Thinking about this a little more and rereading the piece: What is meant by “the best essay” is underdefined. Refining the definition of what type of best you’re going for might be useful. Are you shooting for the most impact on the most people’s thinking? Helping solve a specific problem? A large impact on the thinking of a small set of people (maybe ones interested in one of your specialized interests)?
If you just think of it as “the best”, I’m afraid you’ll wind up writing to impress people instead of to add value. Which is fine, as long as you don’t take it to the extremes of most internet essays, that try to impress an ingroup instead of add value to the world.
Thinking about this a little more and rereading the piece: What is meant by “the best essay” is underdefined. Refining the definition of what type of best you’re going for might be useful. Are you shooting for the most impact on the most people’s thinking? Helping solve a specific problem? A large impact on the thinking of a small set of people (maybe ones interested in one of your specialized interests)?
If you just think of it as “the best”, I’m afraid you’ll wind up writing to impress people instead of to add value. Which is fine, as long as you don’t take it to the extremes of most internet essays, that try to impress an ingroup instead of add value to the world.