8 ms·

Some Heroes

116 points by mqt 19y ago

wauter 18y ago
Great read! For the same reason as Paul (i.e. it's fun) I'll put my own list here. Apart from the interesting fact that Paul is actually on - my - list (since long before I read this essay, really), so are some of his heroes so I guess that makes 'heroic devotion' transitive or heritable or whatever. In descending order of admiration: Isaac Newton - apart from more or less inventing modern physics (he's up there with Maxwell and Einstein in my physics heroes top 3), he found he couldn't solve the fundamental equations he discovered, so he kinda invented modern maths to help with that. Sweet. As for my maths heroes top 3, that's completed with Gauss and Laplace because they did similar things but in a less earth-shattering way. After all it can happen only once to discover mechanics, gravity, the most powerful series around or differential calculus (but who'd have thought it'd be the same guy!). Noel Gallagher, Paul McCartney - they are realllly smart and creative guys, and instead of caring too much about politics and the likes they just wrote a big pile of Shockingly Good Songs. They had a direct influence in me getting into music (songwriting), and not a month goes by without me fantasizing about becoming famous enough to meet Noel somewhere backstage and chat with him over a beer. In fact, more chance of meeting Noel - together with "playing at nicer venues" - is a big part of why fame in music attracts me. The top 3 is completed by Steve Jobs (really) for similar reasons. Another big reason of why fame attracts me stems from my next hero... Bill Gates - he did not only cofound, ran and drove the software company that makes/made the best products in the world or that understands 'software' orders of magnitude better than anybody else ("it's usability, stupid"), he also now spends his days using his fortune, fame and brains to really try to make this world a better place. I cannot express in words how much I admire both facets of his life and if there's one answer to "if you could choose, where would you want to be in 20 years?" for me the answer is to be like Bill Gates, having made it big and using that to try and make the world a better place. I admire Bono, Warren Buffet and John Lennon for the same reason and very often find myself passionately defending all of these guys to others who slack them for sheer fame (at least that's why I think it is). Joel & Paul - not only did they do A Really Good Job in software business themselves, they also are an ongoing source of inspiration for me and others because they write so well about it. Hacking by itself is not my passion, but somehow every other facet about software development/business is, and that's in large part because of the writings of these guys. Again, there's really a top 3 and it's completed by "all the others" (Stevey, Guy Kawasaki, the Rands, etc...). By the way: I am a music-playing phycisist/mathematician working on software most of the time, as one might have guessed :-) W.
hualibaobao 18y ago
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maturski 18y ago
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- maturski 18y ago
  We do Creating all kinds of works: * Graduation works * Seminars * Essays Photoshop pictures processing photos, business card . .. www.maturskiradovi.net
WATUPWITYOU 18y ago
THESE ARE NOT DANNYS THEY ARE SUPER HEROS INSTED OF DANNYS AND HOW DO I FIND DANNYS YOU RETARDS IV BEEN LOOKINK TO FIND THEM ALL OVER THE PLACE
WATUPWITYOU 18y ago
I WANT TO BE A SUPER HERO BUT I WANT TO FLY IN THE AIR BUT I DON'T THINK THAT NOT 1 PERSON CAN FLY IN THE WORLD AND IF I BE A SUPER HERO IF MY PARENTS GOT IN DANGER AND EVEN IF MY SISTER GOT IN DANGER I WOULD BE THERE IN A HEART BRAKER AND IF I GOT IN DANGER I KNOW MY PARENTS OR MY SISTER WOULD BE THERE IN A HEART BREAKER!! MY MOM THINKS I HATE HER BUT IF SHE SEES THIS THEN SHE WILL KNOW THAT ALL OF THAT IS NOT TRUE AT ALL BECAUSE I LUV MY MOM WITH ALL OF MY HAERT
- WATUPWITYOU 18y ago
  ... AND WHEN YOU GET ON HERE PLEASE WRITE BACK INSTEAD OF SAYING IT TO MY FACE BECAUSE SOME TIMES OTHER PEOPLE THINK IM SOMBODY ELSES DAUGHTER
WATUPWITYOU 18y ago
DID ANY OF YOU ALL WATCH THE MOVIE CALLED BRING IT ON
WATUPWITYOU 18y ago
I LOVE MY MOM WITH ALL OF MY HEART AND I KNOW THAT SHE LOVES ME WITH ALL OF HER HEART AND I LOVE MY SISTER WITH ALL OF MY HEART AND I KNOW SHE LOVES ME WITH ALL OF HER HEART AND SHHE WOULD NEVER LET ANYTHING HAPPEN TO ME AND IF ANYTHING EVER DOES HAPPEN TO ME I KNOW THAT SHE WOULD KILL THE PERSON THAT MESES WIT ME
Alex3917 19y ago
"I used to read a lot of novels when I was younger. I can't read most anymore, because they don't have enough information in them." This is a good one to add to the list of things not to say on a first date. And if it does somehow come up, at least have enough sense not to follow it with "I also don't read biographies/memoirs because I consider them fiction." /Don't ask
- astine 19y ago
  I'm asking ;D
- danohuiginn 19y ago
  You think? Sounds pretty good to me - provided you're able to listen to your date explaining why s/he _does_ like novels, and to convey something of the joy you get from reading non-fiction. But then I have a fairly naive concept of a date as a (potential) meeting of minds, rather than a PR exercise.
