Bertrand Russell Thomas Paine Giordano Bruno Norman Borlaug
Norman Borlaug is Penn & Teller's hero too. To them, he's the greatest person who ever lived. I'm inclined to agree.
Ask YC: Who are YOUR heroes?
51–60 of 68 posts
Re: Ask YC: Who are YOUR heroes?
#52Good topic, but one line doesn't do enough justice. I want to know why people chose who they did. So forgive the length of my reply.
1) Personally, I'd have to say Matthew Halfant. I worked for him at VM Labs around y2k. Apart from his prodigious mathematical ability, he was a collaborator with Abelson and Sussman (of SICP fame) back in the 80s. More importantly he was a very kind mentor to me, and a great teacher. I still recall at my interview how he remarked it was nice to have a 'young fellow such as myself come aboard because I could teach them a thing or two.' Yeah, right! His willingness to hire me is what brought me to Silicon Valley.
I only wish I had asked him more about Lisp :)
2) I don't know Woz personally, but he's awesome because he achieved the pinnacle of 'ultimate engineer' through intense dedication to his craft, and also (and equally importantly) by retaining a playful, childlike attitude throughout his career.
Re: Ask YC: Who are YOUR heroes?
#53Re: Ask YC: Who are YOUR heroes?
#54Warren Buffett. He went from role model to hero when he donated his fortune to someone else's foundation. No one does that.
Steve Albini. I love his songs, but he's a hero for how he thinks and writes about music and the music industry. His "The Problem With Music," his review of Slint's "Spiderland," and his "Remembering a Friend" (about Silkworm's Michael Dahlquist) could be Paul Graham essays.
Judith Martin (Miss Manners). What PG wrote about Wodehouse and Austen applies to Martin, especially her early work, which is among the funniest, most sane, best written, and most useful writing I've ever encountered.
Bill James (the baseball writer). More than anyone else, he taught me how to think and how to share my thoughts with others.
S.R. Ranganathan. _The Five Laws of Library Science_ is fantastic. And his colon classification system is pretty great as well.
Re: Ask YC: Who are YOUR heroes?
#55My dad. He has a work ethic like no one else I know. It doesn't matter how intractable a problem seems, he always stays calm and just starts working on it. No panic, no hesitation. He's getting close to 60 now, and he still gets up at 5:30 every day and he can still solve mechanical problems that none of the younger workers can. Really an amazing man, in his own little corner of the world. He's also the only person w…
Wow, now that's a goal in life: to have your kids look at you like that. Well, except for the 5:30 thing. That's just not gonna happen.
Re: Ask YC: Who are YOUR heroes?
#56At the moment...Ernest Gallo. We'll see how that pans out come morning. EDIT: My real list: 1. Nietzsche. Some others have mentioned him. Too often he's thought of as a proto-Nazi, and maybe he is, at least in terms of attitude. But every reading lends to the belief that above all else he's an endlessly untapped pool of thought. 2. Debussy. I'm increasingly convinced that he is Beethoven/Bach/Mozart's superior. Each…
No love for Julio?
Re: Ask YC: Who are YOUR heroes?
#57John Lennon - turned songcraft into the most powerful political tool possible William Shakespeare - will anybody ever reach greater heights of understanding about the human character? Terry Fox - when was the last time you ran across Canada with one leg? John von Neumann - there wasn't a ground-breaking field in the 20th Century he wasn't a part of Wayne Gretzky - he dominated his sport like no other, even though he…
Terry Fox and Wayne Gretzky. I'm guessing you are Canadian too. Both are definitely on my list of heroes too.
Re: Ask YC: Who are YOUR heroes?
#58[deleted]
Re: Ask YC: Who are YOUR heroes?
#59Joe Simpson - demonstrated to me that individuals are capable of quite extraordinary feats.
Re: Ask YC: Who are YOUR heroes?
#60Richard Feynman, physicist
Sam Harris, articulate atheist
Wendell Berry, articulate farmer