Ask HN: Whom do you admire most?

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=868109

by eserorg • 17 years ago

56 234 17 years ago

news.ycombinator.com

Whom do you admire most? In what way does that person inspire you?

fogus• 17 years ago

My grandfather. You guys have probably never heard of him, but he rocked.

ojbyrne2• 17 years ago

Growing up, my mom was basically the smartest person I knew, and it drove me to work harder. She had 2 annoying phrases that really pushed me.

"Tell me something I don't know"

"If that book is so good, why are you telling me about it instead of reading it?"

She was a great motivator.

shaddi• 17 years ago

I am sure many of us look to our parents, grandparents, and other relatives as heroes.

For me, I look to my dad as a hero, which is kind of funny considering how often have disagreements. I'm reminded of that line from Randy Pausch's last lecture, "Just remember, when your father was your age, he was fighting the Germans." Growing up I always heard stories about what my dad was like and what he was doing when he was in college, and the stories always seemed so distant. Now, I am going through those same years, and it blows me away to think about what my dad went through when he was at the same point in my life as I am.

Coming to the US with only a few dollars in his pocket, not knowing the language, working full time at bad jobs in rough neighborhoods in Houston, going to school full time in engineering, and building a life based around making sacrifices for the benefit of his family -- comparing this to my own life, which has been free of these hardships ('cept full time school in engineering, of course!) largely due to his efforts, I can't help but be inspired.

Thanks dad.

thismat6• 17 years ago

Definitely second this, my grandfather was 98lbs wet, and the kindest person I've ever known.

Quiet, calm, assertive and wise...he's the reason I can't shake this desire to start my own business. He started a business in the 50s with minimal resources and grew it for 50 years before it was sold in 2000. I still remember him and my father paying me less than minimum wage (at the time was $5.15ish maybe?) to sweep the floors and handle trash and pick items....I miss that building, and I really wish I was older and could have talked to him more seriously before he died.

danteembermage• 17 years ago

Mr. Rogers. The guy was amazing on so many levels; there are lots of examples but I'll go with a HN related one. He contributed valuable testimony to the betamax case.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fred_Rogers

sachinag• 17 years ago

Here's the Junod profile of Mister Rogers (it's never, ever "Mr."): http://www.thedqtimes.com/pages/castpages/other/fredrogersca...

It will make you cry.

smhinsey2• 17 years ago

Indeed it did, and I have read it many times.

apsurd• 17 years ago

Thank you for this link. I read it. It is very nice.

karzeem• 17 years ago

I'm so glad you said that, because I was primed to think only of entrepreneurs. But in many ways — especially the most important ones — Mr. Rogers is a better guide. Seriously.

This video of Mr. Rogers is a huge help if you're ever in need of a pick-me-up. I always go back to it during the occasional rough patch. Like my sibling post, I should warn that it will make you cry. But in a good way.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UcvRMHz4mb4

idlewords• 17 years ago

So glad you said that. An outstanding human being.

abi• 17 years ago

Steve Jobs. (1) He has amazing taste. (2) He did it twice.

jorgeortiz85• 17 years ago

Thrice. Twice at Apple, once at Pixar. (I'm counting NeXT as the second time at Apple. Though perhaps they should count separately.)

pplante• 17 years ago

Billy Mays because he was a brilliant salesman.

termie2• 17 years ago

the unsung heroes who don't make time for brown-nosing and fame-whoring

PStamatiou• 17 years ago

is this the same termie from back in the flock day? http://www.flickr.com/photos/foolswisdom/43145184/

termie2• 17 years ago

No, I recently resurrected this handle from my 80s BBS days.

jonnyrotten• 17 years ago

Carl Sagan.

evanreyn• 17 years ago

If you wish to make a hero from scratch, you must first invent the universe.

crystalis• 17 years ago

pg, because this is a cult. ;)

seiji• 17 years ago

Google Suggest always wants to autocomplete my searches for "site:news.ycombinator.com" as "site news.ycombinator.com pg cult." (try it yourself)

Do people actually search for the term "pg cult?"

