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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May 14, 2021
acx

Your Book Review: Addiction By Design

39 min • 5,429 words • 278 comments • 110 likes • podcast (37 min)
A review of 'Addiction By Design' examines how gambling machines are engineered for addiction and draws parallels to other digital technologies. Longer summary
This review of 'Addiction By Design' by Natasha Dow Schüll explores how gambling machines are designed to be addictive, and how this relates to other forms of digital addiction. The review covers the evolution of slot machines from mechanical to digital, various design techniques used to maximize addictiveness, and the psychology of machine gamblers seeking escape into a 'zone' state. It challenges the idea that gambling addiction is purely a personal failing, arguing instead that it results from an interaction between individuals and carefully engineered machines. The review also draws parallels to other potentially addictive technologies like social media apps. Shorter summary
Feb 22, 2013
ssc

Dungeons and Discourse Third Edition: The dialectic continues

6 min • 776 words • 69 comments
Scott Alexander releases the Third Edition of Dungeons and Discourse, a philosophy role-playing game, detailing numerous improvements and changes. Longer summary
Scott Alexander announces the release of the Third Edition of Dungeons and Discourse, a philosophy role-playing game. The post details numerous changes and improvements to the game, including new spells, a revamped prestige class system, simplified combat mechanics, and updated character statistics. Scott also mentions plans to convert the rulebook into a wiki and teases an upcoming campaign called 'Fermat's Last Stand'. Shorter summary