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Comment by tomgp | Hacker News Reader

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 craft.

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> For example, Darwin first described the idea of natural selection in an essay written in 1844. [1] Talk about an important topic you could tell people something surprising about. If that's the test of a great essay, this was surely the best one written in 1844.

I think he's speaking broadly about what counts as an essay, and does have at least one example in there to illustrate his point. He's also an esteemed essay writer, and I think it's fair for him to talk about what he values in an essay without needing to justify any of it by saying "and also, this person that some people respect did it like that"

That "essay" written in 1844 was 233 pages long. This doesn't really fit with his thesis.

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

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.

From people studying a subject through formal training? I agree, more people should do that!

No, from having many people try to do something brand new, most of them fail miserably, and a tiny number of them creates something revolutionary.

Also what you said, but they aren't mutually exclusive.

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