Recommendations you can check.
Psychiatrist and blogger, author of Slate Star Codex and its successor Astral Codex Ten.
17 things
The Secret of Our SuccessBook Joseph Henrich
The Secret Of Our Success by anthropologist Joseph Henrich manages to be an amazing book anyway.
SSC review of Henrich on cultural evolution; the opening line is his verdict.
2019-06-04·slatestarcodex.com ↗
Seeing Like a StateBook 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.
SSC review of Scott's book on high-modernist state planning; opening verdict.
2017-03-16·slatestarcodex.com ↗
The SteerswomanBook Rosemary Kirstein
The Steerswoman is popular in the rationalist community, and now I see why.
Third of three short book reviews in one SSC post.
2019-04-09·slatestarcodex.com ↗
Legal Systems Very Different From OursBook David D. Friedman
David Friedman, successfully combines the author's three special interests into a whirlwind tour of exotic law.
SSC review of Friedman's survey of historical legal systems.
2017-11-13·slatestarcodex.com ↗
Mastering the Core Teachings of the BuddhaBook Daniel M. Ingram
The result is a sort of perfect antidote to the vague hippie-ism you get from a lot of spirituality.
SSC review of Ingram's meditation manual.
2017-09-18·slatestarcodex.com ↗
The Age of Em: Work, Love and Life when Robots Rule the EarthBook 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.
Opening note to his long SSC review of Hanson's book on brain emulations.
2016-05-28·slatestarcodex.com ↗
Redwood Research blogOther Buck Shlegeris
Redwood is a nonprofit working on controlling AIs (eg keeping them in a very well-made box that they actually can't get out of). They have some of the smartest researchers not affiliated with a big lab, and so some of the savviest AI commentary available to the public.
Scott Alexander's own recommendation blurb for the newsletter Redwood Research blog, on their Substack's recommendations page.
2026-07-27·astralcodexten.com ↗
HyperdimensionalOther Dean W. Ball
Dean is a former White House AI policymaker and current OpenAI strategist. His blog is a good source for explanations and opinions of current AI policy, though he has yet to fully shake off his libertarian sympathies.
Scott Alexander's own recommendation blurb for the newsletter Hyperdimensional, on their Substack's recommendations page.
2026-07-27·astralcodexten.com ↗
The Power LawOther Peter Wildeford
Peter Wildeford is the winner of ACX's annual superforecasting contest; he currently works for a think tank trying to (among other things) get the US to stop leaking AI technology to China. I use him as a source of ultra-high-quality geopolitical forecasts.
Scott Alexander's own recommendation blurb for the newsletter The Power Law, on their Substack's recommendations page.
2026-07-27·astralcodexten.com ↗
AI StopWatchOther Mitchell Howe
This is MIRI's daily digest on AI news, especially related to building a consensus for a coordinated AI pause or slowdown.
Scott Alexander's own recommendation blurb for the newsletter AI StopWatch, on their Substack's recommendations page.
2026-07-27·astralcodexten.com ↗
AI Futures ProjectOther AI Futures Project
The team behind AI 2027 and Plan A; the best place to learn about AI forecasting and what might be in store.
Scott Alexander's own recommendation blurb for the newsletter AI Futures Project, on their Substack's recommendations page.
2025-04-17·astralcodexten.com ↗
MealSquaresOther MealSquares
So, if you're looking for an easy way to quit the junk food and try a low-variety diet that's unlikely to injure your hypothalamus, I recommend MealSquares as worth a look.
At the end of his review of The Hungry Brain he recommends MealSquares, which he states in the same paragraph is Slate Star Codex's first and most loyal sponsor.
2017-04-25·slatestarcodex.com ↗
Albion's Seed: Four British Folkways in AmericaBook 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.
Long SSC review of Fischer's history of the four British folk migrations to America, ending with his own verdict.
2016-04-27·slatestarcodex.com ↗
If Anyone Builds It, Everyone DiesBook Eliezer Yudkowsky and Nate Soares
Despite my gripes above, this is an impressive book.
Astral Codex Ten review of the MIRI AI-risk book; his verdict after several sections of criticism.
2025-09-11·astralcodexten.com ↗
How to Read LacanBook Slavoj Žižek
Despite being very readable, this book never really came together.
Second of three short book reviews in one SSC post.
2019-04-09·slatestarcodex.com ↗
Raise a Genius!Book 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.
SSC review of the crowd-funded English translation of Polgar's book on child prodigies.
2017-07-31·slatestarcodex.com ↗
Method of Levels: How to Do Psychotherapy Without Getting in the WayBook Timothy A. Carey
This book isn't just bad, it's dangerous.
First of three short book reviews in one SSC post.
2019-04-09·slatestarcodex.com ↗
Every entry is a verbatim quote and a link to the public post it came from. Nothing is paraphrased. If it is not on record somewhere public, it is not here.
The verdict is what they actually said: loved and liked are explicit; recommended means they told others to get it; uses means they only say they use it; read is a book on their public shelf with no verdict; mixed and disliked are kept too.
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The shading behind a date shows how dated a recommendation is for its kind of thing.
The shading behind a date shows how dated a recommendation is, for its kind of thing. Fully green is recent. It drains a quarter at a time as the post gets older, and is empty once it reads as dated.
What counts as old depends on the thing. A laptop praised four years ago has been replaced twice; a book loved twenty years ago is probably still loved. The shading is gone after about:
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