How to explore Scott Alexander's work and his 1500+ blog posts? This unaffiliated fan website lets you sort and search through the whole codex. Enjoy!

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3 posts found
Sep 22, 2022
acx
45 min 6,220 words 566 comments 68 likes podcast (42 min)
Scott Alexander summarizes and responds to reader comments on his article about billionaire wealth, addressing various economic and ethical perspectives. Longer summary
This post summarizes and responds to reader comments on Scott Alexander's previous article about billionaire wealth and replaceability. It covers topics like natural monopolies, the role of luck vs. talent in business success, risk-taking by entrepreneurs, the political power of billionaires, and ways to test the replaceability of inventors and innovations. Scott engages with various perspectives while adding his own thoughts and clarifications on these complex economic and ethical issues. Shorter summary
Aug 31, 2022
acx
12 min 1,637 words 1,375 comments 197 likes podcast (13 min)
Scott Alexander examines the justification for billionaire wealth, introducing the concept of replaceability to challenge the standard neoliberal defense. Longer summary
Scott Alexander explores the concept of billionaire wealth and its justification, starting with the neoliberal defense that entrepreneurs create value and deserve a portion of it. He then introduces a counterargument based on replaceability: if an entrepreneur hadn't existed, someone else would likely have filled that economic niche eventually. This leads to the conclusion that while innovators deserve compensation for accelerating progress, they may not deserve the entire surplus value created by their innovations. The post discusses how this perspective complicates the moral and economic arguments around billionaire wealth and taxation, without providing a clear solution. Shorter summary
Jun 22, 2021
acx
11 min 1,431 words 164 comments 51 likes podcast (15 min)
Scott discusses various prediction markets and forecasting topics, including Metaculus predictions, Polymarket vs PredictIt, a study on forecasting accuracy, and the need for more precise inflation predictions from experts. Longer summary
This post covers various prediction markets and forecasting topics. It starts with Metaculus predictions on Puerto Rico statehood, Jeff Bezos' potential investment in anti-aging, crypto site defaults, and the population of Prospera. The author then discusses Polymarket, comparing its liquidity to PredictIt for the NYC mayoral race. The post also analyzes a study on forecasting accuracy from PredictionBook, showing that more experienced predictors perform better and that longer-term predictions are often more accurate. Finally, the author addresses the current debate on inflation predictions, calling for more precise and accountable forecasts from economists and pundits. Shorter summary