MikeCapone12• 17 years ago

I wasn't sure if you were kidding so I tried it. It's true!

blasdel• 17 years ago

They do now!

codedivine• 17 years ago

Google never lies.

jmtame2• 17 years ago

Yukichi Fukuzawa anyone?

bokonist14• 17 years ago

His biography has been sitting on my shelf for a while, I really need to find time to read it.

jmtame2• 17 years ago

my favorite book to date

defen4• 17 years ago

Great cultural disconnect from his autobiography:

Japanese envoy: Is the sale and purchase of land in Amsterdam freely permitted?

Dutch merchant: Certainly it is free.

Envoy: Do you sell land to foreigners also?

Merchant: Yes, as long as a foreigner is willing to pay for the land, we would sell any amount of it to any person

Envoy: Then, suppose a foreigner were to put down a large sum of money to purchase a great tract of land in order to build a fortress, would you allow that too?

Merchant: We never had occasion to think of such a case. Even though there are many rich men in England and France and other countries, we do not believe any merchant would spend money on such a venture.

elbenshira• 17 years ago

Jesus, because the world would be a better place if we were more like him.

nopassrecover4• 17 years ago

I know this was probably to provoke a reaction but Jesus as I understand him was a revolutionary who pushed people to stop following the established religion and financing its greed and instead to start living a good life. In this sense he was like Martin Luther in that he envisioned decentralised religion as the ideal - moral living for the masses not blind expensive ritual controlled by the few.

But I could be completely wrong.

oldgregg• 17 years ago

I totally agree with you on all counts. Except for the moral living part. It's establishment religious types that promote moralism-- Jesus' whole point is that your good works don't do jack squat.

mahmud• 17 years ago

Who is downvoting the man for his beliefs? grow up.

netsp2• 17 years ago

Threads like this are almost a poll. I don't see why beliefs can't participate in this discussion.

bokonist14• 17 years ago

Hmmm. So imagine tomorrow everyone in the world started acting like Jesus. We all throw away our possessions, and wander around preaching to whoever would listen about being nice to each other. How long before everyone starved?

diN0bot• 17 years ago

at least we could turn the whole red sea into red wine!

araneae14• 17 years ago

Satan, because without him we would have no free will.

noblethrasher• 17 years ago

Whatever your beliefs, the mythology suggests that God gave us free will by provding for the possibility of disobeying Him.

adharmad2• 17 years ago

Ah....which Jesus? The real person about whom we know nothing or the fictitious facade that the catholic church has erected?

bokonist14• 17 years ago

Our perception of all public figures is a facade. Walter Lipman's book "Public Opinion" comes to mind:

Great men, even during their lifetime, are usually known to the public only through a fictitious personality. Hence the modicum of truth in the old saying that no man is a hero to his valet. There is only a modicum of truth, for the valet, and the private secretary, are often immersed in the fiction themselves. Royal personages are, of course, constructed personalities. Whether they themselves believe in their public character, or whether they merely permit the chamberlain to stage-manage it, there are at least two distinct selves, the public and regal self, the private and human. The biographies of great people fall more or less readily into the histories of these two selves. The official biographer reproduces the public life, the revealing memoir the other. The Charnwood Lincoln, for example, is a noble portrait, not of an actual human being, but of an epic figure, replete with significance, who moves on much the same level of reality as Aeneas or St. George. Oliver's Hamilton is a majestic abstraction, the sculpture of an idea, "an essay" as Mr. Oliver himself calls it, "on American union." It is a formal monument to the state-craft of federalism, hardly the biography of a person. Sometimes people create their own facade when they think they are revealing the interior scene. The Repington diaries and Margot Asquith's are a species of self-portraiture in which the intimate detail is most revealing as an index of how the authors like to think about themselves. (source: http://xroads.virginia.edu/~Hyper/Lippman/ch01.html )

nsoonhui• 17 years ago

Albert Einstein. The greatest scientist ever lived.

nopassrecover4• 17 years ago

Thomas Jefferson.

