2 ms·
People love linking to Paul Graham's "What You Can't Say" essay in this context. [...] I think "What You Can't Say" is by far his worst essay. And I'm hopeful t
by sillysaurus3 9y ago
People love linking to Paul Graham's "What You Can't Say" essay in this context. [...] I think "What You Can't Say" is by far his worst essay. And I'm hopeful that tire-fire threads like these do a better job of illustrating why than anything I could write to explain my point further.
Why do you feel it's his worst essay? People generally regard it as one of his best. Jessica said it's her favorite, for example.
It's difficult to infer from this thread why it's his worst. Rather than guess, I thought I'd ask.
- tptacek 9y agoWell, I have basically nothing but respect for Jessica Livingston, but if that's what she believes, she's wrong about that. She had to be wrong about something eventually! I'm pretty sure this isn't what Graham meant to write, but the only thing I ever see people take away from that essay is "the worst ideas are unfairly maligned". Judge the essay for its actual impact on the marketplace ideas. What's the good that's come of it?
- sillysaurus3 9y agoSorry, I was mistaken. I looked up the quote: http://foundersatwork.posthaven.com/the-sound-of-silence http://foundersatwork.posthaven.com/the-sound-of-silence One of my favorite parts of “What You Can’t Say”: > Darwin himself was careful to tiptoe around the implications of his theory. He wanted to spend his time thinking about biology, not arguing with people who accused him of being an atheist. That's quite a bit different from calling it her favorite. Anyway, I was only curious.