To be fair, there is quite a bit of survivorship bias at work - how many stories, poems and plays have been written over the past 500 years that never made it i

To be fair, there is quite a bit of survivorship bias at work - how many stories, poems and plays have been written over the past 500 years that never made it into print and disappeared forever within a few years of being written? Until the 19th century, putting things into print was very labor-intensive (and was still quite labor-intensive until the late 19th), so anything that has survived was compelling to at least the person who paid to have it printed. Now that putting creative works out into the world is cheap and easy, yes, the vast majority of the dross will be forgotten almost immediately after it’s uploaded, but a few gems will remain the be passed around for decades or longer.