Essays I like

Note (2025): I made this a year ago, and then neglected to update it. Slowly in the process of fixing that…

In no particular order, incomplete, inconsistently categorized. Mostly for my own reference, when I forget where an idea comes from.

I’m always eager for any recommendations.

• riyang2025@gmail.com

High School

• What You’ll Wish You’d Known
• The Lesson to Unlearn
• Escaping High School

College Admissions

• Applying Sideways

College

• Undergraduation

Productivity and Life Advice

• Alexey Guzey on Advice
• Most advice is pretty bad
• Omens of Exceptional Talent
• Alexey Guzey on Productivity
• What Should You Do with Your Life?
• Searching for outliers
• Staring into the abyss as a core life skill
• 95%-ile isn’t that good

Writing

• The Age of the Essay
• Why You Should Start a Blog Right Now
• Why and how to write things on the internet
• Welcome to the Essay Meta

Startups

Science

Learning

• Is anything inherently difficult?

History

Math

Physics

Book Reviews

Government

Free Speech

• What You Can’t Say

Society

• The Refragmentation
• The internet is already over

China

Futurism

Rationality

AI

Technology