Blogroll

Goodthink blogs


Blogs that I mostly or entirely agree with, and have placed themselves firmly on my 'essential reading' list.

Slate Star Codex - If you only follow one blog from this list, make it this one. I can't say much that no one else already has, especially since you've probably already heard of this one; this blog is popular and rightfully so.
Scott blogs at a regular and moderate pace, punctuated by periods of inactivity.

Ribbonfarm - Probably one the heavier hitters in the longform blogosphere. Venkat alone tends to vomit forth a book's worth of content every year. Sarah Perry, who blogg(ed) at TheViewFromHell on topics of suicide rights and meaningness (her writings have coalesced into a book) became a regular writer last year as well.
Venkat and Perry blog at a regular but slow pace.
Tempobook blog - More Venkat. updates at a comparable pace.
Breaking Smart - Even more Venkat. Produces book-length 'seasons' even two years or so, next season is scheduled for 2017.

The View From Hell - More Perry. This blog is basically a margin, it updates glacially, added only for completeness.

Melting Asphalt - Something of a ribbonfarm-adjacent blog. His first post was a praise of an old ribb piece and he did a residency there. Preambling aside, Simler blogs about evolution and social dynamics.
Updates at a irregular and glacial pace.

Omniorthogonal - More ribb-adjacency. Blogs about software, politics.
mtraven updates and at a slow pace with short posts.

Carcinisation - Inactive group blog. It was before my time, but I bet this one used to be the shit when it was alive. Just a short list of names that were on this: Alicorn, Ozymandias, Sarah Perry.
Technically not dead; there was a recent post commenting on Neorection A Baslisk, so consider it a glacial and irregular.

Countercomplex - Has the dystopic view of modernity familiar to John Michael Greer (see further below) with a touch of the cautious optimism of Venkatesh Rao or Robin Hanson.

Overcoming Bias - Hanson's pieces are somehow dense without being longwinded. I can't call myself a fan of Hanson primarily because unlike every other blog on this list, Hanson doesn't do the kind of common denominator insight porn laced with microhumor and informality. Rather, the enjoyment of article is contained mostly in understanding it. The original insight porn.

Index Librorum Prohibitorum


Blogs that I have significant and sometimes great disagreements, but still respect as valuable contributions to the collective discourse.

Thing of Things - SSC's feminist cousin. Insightful posts on social justice, and some other things. While I find myself nodding along to most pieces emerging from this wordpress, there is a fundamental attitude gap between myself and the average internet feminist which probably won't disappear for a while, though it is less pronounced here.

Qualia Computing - Algekalipso has bizarre yet reasonable opinions on consciousness, personal identity, among other things. There's plenty of value here, even if it conflicts with the lesswrong orthodoxy.

The Archdruid Report - Antinomy is something I am quite familiar with. I know of serveral instances of people much more intelligent than my marshaling impressive arguments that contradict each other and me having no idea what do with them. This is what I feel when I read JMG. He has a very bleak view of the future, which plainly contrasts the pragmatic optimism of Venkatesh Rao and the neutral optimism of Robin Hanson. I don't know whose right, which is probably for the best because I'd probably be wrong about it.
Greer updates at a moderate pace with long-ish pieces.

Meaningness - Technically a book, not a blog. The main difference is Chapman's focus on quality, and structure, which has the unfortunate effect of slowing the flow of words, and restricting how often he can work on the book.
Main topics of meaning, purpose, ethics, selfhood, etc.
Meaningness(wordpress) - More Chapman. If I recall correctly, this blog focuses on meaningness from a more buddhist perspectve, but not to the extent of Approaching Aro, another site of his.

Fiction


Twig - One thing I get tired of hearing from Worm fans is their criticisms for Pact, but I never questioned their distaste fro Twig. This was, of course, because I lost interest at the third interlude, and when I finally made an effort to work through arc four, I lost my place repeatedly, getting so turned around I thought I was in arc five! Now that I'm starting to read this again, I'm realizing how simply wrong my first impression was. Twig is a masterpiece, and you should check it out, maybe before it winds to it's conclusion?
Twig updates regularly and at a moderately fast pace.

Unsong - Another great web serial, written in Scott Alexander's distinctive style. I can't say I like 
stories told this way, but I don't get tired of it, so in my book it's not better or worse. The premise is out there, as far as rat-fiction goes, and Scott does interesting things with it.
Unsong updates regularly and at a moderate pace.

Mother Of Learning - Rat-fiction at it's finest. MoL has been a mainstay for a while, and will remain so. The chapters aren't nearly long enough, only being about ~8K words, and IMO it's better read at once rather than in chunks delineated by three week intervals. It's not the author's fault though, I doubt.
Mother of Learning updates regularly at a glacial pace.

Lady Archimedes - This is Harry Potter fanfiction (and a continuation of The Arithmancer). Good enough if you're into this type of thing.

Crime and Commitment - Worm fanfiction. At first it seems like a another skitter-powers-up-and-kicks-everyones-ass fic, but it's not. Really. Quite deep, and it almost looks as if it's going somewhere interesting. Always great to see an author not afraid of OCs aswell. Spacebattles thread here.

Buddhism for Vampires - Chapman's (currently inactive) web serial. Has a handful of neat essays that are worth reading even if the story doesn't interest you.

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