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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21 posts found
Jan 20, 2020
ssc
4 min 498 words 174 comments podcast (5 min)
Scott Alexander presents the results of the 2020 Slate Star Codex survey, including links to data, privacy measures, and future analysis plans. Longer summary
This post announces the results of the 2020 Slate Star Codex survey, which received 8,043 responses. Scott Alexander provides links to the survey questions and aggregated results, addresses privacy concerns by removing long-answer questions from public view, and offers downloadable datasets for those interested in analyzing the data themselves. He mentions plans for publishing more complex analyses over the coming year. The post also includes the results of a game from the survey, 'Prisoner's Dilemma Against Your Clone', and instructions for the winner to claim their prize. Shorter summary
Jan 17, 2020
ssc
1 min 81 words 50 comments
Scott Alexander announces the last chance to take the 2020 SSC survey, providing brief instructions and thanking participants. Longer summary
Scott Alexander is announcing the final opportunity for readers to participate in the 2020 SSC (Slate Star Codex) survey. The survey is open to all blog readers, takes approximately 30 minutes to complete, and Scott cautions participants to be careful about clicking links to avoid losing their progress. He expresses gratitude to those who have already taken the survey and indicates that he will be sharing the results in the near future. Shorter summary
Dec 30, 2019
ssc
5 min 650 words 408 comments podcast (5 min)
Scott Alexander is requesting readers to participate in the 2020 Slate Star Codex Survey, which helps him gather data for research and community planning. Longer summary
Scott Alexander is asking readers to take the 2020 Slate Star Codex Survey. The survey helps him learn about his readers, plan community events, and provides informal research data for interesting posts. It's open to anyone who has read the blog before December 30, 2019. The survey is in two parts: Part I takes about 10 minutes and asks basic questions, while Part II takes about 15 minutes and focuses on research topics. Scott mentions some limitations of the survey and offers the possibility of a monetary prize for randomly selected respondents. Shorter summary
Dec 26, 2019
ssc
1 min 107 words 54 comments podcast (2 min)
Scott Alexander asks readers to vote for their favorite among eight posted adversarial collaborations, with prizes for the top two. Longer summary
Scott Alexander announces that all eight adversarial collaborations have been posted and provides a link to the full list. He invites readers who have read all the collaborations to vote for their favorite using a provided link. Scott explains that this year, the winner will be decided by popular vote, with $2000 going to first place and $500 to second place. He concludes by thanking all participants, readers, and voters. Shorter summary
Sep 09, 2019
ssc
5 min 671 words 21 comments podcast (6 min)
Scott Alexander partially retracts and corrects his previous findings on age gaps and birth order effects after errors were identified in his analysis. Longer summary
Scott Alexander partially retracts his previous findings on age gaps and birth order effects. He acknowledges that Bucky, a Less Wrong user, found errors in his analysis of SSC survey data. While the original conclusion about firstborn children being overrepresented in high-openness STEM types remains valid, the specific findings about age gaps were partially incorrect. Scott explains the errors, presents Bucky's corrected analysis, and discusses the implications. He emphasizes the importance of data transparency and encourages readers to double-check his work. Shorter summary
Aug 15, 2019
ssc
8 min 1,065 words 89 comments podcast (10 min)
Scott Alexander attempts to replicate a study linking beef jerky consumption to manic episodes in bipolar disorder, finding no significant relationship in his analysis of SSC survey data. Longer summary
Scott Alexander attempts to replicate a study that claimed beef jerky consumption could trigger manic episodes in bipolar disorder. He uses data from the 2019 Slate Star Codex survey to compare beef jerky consumption between people with and without a history of bipolar mania hospitalization. Contrary to the original study, Scott's analysis finds no significant relationship between beef jerky consumption and manic episodes. He discusses the limitations of his data, such as relying on self-reporting and having a smaller sample size of manic patients, but also notes some strengths like a more detailed measure of beef jerky consumption. Scott concludes by urging further research on this topic, highlighting the importance of replication in scientific studies. Shorter summary
May 14, 2019
ssc
12 min 1,636 words 191 comments podcast (12 min)
Scott Alexander analyzes birth order effects in SSC readers, finding strong effects for sibling age gaps of 1-7 years, with a significant drop-off after 7 years. Longer summary
Scott Alexander investigates birth order effects using data from the 2019 Slate Star Codex survey. He finds that firstborns are overrepresented among SSC readers, replicating previous findings. The study focuses on how age gaps between siblings affect this birth order effect. Results show strong effects for age gaps of 1-7 years, with a dramatic decrease for gaps larger than 7 years. Scott discusses possible explanations for these findings, including intra-family competition and parental investment hypotheses. He notes that the results don't seem consistent with some other proposed mechanisms like maternal antibodies or vitamin deficiencies. The post ends with a call for further replication and expansion of these results. Shorter summary
