Neal Stephenson Responds with Wit and Humor (2004)

[2004]

There's a long fascinating discourse in there about genre vs literary fiction that's well worth a read.

I read it when that Q&A was oroginally posted (in those heady days when /. was my poison of choice instead of HN) and could never find it again because I got Neal Stephenson mixed up with Neil Gaiman! So I'm very glad to see it here and have a chance to re-read it.

I really appreciate the first answer, from a guy who clearly has researched and knows about many things, where he immediately says he doesn't know enough about it to have an opinion but defers to an expert in the subject matter.

Almost 20 years old, but this is not immediately obvious when reading it. I’m not sure if that says more about Neal, or the past two decades.

Notably, the Blue Origin discussion seems like ancient times when SpaceX is testing Starship and we just had two billionaires fly in their own rockets.

Also, his answer to the question about money is interesting today while a big Ethereum update is in progress. I wonder if crypto has changed his thoughts on the matter, or not.