A man who saw the world as it could be and did everything he could to get it there.

Ras_• 17 years ago

Alexander Hamilton: The Man who enabled Jefferson's Louisiana Purchase with his shrewd policies (like debt assumption - cool economic hack) as Secretary of the Treasury. Federalist Papers are/were invaluable too.

Bonus point for not having a mausoleum, library or any other grand memorial as a monument to him.

jballanc2• 17 years ago

...though he does have an entire Manhattan neighborhood named after him!

tomjen23• 17 years ago

Also exceptionally brilliant.

nopassrecover4• 17 years ago

Definitely. He's someone I aspire to.

Eliezer4• 17 years ago

Leo Szilard. Had the idea for fission chain reaction, realized what would happen if Hitler got hold of it, and kept his mouth shut... while browbeating the skeptical Fermi into starting the Manhattan Project, and ghostwriting Einstein's letter to Roosevelt.

Right up there with Norman Borlaug and Stanislav Petrov on the list of people you've never heard of because CNN is too busy covering Michael Jackson.

dfranke5• 17 years ago

I'll stick with Borlaug. I know singing his praise has become slightly cliched on this forum, but he very objectively deserves it. He's done more for humanity than anyone since whoever it was that discovered how to make fire.

antiismist• 17 years ago

Is the Hitler story true? Wikipedia says that he got the idea in London, where he filed a patent (!) for the fission chain reaction.

Here's the link to his patent, btw: http://v3.espacenet.com/publicationDetails/biblio?CC=GB&...

Eliezer4• 17 years ago

I think he filed the patent and then got the patent classified.

psawaya2• 17 years ago

So happy to see him mentioned - I recently read a collection of his short stories (The Voice of the Dolphins) and highly recommend it. His writing is somewhat dry, but really gives you a perspective on how people thought during the cold war era.

FraaJad• 17 years ago

Benjamin Franklin.

bokonist14• 17 years ago

Deng Xiaoping. In the pure utilitarian sense, he may have had the greatest positive impact of any person in the 20th century. In a century wracked by war between the ideologies, his philosophy was just the tonic the world needed: "Who cares if the mouse is black or white, as long it catches the mouse".

tokenadult• 17 years ago

I'd give Chiang Ching-kuo the credit for preceding Deng in that point of view.

cowmoo2• 17 years ago

"Don't care if the cat is a black cat or a white cat, as long as it catches the mouse, it's a good cat."

Basically for those who are interested in the background of the quote, Deng arose to power at the end of the Cultural Revolution, at the height of Chinese communism ideology when the government was so communist that they broke away from the Soviet's and accused of USSR as "revisionist"; destroyed all of the Buddhist temples in China as "backwards and Confucius," imprisoned the sons and daughters of former capitalists (because there were no current one's left) for being "Western corrupution," and stripped intellectual's of their post in Universities and forced them to "country-side re-education camps" for being "radical leftists against communism." Before he rose to power, Deng himself was denounced and stripped of his political post, and sent down for "re-education."

In little as four or five years, in that kind of environment, Deng has reformed the former Chinese market-command economy to become more capitalistic. Liberalized the political and free-speech in China, that allowed for media/film/journalism criticize the Chinese Communist party which eventually led to the Tienanmen Incident. Deng, confronted tremendous criticism and resistance from the hardliners of the Community party when he tried enact his reform. He used this quote about "black cat" or "white cat" in a speech he delivered to the political cadres to persuade them to be a bit more pragmatic and less ideological about their communism, after 43 million people have died from Great Leap Forward and the Culture Revolution. It was also Deng who eventually issued the order to strike down the student protesters in Tienanmen.

