His advice for people with depression is also broadly probably pretty good - my wife has issues with it and we tried a couple of his recommendations she hadn’t tried before, and supplementing OTC l methyl folate helped her significantly despite not having the mutation that commonly results in it being prescribed. And his talking about ketamine being a prospective treatment with some good indicators in research led to the best drug commercial ever, for spravato - esketamine nasal spray for treatment resistant depression.
He’s a psychiatrist by profession so his opinions in that field I would hope were reasonable. His opinions on society and politics are another matter. I think his earlier writing is in general more reasonable than where he’s ended up.
It had a profound impact on me when I read it years ago. It was a key influence on me constructing a personal religious cosmology and practice, with the purpose of reconciling my strong urges towards the spiritual with my reflexive scientific skepticism.
The essay Meditations on Moloch is powerful reading on this topic: https://slatestarcodex.com/2014/07/30/meditations-on-moloch/
For the record, I don’t endorse Scott Alexander’s opinions in general.
He is also a fantastic fiction author though.
His advice for people with depression is also broadly probably pretty good - my wife has issues with it and we tried a couple of his recommendations she hadn’t tried before, and supplementing OTC l methyl folate helped her significantly despite not having the mutation that commonly results in it being prescribed. And his talking about ketamine being a prospective treatment with some good indicators in research led to the best drug commercial ever, for spravato - esketamine nasal spray for treatment resistant depression.
He’s a psychiatrist by profession so his opinions in that field I would hope were reasonable. His opinions on society and politics are another matter. I think his earlier writing is in general more reasonable than where he’s ended up.
Was an interesting read!
I think about that essay probably once a month at least.
Maybe “Moloch Horror” would be a good Schelling point, since Lovecraft was a racist- oh wait that poet was a pedophile. Shit… “Cosmic horror” it is?
It had a profound impact on me when I read it years ago. It was a key influence on me constructing a personal religious cosmology and practice, with the purpose of reconciling my strong urges towards the spiritual with my reflexive scientific skepticism.
I like the cut of your jib, SamuraiBeandog. 🤘🏼
You have my respect, sir! (non-gendered “sir”)