How to Write Usefully
By Paul Graham
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How to Write Usefully
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Though no doubt correct, such statements tell the reader nothing.
In the sciences, this is called publication bias, and is considered bad.
You need humility to measure novelty, because acknowledging the novelty of an idea means acknowledging your previous ignorance of it.
You might think that if you work sufficiently hard to ensure that an essay is correct, it will be invulnerable to attack.
The other constraint you can relax is a little surprising: publication.
Although the essay is an old form, it hasn't been assiduously cultivated.
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