficult GeoGuessr-style location guessing challenges using his own photos. Starting with a Google Street View image of a featureless plain, progressing through personal photos of Nepal mountains, a dorm room, and extremely zoomed-in shots of grass and river water, Scott finds that o3 shows remarkable ability to identify locations from minimal visual cues. While it fails on some challenges like identifying a specific house address, its success rate and reasoning process on most images is impressive enough to make Scott question whether this represents a qualitatively different level of AI capability. Shorter summary
Jul 19, 2024
acx
Read on

Your Book Review: How Language Began

76 min • 11,773 words • 645 comments • 242 likes • podcast (79 min)
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. Longer summary
This book review discusses Daniel Everett's 'How Language Began', which challenges Noam Chomsky's dominant theories in linguistics. Everett argues that language emerged gradually over a long period, is primarily for communication, and is not innate but a cultural invention. The review contrasts Everett's views with Chomsky's, detailing Everett's research with the Pirahã people and his alternative theory of language origins. It also touches on the controversy Everett's work has sparked in linguistics and its potential implications for understanding language and AI. Shorter summary
Per page:
Showing 1 to 9 of 9 results
Get these search results in an EPUB

Your filters match 9 posts.

Posts to include
–
Leave empty to keep the defaults. Range cannot exceed 500 posts.
Download now

Generates an EPUB right now and downloads it to your device.

Send to email

Generates an EPUB in the background and emails you a temporary download link.

Your email is not shared with anyone.

Email address

To send to your Kindle, just use this link.