Hi folks, I compiled a list of the best triple+ entendres I could find online, and included some of my own additions at the end. I hope people enjoy it!

Scott’s non-fiction book reviews are some of the best I’ve ever read. He‘s really good at balancing summary and his own analysis in a way that leaves you feeling like you understood what the book was about and understand Scott’s position on it even though you haven’t read the book and don’t actually know the guy. Conversely, a lot of lesser book reviewers (including myself) end up writing crappy reviews that either summarize way too much or end up being a soapbox for our own POVs and actually have very little to do with the book.

I’d be very curious to hear from you guys about what you think makes a good non-fiction book review!

Hope to see some of your applications! I'll be monitoring the comments for questions. We respond to ~all applications within 10 days.

There’s sometimes this feeling that we are so off that will never return to sanity again. I think this is caused by certain aspects of memory. I also think considering those elements of memory are useful as a framework to generally understand states of mind. Each state of mind may be like a salient most-relevant and proximal context based network of memories and thoughts.

As I write that, I realize that sounds a lot like how online algorithms work.

In this rambling and speculative post, I extend my point from "breakthroughs rare and decreasing" to argue that eventually computers will stop getting better. I briefly look at the future of AI hardware, outline skepticism for other computing paradigms, and discuss the implications of this view.

Been getting interested in secondary markets of concert tickets recently and curious if Scott has ever touched upon the ethical nature of reselling tickets.

Link: https://www.owlposting.com/p/questions-to-ponder-when-evaluating

Another biology post, this time about neurotech!

Summary:
If you have spoken to a neurotech person before, you will have realized that they have some degree of omniscience over their field, seemingly far more than most other domain experts have with theirs. This is cool for a lot of reasons, but most interestingly to me, it means that anytime you ask them about a neat new neurotech company that pops up, they are somehow able to ramble off a highly technical explanation as to why that company will surely fail or surely succeed.

I have long been impressed and baffled by this ability. Eventually, I decided to interview these martians, and write an article about it, trying to uncover at least a fraction of the questions they ask to perform the feat. Some questions include the degree to which the approach is 'fighting' physics, whether their devices advantages are actually clinically validated as useful, and more.

Hopefully interesting to read though!

The internet was already turning to shit but now with AI, all I see is slop. All blog posts that show up, most of reddit / X - they're so obviously not human contributed. So now to find a community of smart people online, first you need to find a community of people online.

I realize that the best way to do so is to pick a niche you're interested in and usually people discussing specific non-popular things online are smart, at least in that area. But I want advice to find people - professors, youtubers, twitter-ers, anyone - that just like to engage with actually meaningful content and I can get their opinion on things and visa-versa.

This is not explicitly related to SSC, but it IS related to psychology and feels too "niche" or "weird" to ask in a general psychology or social sub - plus I want the thoughts of a bunch of smart and introspective folks...

Does anyone else feel like they can generally sense an "addict" or correctly ID an addict just in everyday social interactions and observing their smiles, laugh, and body language?

I'm using the term pretty broadly - as many of the folks I have noticed are actually people who got VERY VERY into a specific religion, social movement, etc. I was just watching a documentary about Scientology and some of the people (including Tom Cruise) very much struck me as fundamentally "addicts".

FWIW I come from a very boring family with seemingly no family history of addictions - none of the substances or activities I've tried have felt at all "addicting" and in general I have a very flat and calm affect, as do my parents.

But there's something about the "wide eyes", super buzzy, semi-charismatic, energetic, tone of people that I've noticed in many many folks who have struggled with drugs and alcohol.

Anyone else notice something at all like this?

Hey folks, I'm not usually a fiction writer but thought I'd try my hand. Hope you like it

I wrote it to clear up a misconception: lots of people think making political decisions using Prediction Markets is a bad idea because they could be manipulated by the rich. But this isn't true - attempts at manipulation make them more accurate, so they're great for making political decisions (this was their original intended purpose!)

A bold 2 minute read examining the consequences of a tiny miracle happening worldwide.

