Ask YC: Who are YOUR heroes?

Evariste Galois - pulled the world's most famous all-nighter by writing down all the math in his head for posterity, then got killed in a duel in the morning.

Magic Johnson - did whatever it took to make everyone else around him better.

Rabbi Harold Kushner, who turned his personal tragedy into sharing spirituality and humanity in a manner I have found nowhere else.

Laura Barrett Mikesell - You never forget the teacher who actually encouraged you to do great things.

My grandfathers - made unimaginable sacrifices by coming to this country (U.S.) so that I could have this great life.

dean kamen

ayn rand

jay z

srinivasa ramanujan

Limiting it to 5 makes it tough! Right off the top I'm going to remove family members and Paul Graham from consideration (and encourage others to do so to obviate the need for any "obligatory mentions").

After a couple minutes thinking about it, I've got (in no particular order):

Hank Rearden (fictional) - A brilliant, but "normal" engineer and businessman breaks free of society's shackles through his ethics and determination. I try to channel him every time I sit down to work.

Jack Kerouac - Spent his life living, writing, dreaming and merging the three wherever he could. Maintained an ambitious vision of his life's work and actually finished it.

George Clooney - the guy emanates class.

Alexander Mackendrick - His teachings and notes on film directing are a tour de force. Creativity meets pragmatism.

Jeff Temple - Taught astrophysics at PA Governors' School for the Sciences. It wouldn't be much of a stretch to say that he's the reason I applied to MIT.

OK, I'm going to cheat now and add a couple extra mentors and friends whose heroics could scarcely fit one book, let alone one line.

Hal Abelson - My undergraduate advisor. Helped write SICP (one of the most important works I've read), spearheaded OpenCourseWare, showed me the intersection of technology and policy.

Patrick Winston - My undergrad project advisor. Headed the AI Lab, brilliant speaker, and a formative influence who molded my appreciation of "important work."

And one more cheat:

Richard Feynman - Great thinker, teacher, and human being.

Nikola Tesla - great innovator, shitty businessman, edison sucks.

Ben Franklin - The epitomy of cleverness.

Thich Quang Duc - A man who became an idea.

Galileo - Spoke truth to power.

Richard Feynman - A principled genius.