Neal Stephenson responds with wit and humor (2004)

acheron

Ah, a classic. This was Slashdot’s high point. Note: (2004)

yipinwong

given how Neal never goes online, i wonder how long he sat on this to reply

nickmonad

My first exposure to Neal was through Reamde and it's definitely the fastest I've managed to get through a novel relative to length. I really enjoy his style.

buildbot

Ah, I always wondered how Vancouver Island came to be - a fight between Stephenson and Gibson makes perfect sense.

dfxm12

Perhaps the biggest loss of cryptocurrency being branded as "crypto" is losing the Matt Blaze's thoughts on cryptography (and in turn, how this informed Stephenson's thoughts on these topics). Anyway, in case you were curious: Hobbs: https://web.archive.org/web/20041204055248/http://www.crypto... Master Key: https://web.archive.org/web/20041022021127/http://www.crypto...

NickDouglas

That was the best explanation of litfic vs. commercial/genre fiction I've ever read.

__rito__

Neal is one of two living authors whose all books I buy. Happy to have found him during Covid, thanks to HN comments. I found Greg Egan during that time, and I am grateful to HN threads and comments on books.

_whiteCaps_

Another classic of his, Mother Earth, Mother Board: https://www.wired.com/1996/12/ffglass/

kergonath

I know he’s well liked, but damn. It’s difficult to take him seriously when he says things like “The novel is a very new form of art. It was unthinkable until the invention of printing and impractical until a significant fraction of the population became literate.”