Right, but the goal of an essay is typically not to disseminate certified, proven fact beyond all possible dispute. In fact, many essays argue points that are inherently fuzzy—e.g. an essay on your interpretation of your favorite novel will make an argument for your interpretation but it will never prove that it is the one true interpretation of a novel since that’s ridiculous and impossible.
Often the goal in writing an essay is to share a personal view or experience, and sometimes to get others to share their thoughts on a topic. For example, if you did write an essay on why Java’s static is better than Ruby’s @, it might lead others to engage with you, share their thoughts, and help you learn more or modulate your own viewpoint as a result.
Montaigne, the oft-touted father of the essay as a form of literature, in fact explicitly wrote essays as a means of self-reflection and self-exploration.
This isn’t some technical paper coming from a research lab or standards body, it’s someone interested in a particular topic sharing their thoughts on that topic, potentially influencing others and potentially being influenced themselves.
And the post body reads: "Because that's what they're used to." Fin. Roll credits.
Personally, I find Python more readable, because I know Python better than Ruby.
I don't think there's anything inherently more discoverable about @@ to denote a class field. Python instance fields are all prefaced with self, so a bit of cursory Python learning makes it clear.
But yes it feels weird that you can't declare them upfront. (And it gets weirder when using libs like Pydantic where class level fields are used to describe instance fields in (de)serialised objects.)
IMO, Java's static keyword is far more discoverable because it's far easier to google.
As I discovered when trying to figure out what an @ meant in a TS import statement.
But, I'm not writing a blog post about why Java is more readable than Ruby, because that's just, like, my opinion man.