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!

See also Top Posts and All Tags.

Minutes:
Blog:
Year:
Show all filters
2 posts found
Mar 02, 2014
ssc
7 min 955 words 102 comments
Scott Alexander introduces a comment policy for his blog based on the criteria of truth, necessity, and kindness, along with a reporting system and moderation approach. Longer summary
Scott Alexander outlines the comment policy for his blog, inspired by a Victorian-era saying often misattributed to Sufis and Buddha. The policy requires comments to meet at least two of three criteria: true, necessary, and kind. Scott explains each combination and provides examples. He emphasizes that the standards are relatively lax but still prohibit threats, doxxing, and slurs. Scott introduces a reporting system for comments and describes his approach to moderation, including a tiered ban system for policy violations. He acknowledges concerns about low-quality commenters and expresses intent to be more strict in moderation. Shorter summary
Aug 14, 2013
ssc
7 min 890 words 40 comments
Scott proposes creating fictional stories isomorphic to complex scientific concepts as a memory aid, inspired by the ease of remembering Game of Thrones details compared to biochemistry facts. Longer summary
Scott Alexander discusses the difficulty of memorizing complex scientific information, like biochemistry, compared to the ease of remembering intricate details from fiction like Game of Thrones. He proposes creating a story isomorphic to molecular biology pathways as a memory aid. The post explores the potential and limitations of this idea, considering how social information from medical school is easier to retain than medical data. Scott suggests that while perfect isomorphism might be challenging, a looser mapping could still be beneficial. He even considers the possibility of a movie adaptation to enhance memory through visual cues. Shorter summary