Scott Alexander discusses how the clarity experienced when awakening from meditation-induced delusions mirrors his appreciation for simplifying philosophical concepts. Longer summary

Scott Alexander describes his experiences with meditating while tired, which lead to increasingly complex and delusional thoughts. He then experiences a moment of awakening where he realizes the simplicity of the task. This feeling of clarity and simplification is compared to his passion for ideas like consequentialism, atheism, and capitalism, which provide similar moments of clarity in complex situations. While acknowledging that this feeling isn't an argument for these ideas, Scott expresses how fundamental this aesthetic is to his thinking. Shorter summary