Ask HN: Whom do you admire most?

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.<p><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fred_Rogers" rel="nofollow">http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fred_Rogers</a>

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.<p>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.

Bill Watterson (creator of Calvin and Hobbes).<p>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.

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.

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

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.<p>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!

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.

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:<p>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.<p>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.<p>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.<p>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.<p>His story is also a classic one of entrepreneurial striving, failure, and an unwillingness to give up. Check out this book for more inspiration:<p><a href="http://www.amazon.com/Walt-Disney-Triumph-American-Imagination/dp/0679757473/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&#38;s=books&#38;qid=1254997213&#38;sr=8-1" rel="nofollow">http://www.amazon.com/Walt-Disney-Triumph-American-Imaginati...</a>

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

David Chappelle<p>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.<p>He is basically the type of role model I wish I could be someday.

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

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

Thomas Jefferson.<p>A man who saw the world as it could be and did everything he could to get it there.

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

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".

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

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

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.

Joss Whedon.<p>Because damn, Buffy was a brilliant show.

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

Albert Einstein. The greatest scientist ever lived.

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

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.

people like <i>"shooter"</i> who stay positive &#38; contribute even in the face of adversity ~ <a href="http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=868325" rel="nofollow">http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=868325</a> &#38; <a href="http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=867623" rel="nofollow">http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=867623</a>

In the 20th Century, John VonNeumann. He was a hacker through and through. <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_von_Neumann" rel="nofollow">http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_von_Neumann</a>

Warren Buffett, Steve Jobs, Henry Ford, Carnegie, Phil Knight, Steve Fosset...<p>The founders - Thomas Jefferson, Ben Franklin, Washington - the world owes them a debt of gratitude.<p>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 &#38; Clark, my mother. (don't mind the order)<p>Funny, I think all of these people, except my mother, are athiest/agnostic, goes to show you...

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.)

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

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

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.)<p>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: <a href="http://www.amazon.com/Cantors-Dilemma-Novel-Carl-Djerassi/dp/0140143599/" rel="nofollow">http://www.amazon.com/Cantors-Dilemma-Novel-Carl-Djerassi/dp...</a><p>Think about it. He was sixty five. What will you be doing that age.

pg, because this is a cult. ;)

Carl Sagan.

This reminds me of George Washington's words: Whatever you do, please don't build a monument for me. I'm happy just serving.<p>So what did they do? Built a huge freaking stone phallus in the middle of the nation's capital.<p>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 <i>relative</i> 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.<p>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.

I like George Carlin, but I do not admire him. I called that name here, because <i>currently</i> 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.<p>But I don't think we should admire people, especially for a long time in our lives. I guess, it's like "liking -&#62; falling in love -&#62; 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.

Isaac Newton - Newton's Laws, Theory of Gravity _and_ Calculus.<p>and<p>William Shakespeare - basically invented modern english.

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

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.<p>(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 <i>do</i> admire what she achieved.)

Fravia for creating <a href="http://searchlores.org/" rel="nofollow">http://searchlores.org/</a> 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.

Winston Churchill. Saved western civilization.

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

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

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

Yukichi Fukuzawa anyone?

Dean Kamen. So much more than the Segway.

John Resig.

Albert Einstein - for being different and being the smartest <i>person</i> who ever lived.

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

Literary:<p><pre><code> george orwell douglas adams leonard cohen</code></pre>

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.

Doug McIlroy<p><a href="http://www.cs.dartmouth.edu/~sinclair/doug/?doug=mcilroy" rel="nofollow">http://www.cs.dartmouth.edu/~sinclair/doug/?doug=mcilroy</a>

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

Benjamin Franklin.

My Dad. because of the person he is &#38; i want to be. Steve Wozniak.because of the engineer he is &#38; i want to be.

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.

Eckart Wintzen<p><a href="http://extent.nl/about-eckart/" rel="nofollow">http://extent.nl/about-eckart/</a><p>Unfortunately he's no longer.

Donald Knuth needs no introductions.

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

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

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

Elon Musk

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

Carl Gustaf Emil von Mannerheim; the guy who rocked

Billy Mays because he was a brilliant salesman.

Alan Kay, for constantly inventing the future.

Henry Rollins.<p>Creative, productive, knowledgeable, and funny.

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

Noam Chomksy.

Nikola Tesla

George Washington.<p>The one of two people in all of history I know of who truely didn't want power.<p>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.<p>You have to be some person to get your greatest enemy to say that you are the greatest man in the world.

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