An essay, to me, is an honest to attempt grapple with a topic without an anxiety about being exhaustive.
The essay is a ground between the "hot take" and an academic speciality. Hot takes are by definition ignorant, and really are exercises in branding. On the other hand, forcing someone to be an academic in the subject to able to write word one is too stifling. It just takes too long to acquire the knowledge to exhaustion -- everything everyone has ever said about the thing -- let alone the credentials.
Some more thoughts on essays:
- I need to have thought about the subject for at least a week (though the line of thought can percolate for months, even years, before being put down to text).
- If I am not drawing from my own life experience, reading one book is enough to be playful in a space, three books to be confident.
- When only marginally confident of an idea, this should be expressed. "Weasel words" are our friends and should be an important to our discourse. The required mode of confidence is wrong, at least for true essays.
- The best essay to write is one where I know some things that might be of potential interest, but give me an opportunity to think of something new as I am writing. While this is a very difficult window to formalize, I think a certain few can be developed.
