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https://astralcodexten.substack.com/p/statement-on-new-york-times-article

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There was recently a negative article about me and my blog in the\xa0New York Times. Most of you already know the history behind this, but for anyone referred here by NYT, this is where I give my side and defend myself.

Like many people in the early 2000s, I started a blog when I was in college. To stay anonymous, I wrote it under my first and middle names \u2013 Scott Alexander \u2013 while leaving out my last name. I continued writing in it through medical school, residency, and until the present. Although I\u2019ve never personally been involved in the tech industry, my blog became very popular among people in tech because it discussed ideas centering around scientific and technological progress, especially artificial intelligence.

In early 2020, I learned the\xa0New York Times\xa0wanted to write an article about me. They had discovered my real name and wanted to reveal it to the world. Their original pitch \u2013 and I don\u2019t know if it was true or not \u2013 was that they were interested in how I warned about the coronavirus pandemic\xa0very early\xa0and urged people to\xa0wear face masks\xa0before this was standard advice.