This ambivalent character of Deng, of balancing liberalization versus stability has become a hallmark quality of the Chinese government. See how the Chinese government encourages citizens towards private asset ownership and entrepreneurship, but not towards democratic representation. See how the Chinese government agrees in principle to a Korea/Iran nuke disarmament, but they are more so wary of the stability of Korea/Iran region in the event of a international escalation - that they block the UN Security Council sanctions. Whether the current Chinese/Russian model of free markets but central strong political oligarchy without an ideological emphasis, versus the American model of free markets and free democracy with a strong ideology (leader of the free world), the viability of either models remains to be seem.

chrischen12• 17 years ago

> he viability of either models remains to be seem.

I think it's safe to say that any model which encourages individual freedoms would be superior. And the reason relates to my beliefs in self-education vs school education. It's more efficient if people do what they want. So even an oligarchy with an emphasis on practical results will still be less efficient than individual people managing themselves freely.

johnnybgoode18• 17 years ago

Thanks for the informative post. I do have one quibble though:

> Whether the current Chinese/Russian model of free markets but central strong political oligarchy without an ideological emphasis, versus the American model of free markets and free democracy with a strong ideology (leader of the free world), the viability of either models remains to be seem.

Neither of these models can accurately be described as consisting of "free markets". All three governments you mention exercise total control over their respective territories.

philwelch9• 17 years ago

He was also responsible for the Tiananmen Square massacre. Even as communist regimes were falling around the world, he ordered tanks and troops to gun people down for wanting reform in China, extinguishing any hope for civil or human rights in China for decades to come.

bokonist14• 17 years ago

China has continued to become much more free since 1989. The comparison with Russia or the East European states is particular interesting, because China's growth rates have been much better.

As for Tienanmen, every single mob revolution in the history of the world has caused far more deaths than the number of people who died at Tienanmen. Imagine how many millions of lives would have been saved if Louis the XVI had acted in the same way as Deng. The Chinese government did the right thing in putting in forcefully dispersing the mob. Any government, when faced with a armed, violent rebellion, needs to put it down. Revolutions and civil wars are the worse than any government. (And yes, the protesters had weapons: http://www.amazon.com/gp/reader/0385482329/ref=sib_dp_srch_p... )

donaq• 17 years ago

Joss Whedon.

Because damn, Buffy was a brilliant show.

clofresh• 17 years ago

don't forget about Firefly

araneae14• 17 years ago

and Dr. Horrible

ojbyrne2• 17 years ago

Isaac Newton - Newton's Laws, Theory of Gravity _and_ Calculus.

and

William Shakespeare - basically invented modern english.

MikeCapone12• 17 years ago

A few off the top of my head (most are self-explanatory):

Charles Darwin, Richard P. Feynman, J. Robert Oppenheimer, John Von Neuman, Paul Erdos, Alan Turing, Albert Einstein, Benjamin Franklin, Richard Dawkins, Carl Sagan, Thomas Jefferson, Aubrey de Grey, Eliezer Yudkowsky, Douglas R. Hofstadter

araneae14• 17 years ago

Aubrey de Grey? You mean the crazy dude that tells people we're going to live forever without any evidence to support his claims?

And Hofstadter, the guy who wrote that really dumb book? (Here I admit that I only read the introduction before being disgusted by his treatment with concept of things which are self referential. It's kind of a noob outlook to find something mind boogling about the fact that a mind can contemplate itself.)

Pity, because the rest of your list is pretty damn classy. Those two are pretty weird additions.

dfranke5• 17 years ago

I find it a little odd that you think Aubrey de Grey is crazy but Eliezer Yudkowsky isn't, given that EY is a vocal supporter of de Grey's research and claims that we'll live forever for considerably more speculative reasons than any that de Grey asserts. Any explanation of the distinction other than that EY is probably reading this comment and that de Grey probably isn't?

MikeCapone12• 17 years ago

> Aubrey de Grey? You mean the crazy dude that tells people we're going to live forever without any evidence to support his claims?

That's not what he claims. You have apparently only heard the soundbites. All the details of his proposals are in his book (check Amazon). After reading it, I happen to think that his engineering approach is brilliant compared to the traditional gerontological approach. Periodically repairing the damage (of which there are only 7 types) before it accumulates enough to create pathologies is much smarter than trying to learn how to cure all pathologies, or trying to fiddle with metabolism. For a quick overview, you can google his TED talk (but it's a bit old and doesn't contain much biology).

