The Best Essay - Paul Graham  ## Metadata - Author: **Paul Graham** - Full Title: The Best Essay - Category: #articles - URL: https://paulgraham.com/best.html ## Highlights - A good essay has to be surprising. It has to tell people something they don't already know. ([View Highlight](https://read.readwise.io/read/01j2ygkcbpbwkwj0krkwxjwjn7)) - The best essay would be on the most important topic you could tell people something surprising about. ([View Highlight](https://read.readwise.io/read/01j2ygktpkkqc4enxjxschdgxc)) - Darwin first described the idea of natural selection in an essay written in 1844. Talk about an important topic you could tell people something surprising about. ([View Highlight](https://read.readwise.io/read/01j2z1s5nwd3301k37q00dn0w7)) - Another unexpected consequence: I imagined when I started writing this that the best essay would be fairly timeless — that the best essay you could write in 1844 would be much the same as the best one you could write now. But in fact the opposite seems to be true. It might be true that the best painting would be timeless in this sense. But it wouldn't be impressive to write an essay introducing natural selection now. The best essay *now* would be one describing a great discovery we didn't yet know about. ([View Highlight](https://read.readwise.io/read/01j2z1ywa8kcq0z2wam3fjz262)) - At least half of essay writing is rereading what you've written and asking *is this correct and complete?* You have to be very strict when rereading, not just because you want to keep yourself honest, but because a gap between your response and the truth is often a sign of new ideas to be discovered. ([View Highlight](https://read.readwise.io/read/01j2z2pqkjm3s58e6rjvfhdgwv)) ## New highlights added February 9, 2025 at 10:45 AM - One of the most dangerous temptations in writing (and in software and painting) is to keep something that isn't right, just because it contains a few good bits or cost you a lot of effort. ([View Highlight](https://read.readwise.io/read/01jkp0490212fjrg1t6har8bpm))