Human-shaped sensemaking

Michael Dean argues that essays offer a form of sensemaking that articles, videos, and shortform content cannot. Where mass media filters for viral, loud, mass-consciousness events, essays place you directly inside a stranger’s mind and circumstance. An annual essay anthology, then, creates a human-shaped mosaic for understanding the culture its writers inhabit.

The approximate theme that emerged across The Best Internet Essays 2025: a yearning for intentional life against the disembodying effects of a technocratic society trying to commoditize everything. The modern world bundles invisible amputations with its conveniences — an erosion of place, a numbing of the senses, a hollowing of the interior. Each featured essay is lodged in a modern struggle but defined by a writer’s earnest attempt to derive their own way through it.

Dean contrasts this with the state of algorithmic sensemaking on X, which he characterizes as optimizing for total shock rather than truth. He positions the essay as structurally resistant to propaganda: the requirement of reading thousands of words throttles reach, and truth-seeking is baked into the writing process itself. The piece includes excerpts from all 11 anthology contributors, each tapping into the larger theme.

The personal anchor is Dean’s experience with his newborn daughter — walking her around the apartment, joining her in staring at paintings far longer than adults normally do, noticing details on walls he had lived with for years.

RDCO mapping: The core argument — that essays are structurally better sensemaking tools than articles or shortform — directly supports the Sanity Check editorial thesis. The framing of “slow-paced essays expand attention while fast-paced viral news atrophies it” is a usable angle for positioning long-form newsletter content. Dean’s observation that essay anthologies create a mosaic rather than a narrative is a structural technique worth studying.