>And Hofstadter, the guy who wrote that really dumb book? (Here I admit that I only read the introduction

Once again, you seem to be commenting on something that you don't know much about. I'll admit I like Hofstadter more for who he is and how he writes, not for a specific idea or achievement, but GEB definitely isn't "dumb".

Eliezer4• 17 years ago

> And Hofstadter, the guy who wrote that really dumb book? (Here I admit that I only read the introduction

...perhaps you should try reading the rest of the book.

> It's kind of a noob outlook to find something mind boogling about the fact that a mind can contemplate itself.)

Do you have a photo? Because if there's a Wikipedia article about how a fake blase-sophisticated seen-it-all-before pose of superiority can suck all the joy out of life, it should show your photo.

uuilly2• 17 years ago

Winston Churchill. Saved western civilization.

gloob• 17 years ago

Saved western civilization.

From western civilization.

Other than that, I pretty much agree with you.

uuilly2• 17 years ago

I admire him for saving it. Whether he saved it from a rouge element of fringe western civilization (most of Germany not being part of the Roman Empire,) or the Muffin Man doesn't take away from his accomplishment.

fjabre• 17 years ago

Elon Musk

slyn• 17 years ago

David Chappelle

I hate that he has faded so much from the public eye. If you've never seen Dave Chappelle's Block Party get it and watch it, whether you enjoy hip-hop or not. If you've seen that and are otherwise interested his Inside the Actors Studio interview is pretty solid too.

He is basically the type of role model I wish I could be someday.

vinutheraj• 17 years ago

I like Chris Rock, I like it that he is frank and forthcoming and always thinks a lot about what he says, whatever he says is logical and makes sense, sometimes you get inspired by watching his shows, especially with all the crowd !

Try Bigger and Blacker and Bring the Pain, two of the funniest shows I have ever seen !

rms• 17 years ago

Has his original script for Half Baked ever been released?

yesimahuman• 17 years ago

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.

projectileboy• 17 years ago

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/

r11t2• 17 years ago

Carmack definitely has a place in my mind as one of the greatest hackers ever. I was kind of bummed that he did not respond to the interview request for the "Coders at Work" book. However, the "Masters of Doom" book offered a fun insight into his early hacking adventures!

smhinsey2• 17 years ago

Richard Feynman, because he showed me through his writing that we all, no matter our backgrounds, can be enthralled by the mysteries that surround us.

araneae14• 17 years ago

And that through charisma, you can become more famous than physicists that do better physics than you.

adharmad2• 17 years ago

Any examples?

marknutter2• 17 years ago

This is probably the most irritating comment I've seen on HN so far. Boo.

Confusion• 17 years ago

What is the point of this remark? Feynman was brilliant and deserved that Nobel as much as Gell-Mann. The difference is that Feynman was also inspiring, while the Gell-Mann perhaps deserved a second Nobel. That's plenty of reason to admire the first and not the latter.

netsp2• 17 years ago

Literary:

    george orwell
    douglas adams 
    leonard cohen

eam2• 17 years ago

John Resig.

harto• 17 years ago

In what way does he inspire you, though?

eam2• 17 years ago

In so many ways. Starting with the dedication he has for his work.

platshaw• 17 years ago

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.

jjs• 17 years ago

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.

nsfx• 17 years ago

Henry Rollins.

Creative, productive, knowledgeable, and funny.

psawaya2• 17 years ago

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

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

fuzzmeister• 17 years ago

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

byrneseyeview• 17 years ago

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.

jobenjo• 17 years ago

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.

thismat6• 17 years ago

Bill Watterson had an ability to capture such emotion and life like expression with a small 2d comic strip like no other comic or graphic I've ever seen.

The guy was amazing, and I love that he lives as a recluse in a town that won't give him up to the media either. In fact, not many people even know what he looks like anymore from what I've read.

