Scott Alexander discusses various responses to his post on mentally ill homeless people, emphasizing the need for specific, detailed plans. Longer summary

Scott Alexander responds to comments on his previous post about mentally ill homeless people, addressing various objections and proposed solutions while emphasizing the need for specific, detailed plans rather than vague calls for toughness. Shorter summary

Scott Alexander explains why 'doing something' about mentally ill homeless people is more complex than it seems, detailing current processes and challenges in implementing alternatives. Longer summary

Scott Alexander critiques the common call to 'do something' about mentally ill homeless people, explaining why seemingly simple solutions are often impractical or ineffective. He details the current process for dealing with disruptive mentally ill homeless individuals, highlighting its limitations and the numerous challenges in implementing alternative approaches. The post emphasizes the need for specific, well-thought-out plans rather than vague demands for action, and critiques articles that criticize 'soft' approaches without offering concrete, feasible alternatives. Shorter summary

This collaboration examines mandatory vaccination policies and potential vaccine harms, concluding mandates are likely unnecessary and vaccines remain important for public health despite some ongoing safety concerns. Longer summary

This adversarial collaboration examines two questions regarding childhood vaccination policies in economically developed nations: whether vaccination should be mandatory, and whether health authorities should normalize parental decisions not to vaccinate. The authors conclude that mandatory vaccination is likely not necessary to achieve public health objectives, and that while vaccines are an important element of disease control, there is not sufficient evidence that they cause significant harm to justify discouraging vaccination as a matter of public policy. They suggest studying alternative approaches to increasing vaccination rates without mandates. Shorter summary

Scott Alexander examines the mixed effectiveness of public awareness campaigns, presenting examples of both failures and successes, and analyzing possible explanations for their varying outcomes. Longer summary

Scott Alexander explores the effectiveness of public awareness campaigns, presenting examples of both failures and successes. He analyzes various theories about why some campaigns work while others don't, but ultimately concludes that it's difficult to predict the success of future campaigns. The post discusses failures like DARE, Scared Straight, and diversity training, as well as successes like anti-smoking campaigns and seatbelt promotion. Scott suggests that campaigns inflicted on captive audiences may be more likely to be counterproductive, but acknowledges that this theory doesn't fully explain all outcomes. He ends by expressing skepticism about public awareness campaigns, partly due to the implications for society if they were consistently effective. Shorter summary