I find the separation between the body of the essay and notes makes it harder to read. When I read PG's essay, I always have two tabs open, one on the essay and the other on the Notes section. When I come across a note reference, e.g. "the answer turns out to be completely different. [4]", I switch to the Notes tab to look it up. This back and forth between the two tabs disrupt the reading experience.

Wouldn't it be easier on the reader to simply include the Notes in the body part of the essay? Especially when the notes are short. For example the aforementioned note no. 4 goes:

"[4]Corollary: If you're not intellectually honest, your writing won't just be biased, but also boring, because you'll miss all the ideas you'd have discovered if you pushed for the truth."

Which is short, relevant, and insightful. What's the criteria for which piece of text goes into the body of the essay, and which goes to Notes? I guess if a substantial percentage of readers skip the Notes part, then it's a time-saving practice to separate the two.