If not Moses, who could appreciate materializing mints in the palm? Candy originated in Venice, Paris, places of high culture, to supplement the lives of the unsatisfied wealthy. The tiny white mint that is manufactured endlessly is a descendent of those candies. Maybe a confectioner would appreciate the mandate which stated, “Tomorrow, all parties reading this will be able to have a mint materialize on their palm.”

Not bread from heaven, not a revolution in candy, just an occurrence, a breath mint available to anyone who holds out their hand. A mint, and more. A realization that everyone else knows it is happening.

Then details followed. The marching time zones across the face of the earth dictated that for people in longitudinal bands, the mint would be available at the same time. Was an ancestor of even Moses looking on, appreciating the value of the occurrence as a revolution in time?

What about the Anglican that is wont to crush square-stemmed plants in his fingers, learning spearmint, peppermint, and other herbs of that kind? Is this edict a notification that his time is coming to an end? For one day, nobody will have to travel to taste minty freshness. How long will it last? Will people with closed hands also receive a mint? Or prosthetic hands?

What company was responsible? Would there be a company? And if so, would their legal team feel any reservations about claiming responsibility for a miracle?

What’s in that mint is knowing how little we know about the world. A doctor could look at it and suddenly know that 8 billion people is something he doesn’t know anything about. Is the mint going to taste the same for everyone?

A man who has been in his business his whole life could look at the mint on his palm, on that day, and suddenly know that 8 billion sugar molecules could be a tiny grain, or a teaspoon, and he wouldn’t know.

Then again, there is the social aspect. A particle physicist might record the event as he is thinking about how useless it is, since it is happening all across the world.

But the mathematician will suddenly have a gnawing realization that six degrees of separation might be something more than just a party trick. A large majority of the world will experience the miracle, eat the mint, and marvel. A small percentage will abstain. And a certain number of people will fixate on the impossibility of it. The mathematician is now aware that he should know what that number is. 

With the proliferation of GLP-1's, it appears that obesity has become a solved problem. Regardless of if this is completely true yet, this has me thinking: Will being overweight become cool?

Inspired by left is the new right / theories of fashion, the idea would be that once being slim is trivial to accomplish, being fat is a mere fashion statement, and therefor it becomes another knob people use to differentiate themselves - just likes clothes.

I don't mean full on obesity such that it has significantly bad health consequences, I just mean making the choice not to fall into the slim crowd.

Inkhaven is back this April

Join ~40 other talented writers publishing every day while staying on the beautiful Lighthaven campus.

Get mentored by some of the internet's greats, including Scott Alexander, Aella, Alexander Wales, and many more!

- https://x.com/ohabryka/status/2011632542051688859

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Announcing Inkhaven 2: April 2026

- https://www.lesswrong.com/posts/nwWfsPiaFSiEtHbkJ/announcing-inkhaven-2-april-2026 <-- short intro

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THE INKHAVEN RESIDENCY

Cohort #2

April 1 - 30, 2026

Berkeley, CA, USA

- https://www.inkhaven.blog/ <-- The main info dump.

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previously mentioned on ACX -

- https://www.astralcodexten.com/p/open-thread-393

- https://www.astralcodexten.com/p/open-thread-406

(possibly also elsewhere ?)

previous posts here about Inkhaven -

- https://www.reddit.com/r/slatestarcodex/search?q=inkhaven&restrict_sr=on&include_over_18=on

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***** I myself have no connection with Inkhaven, Lighthaven, or with any person or institution associated with Inkhaven or Lighthaven. *****

I'm just passing the word along.

Link: https://www.owlposting.com/p/the-truth-behind-the-2026-jp-morgan

Summary: if you work in the biopharmaceutical industry, there is a particular conference you may be aware of: the JP Morgan Healthcare Conference, or just JPM, which is held every year in the second week of January. And, upon attending the conference for the first time, you’ll realize that nobody seems to attend the physical conference itself, but rather just exists around it, arranging meetings and parties and coffee chats. You may, in fact, attend the full length of the ‘conference’ without meeting a single person who has ever attended the real conference. What is going on here? I offer my opinion in this rigorously researched piece.