The essay was fun to read and had excellent balance - the author talked about distractions semi-ironically with fine control of its focused structure and pacing while keeping a light and carefree tone that was nonetheless academic. I'd like to learn to write closer to this style. Is regular writing and reading more of these literary journals the way to go about it?
Pretty much. Essays are a great medium for this style, I think of them like a curated conversation almost. You've organized your thoughts in a way that you could present them to a friend in polite conversation; you're trying to convey a point without the need to be pretentious or serious in order for it to be respected. Publications like the New Yorker and the Atlantic are a good place to find lots of high quality ones. Many authors also publish their essay collections as books, my favorite being "Consider the Lobster" by DFW.
Thanks for the recommendations, I will check them out.
I appreciate the point about seriousness too. One part of it that I liked kind of feels like travel writing from the last century (e.g. John Muir) that goes in and out of various subjects with respect to the main one. On the other hand, the author shows their 'seriousness' and culture by being able to reference and talk about the subject in the context of many other subjects. If I try to do this it probably feels pretentious, so I admire the skill of being able to pull it off.
