Scott Alexander

Overview

Scott Alexander is the pen name of an American psychiatrist who has written one of the most widely read blogs in the rationalist and effective-altruist online communities. He founded Slate Star Codex in 2013, which he took offline in June 2020 amid a dispute over a planned news-media profile that would have published his real name; he relaunched on Substack as Astral Codex Ten (ACX) in January 2021.[1]

In 2021, Alexander ran the ACX Book Review Contest, inviting readers to submit anonymous book reviews for judging. Lars Doucet's review of Henry George's Progress and Poverty won the contest, and is widely credited as the spark of the modern Georgism revival online, reintroducing George's argument to a large, analytically demanding audience that had not previously taken land seriously as a distinct economic factor.[2] The review's success led Doucet to write the follow-up ACX series Does Georgism Work? and the book Land Is a Big Deal, which Alexander is listed among the endorsers of.[3]

See Also

• Lars Doucet — winner of the ACX contest whose subsequent work built out the modern Georgism revival
• Doucet's ACX Book Review of Progress and Poverty — the contest-winning review itself
• Land Is a Big Deal — Doucet's book, which Alexander endorsed
• Progress and Poverty — the Henry George book the winning review covered
• Does Georgism Work? — the ACX series that followed the contest win

Sources

1. Wikipedia, "Slate Star Codex" — used for the blog's founding date, the 2020 takedown, and the January 2021 relaunch as Astral Codex Ten. en.wikipedia.org
2. Lars Doucet (2021), "Your Book Review: Progress and Poverty," Astral Codex Ten / Game of Rent, as summarized on the wiki's research page — used for the contest-win claim and its characterization as the spark of the modern Georgism revival. Game of Rent
3. Land Is a Big Deal book page (wiki), citing the book's own endorsements list (Scott Alexander, Noah Smith, Vitalik Buterin, Richard Florida) — used for the endorsement claim. The original publisher/back-cover source for the endorsement text itself was not located this pass.