Some debate over the merits of Minicircle, the gene therapy startup. It's a case of "in theory, it shouldn't work", with "working" defined in the most damning way: probably not even raising follistatin. The debate over the usefulness of healthcare, Scott and reply from Robin Hanson, followed by reply from Scott and reply from Robin, with some highlights from Scott, which I think contains a good closure to the saga, with Hanson stating what he believes in and Scott agreeing roughly with …

In defense of Academia The Breslow saga Interview with Scott Alexander On Lockheed Martin's Skunkworks An interview with the founder of Cyclarity, a company working on reversing atherosclerosis On East Asian drinking culture The ultimate lab leak debate Why did supersonic airliners fail. Supersonic airliners coming back Casey Handmer on making fuel out of air On David Sinclair, sirtuins, and resveratrol Devon Zuegel, Jan Sramek, and MIke Solana on California Forever A TV show: Three Body Problem A song: Syr…

I just published this article in Asimov Magazine called Making Cells Young, go have a look! :)

Docusign has over 7000 employees. Someone on the internet periodically discovers this fact and wonder how could this be! What are those 7000 employees doing? The first part to the "What are they doing" question is "Sales", but that's not the full answer. Per their latest 10K filing, 68% of their workforce is sales, marketing, and customer success so that's ~5000 of those And then 1760 of the workforce, a 24% is engineering, product development and customer operations Leaving sales a…

A critical(!) review of Scaling People, a book by Claire Hughes Jones that I liked (ie I liked both the book and the review) though I am not as critical as the review is. CHJ 's book remains one of the best attempts at making the tacit art of management legible. What happened to the US machine tool industry? Scott Alexander: Should the future be human? Things you learn dating Cate Hall, and Cate Hall on agencymaxxing Casey Handmer on Elon Musk The promise of SGLT2 inhibitors Menopause and longevity Karuna T…

"The startup burnout to spirituality pipeline is strong for a reason.": A glimpse of absolute perfection Short term twin study on the impacts of a vegan diet in healthy-ish patients. Compared to control, patients in the vegan diet saw decreases in fasting insulin, weight, and LDL cholesterol FAQ on Lantern Bioworks, a biotech startup producing an oral probiotic that can prevent cavities for life Scott's Beyond Abolish the FDA proposal All the different kinds of cardiovascular disease, and how man…