Great point. I think you're right. ET leans into a "dialect" that sometimes assumes you're ramped up on the existing writing, in a way that I can't imagine SSC doing.

I don't fault them for this – it adds something, and I've gotten a huge amount of value from doing the same in my own journaling, but I get how it can be a turnoff. I really like Venkatesh Rao, but outside of more conventionally phrased works like The Gervais Principle, I sometimes struggle to get through Ribbonfarm because of his obscure style and linguistic choices.