Jan 13, 2019
ssc
2 min 161 words 347 comments podcast (3 min)
Scott Alexander announces the results of the 2019 Slate Star Codex survey, providing links to the questions, results, and downloadable public datasets. Longer summary
This post announces the results of the 2019 Slate Star Codex survey, which was completed by 8,171 people. Scott Alexander provides links to view the survey questions and results, and mentions that more detailed analyses will be published over the coming year. He also offers downloadable datasets of the public responses for those who want to investigate the data themselves, noting that these datasets exclude some sensitive information and may not exactly match the full version. Shorter summary
Jan 04, 2019
ssc
7 min 924 words 198 comments podcast (9 min)
Scott Alexander outlines 18 preregistered investigations for the 2019 SSC survey, covering topics from psychiatric medication effects to birth order influences. Longer summary
Scott Alexander preregisters 18 investigations for the 2019 Slate Star Codex survey. These investigations cover a wide range of topics including psychiatric medication effects, social class perceptions, life history strategies, gender bias, imposter syndrome, and birth order effects. The post begins by urging readers to take the survey before reading further to avoid bias. Each investigation is briefly described, often including the reasoning behind it or the specific analysis method to be used. The investigations touch on fields such as psychology, sociology, psychiatry, and genetics, reflecting the diverse interests of the blog's audience. Shorter summary
Dec 26, 2018
ssc
5 min 625 words 428 comments podcast (6 min)
Scott Alexander asks readers to participate in the 2019 Slate Star Codex Survey, which helps him gather data about his audience and conduct informal research for future blog posts. Longer summary
Scott Alexander is requesting readers to take the 2019 Slate Star Codex Survey. The survey is divided into two parts: Part I, which takes about 10 minutes and asks basic questions, and Part II, which takes about 15 minutes and focuses on research topics. The survey helps Scott learn more about his readers, plan community events, and gather informal research data for future blog posts. He explains some limitations of the survey, including America-centric questions and privacy considerations. Scott emphasizes that the survey is open to all readers, regardless of how frequently they visit the blog, and expresses his appreciation for participants' time and effort. Shorter summary
Nov 21, 2018
ssc
1 min 80 words 294 comments
Scott announces an upcoming SSC survey and invites reader suggestions, while warning that most won't be implemented. Longer summary
Scott Alexander announces a brief decrease in blogging due to Thanksgiving and informs readers about an upcoming SSC survey. He invites readers to provide suggestions for survey questions, methodology improvements, or any other feedback in the comments. However, he notes that most suggestions will likely not be implemented due to constraints. Shorter summary
Aug 16, 2018
ssc
4 min 453 words 248 comments podcast (6 min)
Scott analyzes a surprising age-related trend in responses to a parentheses riddle on the SSC survey, exploring possible explanations for why younger respondents were more likely to answer correctly. Longer summary
Scott Alexander discusses a parentheses riddle included in the SSC survey, which unexpectedly revealed a strong correlation between age and the likelihood of answering correctly. Younger respondents were more than twice as likely to choose the correct answer (B) compared to those in their 60s. Scott explores various hypotheses to explain this trend, including tech-savviness, cognitive decline, and survey-taking attitudes, but finds these explanations unsatisfactory. He speculates that age-related cognitive decline might affect parentheses-reading faculties specifically, independent of general intelligence. The post ends with an edit noting commenters' suggestion that younger people might have encountered the riddle before on social media. Shorter summary
Aug 15, 2018
ssc
9 min 1,180 words 38 comments podcast (11 min)
Scott Alexander reports on weak correlations and inconclusive results from the latest SSC survey on optical illusions and visual perception. Longer summary
Scott Alexander discusses the results of the latest SSC survey, focusing on optical illusions and visual riddles. He admits to being unable to expand on or strengthen his previous findings from 'Why Are Transgender People Immune To Optical Illusions' and 'Can We Link Perception And Cognition?'. While he weakly replicated some previous results, the correlations were too low to be exciting. He found minimal internal structure in the results, with different versions of the same illusion showing low correlation. The post also briefly mentions some pre-registered investigations that yielded uninteresting or negative results, including studies on political conflict theory, autism and categorization responses, and ADHD and ambition. Shorter summary
Aug 14, 2018
ssc
13 min 1,719 words 123 comments podcast (18 min)
Scott analyzes survey data to test the claim that rejection sensitivity is a key feature of ADHD, finding limited support and emphasizing caution in adopting such ideas without formal research. Longer summary
