3 ms·

http://www.nealstephenson.com/why-i-am-a-bad-correspondent.html http://www.nealstephenson.com/why-i-am-a-bad-correspondent.h... But as those chunks [of time] g

http://www.nealstephenson.com/why-i-am-a-bad-correspondent.html http://www.nealstephenson.com/why-i-am-a-bad-correspondent.h... But as those chunks [of time] get separated and fragmented, my productivity as a novelist drops spectacularly. What replaces it? Instead of a novel that will be around for a long time, and that will, with luck, be read by many people, there is a bunch of e-mail messages that I have sent out to individual persons, and a few speeches given at various conferences. That is not such a terrible outcome, but neither is it an especially good outcome. The quality of my e-mails and public speaking is, in my view, nowhere near that of my novels. So for me it comes down to the following choice: I can distribute material of bad-to-mediocre quality to a small number of people, or I can distribute material of higher quality to more people. But I can’t do both; the first one obliterates the second.

tekstar 6y ago
Username checks out :)
- bcgraham 6y ago
  Just a little bit of trivia for other Stephenson fans: Anathem’s narrator is named “Erasmas.” This is a phonetic representation of the Greek “ήρωάς μας,” meaning “our hero.”
  - hardlianotion 6y ago
    He has form with that sort of thing: Hiro Protagonist from Snow Crash (Edit - heh - just saw parent poster’s username ...)
  - hprotagonist 6y ago
    i also read it as a nod to https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Erasmus https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Erasmus : Raz mentions at one point that his mathic name was the same as an older figure’s, who has some of these attributes.
JohnJamesRambo 6y ago
“He is currently Magic Leap's Chief Futurist.” Ugh why did I have to read his Wikipedia and ruin such a great quote and my impression of the man?
- hprotagonist 6y ago
  I try to return the favor, for some authors, of knowing as little about them as possible outside of their work. (i think his magic leap stuff wound down a while ago, though)
- bredren 6y ago
  Morgan Freeman narrates the new 21 Savage album. Werner Herzog is in the new star wars show. $$$
  - JohnJamesRambo 6y ago
    But those actually made a product. Werner Herzog was great on that show and I'm sure Morgan did great too. Chief futurist since 2014 on what seems to have been a multi-billion dollar scam at this point is not a good look.
    - bredren 6y ago
      The quality of that show is debatable. People liked the baby yoda a lot more than herzog. And herzog said he did it for the money to do his own thing. Freeman did okay, but again the art overall is not that good. I do recommend listening to “Snitches & Rats (interlude)” for a taste of Morgan’s work though. [1] I agree everything associated with magic leap looks bad but that happens with everything that falls on the wrong side of history. And while magic leap’s contributions appear meager, we haven’t had enough time to contextualize them or see what departed talent does next. NeXT could have ended up in a dustbin. [1] https://music.apple.com/us/album/snitches-rats-interlude/1534209957?i=1534210179 https://music.apple.com/us/album/snitches-rats-interlude/153...

tekstar 6y ago

Username checks out :)

bcgraham 6y ago
Just a little bit of trivia for other Stephenson fans: Anathem’s narrator is named “Erasmas.” This is a phonetic representation of the Greek “ήρωάς μας,” meaning “our hero.”
- hardlianotion 6y ago
  He has form with that sort of thing: Hiro Protagonist from Snow Crash (Edit - heh - just saw parent poster’s username ...)
- hprotagonist 6y ago
  i also read it as a nod to https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Erasmus https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Erasmus : Raz mentions at one point that his mathic name was the same as an older figure’s, who has some of these attributes.

JohnJamesRambo 6y ago

“He is currently Magic Leap's Chief Futurist.” Ugh why did I have to read his Wikipedia and ruin such a great quote and my impression of the man?

hprotagonist 6y ago
I try to return the favor, for some authors, of knowing as little about them as possible outside of their work. (i think his magic leap stuff wound down a while ago, though)
bredren 6y ago
Morgan Freeman narrates the new 21 Savage album. Werner Herzog is in the new star wars show. $$$
- JohnJamesRambo 6y ago
  But those actually made a product. Werner Herzog was great on that show and I'm sure Morgan did great too. Chief futurist since 2014 on what seems to have been a multi-billion dollar scam at this point is not a good look.
  - bredren 6y ago
    The quality of that show is debatable. People liked the baby yoda a lot more than herzog. And herzog said he did it for the money to do his own thing. Freeman did okay, but again the art overall is not that good. I do recommend listening to “Snitches & Rats (interlude)” for a taste of Morgan’s work though. [1] I agree everything associated with magic leap looks bad but that happens with everything that falls on the wrong side of history. And while magic leap’s contributions appear meager, we haven’t had enough time to contextualize them or see what departed talent does next. NeXT could have ended up in a dustbin. [1] https://music.apple.com/us/album/snitches-rats-interlude/1534209957?i=1534210179 https://music.apple.com/us/album/snitches-rats-interlude/153...