How much of “write simply” is just survivorship bias?

A couple weeks ago, this tweet stood out to me: I think one thing Paul Graham underweights when he advises people on how to write is the fact that sometimes you need cleverness to earn status with the reader. Paul has earned status by making a ton of money. Him writing simply is like Zuckerberg in a gray T-shirt. A gray… — Cairo Smith (@cairoasmith) September 2, 2026 Is Paul Graham such a successful writer because of special writing techniques, or is his success more attributable to the size of his brand and his wealth, creating a halo effect? It’s likely both, but I think the brand aspect is given much les consideration than it deserves, as the above tweet alludes to. His advice, in posts such as “Write simply” (2021), “Writes and Write-Nots” (2024), “Writing, Briefly,” and “Good Writing” (2025), circle around the same theme of the importance of “writing simply.” Same for the late Dilbert cartoonist and blogger Scott Adams, in a popular now-archived blog post, “The Day You Became a…