- mrtron 19y ago
  Actually I also rejected fiction after university, I find I don't have that much time to sit and read so why bother with fiction. I was a ridiculously avid reader of fiction and I wish that I had of read science books instead of re-reading the Hardy Boys (original series and some of the casefiles). I do read some biographies/memoirs though :P
- jsomers 19y ago
  This was the only part of the essay that irked me. Bad writing in general has a low information density; the problem is not exclusive to fiction. It doesn't help that information is embedded structurally in a novel, which makes it harder to tease out. But good fiction (say, Ulysses or Crime and Punishment or Nine Stories) is as rich as any essay or monograph. It's also not clear that density, in the strict sense, is what I'm after when I read. If so I'd be buried in technical papers, when what I really want is something to tickle my brain; to that end, I wouldn't want to lose any one of arXiv, the Engineering library, or the literature section at Borders.
- mynameishere 19y ago
jwp 19y ago
Kevin Garnett plays exactly the same way that you describe Jack Lambert. He goes only one speed: full blast. Whenever I need motiviation, I find myself asking myself, wwkgd?
nonrecursive 19y ago
One of my heroes: O Sensei, Morihei Ueshiba. He definitely cared excessively about his "work", and was absolutely honest. He invented aikido, the "art of peace", whose broad purpose is to "make human beings one family." Here's a decent video of him: http://youtube.com/watch?v=0XTlWDOQBno&feature=related http://youtube.com/watch?v=0XTlWDOQBno&feature=related
- bloch 19y ago
  Watch the attack at 3:53. It is pretty easy being a martial legend if your students attack like that.
  - nonrecursive 18y ago
    What was the point of this comment? I was saying that he's one of my heroes and pointed out that, incidentally, he fit some of pg's criteria as well. I also pointed out one of his major accomplishments. I didn't mention anything about him being a "martial legend." If you could explain how your comment relates to anything I mentioned or to the subject of "personal heroes" I'd greatly appreciate it. To address the actual content of your comment, though - no, it takes more than "the attack at 3:53" to be a martial legend. As it happens, he spent virtually his entire life practicing martial arts, and a number of other prominent Japanese martial artists attested to his ability during his lifetime. I encourage you to learn more about him and about aikido. You might still come away thinking "Yeah whatever, the only reason anyone thought anything of him was because he had cowering tools for students", but at least you'll have more evidence for it then a short portion of some youtube video.
deleted 19y ago
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edw519 19y ago
My favorite Jack Lambert story: 1977 Pro Bowl. AFC defense - 8 Pittsburgh Steelers and 3 players from other teams on the field at the same time. Jack Lambert, the middle linebacker and captain, was calling out defensive signals using the Steelers' proprietary lingo. One of the other players asked, "What should we do?" Lambert replied, "Stay out of our way." Second favorite Jack Lambert story: When accused by a referee of biting another player in the finger, Lambert said, "I didn't bite his finger and I can prove it." "How?" the referee asked. "He's still got it, doesn't he?" One of the best teams ever with one of the best players ever. And no one "danced" after making a great play. They just did a great job and acted as if they had done that job before and intended to do it again. Man, how I miss that. Thanks for the memories, pg.
