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The Best Essay

paulgraham.com

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Re: The Best Essay

#241

Post by hef19898 »

lukas099 wrote: post #235
tomgp wrote: post #225

What a strange essay! To try to find out what makes a good (sorry "THE BEST") essay without any reference to any of the great essays that have actually been written? It feels a bit like the head of a university's English department setting out to discover "the best computer program" but without talking to or refering to the work of any of the thousands of people who've made it their life to study and practice the cra…

There's value in people trying to derive things from first principles sometimes. It can lead to something unique, like outsider art.

Most of the time so, this approach leads to very deep discoveries of the kind other people learned in the first days of a 101 lesson studying said subject, at university or during some formal training of trade or craft.

Re: The Best Essay

#242

Post by mcguire »

edanm wrote: post #190
lubujackson wrote: post #135

I think the concept of a best essay is somewhat illogical, but exploring the idea like this makes an interesting post. After all, the term "essay" was invented/popularized by Montaigne in a book of his writing called "Essays" - and "essay" is French for "to try." So from that context, essays shouldn't be concerned with finding answers or be the "best" but to make discoveries in the process of trying.

> I think the concept of a best essay is somewhat illogical, but exploring the idea like this makes an interesting post. pg does specifically address this objection btw: > I love questions that seem naughty in some way — for example, by seeming counterintuitive or overambitious or heterodox. Ideally all three. This essay is an example. Writing about the best essay implies there is such a thing, which pseudo-intellect…

"...though it follows necessarily from the possibility of one essay being better than another."

This is false unless you further assume that "better than" is a total order.

Re: The Best Essay

#243

Post by mcguire »

beryilma wrote: post #208
edanm wrote: post #190

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> I think the concept of a best essay is somewhat illogical, but exploring the idea like this makes an interesting post. pg does specifically address this objection btw: > I love questions that seem naughty in some way — for example, by seeming counterintuitive or overambitious or heterodox. Ideally all three. This essay is an example. Writing about the best essay implies there is such a thing, which pseudo-intellect…

> 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. Preemptive dismissal of any criticism of the idea of a best essay is stupid. In particular, even though I buy the "possibility of one essay being better than another", the criteria for ordering will be necessarily…

Note also that "pseudo-intellectuals" is ad hominem.

Re: The Best Essay

#244

Post by basil-rash »

bdjsiqoocwk wrote: post #234
basil-rash wrote: post #231

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You’re so caught up in insulting me, you never stopped to think of I’d consider inventing a novel medical technique an “application” of knowledge. I would. If all he did was read books about things other people did, he certainly would not have invented that. Your following attempt at armchair psychology is humorous, but not much beyond that I’m afraid. Don’t quit your dayjob.

My dayjob is as psychologist. No joke. And my specialty is spotting morons on social media.

Well I certainly hope your patients can find the help they need. But let’s drop the hominems and get to the point:

Do you have a real counter example? Someone that through reading the material of others alone, with no practical/“hands on” experience, was able to develop what you consider “deep” knowledge?

Edit: A day ago you were arguing talent can’t come without training. https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=39656444

In fact much of your comment history is dedicated to claiming knowledge requires product. How bizzare.

Re: The Best Essay

#245

Post by kashyapc »

richrichie wrote: post #71
samsolomon wrote: post #56

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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…

+1 I also love “clear and simple as truth” by thomas and turner.

Yeah, that's an excellent book, too. Thanks for reminding, I need to re-reread parts of it.

Re: The Best Essay

#246

Post by jimbokun »

tomgp wrote: post #225

What a strange essay! To try to find out what makes a good (sorry "THE BEST") essay without any reference to any of the great essays that have actually been written? It feels a bit like the head of a university's English department setting out to discover "the best computer program" but without talking to or refering to the work of any of the thousands of people who've made it their life to study and practice the cra…

I just assumed this was generated by an AI. Do we have verification this is really PG?

Re: The Best Essay

#247

Post by samatman »

tptacek wrote: post #63
samsolomon wrote: post #56

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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…

Though, with respect to Strunk & White, Pullum's timeless takedown: https://www.chronicle.com/article/50-years-of-stupid-grammar...

It's a good read, but by its very nature invites the following sort of riposte. I'll indulge in just one.

> “Write with nouns and verbs, not with adjectives and adverbs,” they insist. (The motivation of this mysterious decree remains unclear to me.)

The motivation is so that ponderous language like

> Following the platitudinous style recommendations of Elements would make your writing better if you knew how to follow them

Might be edited to something like "Though many are mere platitudes, following the style recommendations of Elements would make your writing better if you knew how to follow them".

The sentence, as written, suggests that the platitudes, specifically, as opposed to any which might be less uhhhh, platitudinous, would make your writing better. I don't believe this was the author's intent.

Re: The Best Essay

#248

Post by samatman »

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.

Even introductory materials cover the difference between "your" and "you're" rather thoroughly.

Re: The Best Essay

#249

Post by samatman »

MichaelZuo wrote: post #75
doesnt_know wrote: post #72

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What you're describing as a "super-genuis" is just someone that thinks they know it all after reading some introductionary material. They don't know what they don't know so they think they're "done".

[flagged]

Acquiring advanced knowledge on topics by skimming introductory materials is not characteristic of these people in the slightest.

Re: The Best Essay

#250

Post by lukas099 »

hef19898 wrote: post #241
lukas099 wrote: post #235

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There's value in people trying to derive things from first principles sometimes. It can lead to something unique, like outsider art.

Most of the time so, this approach leads to very deep discoveries of the kind other people learned in the first days of a 101 lesson studying said subject, at university or during some formal training of trade or craft.

Yes. But society on net benefits from it.
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