How to avoid getting lost reading Scott Alexander and his 1500+ blog posts? This unaffiliated fan website lets you sort and search through the whole codex. Enjoy!

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5 posts found
Jul 15, 2022
acx
95 min 12,330 words 318 comments 125 likes podcast
The review critiques Haidt's 'The Righteous Mind', praising its contributions while highlighting flaws in its moral foundations theory and political predictions. Longer summary
This review critiques Jonathan Haidt's 'The Righteous Mind', praising its contributions to moral psychology while highlighting significant flaws. The reviewer appreciates Haidt's defense of group selection and moral intuitionism but criticizes his confusion between normative and descriptive claims. The review argues that Haidt's moral foundations theory fails to predict political alignments just a decade after publication, suggesting that political tribalism drives moral intuitions rather than vice versa. Despite these criticisms, the reviewer recommends the book for its thought-provoking nature and its role in advancing empiricism in social science. Shorter summary
Feb 01, 2022
acx
6 min 729 words 335 comments 122 likes podcast
Scott analyzes motivated reasoning as misapplied reinforcement learning, explaining how it might arise from the brain's mixture of reinforceable and non-reinforceable architectures. Longer summary
Scott explores the concept of motivated reasoning as misapplied reinforcement learning in the brain. He contrasts behavioral brain regions that benefit from hedonic reinforcement learning with epistemic regions where such learning would be detrimental. The post discusses how this distinction might explain phenomena like 'ugh fields' and motivated reasoning, especially in novel situations like taxes or politics where brain networks might be placed on a mix of reinforceable and non-reinforceable architectures. Scott suggests this model could explain why people often confuse what is true with what they want to be true. Shorter summary
Jul 24, 2018
ssc
45 min 5,785 words 379 comments podcast
Scott proposes that value differences arise from people crystallizing heuristics at different levels, rather than from fundamental, incomprehensible differences in values. Longer summary
Scott explores the idea that value differences stem from people operating at different levels of a conceptual ladder, from explicit models to emotional experiences to reified essences to endorsed values. He argues that this perspective can help people understand each other better, as differences often arise from where individuals choose to crystallize heuristics rather than from fundamental, incomprehensible value differences. The post discusses various examples of this process, from nutrition to punishment to environmental preservation, and examines factors that influence where people place themselves on this ladder, such as intelligence, education, and personal experience. Shorter summary
Jan 26, 2018
ssc
10 min 1,278 words 238 comments podcast
Scott Alexander analyzes SSC survey data to explore the conflict vs. mistake theory distinction in political disagreements, finding that Marxists and the alt-right tend more towards conflict theory than other groups. Longer summary
Scott Alexander analyzes data from the SSC survey to explore the distinction between conflict theory and mistake theory in political disagreements. The post presents various survey questions that tap into this distinction and shows correlations between responses. Results indicate that Marxists and the alt-right tend more towards conflict theory, while libertarians and liberals lean more towards mistake theory. The analysis also explores relationships between conflict theory tendencies and various demographic factors, finding some weak correlations with financial situation, self-perceived morality, and certain personality traits. Shorter summary
Scott Alexander shares and briefly comments on various insightful quotes from Jonathan Haidt's 'The Righteous Mind', covering topics like psychology, politics, and religion. Longer summary
This post is a collection of quotes from Jonathan Haidt's book 'The Righteous Mind' that Scott Alexander found particularly interesting or insightful. The quotes cover a wide range of topics including human psychology, social behavior, political polarization, and the role of religion in society. Scott provides brief comments on some quotes, highlighting their relevance to his own thoughts or current societal issues. The post doesn't present a cohesive argument but rather serves as a collection of thought-provoking ideas from Haidt's work. Shorter summary