> Again, please, Does Gwern have anything that sounds as striking as “Empires Without Farms: The Case of Venice” or was that example a tacit hat tip to Brett Devereaux’s work?

I don’t quite see the link to Devereaux here. But, if anything, I think Devereaux is not at all similar to the writing style in the “Empire without farms” thing here. On ACOUP, he just bluntly tells you what the plan is and then executes it. He does engaging content and funny stuff, but it is sprinkled throughout the text rather than being a gimmicky hook to draw the reader in. For example,

https://acoup.blog/2026/01/16/collections-hoplite-wars-part-...

Starts out with one paragraph about where we are in the series of blog posts and a super zoomed out description of what the series is about.

Then a paragraph about the fact that he had been planning an alternative ordering for the blog posts. If I don’t already care, that’s not going to make me care.

Then we finally get a direct no-frills statement describing the specific question to be answered in this post. It’s blunt and it doesn’t ask a “get ready for a surprise” type question.

I like it. This is a confident and adult writing style. To me,

“Venice ruled half the Mediterranean. And yet… it had no farms. How do you have an empire without farms?”

Comes off as an author a trying to convince the reader that they have something clever to say. Almost always this is the result of worrying too much about style.

IMO, the best way to come up with a clever phrasing is to start by writing down a direct version first, to figure out what you really want to say. Then, just don’t write a clever phrasing, the reader will appreciate your respect for their time.