Well, what’s the alternative? If you think there is something weird enough and suboptimal about essay formats that you are reaching for ‘random chance’ or ‘monkey see monkey do’ level explanations, that implies you think there is some much superior format they ought to be using instead. But I can’t see what. I think it might be helpful to try to make the case for doing these things via some of the alternatives:
a peer-reviewed Nature paper which would be published 2 years from now, maybe, behind a paywall
a published book, published 3 years from starting the first draft now, which some people might get around to reading a year or two after that, and dropping halfway through (assuming you finish and didn’t burn out writing it)
a 1 minute Tiktok video by an AI person with non-supermodel looks
a 5-minute heavily-excerpted interview on CNN
a 750-word WSJ or NYT op-ed
a 10-page Arxiv paper in the standard LaTeX template
a Twitter thread of 500 tweets (which can only be read by logged-in users)
a Medium post (which can’t be read because it is written in a light gray font illegible to anyone over the age of 20. Also, it’s paywalled 90% of the time.)
a 6 hour Lex Fridman podcast interview, about 4 hours in after Lex has finished his obligatory throatclearing questions (like asking you if aliens exist or the universe is made out of love)
interpretive dance in front of the Lincoln Memorial livestreamed on Twitch
Well, what’s the alternative? If you think there is something weird enough and suboptimal about essay formats that you are reaching for ‘random chance’ or ‘monkey see monkey do’ level explanations, that implies you think there is some much superior format they ought to be using instead. But I can’t see what. I think it might be helpful to try to make the case for doing these things via some of the alternatives:
a peer-reviewed Nature paper which would be published 2 years from now, maybe, behind a paywall
a published book, published 3 years from starting the first draft now, which some people might get around to reading a year or two after that, and dropping halfway through (assuming you finish and didn’t burn out writing it)
a 1 minute Tiktok video by an AI person with non-supermodel looks
a 5-minute heavily-excerpted interview on CNN
a 750-word WSJ or NYT op-ed
a 10-page Arxiv paper in the standard LaTeX template
a Twitter thread of 500 tweets (which can only be read by logged-in users)
a Medium post (which can’t be read because it is written in a light gray font illegible to anyone over the age of 20. Also, it’s paywalled 90% of the time.)
a 6 hour Lex Fridman podcast interview, about 4 hours in after Lex has finished his obligatory throatclearing questions (like asking you if aliens exist or the universe is made out of love)
interpretive dance in front of the Lincoln Memorial livestreamed on Twitch
...
(I’d also add in Karnofsky’s blog post series.)