Scott reflects on having young children and how they've inherited specific traits, preferences, and quirks from both him and his wife in surprisingly precise ways. Longer summary

Scott explores the unexpected joys and challenges of seeing himself reflected in his children, particularly his son's inheritance of his childhood train obsession and OCD tendencies. He describes how his twins have split parental traits between them - his son inherited Scott's quirks while his daughter inherited his wife's - and how they've developed their own unique combinations. The post then shifts to discussing his parenting philosophy, defending his negotiation-based approach against critics by comparing family dynamics to feudal systems of rights and duties, complete with detailed examples of bedtime routines and the complex rules that have evolved through negotiation with his toddlers. Shorter summary

Scott shares humorous anecdotes about the daily chaos of raising toddler twins, from emergency police visits triggered by screaming over the wrong version of a song, to elaborate bedtime battles and the children's obsession with identifying vehicles and animals. Longer summary

Scott Alexander shares entertaining stories about parenting his toddler twins, Kai and Lyra, describing life with them as a 'permanent emergency'. The post opens with police arriving after a 911 call likely triggered by screaming over the wrong version of 'Mister Golden Sun'. Scott describes how the children have developed their own names for songs, their obsession with identifying animals and vehicles (which he theorizes relates to hunter-gatherer instincts), and their different personalities - Kai being chaotic and disruptive while Lyra is calm and cooperative. He details the elaborate bedtime ritual with Kai, including various stalling tactics like demanding food and fake-drinking milk. The post includes several photos of the twins and maintains a humorous, self-deprecating tone throughout while exploring how toddler behavior might reflect evolutionary programming. Shorter summary

Scott Alexander summarizes and responds to comments on his post about semaglutide, covering corrections, additional information, and user experiences with the weight loss drug. Longer summary

Scott Alexander summarizes and responds to comments on his previous post about semaglutide, a weight loss drug. The highlights include corrections to his original analysis, additional information on obtaining semaglutide cheaply, discussion of other weight loss drugs and treatments, challenges to Scott's predictions, debate over whether weight loss is maintained after stopping the drug, personal anecdotes from users, and mentions of some tangential debates in the comments. Shorter summary

Scott Alexander evaluates his 2016 predictions, finding good overall calibration with slight underconfidence at 70% probability, consistent with previous years. Longer summary

Scott Alexander reviews his predictions for 2016, comparing them to actual outcomes. He lists predictions for world events and personal/community matters, marking false predictions with strikethrough and true ones intact. He then calculates his accuracy for different confidence levels, finding he was generally well-calibrated but slightly underconfident at 70% probability. He compares this year's results to previous years, noting a similar pattern of underconfidence in medium probabilities. Overall, he considers his 2016 predictions successful and promises predictions for 2017 soon. Shorter summary

Scott Alexander explores the concepts of 'pulling goals' (driven by specific desires) and 'pushing goals' (driven by existing structures), expressing his preference for the former and strategies to deal with the latter. Longer summary

Scott Alexander discusses the distinction between 'pulling goals' and 'pushing goals'. Pulling goals are when you want to achieve something specific and create a plan, while pushing goals are when you have a structure but are trying to figure out what to do with it. He gives examples of both, such as studying to cure cancer (pulling) versus doing a research project just to graduate (pushing). Scott expresses his dislike for pushing goals, finding them potentially dishonest and often a sign that something has gone wrong. He argues that pushing goals can lead to confusion about one's true motivations and often result in inferior outcomes. The post concludes with Scott's personal strategy of keeping lists of things he wants to pull, to use when faced with pushing situations. Shorter summary

Two individuals share childhood misconceptions: Davis thought secrets weren't real, and Julia believed stars were just a poetic metaphor. Longer summary

This post presents two brief anecdotes about misconceptions. Davis shares his belief that secrets were not real, comparing them to evil twins, until a friend in college challenged this notion. Julia recounts her childhood misconception that stars were merely a poetic metaphor, only realizing they were real and visible to everyone when she got glasses in second grade. Shorter summary