Scott Alexander recounts his experience with Substack's advance payment offer, demonstrating that the company's strategy was likely motivated by genuine revenue predictions rather than sinister intentions. Longer summary

Scott Alexander shares his personal experience with Substack's advance payment offer, countering claims that Substack's strategy is sinister. He describes how Substack convinced him to join by offering a large advance based on their revenue predictions. Scott reveals that his actual subscriber-generated revenue slightly exceeded Substack's prediction, suggesting that Substack's offer was genuine and not manipulative. He also mentions Matt Yglesias's similar experience, indicating that their cases might be typical of Substack's approach. Shorter summary

Scott Alexander reviews Ezra Klein's 'Why We're Polarized', finding it asks important questions about political polarization but provides few clear answers. Longer summary

Scott Alexander reviews Ezra Klein's book 'Why We're Polarized', which examines the historical and structural reasons for increasing political polarization in the United States. The book argues that the realignment of the Dixiecrats from Democrat to Republican in the 1960s allowed natural polarization to occur. Klein discusses factors like identity alignment, nationalization of politics, and negative partisanship as drivers of polarization. Scott finds some of Klein's arguments unconvincing, particularly regarding Republicans, and wishes for more international comparisons. He concludes that while the book asks important questions about polarization as a key political problem, it doesn't provide many clear answers. Shorter summary