Scott Alexander
Psychiatrist and blogger, author of Slate Star Codex and its successor Astral Codex Ten.
If Anyone Builds It, Everyone Dies by Eliezer Yudkowsky and Nate Soares
Despite my gripes above, this is an impressive book.
on astralcodexten.com · 11 Sep 2025
The Secret of Our Success by Joseph Henrich
The Secret Of Our Success by anthropologist Joseph Henrich manages to be an amazing book anyway.
on slatestarcodex.com · 4 Jun 2019
How to Read Lacan by Slavoj Žižek
Despite being very readable, this book never really came together.
on slatestarcodex.com · 9 Apr 2019
Method of Levels: How to Do Psychotherapy Without Getting in the Way by Timothy A. Carey
This book isn't just bad, it's dangerous.
on slatestarcodex.com · 9 Apr 2019
The Steerswoman by Rosemary Kirstein
The Steerswoman is popular in the rationalist community, and now I see why.
on slatestarcodex.com · 9 Apr 2019
Legal Systems Very Different From Ours by David D. Friedman
David Friedman, successfully combines the author's three special interests into a whirlwind tour of exotic law.
on slatestarcodex.com · 13 Nov 2017
Mastering the Core Teachings of the Buddha by Daniel M. Ingram
The result is a sort of perfect antidote to the vague hippie-ism you get from a lot of spirituality.
on slatestarcodex.com · 18 Sep 2017
Raise a Genius! by László Polgár
I was hoping that this book would explain Lazslo Polgar's secrets for raising gifted children. It does so only in very broad strokes.
on slatestarcodex.com · 31 Jul 2017
Seeing Like a State by James C. Scott
Seeing Like A State is the book G.K. Chesterton would have written if he had gone into economic history instead of literature. Since he didn't, James Scott had to write it a century later. The wait was worth it.
on slatestarcodex.com · 16 Mar 2017
The Age of Em: Work, Love and Life when Robots Rule the Earth by Robin Hanson
Note: I really liked this book and if I criticize it that's not meant as an attack but just as what I do with interesting ideas.
on slatestarcodex.com · 28 May 2016
Albion's Seed: Four British Folkways in America by David Hackett Fischer
But I highly recommend Albion's Seed as an entertaining and enlightening work of historical scholarship which will be absolutely delightful if you don't fret too much over all of the existential questions it raises.
on slatestarcodex.com · 27 Apr 2016
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