Astral Codex Ten

YIMBY movement

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YIMBY movement

Article

YIMBY movement is a recurring concept in the Astral Codex Ten archive, appearing 3 times across 3 issues between November 15, 2021 and November 28, 2023. The archive places it in contexts such as “This is near the top of the YIMBY movement’s policy wishlist”; “The YIMBY movement makes a similar point about housing”; “Played a big part in creating the YIMBY movement”. It most often appears alongside AI, FTX, Metaculus.

Metadata

  • Category: Concepts
  • Mention count: 3
  • Issue count: 3
  • First seen: November 15, 2021
  • Last seen: November 28, 2023

Appears In

Source Context

Recovered passages from the original issue text. When the raw archive preserved outbound links inside the source passage, they are listed directly under the quote.

15
November 15, 2021 · Original source
This is near the top of the YIMBY movement’s policy wishlist - they seem to think most people would vote for denser zoning, though I have trouble understanding their optimism. You can read their white paper arguing in favor here. As a bonus, it would probably lead to more attractive buildings, since people living next to a new development are more invested in avoiding eyesores.
Inline links: here
The policy seems to have some strong advocates in British government, and YIMBY leaders have offered probabilities like 50% or 60% that it’ll happen, which the market has sensibly downgraded to 33%.
Kelly Bets On Civilization
March 07, 2023 · Original source
Still, I think about this argument a lot. I agree he’s right about nuclear power. When it comes out in a few months, I’ll be reviewing a book that makes this same point about institutional review boards: that our fear of a tiny handful of deaths from unethical science has caused hundreds of thousands of deaths from delaying ethical and life-saving medical progress. The YIMBY movement makes a similar point about housing: we hoped to prevent harm by subjecting all new construction to a host of different reviews - environmental, cultural, equity-related - and instead we caused vast harm by creating an epidemic of homelessness and forcing the middle classes to spend increasingly unaffordable sums on rent. This pattern typifies the modern age; any attempt to restore our rightful utopian flying-car future will have to start with rejecting it as vigorously as possible.
In Continued Defense Of Effective Altruism
November 28, 2023 · Original source
Played a big part in creating the YIMBY movement - I’m as surprised by this one as you are, but see footnote for evidence17.
Inline links: 17
Open Philanthropy’s Wikipedia page says it was “the first institutional funder for the YIMBY movement”. The Inside Philanthropy website says that “on the national level, Open Philanthropy is one of the few major grantmakers that has offered the YIMBY movement full-throated support.” Open Phil started giving money to YIMBY causes in 2015, and has donated about $5 million, a significant fraction of its total funding.
Inline links: Open Philanthropy’s Wikipedia page, says