The Andy Weir Production Function

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Andy Weir: I happened upon a combination of things that worked well together without doing the proper experimentation to find it in advance. He says he didn't realize how much people would end up rooting for this poor guy who stranded on Mars. "I was doing it as sort of a self insertion, what would I do if I were on Mars? And other people read it as like, the world must help him"

Before writing a single word of his new book Artemis, Andy Weir worked out the economics of a lunar colony. Without the economics, how could the story hew to the hard sci-fi style Weir cornered the market on with The Martian? And, more importantly, how else can Tyler find out much a Cantonese meal would run him on the moon?

In addition to these important questions of lunar economics, Andy and Tyler talk about the technophobic trend in science fiction, private space efforts, seasteading, cryptocurrencies, the value of a human life, the outdated Outer Space Treaty, stories based on rebellion vs. cooperation, Heinlein, Asimov, Weir’s favorite episode of Star Trek, and the formula for finding someone else when stranded on a lonely planet.

Read a full transcript enhanced with helpful links.

Recorded November 15th, 2017 Other ways to connect

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