I've waited as long as I can stand it before inserting a spoiler:
"In the early 1990s, I was writing a lot of essays and columns for magazines and journals, so much so that I was using a pseudonym for some of that work: Nickieben Bourbaki. The original idea for the name was that my staff at Lucid would help with the writing, and the single pseudonym would represent the collective, much as the French mathematicians in the 1930s used "Nicolas Bourbaki" as their collective name while rewriting the foundations of mathematics in their image. However, no one but I wrote anything under that name."
I can't take too much credit. I bit on the story hook, line and sinker. I started to write a comment saying in essence, "So what if Paul is writing under a nom de plume, there are good reasons for doing so..."
One of the good examples that came immediately to mind was Richard Gabriel. So I Googled "Worse Is Better" and copied that exact paragraph to insert as a quotation to support my point.
Then I read what I had just pasted and the light went on...
Oh, let me tell you the lead-up there is perfect—serendipitous or otherwise. I had a smooth transition: "Really? That seems pretty interes---- oh man, brilliant!"
Comments
I've waited as long as I can stand it before inserting a spoiler:
"In the early 1990s, I was writing a lot of essays and columns for magazines and journals, so much so that I was using a pseudonym for some of that work: Nickieben Bourbaki. The original idea for the name was that my staff at Lucid would help with the writing, and the single pseudonym would represent the collective, much as the French mathematicians in the 1930s used "Nicolas Bourbaki" as their collective name while rewriting the foundations of mathematics in their image. However, no one but I wrote anything under that name."
http://www.dreamsongs.com/WorseIsBetter.html
This thread makes nickb seem like a real, individual person:
http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=99923
A word about myself so you can see where I'm coming from... I'm currently part of a startup.
pg comments:
its real purpose is to thank Nickb, and I think he deserves it.
"The collective" can indeed be prolific. Intriguing.
Dang. It's either that or a whole tonne of French mathematicians. Good work!
I can't take too much credit. I bit on the story hook, line and sinker. I started to write a comment saying in essence, "So what if Paul is writing under a nom de plume, there are good reasons for doing so..."
One of the good examples that came immediately to mind was Richard Gabriel. So I Googled "Worse Is Better" and copied that exact paragraph to insert as a quotation to support my point.
Then I read what I had just pasted and the light went on...
Oh, let me tell you the lead-up there is perfect—serendipitous or otherwise. I had a smooth transition: "Really? That seems pretty interes---- oh man, brilliant!"