On the epistemic status line

A small monospace line at the top of an essay — epistemic status: thinking out loud, or settled, revised twice, or deliberately provocative — does most of the work that a long disclaimer would, with none of the throat-clearing.

It tells the reader what register to read in. It tells me what register I am committing to. It makes the difference between confidence and exploration explicit, which means I can write both without conflating them.

Borrowed from Scott Alexander. Not every post needs one — only the ones where the reader benefits from knowing.