Any topic is good. Don’t care about format or where it’s published as long as I can access it (substack, random PDF, journal, etc). Looking for deep and rare thought, but essay length for a short reading.
EDIT: Also I am particularly looking for stuff not as much in online or nerd culture.
Have you ever wished that you were personal friends with a 16th century French petty nobleman and diplomat? His essays are more interesting and more accessible than that sounds.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Michel_de_Montaigne
I trusted my drug dealer’s recommendation on that one and was not disappointed, so I’m passing it on.
Also, I will never not recommend Pliny the Younger’s account of his uncle’s death by volcanic eruption (Vesuvius) and his own story of surviving it. PDF versions are widely available.