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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4 posts found
Jan 13, 2020
ssc
16 min 2,111 words 166 comments podcast (15 min)
Scott Alexander announces the winners of the 2019 Adversarial Collaboration Contest and reviews all entries, praising their strengths and noting their impact on readers. Longer summary
Scott Alexander announces the winners of the 2019 Adversarial Collaboration Contest. The winning entry is about calorie restriction and aging by Adrian Liberman and Calvin Reese, with a close second on the ethics of eating meat by David G and Froolow. Scott praises both entries for their different strengths: the calorie restriction piece for its focused approach on a factual question, and the meat ethics piece for its comprehensive review of arguments. He notes that the meat ethics collaboration had a significant impact on readers' eating habits. Scott then briefly reviews the other entries, discussing their strengths and weaknesses. He concludes by explaining the prize distribution and his decision not to run the contest next year, citing various challenges. Shorter summary
Dec 11, 2019
ssc
1 min 122 words 9 comments
Scott Alexander apologizes for changing an essay title about circumcision, which caused confusion about its content, and asks readers to consider the original title when voting. Longer summary
Scott Alexander apologizes for changing the title of an essay on circumcision from 'Circumcision: Harms, Benefits, Ethics' to 'Is Circumcision Ethical?'. He explains that he wanted to maintain consistency in the format of titles, but this change caused confusion as it didn't accurately reflect the essay's content, which focused on harms and benefits as much as ethics. He asks readers to consider the original title when voting and invites other authors to provide feedback if they're unhappy with how he's phrased their titles. Shorter summary
Dec 10, 2019
ssc
17 min 2,321 words 466 comments podcast (17 min)
The post examines the medical benefits, risks, and ethical considerations of infant circumcision, presenting a balanced view based on various studies and historical context. Longer summary
This post discusses the benefits, harms, and ethics of infant circumcision. It covers various aspects including effects on penile cancer, HIV and STD transmission, UTIs, penile problems, and surgical risks. The authors also examine the impact on sensitivity and sexual satisfaction, and discuss the ethical considerations of performing this procedure on infants. The post presents a balanced view, citing numerous studies and historical context, and acknowledges the complexity of the ethical debate surrounding infant circumcision. Shorter summary
Jul 31, 2019
ssc
2 min 217 words 73 comments
Scott Alexander announces that the adversarial collaboration contest will proceed, lists the registered teams, and introduces a new rule for proposing topics. Longer summary
Scott Alexander provides an update on the adversarial collaboration contest he previously announced. He lists seven teams that have registered so far, covering topics such as circumcision, incarceration, the simulation argument, abortion, critical learning periods, and eating meat. With more than five teams registered, Scott confirms that the contest will officially take place. He invites others to form teams in the comment section, with the caveat that only people with usernames A-M can propose topics, while those with names N-Z must accept existing proposals. This rule is an experiment to address the issue of participants preferring to propose their own topics rather than accepting others'. Shorter summary