TB: How to Write an Essay (Paul Graham)
Core Thesis
Essays begin with topic plus initial insight — and you cannot generate these systematically. Breadth (from reading, talking, seeing) and depth (from doing) are both required and genuinely distinct, which is why the best writing draws from a deliberately broad and eclectic intellectual diet.
Key Takeaways
The irreducible starting condition
- "To start writing an essay, you need a topic plus some initial insight about it, and you can't generate those systematically."
- There is no algorithm. The best essays emerge from genuine intellectual encounters — which must be cultivated, not manufactured.
Breadth vs depth
- Breadth comes from reading, talking, and seeing — passive and active consumption of the world.
- Depth comes from doing — hands-on engagement with a subject.
- Both are necessary; neither substitutes for the other.
The diversity principle
- "You can't learn everything, so getting breadth implies learning about topics that are very different from one another."
- A reading list aimed at breadth should be "a laundry list of unrelated subjects" — maximum diversity, not coherent coverage of a single domain.
- The unconventional connections made across distant domains are the source of original insight.
Mental Models
- First Principles Thinking — genuine essays require first-principles insight, not borrowed frameworks
See also
- Innovation and Creativity — breadth × depth as the formula for original thinking; adjacent possible
- Lifelong Learning — the intentional construction of a broad intellectual diet
- Good Writing (Paul Graham) — companion piece on why good writing and good thinking co-occur
Source
Paul Graham, paulgraham.com Original article