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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4 posts found
May 17, 2024
acx
6 min 889 words 210 comments 48 likes podcast (6 min)
Scott Alexander seeks help in selecting finalists for the 2024 Book Review Contest by asking readers to rate entries from a pool of 150 reviews. Longer summary
Scott Alexander announces the start of the process to narrow down 150 book review entries to about a dozen finalists for the Book Review Contest 2024. He provides links to six Google Docs containing the entries, organized alphabetically, and asks readers to help by reading and rating reviews using a provided form. Scott emphasizes the importance of not reading reviews in order to ensure a more even distribution of votes. He mentions a random review chooser script and provides a deadline of June 1 for voting. The post also includes instructions for authors to check if their reviews are included and how to address any missing entries. Shorter summary
Nov 10, 2023
acx
71 min 10,981 words 86 comments 32 likes podcast (55 min)
Scott provides updates and reader responses to his previous 'Quests and Requests' article, addressing the status and potential of each proposed project. Longer summary
This is a follow-up post to Scott's 'Quests and Requests' article, addressing the current status and responses to each of the eight projects proposed. Scott provides updates, shares relevant comments and offers from readers, and gives his thoughts on the progress and potential of each quest. He also clarifies his intentions and expectations for these projects, encouraging self-organization among interested parties. Shorter summary
Jan 10, 2023
acx
2 min 291 words 84 comments 40 likes podcast (3 min)
Scott Alexander announces Stage 2 of the 2023 Prediction Contest, encouraging participants to use any resources to make accurate predictions. Longer summary
Scott Alexander announces Stage 2 ('Full Mode') of the 2023 Prediction Contest, following the closure of Stage 1 ('Blind Mode'). In this stage, participants are encouraged to use any resources available to make accurate predictions, including personal research, prediction markets, forecasting tournaments, and the 3295 blind mode answers from Stage 1. Scott provides suggestions on how to use these resources and emphasizes that there's no such thing as cheating, except for time travel or harming competitors. He also mentions that the form will ask for a brief description of the strategy used. Shorter summary
Aug 03, 2017
ssc
7 min 931 words 172 comments
Scott Alexander examines the underutilization of prediction aggregation platforms like Metaculus, exploring potential reasons and expressing surprise at their lack of widespread adoption. Longer summary
Scott Alexander discusses the potential of prediction aggregation platforms like Metaculus, questioning why they haven't gained more traction despite their proven accuracy and utility. He explores various explanations, including government regulation, public perception, and signaling issues. The post includes insights from Prof. Aguirre of Metaculus, who highlights challenges such as limited resources and the difficulty many people have in understanding probabilistic predictions. Scott expresses surprise at the lack of wider adoption and suggests that the bottleneck in scaling these platforms seems unnecessary given the abundance of interested, capable predictors. Shorter summary