I hate to always be the jerk on this board, but:

1) How can a just-now-released essay be influential at all?

2) At least half of pg's essays are better written than this, which to me seemed a little phoned-in. It's not really an essay anyway, but a peptalk. He didn't even have the usual cavalcade of proofreaders at the bottom.

3) The most influential essay I've ever read is the first essay of "Genealogy of Morals".

I've read all of his essays too, but I guess for me in particular this one strikes a chord because:

1) I just resigned from my day job this week to pursue startup ambitions and

2) I am definitely having "oh shit what am I doing" thoughts right now.

So given the timing for me, this kind of inspiration is very moving. As far as how it is written, I would argue that the phoned-in and impulsive nature is what makes this essay so elegant. It is clean and concise, stating the idea simply: dont give up. Anyway, this is all one mans opinion so you are certainly entitled to disagree.

I think that sometimes off-the cuff speeches/essays are more influential because they aren't heavily edited and flow more like how a normal person would speak. I thought this was a great essay.

"1) How can a just-now-released essay be influential at all?"

It can, obviously, be very influential to one reader...and instantly. Time is irrelevant once it reaches that one reader.

All of Paul's essays are better written. This wasn't an essay. It was a talk, and one written quickly.

"Hang in there. Stay plugged in. Oh, and in case you didn't get it the first time, don't give up."

The most influential, well-written paragraph I've ever read!

i think his use of influential is a on a more personal note.

If I was a rapper, I would say "PG you the Truth, man". I wanted to say "you the shit, man", but that sounds bad although that means a good thing in music language.

Agreed, this is the best one yet. Here's to determination.