Top all-time · #62
Scott Alexander
Personal blog · astralcodexten.comphilosophyeconomicspolitics
Scott Alexander writes Astral Codex Ten, a personal blog at astralcodexten.com about philosophy, economics and politics. Since 2023, 463 different Hacker News readers have linked it 1,106 times, most often “Rootclaim $100k Lab Leak Debate”. It is still writing: the last post was on 2026-10-30, and you can follow it by feed.
Sometimes recommended · 9 of 40 sampled comments recommend it?
Why HN links it
HN readers link Scott Alexander's posts for book reviews, AI and prediction-market writing, and essays on the social model of disability and georgism.
- Recommended for · 9 comments
- 'Some of the best content on the internet'; 'spot on'; 'great round up'; 'good book review'; 'good arguments'.
Summarised by Claude from a sample of 40 HN comments that link here. Each comment is marked recommending, critical or neutral (citing without judging); how this works.
P(A|B) = [P(A)*P(B|A)]/P(B), all the rest is commentary. Click to read Astral Codex Ten, by Scott Alexander, a Substack publication.
Most-linked posts?
- Rootclaim $100k Lab Leak Debate22 people · 22 mentions · first linked 2024-03-28
- Come On, Obviously the Purpose of a System Is Not What It Does18 people · 26 mentions · first linked 2025-04-11
- In Defense of the Amyloid Hypothesis17 people · 21 mentions · first linked 2025-08-14
- Review: Alpha School12 people · 13 mentions · first linked 2025-06-29
- Heuristics that almost always work (2022)11 people · 12 mentions · first linked 2024-02-23
- How did you do on the AI art Turing test?11 people · 12 mentions · first linked 2024-11-20
- Next-Token Predictor Is an AI's Job, Not Its Species9 people · 10 mentions · first linked 2026-02-26
- A genetically modified bacterium that outcompetes bacteria causing tooth decay9 people · 9 mentions · first linked 2023-12-07
- Book Review: Elon Musk8 people · 11 mentions · first linked 2023-09-13
- In Continued Defense of Effective Altruism8 people · 9 mentions · first linked 2023-11-28
What Hacker News says?
I don't know about the previous author or if it's even his best, but I learned about Lars through a Slate Star Codex guest post 2-3 years ago. https://www.astralcodexten.com/p/does-georgism-work-is-land-...
Comment linking /p/does-georgism-work-is-land-really
on “Losing my son”Submitted Does Georgism work? Five years later as a story · 517 points
HN discussion> please do not rely on LLMs for medical advice FWIW, I have successfully addressed a few personal health issues in collaboration with AI: soft plaque reversal as quantified via CIMT testing, and bringing my slightly elevated blood pressure into normal bounds And I'm making significant progress in optimizing my health. It's not without its flaws, but I find it's a great interface into the broad field of medical rese…
Comment linking /p/our-ai-midwife
on “Things to know when you get cancer”Submitted The phrase "no evidence" is a red flag for bad science communication (2021) as a story · 294 points
HN discussionSee also https://www.astralcodexten.com/p/the-buying-things-from-a-st...
Comment linking /p/the-buying-things-from-a-store-faq
on “What if we made advertising illegal?”Submitted In the long run, we're all Dad as a story · 282 points
HN discussionThere was a lot of other stuff than just import substitution in the Asian miracle. See https://www.astralcodexten.com/p/book-review-how-asia-works
Comment linking /p/book-review-how-asia-works
on “US Administration announces 34% tariffs on China, 20% on EU”Submitted In Search of AI Psychosis as a story · 214 points
HN discussionPOSIWID - not really: https://www.astralcodexten.com/p/come-on-obviously-the-purpo...
