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Scott Alexander

ACX launched in early 2021.2021 - its name is a perfect anagram of "Scott Alexander". It is hosted on Substack, an online publishing platform. Although readers can opt for a paid subscription, Alexander notes that "[a]ll important ACX content is and always will be free."[9]

Scott Alexander (born 1984) is the pseudonym of ana pseudonymous American psychiatrist and blogger. Alexander is the author of the blogs Slate Star Codex (SSC) and its successor Astral Codex Ten (ACX), and a contributor—originally under the user name Yvain—to the community blog LessWrong.

Alexander studied philosophy as an undergraduate, and in 2012 graduated from University College Cork School of Medicine, Ireland. He did his residency at St. Mary Mercy Hospital in Michigan, United States. He specializes in treatment-resistant depression and his areas of interest within psychiatry include chronotherapy, behavioral genetics, and the ontology of psychiatric disorders. One of Alexander's blog posts[1] was subsequently revised and published in the academic journal Pharmacology Research & PerspectivesPerspectives. (Alexander 2015; Siskind et al 2017).[2]

Before establishing his own practice, Lorien Psychiatry, Alexander worked at LifeStance Health (formerly Pacific Coast Psychiatric Associates) and served as Senior Health Researcher of MetaMed, a medical consulting company (MetaMed 2013; Siskind 2018; WebMD Care 2021).company.[3][4][5] Since 2021, Alexander has been on the advisor board of the Qualia Research Institute.

SSC was launched in early 2013. Except for a missing letter "n", the name is a perfect anagram of Alexander's name. (The blog's header displayed an image of the missing letter "to restore cosmic balance" (Alexander 2013). [6])  SSC was shut down in mid-2020, after a New York Times journalist ignored Alexander's request not to reveal his true identity (Hoonhout 2020).identity.[7][8]

ACX launched in early 2021. It is hosted on Substack, an online publishing platform. Although readers can opt for a paid subscription, Alexander notes that "[a]ll important ACX content is and always will be free." (Alexander 2021a)[9]

In November 2021, Alexander announced ACX Grants, an initiative to award a total of $250,000 in small grants to promising projects, with a minimum of paperwork (Alexander 2021c).paperwork.[10] The budget grew to $1.3 million after a number ofseveral outside funders contributed to the initiative. Alexander announced the results in late December (Alexander 2021d).December. Out of a total 656 submissions, 38 projects werereceived funded; the median grant was $40,000.[11]

Alexander's writings, particularly his SSC posts and some of his earlier LessWrong posts, have been highly influential within the rationality and effective altruism communities. He has received praise from a number ofmany prominent figures, including Bryan Caplan,[12] Tyler Cowen,[13] Steven Pinker,[14] and others (Caplan 2014; Graham 2017; Cowen 2018; Aaronson 2020; Friedman 2020; Haider 2020; Pinker 2021).others.[15][16][17][18]

BibliographyFurther reading

Aaronson, Scott (2020) Pseudonymity as a trivial concession to genius, Shtetl-Optimized, June 23.

Alexander, Scott (2013) You’re probably wondering why I’ve called you here today, Slate Star Codex, February 12.

Alexander, Scott (2015) Prescriptions, paradoxes, and perversities, Slate Star Codex, April 30.

Alexander, Scott (2021a) What is Astral Codex Ten?, Astral Codex Ten.

Alexander, Scott (2021b) Still alive, Astral Codex Ten, January 21.

Alexander, Scott (2021c) Apply for an ACX Grant, Astral Codex Ten, November 11.

Alexander, Scott (2021d) ACX Grants results, Astral Codex Ten, December 28.

Caplan, Bryan (2014) Read Scott Alexander, EconLog, October 28.

Cowen, Tyler (2018) Holding up a mirror to intellectuals of the left, Bloomberg, April 24.

Crawford, Jason (2021) Who is Scott Alexander and what is he about?, Jason Crawford’s Blog, February 13.
 A selection of Alexander's writings from SSC.

Friedman, David D. (2020) Slate Star Codex and The New York Times, Ideas, June 26.

Graham, Paul (2017) There’s no one writing now that I admire more than Scott Alexander, Twitter, September 16.

Haider, Sarah (2020) Scott Alexander’s Slate Star Codex is the best blog on the internet, Twitter, June 25.

Hoonhout, Tobias (2020) What an NYT reporter’s doxing threat says about the paper’s ‘standards’, National Review, June 23.

MetaMed (2013) About: Our scientists, doctors & researchers, MetaMed.

Pinker, Steven (2021) A typical essay by Scott Alexander is deeper, better reasoned, better referenced, more original, and wittier than 99% of the opinion pieces in MSM, Twitter, February 14.

Siskind, Scott et al. (2017) Higher patient satisfaction with antidepressants correlates with earlier drug release dates across online user-generated medical databases, Pharmacology Research and Perspectives, vol. 5, pp. 1–9.

Siskind, Scott (2018) Scott Siskind, MD, Pacific Coast Psychiatric Associates.

WebMD Care (2021) Scott Alexander Siskind, WebMD Care.

  1. ^

    Alexander, Scott (2015) Prescriptions, paradoxes, and perversities, Slate Star Codex, April 30.

  2. ^

    Siskind, Scott et al. (2017) Higher patient satisfaction with antidepressants correlates with earlier drug release dates across online user-generated medical databases, Pharmacology Research and Perspectives, vol. 5, pp. 1–9.

  3. ^

    MetaMed (2013) About: Our scientists, doctors & researchers, MetaMed.

  4. ^

    Siskind, Scott (2018) Scott Siskind, MD, Pacific Coast Psychiatric Associates.

  5. ^

    WebMD Care (2021) Scott Alexander Siskind, WebMD Care.

  6. ^

    Alexander, Scott (2013) You’re probably wondering why I’ve called you here today, Slate Star Codex, February 12.

  7. ^

    Hoonhout, Tobias (2020) What an NYT reporter’s doxing threat says about the paper’s ‘standards’, National Review, June 23.

  8. ^

    Alexander, Scott (2021) Still alive, Astral Codex Ten, January 21.

  9. ^

    Alexander, Scott (2021) What is Astral Codex Ten?, Astral Codex Ten.

  10. ^

    Alexander, Scott (2021) Apply for an ACX Grant, Astral Codex Ten, November 11.

  11. ^

    Alexander, Scott (2021) ACX Grants results, Astral Codex Ten, December 28.

  12. ^

    Caplan, Bryan (2014) Read Scott Alexander, EconLog, October 28.

  13. ^

    Cowen, Tyler (2018) Holding up a mirror to intellectuals of the left, Bloomberg, April 24.

  14. ^

    Pinker, Steven (2021) A typical essay by Scott Alexander is deeper, better reasoned, better referenced, more original, and wittier than 99% of the opinion pieces in MSM, Twitter, February 14.

  15. ^

    Friedman, David D. (2020) Slate Star Codex and The New York Times, Ideas, June 26.

  16. ^

    Haider, Sarah (2020) Scott Alexander’s Slate Star Codex is the best blog on the internet, Twitter, June 25.

  17. ^

    Graham, Paul (2017) There’s no one writing now that I admire more than Scott Alexander, Twitter, September 16.

  18. ^

    Aaronson, Scott (2020) Pseudonymity as a trivial concession to genius, Shtetl-Optimized, June 23.