- marrone 19y ago
  yeah, I thought it was a cool to find a football player on that list, and a Steeler as well
zach 19y ago
Fun to read. I recently found this quote from a contemporary author: “Jane Austen writes about people with desperately restricted lives codified by iron rules. The first thing she does is to choose a genre, the romantic novel, which is exactly the kind of book those women would read if they were reading books.” That illustrates to me a unique approach, where even the genre of the work itself serves the overall message and theme of the work. And let me put in a word for Walt Disney, who I totally dismissed until I read about him. The parallels between his personality and that of Steve Jobs are fascinating.
pius 19y ago
Where in Pittsburgh did you grow up, PG?
- pg 19y ago
  http://maps.google.com/maps?f=q&hl=en&geocode=&q=109+kelvington+dr+monroeville+pa+15146&sll=37.0625,-95.677068&sspn=53.035373,60.46875&ie=UTF8&t=h&ll=40.401075,-79.75739&spn=0.402632,0.472412&z=11 http://maps.google.com/maps?f=q&hl=en&geocode=&q...
  - deleted 19y ago
    [deleted]
  - pius 19y ago
    Ah, cool. I went to elementary school about 10 zip codes away. :)
  - jfornear 19y ago
    Only a Steeler fan would include a Steeler player in their list of heroes. My dad is from Upper St. Clair... Steeler fans are nuts... Go Cowboys :)
    - pius 19y ago
      Yes. Yes we are. :D
  - mynameishere 19y ago
    Ugh. Monroeville. Come for the Sam's Club. Stay for the Popeye's.
    - pg 19y ago
      Yeah, the place was a kind of worst-case scenario for strip development. In my time the big draw was Monroeville Mall, the biggest in the country at the time of its construction (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Monroeville_Mall http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Monroeville_Mall). The one good part, for a kid, was that a lot of the land was too hilly to build on, and was left as forest.
henning 19y ago
Another list: Gary Gordon, Randy Shughart, the Finnish anti-armor teams in the mostly-forgotten Winter War against the Soviets (> 80% casualties), and the 300 Spartans who held off the Persians at Thermopylae.
lux 19y ago
From my limited understanding of art interpretation, in earlier times art was seen somewhat as an attempt to understand or mimic the world around them in order to understand it better. Now we tend to value creativity as a more important quality, but in doing so we sacrifice a degree of sincerity or even nobility that curiosity and mimicry have. All of these heroes share a creative quality, but in a more classical sense. They are true to themselves and their art, but they probably intuited that their art is as much or more about discovery than anything else. Maybe that's the key to making the leap from artistic commoner to greatness... I've totally been looking for a good intro to art history recently (my friend's textbook just doesn't look that appealing...), so thanks for the recommendation! Anyone recommend a good starting point for diving into Wodehouse too? :)
- wanorris 19y ago
  I've heard it argued pretty convincingly that the birth of photography is the root cause of the death of mimesis in art.
  - yters 19y ago
    In what way? Was mimesis about modeling physical appearance or understanding the underlying principles? I can see how photography is a shortcut for the former, but it seems worse for the latter.
- jsackmann 19y ago
  I've read about a dozen Wodehouse novels, and have yet to be disappointed by any of them. Some characters and some jokes are better than others, but I think you can pick one off the shelf at random and you'll be happy you did. The one that comes to mind is "Leave it to Psmith," but not because it was necessarily such a standout book, but because of one line (concerning the name Psmith) that I still laugh about every time I think of it, years later.
  - lux 19y ago
    Sweet, thanks! I ended up with "The Most of PG Wodehouse" just 'cause it seemed a good place to start. Sounds like I'll be happy with it either way! From the sound of it, this'll be quite the welcome contrast to the last book I read: Journey to the End of the Night by Celine. Great book, but not a happy read at all...
deleted 19y ago
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icky 19y ago
> Reading The Nude is like a ride in a Ferrari. Just as you're getting settled, you're slammed back in your seat by the acceleration. Before you can adjust, you're thrown sideways as the car screeches into the first turn. His brain throws off ideas almost too fast to grasp them. Apparently it reads just like Snow Crash. ;-)
- DaniFong 19y ago
  That's just what I was thinking.
wanorris 19y ago
> To do really great things, you have to seek out questions people didn't even realize were questions. ... You only get one life. Why not do something huge? This one really got me thinking. While tackling big questions is certainly admirable, it implies that greatness ought to be a goal one has in life. As I get older (I'm now married with 2 kids), I've become more and more convinced that it's more important in life to strive to be a good person than to strive to be a great person. That's why my list would include people like Lao Tze, who would probably be happy that people found his writings useful, but would likely find the fact that he's still revered thousands of years after his death of far less importance than how he spent some particular day of his life.