Comment linking /p/come-on-obviously-the-purpose-of
on “Our investigation into the suspicious pressure on Archive.today”Submitted The New AI Consciousness Paper as a story · 149 points
HN discussionI find that it sometimes easier to accept this as this is just how life is when I read people with experience write about this. If this is true for you as well: There is a good book review about it on SSC https://www.astralcodexten.com/p/your-book-review-the-laws-o... > Whether or not you make money, you have regrets! If you profited, you could have made more. If you lost money, you shouldn’t have made the trade at…
Comment linking /p/your-book-review-the-laws-of-trading
on “Silicon Valley's best kept secret: Founder liquidity”Submitted H5N1: Much More Than You Wanted to Know as a story · 96 points
HN discussionIt seems prediction markets did better on this one: https://www.astralcodexten.com/p/prediction-markets-suggest-... (and this was while Biden was still in the race)
Comment linking /p/prediction-markets-suggest-replacing
on “Trump wins presidency for second time”Submitted The Ozempocalypse Is Nigh as a story · 89 points
HN discussionThis "regulatory capture" stuff mostly just exists in the imaginations of HN users anyway. This is just one reason why it never made sense as a strategy. https://www.astralcodexten.com/p/ai-safety-is-not-a-corporat...
Comment linking /p/ai-safety-is-not-a-corporate-plot
on “Anthropic S-1”Submitted How did you do on the AI art Turing test? as a story · 88 points
HN discussion>doom PR https://www.astralcodexten.com/p/ai-safety-is-not-a-corporat...
Comment linking /p/ai-safety-is-not-a-corporate-plot
on “Anthropic S-1”Submitted Sam Altman Wants $7T as a story · 81 points
HN discussionI'm trying to pull some things together. Mostly, a big part of the book is just a warming up of the tired 'Infant Industry argument'. See https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Infant_industry_argument For now, have a look at https://mises.org/journal-libertarian-studies/prejudice-free... to get an alternative look at Malaysia, one of the recurring example in 'How Asia Works'. (That paper is also just a really good read by i…
Comment linking /p/book-review-how-asia-works
on “Apple mobile processors are now made in America by TSMC”Submitted The Claude Bliss Attractor as a story · 71 points
HN discussion> social model of disability Scott Alexander convincingly argues against that model and provides a better one: https://www.astralcodexten.com/p/contra-the-social-model-of-...
Comment linking /p/contra-the-social-model-of-disability
on “Touchscreens are out, and tactile controls are back”Submitted On Priesthoods as a story · 69 points
HN discussion> It is merely that an LLM is not it, and will never become it. Okay, I didn't want to put words in your mouth by claiming you said this, but now that you have, I can address it. You have literally no way of knowing this. You don't understand how cognition actually works , because no one does, and you don't understand how LLMs actually produce a facsimile of intelligence, for very similar reasons. So you can't say t…
Comment linking /p/now-i-really-won-that-ai-bet
on “Adding a feature because ChatGPT incorrectly thinks it exists”Submitted My Father's Instant Mashed Potatoes as a story · 66 points
HN discussionResponse to the comments on POSWID https://www.astralcodexten.com/p/highlights-from-the-comment...
Comment linking /p/highlights-from-the-comments-on-posiwid
on “Evidence of a spying operation by ICE against left-wing social movements”Submitted Our AI Midwife as a story · 65 points
HN discussionCome On, Obviously The Purpose Of A System Is Not What It Does https://www.astralcodexten.com/p/come-on-obviously-the-purpo...
Comment linking /p/come-on-obviously-the-purpose-of
on “Evidence of a spying operation by ICE against left-wing social movements”Submitted Review: Project Xanadu – The Internet That Might Have Been as a story · 60 points
HN discussionSorry, I'm sure you're both right. I'm just having a very hard time figuring out how to respond to the awful / obscene / insane / absurd nightmare unfolding in this country I love. It's destroying things I care deeply about. My sarcasm was probably the wrong response. I wish I could better approximate the heartfelt, erudite, conflicted brilliance of pieces like this: https://www.astralcodexten.com/p/twilight-of-the-…
Comment linking /p/twilight-of-the-edgelords
on “Whistleblower details how DOGE may have taken sensitive NLRB data”Submitted The Claude Bliss Attractor as a story · 58 points
HN discussion
