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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Aug 04, 2022
acx

Slightly Against Underpopulation Worries

24 min • 3,281 words • 985 comments • 181 likes • podcast (26 min)
Scott Alexander argues that underpopulation concerns are overstated and likely irrelevant due to expected technological changes by 2100. Longer summary
Scott Alexander argues against worries about underpopulation, stating that while there may be some demographic shifts and challenges, they are not as dire as some claim. He presents data showing global population will continue to grow until 2100, and even countries with declining populations will still have substantial numbers. He discusses potential issues like age pyramid concerns and innovation slowdowns, but argues these are either manageable or likely to be overshadowed by technological changes. Scott concludes that long-term population projections are largely irrelevant due to the likelihood of transformative technological changes before 2100. Shorter summary
Apr 20, 2020
ssc

The Amish Health Care System

31 min • 4,269 words • 557 comments • podcast (26 min)
Scott Alexander examines the Amish health care system, which costs much less than the American system while maintaining good health outcomes, and considers its implications for broader healthcare policy. Longer summary
Scott Alexander explores the Amish health care system, comparing it to the modern American system. He notes that the Amish spend much less on healthcare while maintaining good health outcomes, though they have slightly lower life expectancy. The Amish system relies on church aid and a simple insurance-like institution called Amish Hospital Aid. Key factors in their lower costs include collective bargaining, avoiding unnecessary care, not suing doctors, and price-sensitive consumption. Scott considers the applicability of this system to wider society and reflects on how healthcare costs have changed over time, suggesting a possible self-reinforcing cycle between rising costs and the spread of health insurance. Shorter summary
Apr 02, 2018
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Are The Amish Unhappy? Super Happy? Just Meh?

11 min • 1,521 words • 146 comments • podcast (14 min)
Scott Alexander critically examines conflicting studies on Amish happiness levels, finding the research too unreliable to draw firm conclusions. Longer summary
Scott Alexander examines conflicting claims about Amish happiness levels compared to modern societies and billionaires. He finds significant inconsistencies and methodological issues in the various studies, making it difficult to draw firm conclusions. The post highlights problems with data interpretation, study replication, and potential confounding factors. Scott emphasizes the unreliability of these early happiness studies, which predate improvements brought by the replication crisis in social science. He concludes that the research is not rigorous enough to make definitive statements about Amish happiness levels relative to other groups. Shorter summary
Jul 08, 2015
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Cultural Evolution 2: Thanks For The Meme-Rise

6 min • 737 words • 373 comments
Scott examines five potential mechanisms of cultural evolution, discussing their strengths and limitations, and concludes that they don't strongly justify preserving specific cultural features. Longer summary
This post discusses various ways cultural evolution can occur, based on comments from a previous post. It explores five scenarios: super-innovations allowing one culture to dominate others, differential breeding rates between groups, evolution of subcultures, accretion of beneficial practices, and prehistoric cultural evolution. Scott analyzes each scenario, noting their strengths and limitations. He concludes that while cultural evolution has potential to be interesting, it doesn't provide a strong argument for preserving specific cultural features without additional justification. Shorter summary