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The Best Essay

paulgraham.com

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Re: The Best Essay

#51

Post by bongodongobob »

tptacek wrote: post #44
kashyapc wrote: post #42

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Excellent point on "Death of a pig" by E.B White. It's the perfect example of a timeless essay, without a "big scientific idea". For others unaware of it, that essay was written in 1948[1], go read it in full. It starts like this: "I spent several days and nights in mid-September with an ailing pig and I feel driven to account for this stretch of time, more particularly since the pig died at last, and I lived, and th…

I want to be careful not to pummel a straw man, because it's sort of clear that Graham doesn't believe the Best essay must come from an exploration of science or of exciting new ideas (though most of the advice he gives is for that kind of essay). If I have a concern, I think it's about the chemistry his writing has with this community, how threads here will bleach it down to a game of prog-rock writing, trying to so…

I cannot decipher your second sentence here.

Re: The Best Essay

#52

Post by senderista »

quickthrower2 wrote: post #32

Good essay! Shame he doesn’t talk about taboo. Taboo subjects could make for great essays but it takes a lot of guts to write about them. Anything from collapse of your life, work, prison or death threats may ensue. Breaking taboos move society forward though. Keep an eye on “exceptions to free speech”.

He talks plenty about taboos elsewhere (e.g. "What You Can't Say").

Re: The Best Essay

#53

Post by pvg »

gizmo wrote: post #26

> Writing about the best essay implies there is such a thing, which pseudo-intellectuals will dismiss as reductive, though it follows necessarily from the possibility of one essay being better than another. What is the best car? Some cars are real stinkers. It's not hard to find cars that are better than Zastava Yugo in every way. For most cars you can find other cars that are in the same class, but just better. Clea…

you can't argue that a Ford F150 is objectively better

Perhaps if you limit yourself to a hidebound traditionalist view of the form but this topic has been explored by the Moving Picture Essay https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oMDcIApBtL8

Re: The Best Essay

#54

Post by nonrandomstring »

Hard not to contrast Graham's

> If caring about it is one of the criteria for a good initial question, then the optimal question varies from person to person.

with another submission posted some 15 minutes later [0] noting J. R. Ackerley’s ability to make anything compelling through the sheer weight of care

The "best essay" for an author is certainly cantered on their care. Yet I feel in the current nonchalant, urbane and cynical climate if the audience sense any sniff of "care", it is to be savaged.

Unless it tickles something sentimental or ironic, care is despised and dismissed as weakness that "doesn't make a living" or is some wonky "ideology".

But then people would call me cynical for saying that :)

[0] https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=39663046

Re: The Best Essay

#55

Post by MichaelZuo »

gmd63 wrote: post #21
dpc94 wrote: post #10

Really liked this quote. “While breadth comes from reading and talking and seeing, depth comes from doing. The way to really learn about some domain is to have to solve problems in it”

Much of the restricted depth of this nature is a consequence of deliberate obfuscation or neglect by the people who are involved in the doing, such as trade secrets, or simply choosing not to write about or share the actual things that impact their craft. You can easily accumulate depth of knowledge from reading in areas that are well documented.

There isn’t a need to read anything beyond introductory materials to acquire depth, if your competent enough.

In fact that’s what I would consider the critical dividing line between a regular genius and a bonafide super-genius. Someone who almost supernaturally acquires expertise/intuition/depth/etc. with very little visible effort.

Re: The Best Essay

#56

Post by samsolomon »

kashyapc wrote: post #42
tptacek wrote: post #34

"It probably wouldn't be about this year's lipstick colors." Why not? "Death of a Pig" didn't convey any new scientific ideas, and might not even have been surprising in any kind of intellectual way. You could title this piece "Great Essays" and it would be entirely defensible. But Graham gave himself a higher goal here, and I don't think he's really presented a recipe for writing the Best essay. Look what he's up ag…

Excellent point on "Death of a pig" by E.B White. It's the perfect example of a timeless essay, without a "big scientific idea". For others unaware of it, that essay was written in 1948[1], go read it in full. It starts like this: "I spent several days and nights in mid-September with an ailing pig and I feel driven to account for this stretch of time, more particularly since the pig died at last, and I lived, and th…

Would also like to mention that the Elements of Style by William Strunk and E.B White is an all-time great book on non-fiction writing. It was required for my Newspaper Fundamentals class in college and I've used it so much since that the creases are wearing thin.

There's another fantastic book—On Writing Well—that is a recurring read for me. An aside—I was in one of the early programing bootcamps, The Starter League. My class was held in 37signals office. Jason Fried and some of the other 37signals designers were in this class with me. One day Jason stood up and answered a few questions. One of the other students asked him about books. He walked over to a closet and opened the door. There were hundreds of copies of On Writing Well. That's the book he'd gift to people.

That always struck me as interesting. Especially since he'd written (or co-authored) several books at that point.

Re: The Best Essay

#57

Post by rnewme »

gmd63 wrote: post #21
dpc94 wrote: post #10

Really liked this quote. “While breadth comes from reading and talking and seeing, depth comes from doing. The way to really learn about some domain is to have to solve problems in it”

Much of the restricted depth of this nature is a consequence of deliberate obfuscation or neglect by the people who are involved in the doing, such as trade secrets, or simply choosing not to write about or share the actual things that impact their craft. You can easily accumulate depth of knowledge from reading in areas that are well documented.

Not sure why you got down voted but I agree.

Re: The Best Essay

#58

Post by rnewme »

MichaelZuo wrote: post #55
gmd63 wrote: post #21

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Much of the restricted depth of this nature is a consequence of deliberate obfuscation or neglect by the people who are involved in the doing, such as trade secrets, or simply choosing not to write about or share the actual things that impact their craft. You can easily accumulate depth of knowledge from reading in areas that are well documented.

There isn’t a need to read anything beyond introductory materials to acquire depth, if your competent enough. In fact that’s what I would consider the critical dividing line between a regular genius and a bonafide super-genius. Someone who almost supernaturally acquires expertise/intuition/depth/etc. with very little visible effort.

What does being competent enough mean?

Do you have an example of bonafide super-genius?

Re: The Best Essay

#59

Post by cubefox »

mistermann wrote: post #8

> One thing I like in an initial question is outrageousness. I love questions that seem naughty in some way — for example, by seeming counterintuitive or overambitious or heterodox. Ideally all three. I believe it is possible/likely that the best essay in the world could not be realized as such (thus, it wouldn't/couldn't be the best essay in the world), because most people couldn't even get by one of these let alone…

Yeah. Imagine writing Darwin's essay on evolution in the 15th century. People wouldn't have been merely outraged, they would have killed him right away. And also today some possible essays may contain true and important insights, while being too taboo to not be immediately dismissed by society.

Re: The Best Essay

#60

Post by noqc »

libraryofbabel wrote: post #27

Isn’t it pretty strange to write about what makes a great essay without mentioning a single actual essay except Charles Darwin’s natural selection paper from 1844?

Somehow a 233 page manuscript is not what I think of when I think of "essay".
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