The never selling out part is also awesome. He refused to allow even one Hobbes stuffed tiger to be made because it would devalue his character...simply amazing, he really did it for the art.

pfedor• 17 years ago

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.

cowmoo2• 17 years ago

When I'm sixty five, I'll be playing WoW and listening to the nostalgic popular records of my day, from fine artists such as Soulja Boy Tell 'Em and T-Pain.

dylanz• 17 years ago

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

maxharris2• 17 years ago

Ayn Rand, for her development of Aristotelian philosophy (normative ethics, hierarchical nature of knowledge, theory of concept formation)

philwelch9• 17 years ago

From the guidelines:

"Please avoid introducing classic flamewar topics unless you have something genuinely new to say about them."

maxharris2• 17 years ago

The question was "Whom do you admire most?", which I answered honestly.

theashworld• 17 years ago

Gandhi. For being fearless _and_ inspiring an entire country to be fearless without a single weapon in hand. Think about it, it's nothing short of a miracle.

bokonist14• 17 years ago

Gandhi is not the man you think he is: http://history.eserver.org/ghandi-nobody-knows.txt

ajju4• 17 years ago

I am an ardent critic of Gandhi, and many of those criticisms of Gandhi are worth considering and outside of private discussions, rarely brought up in India.

However, for an article that criticizes Gandhi for being racist, the author has some nerve saying:

"Throughout his entire life Gandhi displayed the most spectacular inability to understand or even really take in people unlike himself--a trait which V.S. Naipaul considers specifically Hindu, and I am inclined to agree."

Edit: The article is also not without glaring inaccuracies. For example, the author claims that Gandhi supported Subhash Chandra Bose's Indian National Army. Nothing could be further from the truth. The only reason Subhash Chandra Bose even quit the Indian National Congress was because Gandhi had him kicked out because of ideological differences.

grandalf• 17 years ago

I'm sure the authors put as much effort into the conspiracy theory as they did the spelling of his name.

sdave• 17 years ago

My Dad. because of the person he is & i want to be. Steve Wozniak.because of the engineer he is & i want to be.

rv77ax• 17 years ago

homer simpsons. i know, i know, his totally a jerk, but i wish i could spend just one day with him.

davidw• 17 years ago

The guys who did the moon landings. What an amazing display of engineering and courage.

MikeHawk2• 17 years ago

They don't make guys like that anymore...

Eliezer4• 17 years ago

[Citation needed.]

marknutter2• 17 years ago

Truly they were film making visionaries.

derwiki• 17 years ago

Craig Newmark for being truly a nerd, yet having an enormous impact on society. He spoke at my undergrad commencement (also his alma mater), and what really hit me from his speech was, wow, you WERE an engineering nerd just like all the rest of us.

He inspires me because through his great success, he's remained extremely humble and down to earth. It really seems like he just wants to keep his site going as a public service. They donate a large portion of their income to charity as is.. if only all public services could be run as well that they GIVE extra money away!

spectre• 17 years ago

Edmund Hillary. For using his fame only to help people, and always being humble.

r11t2• 17 years ago

Fravia for creating http://searchlores.org/ and inspiring me and I bet countless other seekers/hackers/reverse engineers. His website has articles on everything from "reality cracking" to searching the deeper web. His recent death saddened me deeply but I hope that his website will hopefully taken over by someone who will continue updating it.

keeptrying• 17 years ago

Richard Feynman. For his boundless curiosity and his ability to convey that love of finding things out and making things to others.

ajju4• 17 years ago

Feynman, Einstein, Jiddu Krishnamoorthy, Sardar Patel, Steve Jobs, Benjamin Franklin..

drawkbox2• 17 years ago

Nikola Tesla

adi_muresan• 17 years ago

Indeed, the guy was really a genius. He pushed the whole of humanity towards using alternate current and it saddens me to see that he didn't (and still doesn't) get the credit he deserves. In my mind he's the only true genius.

drawkbox2• 17 years ago

He was one in at least 20 billion.

chrischen12• 17 years ago

Albert Einstein - for being different and being the smartest person who ever lived.

hop2• 17 years ago

Warren Buffett, Steve Jobs, Henry Ford, Carnegie, Phil Knight, Steve Fosset...

