ClaimsScott Alexander

“At the beginning of every year, I make predictions. At the end of every year, I score them.”

Scott Alexander, blogger 25 January 2016 Predictions For 2016 (Slate Star Codex) archived copy

Factual Their own work or organisation

Scott Alexander makes predictions at the start of every year and scores them at the end of each year.

Mostly true True in substance, wrong in a detail.

Factual: Statements about the present or the past, checked against the record: did they hold up?

The evidence is the person's or their organisation's own records.

What would count as true or false

Judged as of 2016-01-25. True: from when he started the practice up to January 2016, Slate Star Codex published a set of predictions at the start of every year and a scoring post at the end of every year (or soon after it), with no year missing. Mostly true: he did this as a regular yearly practice, but with a minor irregularity (for example, a scoring post published in the following January, or the practice only a few years old). Mixed: he did it in some years but skipped others. Mostly false: he did it only once, or he made predictions but rarely scored them. False: there is no such yearly predict-and-score practice.

Set before the research began.

Evidence (5)

  1. E1 Predictions For 2014 Slate Star Codex · 28 January 2014 Own record

    “Unless otherwise specified, predictions are about whether something happens before the end of 2014, except LW Survey predictions which will be judged whenever next survey is finished”
  2. E2 (Late) Predictions for 2015 Slate Star Codex · 13 June 2015 Own record

    “I was supposed to institute a tradition of making predictions at the beginning of each year, then grading them at the end to test my calibration. Everything went according to plan last year – last January I made predictions for 2014 and then this January I scored them.”
  3. E3 (Late) Predictions for 2015 Slate Star Codex · 13 June 2015 Own record

    “I ended with “2015 predictions coming soon,” then totally forgot to do that.”
  4. E4 2015 Predictions: Calibration Results Slate Star Codex · 2 January 2016 Own record

    “In keeping with the SSC tradition, here are the results for my (late) predictions for 2015.”
  5. E5 Archives Slate Star Codex Own record

    “01/25 - Predictions For 2016”

Reasoning

Slate Star Codex posted predictions for 2014 in January 2014 (E1). The June 2015 post says those 2014 predictions were scored in January 2015 (E2). The 2015 predictions, however, came out late, in June 2015, because the author "totally forgot" to post them in January (E2, E3). They were scored on 2016-01-02 (E4), and predictions for 2016 followed on 01/25 (E5). So by January 2016 the predict-and-score practice had run every year since it began, but it was only two years old and the 2015 predictions were published mid-year, not at the start of the year. That fits the criteria for "mostly true" rather than "true".

Cite this claim

Scott Alexander, “Scott Alexander makes predictions at the start of every year and scores them at the end of each year.” (said 25 January 2016). Verdict: mostly true. Reliability API, claim c_a891fb091064, method 0.1.0+8bea457b, dataset release v1.1.2. https://epistacklabs.com/claims/c_a891fb091064

This claim is in dataset release v1.1.2, with the same verdict.

Reply to this claim

For Scott Alexander, or someone speaking for them: a correction or counter-evidence. Replies are read before anything is shown; an approved reply shows your name, role, date, statement and link. Your email address is never shown and is deleted 30 days after the decision (privacy).

More factual claims by Scott Alexander

  1. Mostly true Factual 5 October 2026
    “Reader Nikita Sokolsky has completed his work getting some extra Fatima documents from Portugal and translating them into English.”

    Reader Nikita Sokolsky has finished obtaining extra Fatima documents from Portugal and translating them into English.

  2. Resolved true Factual 5 October 2026
    “Rob Ennals, who made this year’s book review contest site, has gathered the reviews from earlier years into epubs here.”

    Rob Ennals, who made this year's ACX book review contest site, has gathered reviews from earlier years into epubs.

  3. Resolved true Factual 10 December 2024
    “There’s a good interview with Skarbek in last month’s issue of Asterisk, I think it will be online shortly.”

    Last month's issue of Asterisk (November 2024) contains an interview with Skarbek, which Scott thinks will be online shortly.

  4. Resolved true Factual 20 February 2023
    “Things felt so fuzzy that I (partly) abandoned my usual clear-resolution probabilistic predictions for total guesses.”

    In 2018 Scott Alexander partly abandoned his usual clear-resolution probabilistic predictions for rough guesses in his five-year predictions.

  5. Resolved true Factual 14 March 2022
    “Also last month, I suggested Manifold Markets have a loan feature to help boost investment in long-term markets.”

    In February 2022 Scott Alexander suggested that Manifold Markets add a loan feature to boost investment in long-term markets.

All of them

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