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0 pointspdonis11mo ago0 comments

> what does it says about the clarity of PG's essay?

This seems pretty clear to me:

"[W]hile we can't safely conclude that beautiful writing is true, it's usually safe to conclude the converse: something that seems clumsily written will usually have gotten the ideas wrong too."

And I'm not the only one who has quoted that passage in this discussion.

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the_af11mo ago

It's the second to last paragraph, when someone reading the essay may have already formed a hard to dislodge opinion on the kind of writing PG means. And indeed, many people here on HN did so.

The order of paragraphs, how early in the text ideas or clarifications are introduced, etc, all make for clear writing.

I'd say this is an example of an essay that lacks clarity, i.e. one that is not "good writing".

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the_af11mo ago

It's the second to last paragraph, when someone reading the essay may have already formed a hard to dislodge opinion on the kind of writing PG means. And indeed, many people here on HN did so.

The order of paragraphs, how early in the text ideas or clarifications are introduced, etc, all make for clear writing.

I'd say this is an example of an essay that lacks clarity, i.e. one that is not "good writing".

j / k navigate · click thread line to collapse