Scott Alexander's novel 'Unsong' is now available in paperback on Amazon, featuring improvements over the original online version. Longer summary

Scott Alexander announces the publication of his online serial novel 'Unsong' in paperback form on Amazon. He discusses the improvements made to the published version, including rewritten chapters, character name changes, and expanded historical and political details. Scott expresses gratitude to those who helped make the publication possible, particularly commenter Pycea. Shorter summary

Scott Alexander announces the 2024 Book Review Contest, detailing submission guidelines, prizes, and a new focus on including nontraditional book categories. Longer summary

Scott Alexander announces the 2024 Book Review Contest, inviting readers to submit reviews of books. The contest has no strict word count requirement, but previous successful entries were between 2,000 and 10,000 words. Entries should be submitted through a Google Form, with the actual review in a separate, unlocked Google Doc. The contest aims to be as blind as possible, so reviewers should not include identifying information in their review. Prizes range from $500 to $2,500, with additional benefits for winners and finalists. This year, about 25% of finalist slots will be reserved for reviews of books from nontraditional categories like fiction, poetry, or pre-1900 works. The submission deadline is May 5th. Shorter summary

Scott Alexander announces the winners and finalists of the 2023 Book Review Contest, providing details about the reviews, authors, and prizes. Longer summary

Scott Alexander announces the winners of the 2023 Book Review Contest, listing the top three winners, finalists, and honorable mentions. He provides details about the prizes, brief descriptions of the winning reviews and their authors, and mentions plans for another contest next year. The post also includes information on how participants can check their scores and thanks those who helped organize the contest. Shorter summary

Scott Alexander announces the 2023 Book Review Contest, detailing submission guidelines, prizes, and deadlines for book review entries. Longer summary

Scott Alexander announces the 2023 Book Review Contest, inviting readers to submit reviews of any book they choose. The contest details include submission guidelines, prize amounts, and judging criteria. Entries should be submitted through a Google Form by April 5th, with the actual review in an unlocked Google Doc. Scott emphasizes the importance of anonymity in the review document to ensure fair judging. Prizes range from $500 to $2,500, with additional benefits for winners and finalists. Shorter summary

Scott Alexander announces a subscription drive for Astral Codex Ten, offering samples of subscriber-only content to encourage new subscriptions. Longer summary

Scott Alexander is holding a subscription drive for his blog, Astral Codex Ten. He explains the benefits of a paid subscription, including extra articles, hidden open threads, and early access to drafts. Despite already making a significant income from the blog, he's noticed a decline in subscriptions over time and wants to maintain his current level. He provides a sample of previously subscriber-only posts that he's temporarily unlocked, as well as a list of other subscriber-only post titles from the past year. Scott emphasizes that he doesn't want readers to feel pressured to subscribe if they can't easily afford it. Shorter summary

Scott Alexander announces the 2022 Book Review Contest, detailing rules, submission guidelines, and prizes for participants. Longer summary

Scott Alexander announces the 2022 Book Review Contest, inviting readers to submit reviews of books. The post outlines the contest rules, including submission guidelines, word count suggestions, and prize details. Participants are asked to submit their entries through a Google Form, ensuring the reviews are anonymous for fair judging. The contest offers cash prizes for the top three winners, along with free publicity and ACX subscriptions for all finalists. Shorter summary

Scott Alexander announces the final rules and details for his postponed book review contest, including submission guidelines, prizes, and publication plans. Longer summary

Scott Alexander announces the final rules for his book review contest, which was originally planned for last summer but postponed due to his hiatus. He outlines the submission deadline, prizes, judging process, and publication plans for both finalist and non-finalist entries. Scott also clarifies submission format requirements and rights granted to him for publishing the reviews. Shorter summary

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

Scott Alexander discusses unintentional plagiarism in his writing, reflecting on how writers blend their influences at various levels of recognition. Longer summary

Scott Alexander reflects on unintentional plagiarism in his writing, sparked by realizing a sentence in his previous post about plagiarism was unconsciously inspired by a Miss Manners quote. He discusses how writers often blend their influences, sometimes resulting in recognizable 'chunks' of others' work appearing in their own. Scott extends this idea to writing style, worldview, and reasoning methods, suggesting they are all 'slurries' of one's influences, with some elements more recognizable than others. Shorter summary

Scott Alexander explores the concepts of 'pulling goals' (driven by specific desires) and 'pushing goals' (driven by existing structures), expressing his preference for the former and strategies to deal with the latter. Longer summary

Scott Alexander discusses the distinction between 'pulling goals' and 'pushing goals'. Pulling goals are when you want to achieve something specific and create a plan, while pushing goals are when you have a structure but are trying to figure out what to do with it. He gives examples of both, such as studying to cure cancer (pulling) versus doing a research project just to graduate (pushing). Scott expresses his dislike for pushing goals, finding them potentially dishonest and often a sign that something has gone wrong. He argues that pushing goals can lead to confusion about one's true motivations and often result in inferior outcomes. The post concludes with Scott's personal strategy of keeping lists of things he wants to pull, to use when faced with pushing situations. Shorter summary