Essay Architecture

Home
Essays
Chapters
Dean's List
Experiments
Logs
About

The secret architecture of great essays

Oops, I'm writing a textbook.
READ THE LATEST
Newsletters
Essays
Refined long-form on eclectic topics
Chapters
The secret architecture of essays
Experiments
Typewriter drafts, logs, and experiments
Updates
A monthly round-up in list form
Reviews
Essays reviewed from Dean's List
Essay Club
Publish every month

#featured

View all
Against Interpretation (1964)
Susan Sontag (Dean’s List, Essay Review #1)
 • 
Michael Dean
19
Mega-update
Turning the Ur pattern into code
 • 
Michael Dean
20
self-reliance
a 10% compression cover of Emerson's classic essay

Essays

View all
The alchemy of the rewrite
Assay, forgotten brother of the essay
 • 
Michael Dean
19
Abolish Leap Year! (by 2035)
Guys, I think I solved it.
 • 
Michael Dean
16
Help, my head is made of language!
Musings on my 2 year logiversary
 • 
Michael Dean
23
Lucy in the Sky of Large Language Models
How infinite music breeds a culture of Beatle-heads
 • 
Michael Dean
21
Prepping for the Editor G*ds
Timeless principles for the weird future of AI writing
 • 
Michael Dean
13

Experiments

View all
the insane discipline of the world's best jam band
the Grateful Dead
36' bronze octopus
things that don't belong on the 9/11 memorial site
1
revival
back to the typewriter
the infinite money glitch
everything is a LARP-fest
headaches & hyperobjects
misc. thoughts

Chapters

View all
4 Types of Material in Every Essay
What do you keep as you sift through silos?
 • 
Michael Dean
7
Catalyst
You can't change the world without being wrong
 • 
Michael Dean
3
Response
Your essay is a building in a fuzzy cultural map
 • 
Michael Dean
8
Show and tell (but mostly show)
A review of a review of a review of a memoir [video]
 • 
Michael Dean
 and 
Charlie Bleecker
8
Microcosm
Grokking the world through volcanoes and lobsters
 • 
Michael Dean
9
© 2024 Michael Dean
Privacy ∙ Terms ∙ Collection notice
Start WritingGet the app
Substack is the home for great culture