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Way, way back I ran into a comment on Slashdot saying essentially: Neal Stephenson doesn't really do endings. At some point, he just declares victory and stops

by scbrg 4y ago

Way, way back I ran into a comment on Slashdot saying essentially: Neal Stephenson doesn't really do endings. At some point, he just declares victory and stops writing. (not an exact quote, though the second sentence is probably very close to the original) I thought this was a hilarious observation, and shared it with my coworkers. This then became our standard phrase when we decided that a task wasn't really worth more development hours. So, should we spend another day polishing this, or do we just declare victory? So thanks, random Slashdot poster 20 years ago, for contributing to our company culture for a few years :)

ghaff 4y ago
I've certainly run into "Let's just declare victory and move on" in many different contexts. And it really is a pretty good philosophy for many situations.
- scbrg 4y ago
  I see, thanks for letting me know :) I'm not a native English speaker, and my main use of (spoken) English is with other non native speakers (such as my multinational dev team back then), so I'm sure there's a lot of common expressions I haven't run into. This is apparently one of them. And yes, sometimes it's definitely a good philosophy.
sidibe 4y ago
The beginnings of his books are pretty difficult too, since he just drops you into a world with its own vocabulary and weirdness that takes forever to understand or in the case of Seveneves does many hundreds of pages of infodump details on how they build their space stuff. I guess the middle parts and ideas of his books are usually a thrill enough to make it worth the other parts.
mercutio2 4y ago
I said this about Neal Stephenson on Slashdot about 20 years ago, but… I don’t think it was particularly original thought at the time, my guess is you probably weren’t inspired by me :)
- jdkee 4y ago
  Obligatory. https://slashdot.org/story/04/10/20/1518217/neal-stephenson-responds-with-wit-and-humor https://slashdot.org/story/04/10/20/1518217/neal-stephenson-...
- scbrg 4y ago
  The thought that Neal Stephenson's books often don't have great endings is perhaps not very original, but the phrase "he just declares victory and stops writing" was, at least to me, fairly unique. I was a pretty avid /. reader back then (especially if it was about Stephenson) so I think I would have noticed if it was used a lot. I'd say odds are fairly good it was you then :-)
paranoidrobot 4y ago
I read (probably) the same comment, thought it was funny but also quite true and fitted what I had been thinking but wasn't able to really express. Crytptonomicon is one of my favourite books. It's the only book that, has had me in fits of laughter/crying, despite it not being a 'comical' book. I've had most of a train car turning around to figure out what's going on, on multiple occasions. (It's that 'RAM' chapter that always gets me). But the ending of the book is just... disappointing, at best. Many/most of the plot lines are wrapped up, and it just stops. It could be argued that "Leave them wanting more" is true, but it felt like such a sudden conclusion.
- bostik 4y ago
  I've always said that Cryptonomicon is either 300 pages too long - or 600 pages too short. As a riposte, I have been informed that Quicksilver supposedly contains those missing 600 pages that complete the second storyline. Haven't verified personally.

by scbrg 4y ago

ghaff 4y ago

I've certainly run into "Let's just declare victory and move on" in many different contexts. And it really is a pretty good philosophy for many situations.

scbrg 4y ago
I see, thanks for letting me know :) I'm not a native English speaker, and my main use of (spoken) English is with other non native speakers (such as my multinational dev team back then), so I'm sure there's a lot of common expressions I haven't run into. This is apparently one of them. And yes, sometimes it's definitely a good philosophy.

sidibe 4y ago

The beginnings of his books are pretty difficult too, since he just drops you into a world with its own vocabulary and weirdness that takes forever to understand or in the case of Seveneves does many hundreds of pages of infodump details on how they build their space stuff. I guess the middle parts and ideas of his books are usually a thrill enough to make it worth the other parts.

mercutio2 4y ago

I said this about Neal Stephenson on Slashdot about 20 years ago, but… I don’t think it was particularly original thought at the time, my guess is you probably weren’t inspired by me :)

jdkee 4y ago
Obligatory. https://slashdot.org/story/04/10/20/1518217/neal-stephenson-responds-with-wit-and-humor https://slashdot.org/story/04/10/20/1518217/neal-stephenson-...
scbrg 4y ago
The thought that Neal Stephenson's books often don't have great endings is perhaps not very original, but the phrase "he just declares victory and stops writing" was, at least to me, fairly unique. I was a pretty avid /. reader back then (especially if it was about Stephenson) so I think I would have noticed if it was used a lot. I'd say odds are fairly good it was you then :-)

paranoidrobot 4y ago

I read (probably) the same comment, thought it was funny but also quite true and fitted what I had been thinking but wasn't able to really express. Crytptonomicon is one of my favourite books. It's the only book that, has had me in fits of laughter/crying, despite it not being a 'comical' book. I've had most of a train car turning around to figure out what's going on, on multiple occasions. (It's that 'RAM' chapter that always gets me). But the ending of the book is just... disappointing, at best. Many/most of the plot lines are wrapped up, and it just stops. It could be argued that "Leave them wanting more" is true, but it felt like such a sudden conclusion.

bostik 4y ago
I've always said that Cryptonomicon is either 300 pages too long - or 600 pages too short. As a riposte, I have been informed that Quicksilver supposedly contains those missing 600 pages that complete the second storyline. Haven't verified personally.