Also, is there a particular reason he uses obscure words like "infelicity"? I'm a native English speaker and I think that is the first time I've heard that word used. Is it really that hard to just use "misfortune"?
His proclivity for sesquipedalianism, manifested in the substitution of "infelicity" for the more pedestrian "misfortune," may have been an artifice to inveigle the reader into a divergent mode of cogitation.
They are unusual words, but not really obscure. I have always liked “inveigle”.
Probably just someone who likes to read older books. There have been a lot of so-called inkhorn terms in English; some made it into common use, some remained but are rare, some died on the vine.
I know it’s not the case but sometimes it feels like he’s trying to channel Matt Levine. Doesn’t matter, like you said his blog and now newsletter are fantastic.
I am one such person. I have no issue reading obscure or difficult content (legal documents ala Companies Act 2006 to historical documents written in non-native languages). However, for me, his particular style forces me to read many things twice or thrice to determine whether or not I've understood him correctly.
> This is like criticizing someone's technical ability after they finished a Bob Ross painting course.
...no, it's a simple comment about a writing style. You don't need to try and make it out to be anything else.
It's very normal to still interact with things in life that aren't exactly how you'd want them to be. The overall net value of their content has spoken for itself over and over.
> You can go make your own painting with no happy little trees if you want.
Yet I won't, because I still want to read their content. That's the entire point.