I authored a "Considered Harmful" essay against another "Considered Harmful" essay. [1] I knew about this essay when I wrote mine, and I <i>still</i> wrote mine.<p>Why? Because the author of this essay is a hypocrite. He specifically disclaims his own essay from consideration:<p>> For example, a piece titled “‘Considered Harmful’ Essays Considered Harmful” would very likely be a case of using the “considered harmful” format to draw attention for its own sake. We will ignore such essays in this commentary.<p>But in so doing, he claims that using "Considered Harmful" to draw attention to the essay is fine. That's why <i>I</i> used it, and it worked. [2]<p>He also says they are typically used by someone with an axe to grind. This is true. To combat this, I took a mellow tone in my essay, as compared to the inflammatory post I originally wrote on the same topic. [3]<p>And yet, he transparently has an axe to grind against "Considered Harmful" essays because he does not allow nuance:<p>> It would therefore seem obvious that the only intelligent course of action is to abandon their use entirely, and instead look to more constructive forms of essay writing in the support of debate positions.<p>Basically, he says that use of "Considered Harmful" essays must be abandoned completely because they don't support their intended positions well.<p>If so, why did he write one of his own? Is it parody or actually serious? I can't tell.<p>But sometimes, "Considered Harmful" is the best way to express something. In that case, use it. But IMO, you should only do it after careful consideration, like what I did for my essay.<p>Don't hamstring your writing by restricting your expression, and don't be a hypocrite. But do be careful and mellow.<p>[1]: <a href="https://gavinhoward.com/2021/10/static-linking-considered-harmful-considered-harmful/" rel="nofollow">https://gavinhoward.com/2021/10/static-linking-considered-ha...</a><p>[2]: <a href="https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=28736238" rel="nofollow">https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=28736238</a><p>[3]: <a href="https://gavinhoward.com/2021/01/dynamic-linking-needs-to-die/" rel="nofollow">https://gavinhoward.com/2021/01/dynamic-linking-needs-to-die...</a>