This style of writing is becoming more common and it is frustrating. The author seems hell bent on making their words the focus rather than a window through which you view a story.
I agree, just to be clear - you're talking about the author of the article, not Richard Feynman.
Clarity in writing reflects clarity of thoughts. I wish the same thing dies in the Business world. When I hear a CEO of Intel or Adobe or Google speak in polished, PR approved, Lawyer vetted tone as if they strung big words together and tried to make the sentence after the fact - it makes me cringe. This is one of the reasons why I like Elon or Steve Jobs - they are relatable and human.
Allow me to pontificate for your edification, as to why wanton use of esoteric terminology is in fact a paragon of lexical mastery and thus ideal for the optimization of literary accuracy...
While I do share your frustration most of the time, for some reason I've never felt it when reading a Brain Pickings post.
I'm not sure why, but I think it's because I know what to expect, and so when I do read one of these articles, my state of mind is to just kind of take in whatever idea is expressed, to click on the copious amount of links, and to write down the titles of any materials that seem interesting.
The style feels fitting for a blog/magazine that mostly seems to offer surface-level ideas, often interesting, with links and references to various source materials. It's a bit like the difference between actively using google/wikipedia/stanford encyclopedia of philosophy and passively clicking around on tvtropes.org.
I enjoy Farnam Street Blog, in part because the author does such a good job of stepping out of the way for his subject. Here's the FSblog post on the same Feynman letter:
It's in opposition to academic style, legal style, self-conscious style, etc.
One distressing thing I've noticed is that some of my adult colleagues write in "high school book report style". They seem to want to fill up a certain number of words rather than getting straight to the point.
Clarity in writing reflects clarity of thoughts. I wish the same thing dies in the Business world. When I hear a CEO of Intel or Adobe or Google speak in polished, PR approved, Lawyer vetted tone as if they strung big words together and tried to make the sentence after the fact - it makes me cringe. This is one of the reasons why I like Elon or Steve Jobs - they are relatable and human.