The founders - Thomas Jefferson, Ben Franklin, Washington - the world owes them a debt of gratitude.

Ernest Shackleton, Pat Tillman, Chuck Darwin, (politics aside)Barack Obama, Samuel Clemens, Einstein, Micheal Jordan, Bob Dylan, The Beatles, Emerson, Jon Stuart, Ron Paul, MacGyver, Elon Musk, Hugh Hefner, Tiger Woods, Feynman, Socrates, Lewis & Clark, my mother. (don't mind the order)

Funny, I think all of these people, except my mother, are athiest/agnostic, goes to show you...

jibiki• 17 years ago

> Funny, I think all of these people are athiest/agnostic, goes to show you...

Why do you think that? Dylan famously converted to Christianity, BHO is a long time churchgoer, and Ron Paul is supposedly a creationist Christian. I don't really know about the others (obviously Einstein had a lot to say about god and dice and so on, but that hardly makes him a believer...)

hop2• 17 years ago

Oh yes, overlooked Ron Paul, Obama too, as religious people. Jury is out on Einstein, hes has made comments both ways. I'm probably wrong about a few others too.

And for some reason I wrote Steve Fossett when I meant Richard Branson.

Long day. Thanks.

arethuza• 17 years ago

"if I am in the devil of a hole and want to get out of it, give me Shackleton every time"

bayareaguy2• 17 years ago

The folks who've lead the development and improvement of Unix over the years: dmr, bwk, jkh, tdr, cgd, ...

basugasubaku• 17 years ago

Who are the last three and did you intentionally omit Ken Thompson?

bayareaguy2• 17 years ago

The last are a few folks behind *BSD (FreeBSD, OpenBSD, NetBSD) whose logins/monikers I happened to recall. I only omitted Ken (and others too numerous to mention) mainly because I've not had the pleasure of corresponding with him.

xor_• 17 years ago

Donald Knuth needs no introductions.

maxklein• 17 years ago

Arnold Schwarzenneger. The dedication required to make it as an immigrant from nothing to the stage he currently is at is nothing short of amazing.

bootload• 17 years ago

people like "shooter" who stay positive & contribute even in the face of adversity ~ http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=868325 & http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=867623

ismarc• 17 years ago

Immanuel Kant, if nothing more than realizing he was wrong and spending over 10 years trying to discover what may be right.

gritzko• 17 years ago

Carl Gustaf Emil von Mannerheim; the guy who rocked

brg• 17 years ago

In the 20th Century, John VonNeumann. He was a hacker through and through. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_von_Neumann

covercash• 17 years ago

Dean Kamen. So much more than the Segway.

tjmc• 17 years ago

Burt Rutan - the Ruth/Gretzky/Bradman of aviation engineering

snitko• 17 years ago

I like George Carlin, but I do not admire him. I called that name here, because currently he gets a lot of my attention (haven't seen all of his performances yet). I find Carlin views very close to mine and admire professionalism and desire to work hard on his job.

But I don't think we should admire people, especially for a long time in our lives. I guess, it's like "liking -> falling in love -> peaceful loving or forgetting (if it didn't work)". I think it's healthy to find things you don't like in the person you admire and enjoy accepting them as is and gain understanding of your own views this way. I guess this would be the way you build your own personality.

abrahamsen• 17 years ago

Doug McIlroy

http://www.cs.dartmouth.edu/~sinclair/doug/?doug=mcilroy

cromulent• 17 years ago

Teddy Roosevelt. They don't make presidents like that anymore, in any country.

