Ask YC: Who are YOUR heroes?

Tim Berners-Lee

Steve Wozniak

Warren Buffett

My list is heavy on scientists and philosophers, since I especially admire the ones who changed the way we think (for the better, IMHO).

Socrates

Epicurus

Diogenes the Cynic

Sun Tzu

Shen Kuo

Machiavelli

Leonardo da Vinci (the Shen Kuo of the West! ;-)

Galileo

Kepler

Hume

Darwin

Swift

Franklin

Jefferson

Nietzsche

Sun Yat-sen

Wittgenstein

Feynman

Sagan

Abraham Lincoln - for his brutal honesty

Mahatma Ghandi - for changing the world

Steve Wozniak - for solving his own problems

Ford Prefect - always knows where his towel is

Richard Dawkins: I remember when I first saw the link to his documentary "The root of all evil?" on reddit. I was quickly enchanted by his ability to beautifully relate ideas and convey their wonder and simplicity. (Although I had heard of Richard Dawkings before, I didn't learn who the captivating narrator was until after watching.) Later on, I was impressed with his ability to attack the core of arguments and sidestep being pushed into a corner by misrepresentations and side-arguments.

Ayn Rand: After being taught for a decade that "morality" was synonymous with obedience to authority and a repressive code of social behavior, in middle school I began to quietly rebel and privately switch the meanings of moral and immoral. Then, I was introduced to Ayn Rand. Aside from the uplifting nature of her demonstrations of the positive nature of selfish and egoistic concepts, I was greatly relieved to find that I did not have to submit to quietly seething against society's oppressive definitions of the terms; I did not have to mentally wander without a way to think about what I deep down considered truly good.

Ron Paul: He showed me that politics could be more than something for citizens accepting of the status quo to squabble over and disenchanted, apathetic souls to cynically joke about. In addition, I am always impressed with his ability to never be backed into a corner, to turn the tables on those attempting to cast him and his ideas in a negative light, and his honesty and ability to get back to the core issues.

Jared Diamond: While I do not know too much about the man himself, I am nevertheless extremely impressed with the ideas presented in Guns, Germs, and Steel, especially his emphasis on chasing ideas to their root. With its emphasis on patterns in history, it has completed changed my outlook on history, the importance of individuals, and human nature. Furthermore, what is perhaps the most important idea in the book, that all useful technologies and other inventions over areas and good periods of time if and only if political homogeneity does not preclude adoption, has changed my views on government. I strive to share the same emphasis on searching for the root cause, which I suppose goes along well with the hacker's focus on abstraction and elegance; many essays I have written, including all of my SAT and ACT essays (practice and real), have traced simple questions about life back to either behavioral psychology, evolutionary psychology -- or ideas present in Guns, Germs and Steel (or some combination thereof).