Emma McAleavy

Growing the progress studies talent pipeline with @rootsofprogress. Formerly @indexcoop, @nytimes, @fulbrightprgrm, @Microsoft

[Emma McAleavy @elmcaleavy]

@PHLStartupLaw @rootsofprogress Yes 🤦‍♀️

[Emma McAleavy @elmcaleavy]

Come spend 10 weeks with me, @MikeRiggs, the @rootsofprogress team, and a couple dozen enterprising progress intellectuals!

We'll write, we'll workshop, we'll edit, we'll hear from the leading lights of the progress studies movements.

[Roots of Progress Institute @rootsofprogress]

Applications are open until June 1st for the 2025 Roots of Progress Blog-Building Intensive! Launch a blog and improve your progress-focused writing with expert guidance and an amazing community progress builders, writers and intellectuals.

You'll learn from a phenomenal advisor lineup including @tylercowen, @_brianpotter, @elidourado, @vpostrel, @_alice_evans, @kesvelt, @glukianoff, @akoustov, @Brendan_McCord, and Elle Griffin.

RPI fellows are now leading conversations on AI policy, transportation, agriculture, biotech, housing abundance, and more—with work appearing in major outlets like the Washington Post, the Wall Street Journal, The New York Times and the Atlantic.

What you'll get: Launch/re-launch a blog/Substack, develop consistent writing habits, improve your craft, build your audience, and connect with progress studies leaders and build community with engaged, thoughtful fellow writers.

During the 10-week program, you'll write and publish 4 essays with feedback from our developmental editor @MikeRiggs, the RPI team, and your fellow writers.

This year features two tracks, in addition to our general progress track: human flourishing & potential and security & resilience. We welcome fellows writing on ANY progress topic, but a handful of spots will be reserved for these tracks.

BONUS: Attend a 3-day in-person retreat in Pennsylvania and receive a free ticket to the invitation-only 2026 Progress Conference with ~400 authors, technologists, policy experts, academics, and nonprofit leaders. Meet your peers and your heroes!

This is for you if: You're passionate about progress studies and love writing. Maybe you want to explore a writing career, join a think tank, write to build community around a cause area, and of course take your existing blog to the next level.

Commitment: 10–15 hours weekly for 10 weeks (July 27–Oct 2). The weekend retreat is August 20–23. There is no cost to participate.

Applications close June 1st!

[Steven Adler @sjgadler]

Some personal news: I've started a new AI safety standards org, and our first two standards are out today.

We're called Guidelight, co-founded with fellow ex-OpenAI safety researcher, Page Hedley. (1/n)

[The Midas Project @TheMidasProj]

1/ Did @OpenAI just break California’s new AI safety law?

The answer appears to be yes, and OpenAI could owe millions in fines. 🧵

[Gary Winslett 🌐🇺🇸 @GaryWinslett]

This is some really great analysis of the airline industry by @AndrewMillerYYZ. And his Substack in general is consistently solid- definitely worth subscribing to.

https://t.co/l28cnOoNhr

[Steven Adler @sjgadler]

Smart people keep confidently declaring what AI can't do, and they keep being wrong.

This NYT Op-Ed calls judgment "a uniquely human skill" that "cannot be automated." But AI can already do what he claims it can't. I've tested it.

If it were just one Op-Ed, I wouldn’t care, but this pattern is everywhere: confident claims about what AI “can never” do, and half the time AI can already do it, or there's no reason it won't be able to soon.

Why do these claims keep getting made? I see three reasons:
1. People aren't using frontier models. They see a weak output and blame "AI" when their model is just outdated.
2. People use AI in flawed ways (missing context, bad prompts), then attribute the flaw to AI itself.
3. People _badly_ want there to be some skill that AI can't match, and so they wishcast that into existence.

I think the Op-Ed is wrong about AI's abilities. But it does prompt a good question: Where should humans stay responsible, even when AI judgment is good enough?

I go deeper on all of this below.

