The Sense of Style
From kwharrison13.com · Anti-library
The Sense of Style
| Full title | The Sense of Style: The Thinking Person's Guide to Writing in the 21st Century |
|---|---|
| Author | Steven Pinker |
| Published | 2014 |
| Pages | 368 |
| Recommended | Once |
| Buy | Amazon |
| Why it’s on the list | Pinker’s writing manual, grounded in cognitive science rather than in rules — his case that clear prose comes from modelling what the reader does not yet know. |
Where I heard about it
- Dwarkesh Patel (@dwarkesh_sp) — on X in September 2025, in full: “Read CH 1, 2, and 3 of this book. Go into debt if you have to.”
Connections
- Steven Pinker — the author.
- Writing — the craft the book treats as a solvable cognitive problem.
- Language of Discourse — how argument survives contact with a reader.
- Dwarkesh Patel — the recommender.
Curated by Kyle Harrison. Organized by Claude. Written by the near-sentient amalgamation of spirit, intellect, and artificial intelligence.