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7 posts found
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Oct 30, 2025
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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
Jul 04, 2025
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Your Review: School

55 min • 8,460 words • 553 comments • 434 likes • podcast (46 min)
This review explores how schools are primarily designed to maximize motivation rather than learning, explaining why age-graded classrooms and seemingly inefficient group learning have persisted despite numerous attempts at reform. Longer summary
The post examines why schools have maintained their traditional structure of age-graded classrooms where all students learn the same content, despite its apparent inefficiencies. The author argues that schools are designed primarily to maximize motivation rather than learning, using conformity as a key tool. Through analyzing various attempts at personalized learning and their consistent failures to scale beyond about 5% of students, the post explains how students fall into three categories: no-structure learners, low-structure learners, and high-structure learners. The author concludes that while the current system is far from perfect, it has proven more effective at scale than any alternatives, predicting that despite continued attempts at reform, the basic structure of schooling will remain unchanged. Shorter summary
Jun 27, 2025
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Your Review: Alpha School

121 min • 18,662 words • 686 comments • 705 likes • podcast (109 min)
A parent details their year-long experience with Alpha School in Austin, examining how this innovative program achieves accelerated learning through a combination of technology, personalized instruction, and incentive systems. Longer summary
This extensive review details the author's year-long experience with Alpha School, an innovative educational program in Austin that claims to achieve accelerated learning through a '2-hour learning' platform, analyzing its history, methods, effectiveness, and potential for scaling. The author explores how Alpha combines technology, personalized learning, incentive systems, and afternoon workshops to achieve its results, while also examining the challenges it faces in scaling beyond its current elite private school model. The review is particularly careful to separate marketing claims from reality, showing that while the '2-hour learning' actually takes closer to three hours and isn't truly AI-powered, the program does achieve remarkable results through a combination of proven educational techniques. Shorter summary
Feb 25, 2021
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A Modest Proposal For Republicans: Use The Word "Class"

23 min • 3,524 words • 1,523 comments • 552 likes • podcast (24 min)
Scott Alexander suggests Republicans should focus on fighting cultural classism to broaden their appeal and unite their base. Longer summary
Scott Alexander proposes a strategy for the Republican Party to pivot towards fighting classism as a way to maintain relevance and appeal to a broader base. He suggests that the party should focus on the cultural aspects of class rather than economic ones, positioning themselves as champions of the working class against the upper class. The post outlines several potential policy areas, including reforming higher education, challenging the concept of expertise, critiquing upper-class media, and reframing the debate on 'wokeness' as a class issue. Alexander argues that this approach could unite various Republican constituencies and potentially attract new voters, including minorities. Shorter summary
Feb 18, 2021
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Highlights From The Comments On Cult Of Smart

55 min • 8,427 words • 460 comments • 73 likes • podcast (49 min)
Scott Alexander responds to comments on his review of 'The Cult of Smart', addressing criticisms and expanding on topics like charter schools, meritocracy, and education reform. Longer summary
Scott Alexander discusses various reactions to his review of Freddie DeBoer's book 'The Cult of Smart'. He addresses criticisms of charter schools, clarifies his stance on meritocracy, and elaborates on his negative experiences with schooling. The post also explores ideas about reforming education systems, the tension between order and freedom in schools, and ways to empower less advantaged people in society. Shorter summary
Apr 10, 2018
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Why DC’s Low Graduation Rates?

11 min • 1,596 words • 295 comments • podcast (13 min)
Scott analyzes the projected drop in DC's high school graduation rates, exploring various explanations and comparing DC to other states, ultimately suggesting widespread inflation of graduation rates elsewhere. Longer summary
This post discusses the projected drop in high school graduation rates in Washington DC from 73% to 42%. Scott examines possible explanations, including incompetent administration, unique challenges due to demographics, and overcorrection from previous fraud. He analyzes test scores and compares DC to other states, finding that DC's scores, while low, don't justify such a low graduation rate. Scott suggests that many other cities might be using fraud and low standards to inflate their graduation rates, and that DC's projected rate might be an overcorrection that unfairly penalizes students. He hopes DC will find ways to graduate more students to align with national norms. Shorter summary
Dec 02, 2016
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Contra Robinson On Schooling

41 min • 6,286 words • 608 comments
Scott Alexander critiques arguments against school vouchers, discussing potential efficiency gains and drawbacks of privatization in education, while proposing experimental approaches to school reform. Longer summary
Scott Alexander critiques Nathan Robinson's arguments against school vouchers, discussing the potential efficiency gains and drawbacks of privatization in education. He compares education to other sectors like healthcare and grocery stores, analyzes the rising costs in public education, and proposes experimental approaches to school reform, including a system of small, home-based schools. Shorter summary
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