Ask HN: Whom do you admire most? • Hacker News Board

Re: Ask HN: Whom do you admire most?

#51

Post by projectileboy » Thu, Oct 08, 2009, 4:18 AM UTC

yesimahuman wrote: post #37

John Carmack. I think I've just always been an Id fan since I grew up with Quake, and I was just blown away the first time I read the Quake 1 source. I have just always dreamed of being a great C hacker like him. And he's doing even more amazing stuff now with Armadillo.

Seconded. I remember reading his .plan files in the 90s when he was working on Quake II, and I was amazed at how much he'd get done in a day. If you want an education in programming, download some of his source code:

http://www.idsoftware.com/business/techdownloads/

Re: Ask HN: Whom do you admire most?

#52

Post by platshaw » Thu, Oct 08, 2009, 4:21 AM UTC

Ian MacKaye - he lives his life completely on his own terms; maintains a purity about what he is doing; is able to see straight through roadblocks; and creates great music. I want to be an entrepreneur like Ian is a musician.

Re: Ask HN: Whom do you admire most?

#53

Post by jjs » Thu, Oct 08, 2009, 4:21 AM UTC

I admire the amazing people I know, the ones who make me think, if I try just a little harder, I can be like them.

Re: Ask HN: Whom do you admire most?

#54

Post by nsfx » Thu, Oct 08, 2009, 4:21 AM UTC

Henry Rollins.

Creative, productive, knowledgeable, and funny.

Re: Ask HN: Whom do you admire most?

#55

Post by fuzzmeister » Thu, Oct 08, 2009, 4:21 AM UTC

Elon Musk, a man who tries to change the world through his businesses.

Re: Ask HN: Whom do you admire most?

#56

Post by byrneseyeview » Thu, Oct 08, 2009, 4:23 AM UTC

Benjamin Graham, Claude Hopkins. Both wandered into fields full of failed artists and wild gamblers, and turned them into something closer to a science. The Intelligent Investor and Scientific Advertising are the only two books I know of that can give the same person the same epiphany twice.

Re: Ask HN: Whom do you admire most?

#57

Post by jobenjo » Thu, Oct 08, 2009, 4:24 AM UTC

Bill Watterson (creator of Calvin and Hobbes).

He created an epic masterpiece, never sold out, and left at the top of his game. He achieved fame without being drawn into celebrity, and his ideas have permeated our culture in a deep and wonderful way.

Re: Ask HN: Whom do you admire most?

#58

Post by pfedor » Thu, Oct 08, 2009, 4:32 AM UTC

I admire Carl Djerassi. He created the first oral contraceptive and made a lot of money off of it, and then as a chemistry professor he did first-class research in organic chemistry for many years (according to my dad who is a chemistry professor, Djerassi's contribution can totally be considered Nobel-prize-worthy.)

But that's not what I admire him for the most. What really gets to me is that at the age of sixty five, he said, hey, let's try something new, and started writing fiction. He wrote several books, and they are really good and a pleasure to read, and if you took one in a bookstore and started reading it you would say it's a very fine novel even if you didn't know the first thing about the author. Why don't you give it a shot: http://www.amazon.com/Cantors-Dilemma-Novel-Carl-Djerassi/dp...

Think about it. He was sixty five. What will you be doing that age.

Re: Ask HN: Whom do you admire most?

#59

Post by dylanz » Thu, Oct 08, 2009, 4:35 AM UTC

Bill Mollison. Hilarious, Intelligent, and a Revolutionary (in my mind).

Re: Ask HN: Whom do you admire most?

#60

Post by psawaya » Thu, Oct 08, 2009, 4:38 AM UTC

nsfx wrote: post #54

Henry Rollins. Creative, productive, knowledgeable, and funny.

...and kind of a jerk, in his early days.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d_3g4QPojMc