Can Shakespeare really be the best writer ever? - by Steff

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Other<br>Can Shakespeare really be the best writer ever?<br>Why 25 billion born over 400 years haven't yet surpassed him.

Steff<br>Jun 13, 2026

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I recently finished reading Michael Lewis’s book Going Infinite, which catalogs the story of young billionaire-turned-convicted-felon Sam Bankman-Fried (SBF), who went from CEO of the world’s most-hyped crypto exchange (FTX) to bankruptcy within the space of five days. It’s a fascinating character study of a man full of contradictions. Terrifically intelligent, yet lacking wisdom. Supposedly altruistic and self-sacrificing, yet obsessed with videogames. It’s easy to assume that SBF must be a conman or hypocrite, yet Michael Lewis’s account is more sympathetic. Dangerously misguided, he seems to be. Or unforgivably negligent. In either case, SBF openly admits to being atypical: He lacks happiness. He feels isolated. In keeping with his would-it-be-fair-to-call-them-psychopathic? tendencies, he also possesses a thoroughly unromantic soul. Where others may feel awe or warmth, he will feel nothing: Visiting historic cities of Europe? Nothing but boring old buildings. Smiling? An unnecessary complication of human interactions. Love? Something best discussed through dispassionate business memos; relationships to be weighed rationally for their pros and cons (like everything else in life).<br>The one exception was novels. It was the sole art form he enjoyed before reaching middle school, when reading began to carry the connotation of English classes.<br>Quoting the book:<br>“I objected to the fundamental reality of the entire class,” said Sam of English. “All of a sudden I was being told I was wrong—­about a thing it was impossible to be wrong about. The thing that offended me is that it wasn’t honest with itself. It was subjectivity framed as objectivity.

In high school, he starts to question the beliefs that most English teachers hold sacrosanct. For instance:<br>I could go on and on about the failings of Shakespeare . . . but really I shouldn’t need to: the Bayesian priors are pretty damning. About half the people born since 1600 have been born in the past 100 years, but it gets much worse than that. When Shakespeare wrote almost all Europeans were busy farming, and very few people attended university; few people were even literate—­probably as low as ten million people. By contrast there are now upwards of a billion literate people in the Western sphere. What are the odds that the greatest writer would have been born in 1564? The Bayesian priors aren’t very favorable.

Even haters of SBF may agree with him that English classes are largely hogwash, while even apologists of SBF may think he’s completely off base.<br>Either way, though… What are the odds that Shakespeare could still be the greatest English writer after 410 years since his death1? Have these long centuries served as a testament of the Bard’s inestimable talent, or might there be another explanation?<br>Wherefore art there no other Bard?

The pessimistic explanation is this: Yes, there are many more literate and educated English speakers alive today than ever before, but they’ve been hindered.<br>Modern minds have brainrotted from TV and the internet.

Great art requires great sacrifice, which means our greater literacy rates have been balanced out by better standards of living: Our modern minds are too coddled.

Furthermore, Shakespeare’s works were likely not the result of a single man’s genius, but rather the result of wonderful collaborations. Modern society’s isolating lack of community makes such collaborations vanishingly unlikely (which would also explain why no band has yet surpassed the Beatles).

He who doth protest, “We’re not that badly off! Modern writers can be great!” will have to contend with the followup: If Shakespeare isn’t the best English writer, who’s better?<br>So masterful was William Shakespeare’s use of language, so iconic were the stories he told, that it’s hard to come up with an argument for anyone who’s better, and even harder to come up with a consensus pick.<br>But there’s a degree of legerdemain to this framing.<br>Did Shakespeare write the best poem ever? No. Did he write the best epic fantasy series? Nope. How about the best murder mystery, or best blog, or best journalistic piece? The trick here is that “writer” can mean many different things.<br>Maybe we could fairly say that Shakespeare is still the best English playwright (though that’s not a claim I can judge personally; my favorite play is Hamilton2). It would’ve been easier to judge Shakespeare the best English writer back in 1596, when there were fewer competing vessels of English writing for the masses to consume.<br>Here are two useful clues to keep in mind when contemplating the mystery of Shakespeare’s 400-year reign:<br>During his time, his plays weren’t high-brow material. He played to the masses. His tragedies made folk cry, his comedies made them...