Scott Alexander investigates the claim that rejection-sensitive dysphoria is a key feature of ADHD using data from the Slate Star Codex survey. He finds that while people with ADHD do show slightly higher rejection sensitivity than those without psychiatric conditions, it's not as dramatic as some claim, and ADHD actually shows the lowest rejection sensitivity among the psychiatric conditions studied. The post critiques the lack of formal evidence for this claim, discusses potential Forer effects, and emphasizes the need for caution when adopting new ideas about psychiatric symptoms, especially those spread in patient communities without formal research backing. Shorter summary
Apr 17, 2018
ssc
21 min 2,934 words 316 comments podcast (26 min)
Scott Alexander analyzes survey data showing lower sexual harassment rates in STEM fields compared to other industries, contradicting media narratives, while urging caution and calling for more research. Longer summary
Scott Alexander analyzes data from his blog's survey on sexual harassment rates across different fields. The survey found that STEM and traditionally male-dominated fields had lower rates of reported sexual harassment compared to more verbal/personal skills-oriented fields. This contradicts media narratives about tech having unusually high harassment rates. Scott notes the strong correlation between at-work and out-of-work harassment rates across fields, suggesting differences may be more related to the people in each field rather than workplace cultures. He urges caution in interpreting the results, acknowledges potential biases, and calls for more rigorous research on this topic given the lack of good comparative data across industries. Shorter summary
Jan 26, 2018
ssc
10 min 1,278 words 238 comments podcast (12 min)
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
Jan 03, 2018
ssc
3 min 293 words 438 comments
Scott Alexander shares the results and data from the 2018 SSC Survey, which received over 8,000 responses, and invites readers to explore the findings. Longer summary
Scott Alexander announces the results of the 2018 SSC Survey, which received 8,077 responses. He provides links to view the survey questions, results, and a comparison survey conducted on Mechanical Turk. Scott also shares downloadable data files for the 7,298 respondents who agreed to have their responses shared publicly. He mentions plans to post longer analyses later, including those related to pre-registered hypotheses, and invites readers to investigate the data themselves. Shorter summary
Dec 25, 2017
ssc
13 min 1,690 words 191 comments podcast (14 min)
Scott Alexander preregisters hypotheses for the 2018 SSC Survey, planning to explore relationships between perception, cognition, personality, and demographics. Longer summary
Scott Alexander preregisters his hypotheses for the 2018 SSC Survey. He plans to investigate various relationships between perception, cognition, personality traits, and demographic factors. Key areas of focus include replicating previous findings on perception and cognition, exploring concepts like 'first sight and second thoughts' and 'ambiguity tolerance', investigating birth order effects, and examining correlations with autism, political views, and sexual harassment. He also plans to follow up on a previous AI risk persuasion experiment. Shorter summary
Dec 21, 2017
ssc
1 min 105 words 653 comments podcast (2 min)
Scott Alexander asks Slate Star Codex readers to take the 2018 SSC Reader Survey, which is divided into three sections of varying lengths. Longer summary
Scott Alexander is requesting readers of Slate Star Codex to participate in the 2018 SSC Reader Survey. The survey is divided into three sections, each taking about ten minutes to complete. Readers are encouraged to complete as many sections as they have time for, with Section 1 being the most important. Scott provides a link to the survey and mentions that additional information is available within the survey itself. He also allows for discussion in the comments but advises readers to complete the survey before reading the comments. Shorter summary
Oct 05, 2017
ssc
6 min 741 words 165 comments podcast (8 min)
Scott Alexander analyzes SSC survey results on trust, finding correlations with education, location, and political views, but not with gender, race, or religiosity. Longer summary
Scott Alexander analyzes the results of the SSC survey question on trust, exploring how different factors correlate with people's tendency to find others trustworthy. He finds that trust levels don't significantly differ by gender, race, religiosity, or intelligence, but there are differences based on education level, location, and political views. Urban and liberal areas tend to be more trusting, as do more educated individuals. Conservatives are generally less trusting than liberals. Effective altruists and polyamorous Less Wrong readers from California are found to be the most trusting groups. The post also notes correlations with mental health conditions and drug use, and observes that people who chose 'Other' in any category were consistently less trusting. Shorter summary
Jan 22, 2017
ssc
1 min 132 words 480 comments
Scott Alexander announces the 2017 SSC survey and requests readers to provide simple, machine-readable answers for easier processing. Longer summary
Scott Alexander announces the 2017 SSC survey and encourages readers who have read at least one SSC post to participate. He warns that the survey is quite long. Scott also adds an edit emphasizing the importance of providing simple, machine-readable answers for easier processing, giving examples of good and bad responses to illustrate his point. Shorter summary