The fact that George R.R. Martin writes the mammoth Game of Thrones novels on a DOS machine is no secret but it is still delightful to hear him explain why. The beloved fantasy author said on Conan that he enjoys the simplicity of WordStar 4.0 and dislikes modern autocorrect and spellcheckers. "If I wanted a capital, I would have typed a capital. I know how to work the shift key," he exclaims to the laughter of a sympathetic audience. Martin's no-nonsense setup might sound archaic but it is complemented by a second computer that he uses for email and web browsing. He's also not the first to attempt to keep it simple. Many have tried to make $1,000 computers perform similarly with minimalist text editors. However, few have expressed their reasoning as eloquently as Martin has.