Hooks don't work.
Readers trade attention for value. And value lives not in a topic that you find interesting but in a problem that readers care about.
So what should your first paragraph do, if not hook?
After analyzing hundreds of essay introductions, I found three moves that work:
- Open on a status quo, something that readers already grant. Get their head nodding in agreement.
- Break the status quo with a destabilizing condition. Signal this with But or However.
- Establish the cost of ignoring it. Importantly, connect this cost to your specific reader (or to someone they care about).
Those three moves set up the problem. The thesis of your essay is the solution.
A problem the reader cares about beats any hook. Problems earn attention by offering value. Hooks are just a cheap jolt performing novelty.