[Grant Mulligan @gtmulligan]

Tonight's the night! We kick off our @interintellect_ salon on The Odyssey. I wrote about why I decided to host and why you should join. The short answer, to paraphrase @HenryEOliver, "don't die without reading The Odyssey. It's not worth it."

https://t.co/m6LAE4X52j

[Steven Adler @sjgadler]

I've felt pretty shaken by the stories of ChatGPT psychosis and other chatbots-gone-wrong.

If we want to understand the trends, there's more that AI companies can be doing.

[Asterisk @asteriskmgzn]

Asterisk is launching an AI blogging fellowship!

We're looking for people with unique perspectives on AI who want to take the first step to writing in public. We'll help you build a blog — and provide editorial feedback, mentorship from leading bloggers, a platform, & $1K

[Emma McAleavy @elmcaleavy]

It's once again an embarrassment of riches with this year's Roots of Progress fellows. So many thoughtful, curious, brilliant, kind and passionate people.

I can't wait to read all the writing they'll be publishing in the coming months!

[Roots of Progress Institute @rootsofprogress]

We’re thrilled to introduce our third cohort of 2025 Blog-Build Intensive Fellows!

[Grant Mulligan @gtmulligan]

I’m excited to be hosting an @interintellect_ Reading Club on A Sand County Almanac next month!

Worth reading for its lovely prose alone, Leopold’s core messages are still hotly debated today.🧵

[Emma McAleavy @elmcaleavy]

@phosphenes_au @Ben_Reinhardt Done!

[Emma McAleavy @elmcaleavy]

What is your favorite song that celebrates progress?

I'm compiling a Progress Studies playlist. It feels like it was harder than it should have been to find songs that are both vibe-aligned and topical.

Here's what I have so far (I actually feel pretty good about this list) :

[Emma McAleavy @elmcaleavy]

https://t.co/9NA2k9R5Kx

[Emma McAleavy @elmcaleavy]

Applications for the Roots of Progress Blog-Building Intensive close on June 1st.

We're still accepting agriculture, health/biotech/longevity and general progress applicants!

[Matt Clancy @mattsclancy]

Finally an excuse for a thread of some of my favorite technology and agriculture charts!

#1 - Productivity growth in agriculture has been huge!
Sources: USDA ERS and BEA

[Emma McAleavy @elmcaleavy]

so tru

[Geoffrey Litt @geoffreylitt]

The most painful part of writing is realizing you don’t quite know what you actually think

[Be the change you want to be @AgBioWorld]

Interested in writing about agriculture and innovation? Apply for this awesome fellowship. Your Truly, along with others, would mentor you! @jasoncrawford

[Emma McAleavy @elmcaleavy]

@TylerAlterman This is an amazing resource!!

[Emma McAleavy @elmcaleavy]

As a fourth generation Californian, I don't relate to this at all.

But as someone who moved to NYC at 25 with stars in my eyes and crowed unironically about the "energy" of the city before burning out.... this is very relatable.

[Tyler is finishing a book, slow to reply @TylerAlterman]

Let's talk about California, one the the greatest spiritual hazards for my demographic

Here is the pattern I see. You can call it the California Curse or maybe the California Boomerang:
🧵

[Emma McAleavy @elmcaleavy]

This is true. California does have a lot of cults.

[Tyler is finishing a book, slow to reply @TylerAlterman]

e. Cults
Beware! They are pervasive! and not always obvious. (A lot of the tech & film companies behave like cults – charismatic leaders demanding your ideological alignment and your free time)

[Emma McAleavy @elmcaleavy]

This is very funny. I mean that people still do this. This is what my parents did. I had to go to a Catholic University to rebel against the ecstatic dance of it all.

[Tyler is finishing a book, slow to reply @TylerAlterman]

c. Spiritual hedonism
Escaping reality & leaving your people behind to have your entire life become about ecstatic dance, conscious sexuality, psychedelic ceremonies, festivals, nature worship etc

(minus escapism, these are all good things)