Slate Star Codex Essays: Volume II

by Scott Alexander

In this book, you will find essays concerning philosophy, politics, economics, religion, science, culture, society, history, mathematics, and other topics. They are written in various styles, including conversations, stories and something close to rants. Volume II contains 35 essays written between 2015 and 2017.
If Scott wrote his own intro about them, he might have
You will probably disagree with many of these essays. That's okay. Some of them are even wrong, in the sense that I made a mistake or I misunderstood something. Some of them are really hard to understand, because I'm exploring an unfamiliar topic. Some of them are just jokes.
But I think if you read all of them, there will be quite a lot that will be true and useful to you.
I have been writing about this stuff online for years, but this is the first time my work is collected in one place on paper. I hope that these essays are interesting, thought-provoking, and at least somewhat informative.
Essays

434 pages, Hardcover

Published October 15, 2020

About the author

Librarian Note: There is more than one author by this name in the Goodreads data base.
This one is set up as Scott^^^Alexander

Scott Alexander is a pen name used by a blogger on The Slate Star Codex, Astral Codex Ten and other sites.

Please note: Blog posts are not considered valid published e-books to be listed on Goodreads.

Reviews

[Colin Cannon · Rating 5 out of 5]

Scott Alexander is incredible and his succinct, playful style is a wonder.

If I could write any single essay in this collection that would be considered a lifetime achievement, but he just rattles them off like no one’s business.

Best Essays:
The Parable of the Talents
Universal Love , Said the Cactus Person
Why were early psychdelicists so weird?
It’s Bayes all the way up
Book Review: House of God
Book Review: Seeing Like a State
Book Review: Legal Systems Very Different From Ours

[Mark Huisjes · Rating 4 out of 5]

Makes me want to be a cactus person :)