1) How can a just-now-released essay be influential at all?
2) At least half of pg's essays are better written than this, which to me seemed a little phoned-in. It's not really an essay anyway, but a peptalk. He didn't even have the usual cavalcade of proofreaders at the bottom.
3) The most influential essay I've ever read is the first essay of "Genealogy of Morals".
1) I just resigned from my day job this week to pursue startup ambitions and
2) I am definitely having "oh shit what am I doing" thoughts right now.
So given the timing for me, this kind of inspiration is very moving. As far as how it is written, I would argue that the phoned-in and impulsive nature is what makes this essay so elegant. It is clean and concise, stating the idea simply: dont give up. Anyway, this is all one mans opinion so you are certainly entitled to disagree.
It can, obviously, be very influential to one reader...and instantly. Time is irrelevant once it reaches that one reader.
The most influential, well-written paragraph I've ever read!