- Alex3917 19y ago
  From what I hear, most modern asian religions scholars believe the Tao was a satire.
  - dood 19y ago
    Where do you hear that? Got a link?
    - Alex3917 19y ago
      My asian religions prof. spent a bunch of years of her life studying the text and she was telling us this. Apparently some people still think it's an esoteric text, but they are in the minority. Unfortunately I don't have any references to back it up, and none of the translations I have sitting in front of me mention it in the forward. And of course it's impossible to find anything via Google only because there are so many parodies of the Tao Te Ching itself. There must be academic journals on the study of taoism, but I am having trouble finding any just searching online. I can try emailing her and asking for a cite if you'd like though.
      - dood 19y ago
        If it isn't too much trouble, I'd be very interested to hear more about that. I'm no scholar, but I find Taoism and the Tao Te Ching fascinating. I would understand it being partly satirical of prevailing thought, whilst being esoteric, but it being a simple satire would be quite amazing to me. Perhaps the esoterism is an artifact of translation/interpolation ;)
rokhayakebe 19y ago
"roger verbal kint" my hero number 3.
mattmaroon 19y ago
"Robert Morris has a very unusual quality: he's never wrong." I was only ever wrong once. I thought that I had been mistaken about something 5 years earlier, but it turned out I hadn't. I was wrong about having been wrong.
- yters 19y ago
  I'm never wrong too, but that's just because I either make trivial, all encompassing, or unfalsifiable claims. It sounds good though:)
mattmaroon 19y ago
"There have probably been other people who did this as well as Newton, for their time" Einstein.
- icky 19y ago
  Maxwell!
mrtron 19y ago
Really a personal list like this is impacted by a number of factors especically your childhood experiences. So from my perspective, Jane Austen brings me nothing but disgust. Her novels were piss poor from my perspective. However, this was me at 15 working at a library and skimming books as I put them away. Austen books were a slap in the face to me at that age dealing with my parents divorcing during the same time. I really enjoy this article though, but my list would be substantially different. I should write it up.
gms 19y ago
I never comment on Paul Graham essays, but I'll make an exception and say that I really liked this one. It felt like it came from the heart.
- maximilian 19y ago
  I also usually don't comment because the other comments are often so biting. I really enjoy reading about what influences people and their histories. Opinions about subjects without clear answers can be interesting to read, but always leave one feeling slightly at odds with the writer. Its almost that if written correctly, opinion pieces should have at least something that you don't agree with. In good situations, this initiates a discourse around that point, but often online this just leads to trolling by commenters - which never leads to good things.
webmaven 19y ago
if what you want in novels is more info, you might give Stephenson's Baroque Cycle a try. Regarding the Spitfire, have you ever watched the 1942 movie 'The First of thew Few'?
rglovejoy 19y ago
I like P.G. Wodehouse's stories; I'm quite a bit less impressed with his activities during World War 2. Wodehouse was in France when the Germans invaded in 1940. He was interned as an enemy alien by the Nazis for a year. The Germans were able to persuade him to make some light-hearted radio broadcasts intended for American (but not British) consumption, in exchange for his release from internment. Many Britons (including A.A. Milne) never forgave him for this, though Evelyn Waugh and George Orwell defended him. After the War, Wodehouse found that he could not live in England and moved to the U.S., where he became a citizen in 1955.
- yters 19y ago
  Do you mean he made Nazi propaganda?
  - rglovejoy 19y ago
    No, that would have been Lord Haw Haw and Ezra Pound who made propaganda broadcasts for the fascists. It wasn't as though Wodehouse had shaken hands with Hitler. He merely talked about what his internment was like, and he only made about five broadcasts. Even so, I think he was incredibly naïve of him to do this, given that by 1940, the Germans hadn't simply crossed the line into uncivilized conduct, they had gleefully flown over it with flags raised and fireworks shooting.
    - yters 19y ago
      Ah, you're saying he's a Hanoi Jane. I did not realize that about Ezra Pound. Now I see why people like GK Chesterton and CS Lewis disliked TS Elliot (protege of Pound) so much.
