The problem for popular writing is that you need to motivate the question in the reader. Suppose, for instance, that you discovered that a particular algorithm

The problem for popular writing is that you need to motivate the question in the reader. Suppose, for instance, that you discovered that a particular algorithm can correctly classify a problem. Well, you sort of have to first tell people why this was surprising. For academic papers you can assume that people know (I show NP>P, folks!) but for an article for people outside the field, inciting curiosity is key. You can see this in all the pop science (in the best sense of the term) out there: Gladwell, Freakonomics, Lewis etc They write like it’s a detective novel starting with the mystery. I think the earliest example of this style might be Gleick with Chaos but maybe someone can show me an earlier example.