Also my buddy, who, whilst being induced into the Catholic confirmation process whilst in primary school, refused, saying that "I'm not convinced. It sounds like some sort of cult". I wish I had been so self-confident (not that being confirmed hurt me).

nick007• 17 years ago

Ralph Nader... he's one of the great American patriots

replicatorblog• 17 years ago

Walt Disney doesn't get the credit he deserves as an innovator and entrepreneur. His legacy has been tarnished a bit my the hyper-consumerism that the Disney company is famous for. That said he:

1. Invented the feature length animated movie. A multi-billion dollar business that paved the way for Pixar, Aardman, and all the other great creators we admire in that industry.

2. Invented the modern theme park. The "Second Life" of 1955! This is another massive multi-billion dollar business. It is also impressive in its technical scope employing physicists, pyrotechnic folks, and a bunch of roboticists who work on the audio-animatronic robots.

3. The Disney "Imagineering" crew is probably one of the most interesting interdisciplinary groups around combining nearly every kind of engineer with every kind of artist to create amazing things on an ongoing basis.

4. Before he died he was applying his ideas on art and technology to urban planning. Not in the way you would expect (e.g. No mouse ears), but marrying ideas of "New Urbanism" with technological futurism to rethink how we live and work.

His story is also a classic one of entrepreneurial striving, failure, and an unwillingness to give up. Check out this book for more inspiration:

http://www.amazon.com/Walt-Disney-Triumph-American-Imaginati...

tomjen23• 17 years ago

George Washington.

The one of two people in all of history I know of who truely didn't want power.

After the war the British Monarch asked what Washington wanted to do; he was then informed that he planed to return to his farm (which he did) upon which the king commented that if he did that he would be the greatest man in the world.

You have to be some person to get your greatest enemy to say that you are the greatest man in the world.

seanstickle• 17 years ago

The other person being, presumably, Cincinnatus?

tomjen23• 17 years ago

Yes.

edw519• 17 years ago

My grandfathers.

Both left eastern Europe, alone, as teenagers, to come to the U.S., knowing that they would never see their birthplace again, and that they probably would never see most of their relatives again. They did this because they knew they had much better chance for a better life, for themselves and for their unknown children and grandchildren.

Every time things get tough, I remind myself, "They came here for me," and then my challenges seem awfully small.

MikeHawk2• 17 years ago

Noam Chomksy.

nahumfarchi• 17 years ago

Leonardo da Vinci because he didn't limit himself to the art/science divide.

jlees• 17 years ago

Emmeline Pankhurst, because without her activities, and their effect on society, I would never have had the chance to achieve what I have. Also my grandmother; entrepreneur, politician and pillar of her local society.

(I felt this list needed more oestrogen, though both of the above are completely genuine. I'd add Thatcher, but I don't think I could survive the pitchforks - nevertheless, I do admire what she achieved.)

jacquesm• 17 years ago

Eckart Wintzen

http://extent.nl/about-eckart/

Unfortunately he's no longer.

chanux• 17 years ago

The Woz for being the hacker he is and being different from other Steve.(I'm not sure. Few people came in mind, RMS, Linus, My friend geekaholic, But Woz was strong.)

niks• 17 years ago

George Foreman....because without him I'd have to use my barbecue ALL the time

david927• 17 years ago

Alan Kay, for constantly inventing the future.

hegemonicon• 17 years ago

Marcus Aurelius - relentless in his quest for self perfection even while ruling one of the most powerful empires in the world.

DanielBMarkham6• 17 years ago

This reminds me of George Washington's words: Whatever you do, please don't build a monument for me. I'm happy just serving.

So what did they do? Built a huge freaking stone phallus in the middle of the nation's capital.

I admire a lot of people. Too many to try to narrow it down. The difficult part about choosing one is that you're always looking at relative progress. At the end of the day, doing something admirable means measuring the delta between what most people like you accomplished and what you accomplished. That means that famous president with a big monument probably isn't as impressive as poor, uneducated grandfather who did something to make a lot of people's lives' better.

But I think you measure greatness in making people's lives better in the long run. So if I don't have candidates, I definitely have the metric.

Ask HN: Whom do you admire most?

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