      - rglovejoy 19y ago
        No, I didn't say that at all.
        yters 19y ago
sage_joch 19y ago
I was hoping to see Feynman on this list (especially after reading the two qualities that these people had in common). Good read, though.
- pg 19y ago
  I almost included him. But I don't understand his work in physics, and it seemed lame to like him for peripheral stuff like his autobiography.
  - yan 19y ago
    Why lame? Physics aside, he seemed to be an extraordinary individual based on accounts of him by other people, not just his auto-biographies.
  - harbinjer 19y ago
    I don't think that you have to understand all his work in detail to claim him as a hero. He was more than just his work. I wonder about John von Neumann. I thought maybe he'd be on there too.
yters 19y ago
In regards to the Newton comment, I need to find a solution to the 2nd law of thermodynamics, otherwise there is no such thing as a significant answer!
iamelgringo 19y ago
Thanks, Paul. It was a heartfelt essay and fun to read.
revorad 19y ago
"I've never cried like I cried at his funeral." My favourite sentence in the essay. Made me aware of a dimension I didn't associate pg with.
- as 19y ago
  The brevity does make him seem a bit stoic.
Anchor 19y ago
Have you read The Nature of Order by Christopher Alexander? I'd very much like to hear your opinions and comments on the book series. And also see, whether he would appear on your next list of heroes. He is definitely on mine.
- pg 19y ago
  I read (parts of) A Pattern Language. That seemed like it had a lot of good ideas in it.
cadalac 19y ago
"Everyone on the list had two qualities: they cared almost excessively about their work, and they were absolutely honest." Honesty is a quality I really admire in you myself, PG. Be careful not to work too hard though! Thanks for another good read!
jwesley 19y ago
I would put Paul Graham on my list. :)
as 19y ago
This is what I was looking for. http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=152805 http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=152805
CharlieInCO 19y ago
Uh, Paul, I assume that you mean Robert Morris the younger? Or his dad? If the younger, I'd think you're well equipped with at least one example where he was less that perfectly right about something.
- pg 19y ago
  I mean the younger. And of course his sw has bugs, like anyone's might (though fewer, actually). I'm talking about statements, not choices.
uuilly 19y ago
Winston Churchill would top my list. Definitely passes the PG criteria. Post WWII: Churchill's Grandson (after running into his office without knocking): "Grand papa, is it true that you're the greatest man in the world?" Churchill: "Yes, now bugger off."
uuilly 19y ago
Also worth noting that a Calder sculpture is on the cover of a common Algorithms book: http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/41WDWECWVCL._SS500_.jpg http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/41WDWECWVCL._SS500_.jp...
- pg 19y ago
  Most of the mobiles are literally recursive. I spent a couple days trying to reproduce them once, and one thing you learn when you do that is that each subelement is a complete mobile in itself. In fact I suspect he must often have incorporated "finished" mobiles into larger ones later.
  - uuilly 19y ago
    Yes! I remember learning infinite series in college and thinking about Calder. His work is similar to measuring the area under an infinite curve that approaches zero. Infinite line, finite area area. Calder has the recursive mobile(s) and a counter weight. Literally Counter Weight == recursive mobile(s). Something seemingly infinite equated with something finite. His big one in the East Wing of the National Gallery is outstanding. They blow the HVAC on it to make it move. IM Pei requested that it be the centerpiece of his great building. IM Pei, another possible hero. Fun essay.
cpr 19y ago
No question that PGW was the greatest prose stylist of the 20th century. Makes sense, from his biography: every morning, 6 days a week, year after year for decades, he would sit down and churn out some 10-20-30 pages of new or edited prose, without fail. Much of it ineffable lightness, some of it a bit clunky, but on the whole an incredible body of work. Here, in a somewhat explaining-the-joke kind of criticism, is still some pretty rummy stuff about Plum: http://www.uni-tuebingen.de/uni/nec/leimberg1312.htm http://www.uni-tuebingen.de/uni/nec/leimberg1312.htm He had a rather sad life, but he was a great artist.
