Request for Hall of Fame Essays
It is surprisingly not that much work to write the best version of something ever written in the history of the world. Or at least something in the top five. In many cases, we are talking about something like 40 to 80 hours of focused work. That’s relatively little work for something that could positively impact the lives of thousands or millions of people. It’s also pretty fun.
We think ~most people could find at least one topic that they are capable of writing the best version in the world of. There are a lot of options!
Your choice of topic matters a lot. You probably cannot write the best fantasy novel ever written, or the best essay about Roger Federer (David Foster Wallace has you beat). Nor can you likely write the best guide to topics which are covered a lot: how to start a company, how to become more productive, how to learn Python, how to lose weight, how to become a better cyclist. It’s not that you shouldn’t try to write these things (if you want, do it!), and maybe you have something new to bring to the table.
Still, if you are wondering what to write, I’d suggest searching for ideas that you could actually write the best version of the world of.
So how do you find eligible ideas? We suggest thinking about two questions:
(i) What might I be uniquely good at writing about?
(ii) Is there any great version of writing on those topics that exists?
To decide what you might be good at writing about, think about not only what you know but what you would like to know. It’s possible that you might be great at writing about a topic you are interested in but don’t know much about yet. (Example: say you just bought some niche type of plant and would like to learn all about the best way to care for it. Maybe you could eventually write the best guide about that.) Think about difficult things you have done, skills you are uniquely good at, and topics you care way more about that most people.
The more specific your topic, the better. It’s useful to frame the essays as questions, or under the premise of: This essay is successful if the reader walks away with X. X could be having learned a particular thing or felt a particular way.
If you are stuck, it can help to open up a blank document and write down every single idea that comes to mind, including the bad ones. Sometimes you need some momentum to get going, and you need to clear out the bad ideas before you get to the good ones. You’d be surprised how often you think the ideas on your list are bad until you suddenly think of a brilliant way to connect them.
Once you have your list of ideas, search to figure out whether anyone has written a great version of them. Just because there is a great version already doesn’t mean you can’t write your own, but my pitch for you here is that you try to write net new great things; pieces about topics that don’t have any amazing writing.
Next, you get to work.
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Have you ever spent 40+ hours dedicated to a single essay? What about four hours? Most people would say no. So you may have to build the stamina to write the essay. But lock in. Sooner or later, you may have written the greatest essay in the history of the world on your particular niche topic.
(I know this sounds crazy. But there are millions of topics about which nobody has actually spent dozens of hours trying hard to write great essays about. Those are the topics you could write about.)
Once you’re done, email it to us. Or share it with us and a writing community over in Writing Club.
If you want some ideas, here’s our quick list of requests, in question format, for people to please write the “best essay ever written in the history of the world” about:
- How close are humans to talking to whales?
- When did it become less popular to be fat?
- Why is French taught in American schools?
- What was the world like when nobody brushed their teeth?
- Why does it cost $100,000 to install a park bench? Or $1.7M to build a bathroom?
- How can I grow tropical fruits on my terrace in a non-tropical climate?
- Is ‘park equity’ actually a good idea for more enjoyable cities?
- What is the history of the United States taught in China, and how has that changed over the last 100 years?
- Why do we need to sleep?
- How do venture capitalists make money?
- What is the daily life of an American at the 25th, 50th, 75th percentile wealth in 2025?
- What is the happiest society in the history of the world?
- What’s the best pillow case?
- What is the most misunderstood piece of (commonly taught) history?
- What can you learn about life and family from The Fast and the Furious?
- How does Spike Lee afford to sit courtside at every sporting event?
- What is everything you need to know to dress in the top ~5% of humans?
- What are the highest global approval rating brands in the history of the world? Why?
(If you want more ideas, Works In Progress also published a list of pieces they’d like to commission.)
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Film directors can win an Oscar. Musicians can win a Grammy. Internet essay writers can… Get a lot of upvotes on Reddit?
There should be a hall of fame for internet essays. Some independent agency that ranks the top essays written every year, as well as maintains a catalogue of the single best essay written on any particular topic.
For example, I am convinced that this is the best essay ever written about tech salary negotiation, this is the best essay ever written about what a chef thinks about brunch, and this is the best explanation of the US’ National Institute of Health.
What would be in your internet essay hall of fame?
If you’d like to write the greatest essays of your life alongside us and others, consider joining Writing Club. It’s a place to get feedback and improve your writing alongside a bunch of other curious, smart people trying to do the same thing.
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