ClaimsScott Alexander

“And while you’re waiting, I also made some predictions last February for the next five years.”

Scott Alexander, blogger 22 January 2019 2018 Predictions: Calibration Results (Slate Star Codex) archived copy

Factual Their own work or organisation

Scott Alexander made predictions in February 2018 for the next five years.

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 second judge would not resolve this claim; the verdict shown is the first judge's.

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

What would count as true or false

True: Scott Alexander published a set of predictions covering roughly the following five years (to about 2023) in February 2018, as shown by a dated Slate Star Codex post. Mostly true: such a predictions post exists but was dated in late January or early March 2018, or covers a slightly different horizon. Mostly false: he made predictions in February 2018, but only for one year rather than five, or made five-year predictions in a different year. False: no such predictions post exists from around February 2018.

Set before the research began.

Evidence (2)

  1. E1 Predictions For 2018 Slate Star Codex · 6 February 2018 Own record

    “So here are a hundred more for 2018.”
  2. E2 Grading My 2018 Predictions For 2023 Astral Codex Ten · 20 February 2023 Own record

    “To celebrate the fifth anniversary of my old blog, in 2018, I made some predictions about what the next five years would be like.”

Reasoning

E2 is a later post by the subject grading his '2018 Predictions For 2023'. It says that in 2018, to mark his blog's fifth anniversary, he made predictions about the next five years, so a five-year prediction set from 2018 existed. E2 does not give the month, and none of the evidence shows that post's date. E1 is a Slate Star Codex post dated 2018-02-06, but it covers predictions 'for 2018', a single year. Both sources come from the subject's own blogs, and the five-year predictions are not shown to date from February 2018.

Cite this claim

Scott Alexander, “Scott Alexander made predictions in February 2018 for the next five years.” (said 22 January 2019). Verdict: mostly true. Reliability API, claim c_aea8c719df73, method 0.1.0+8bea457b, dataset release v1.1.2. https://epistacklabs.com/claims/c_aea8c719df73

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

Verdicts are made automatically; how verdicts are made.