Paul Graham：Putting Ideas into Words, Excerpt 7

Far from it. But though it's not a sufficient condition, it is a necessary one. Notes [ 1 ] Machinery and circuits are formal languages. [ 2 ] I thought of this sentence as I was walking down the street in Palo Alto. [ 3 ] There are two senses of talking to someone: a strict sense in which the conversation is verbal, and a more general sense in which it can take any form, including writing. In the limit case (e.g. Seneca's letters), conversation in the latter sense becomes essay writing. It can be very useful to talk (in either sense) with other people as you're writing something. But a verbal conversation will never be more exacting than when you're talking about something you're writing.

Source： https://paulgraham.com/words.html
Locator：Essay, additional excerpt 7 · Verified：2026-10-19 · Verification：Short excerpt

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