Scott Alexander explores reasons why some readers think his writing quality has declined, addressing various factors from idea exhaustion to intellectual progression. Longer summary

Scott Alexander responds to readers' claims that his writing quality has declined since 2013-2016. He explores several potential reasons, including having exhausted his backlog of ideas, the rationalist community's evolution, improved media quality, reduced need to criticize 'wokeness', psychological impacts of criticism, changing writing style with blog growth, and intellectual progression to more nuanced topics. He also addresses specific theories about selling out or being scared into submission, which he says don't match his experience. Shorter summary

Scott Alexander reviews his intellectual progress in the 2010s across various fields, crediting his blog for accelerating learning. Longer summary

Scott Alexander reflects on the intellectual progress he made in the 2010s, largely tracked through his blog posts. He discusses major updates in his understanding of topics like predictive coding theory, psychedelics, mental health, SSRIs, genetics, willpower, nutrition, x-risk, AI, scientific progress, cost disease, the replication crisis, placebo effect, ethics, politics, cultural evolution, social justice, game theory, and enlightenment. He notes that while some were major shifts in position, many represent 'deconfusion' - gaining a better map of the problem space. Scott credits his blog and reader interactions for accelerating his learning in the latter half of the decade. Shorter summary

Scott Alexander reflects on five years of Less Wrong, highlighting the community's intellectual progress in various areas of rationality and philosophy. Longer summary

Scott Alexander reflects on the fifth anniversary of Less Wrong, a rationalist community blog. He notes how many ideas that now seem obvious were once novel and exciting to the community. He covers several areas where Less Wrong has made progress, including understanding akrasia, decision theory, meta-contrarianism, trivial inconveniences, problems with scientific processes, effective altruism, and novel social norms. Scott concludes by expressing excitement about the intellectual progress the community has made, suggesting there's a path of development where insights that once seemed inscrutable become clear over time. Shorter summary