"This is the path I've chosen."

Fair enough. Maybe Stephenson just doesn't do it for you.

The WWII storyline was more fun, especially the Bobby Shaftoe/Detachment 2702 segments, but Randy had his moments.

I'm currently reading a translation of Andrezj Sapkowski's Blood of Elves, and it's pretty damn good. It's gritty fantasy with an interesting protagonist. Geralt of Rivia is a witcher, a preternatural exterminator, and reminiscent me of a less-angsty Elric.

I'm a software developer by trade, so I find meetings especially burdensome. Most of the meetings I'm obligated to attend are either status meetings, which consist of a minute's contribution on my part in which I explain that I am on target for all my deadlines, or meetings in which I am called upon to explain components I implemented to other teams on the project because they couldn't be bothered to either read the code itself, which is reasonably well commented, or the documentation I provide with the component.

The status meetings could be replaced with email. I'm not sure what to do about the other kind, but at least I'm not just sitting there listening to other people run their mouths when I could be working.