Monthly Archives: September 2019

Boston Meetup This Friday

When: Friday, September 20, 7:00 PM Where: 199 Harvard St Apt 2, Cambridge (about 8 minutes walk from Central MBTA station) Why: I’ll be in Boston as part of the Meetups Everywhere tour Who: Anyone who wants. Please feel free … Continue reading

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Too Much Dark Money In Almonds

Everyone always talks about how much money there is in politics. This is the wrong framing. The right framing is Ansolabehere et al’s: why is there so little money in politics? But Ansolabehere focuses on elections, and the mystery is … Continue reading

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Open Thread 136.75

This is the twice-weekly hidden open thread. You can also talk at the SSC subreddit or the SSC Discord server.

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Against Against Pseudoaddiction

I. “Pseudoaddiction” is one of the standard beats every article on the opioid crisis has to hit. Pharma companies (the story goes) invented a concept called “pseudoaddiction”, which looks exactly like addiction, except it means you just need to give … Continue reading

Open Thread 136.5

This is the twice-weekly hidden open thread. You can also talk at the SSC subreddit or the SSC Discord server.

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SSC Meetups 2019: Times And Places

Thanks to everyone who offered to host a meetup. Full list of cities, times, and places is below. If you’re reading this, you’re invited. Please don’t feel like you “won’t be welcome” just because you’re new to the blog, demographically … Continue reading

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Lots Of People Going Around With Mild Hallucinations All The Time

[Related to: Relaxed Beliefs Under Psychedelics And The Anarchic Brain, HPPD And The Specter Of Permanent Side Effects] I. Hallucinogen persisting perceptual disorder is a condition where people who take psychedelics continue hallucinating indefinitely. Estimates of prevalence range from about … Continue reading

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Open Thread 136.25

This is the twice-weekly hidden open thread. You can also talk at the SSC subreddit or the SSC Discord server.

Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged | 1,290 Comments

SSC Journal Club: Relaxed Beliefs Under Psychedelics And The Anarchic Brain

[Thanks to Sarah H. and the people at her house for help understanding this paper] The predictive coding theory argues that the brain uses Bayesian calculations to make sense of the noisy and complex world around it. It relies heavily … Continue reading

[Partial Retraction] Age Gaps and Birth Order Effects

On Less Wrong, Bucky tries to replicate my results on birth order and age gaps. Backing up: two years ago, I looked at SSC survey data and found that firstborn children were very overrepresented. That result was replicated a few … Continue reading