finnern 19y ago
One of the greatest that often get overlooked is Doug Engelbart. Everyone connects him with inventing the mouse. What he did in the 60 aka punchcard times in one demo revolutionizing the computer: http://sloan.stanford.edu/mousesite/1968Demo.html http://sloan.stanford.edu/mousesite/1968Demo.html For the first time real time connection to a computer using a monitor. Introducing the concept of files, documents, ... Primitive graphical UI. Video conferencing between Menlo Park and Fort Mason in San Francisco. That was done wirelessly by parking transmitter trucks on skyline ... When he was young he set the principle for his life: Let me design a professional goal which will maximize the contribution my career can have to mankind! Weeks later his lifetime goal emerged: As much as possible, to boost mankind's collective capability for coping with complex, urgent problems. He is in his 90s and still at it: http://www.futuresalon.org/2004/11/future_salon_do.html http://www.futuresalon.org/2004/11/future_salon_do.html Truly amazing, Mark.
D_T 19y ago
Hey PG, You talk about Isaac Newton, here's something that might interest you: Newton was a “glandeur”; In Dijksterhuis 2004: George Spencer Brown has famously said about Sir Isaac Newton that “to arrive at the simplest truth, as Newton knew and practiced, requires years of contemplation. Not activity. Not reasoning. Not calculating. Not busy behavior of any kind. Not reading. Not talking. Not making an effort. Not thinking. Simply bearing in mind what it is that one needs to know.” Written by Nassim Nicholas Taleb: "Glander best describes the notion of lifting all inhibitions to “tinker intellectually in an undirected stochastic process aiming at capturing some idea that will enrich your corpus”. “Researching” or “thinking” smack of a top-down activity." More on Glander by Taleb: "It is an irony that the academy does not have a word for the process by which discovery works best –but slang does. I was trying to describe in a letter what I am currently doing: French would not let me. But argot lends itself very well... I am involved in an activity called “Glander”, more precisely “glandouiller”. It means “to idle”, though not “to be in a state of idleness” (it is an active verb). Gandouiller denotes enjoyment. The formal French word is “ne rien faire” (to do nothing), which misses on the active part –so do words that have a languishing connotation. Glander is what children without soccer moms do when they are out of school. It resembles flâner which has this perambulation part; though Glander does not have any strings attached. The Italians have farniente but it is really doing nothing. Even the Arabs do not have a verb for Glander: the construction takaslana from the Semitic root ksl denotes laziness (other words imply some inertia)." [Taken from http://www.fooledbyrandomness.com/notebook.htm http://www.fooledbyrandomness.com/notebook.htm]
uwiuw 19y ago
i don't know what to say but one thing i know i dont know most them...honestly, you, as an essayist is one of my favorite..please don't stop write thank you!
osullivj 19y ago
Thanks for mentioning so many English heroes: Newton, Austen, the Spitfire, Wodehouse. I love em all too. As an Englishman, I'd like to nominate some American heroes: Paul Feynmann, Jimi Hendrix, Willard Van Orman Quine, Jackson Pollack & Hunter S Thompson. Where would the English speaking world be without them ?
jim_collins 19y ago
"For example, it returned false for Montaigne, who was arguably the inventor of the essay." The essay was invented by the Stoic philosopher Seneca.
fematronik 19y ago
I am with all those, who would put you, Paul, on the list of heroes. You do great things.
PRoth 19y ago
Paul, call me weird, but I searched Larry Mihalko after you had written about him, and I came across this: http://www.post-gazette.com/regionstate/19991031newabuse1.asp http://www.post-gazette.com/regionstate/19991031newabuse1.as... Was he a teacher at Gateway? If so, then it says that he was being charged with sexual assault or something strange like that. I wanted to let you have the last word on it, because charges don't necessarily mean that much. Anyways, I would rather take your word that he was a genuinely good teacher (which your post indicates)
- kstafford 18y ago
  You'r not weird. I did a search on Mr.Mihaldo as well. Please check out: www.thepittsburghchannel.com/news/489065/detail.html
  - kstafford 18y ago
    Apologies. Mr. Mihalko
magpi3 19y ago
No Alan Turing? I am surprised. I always thought the cover of ANSI Common Lisp was a nod towards his life (and death). For those of you who do not know much about the Alan Turing man, I suggest that you check out one of the excellent biographies that have been written about him. He was a really amazing and interesting guy. And the persecution that lead to his suicide provides a valuable (and tragic) lesson on the evils of homophobia.
ic 19y ago
Hamming ? "Richard Hamming’s three questions for new hires at Bell Labs: 1- What are you working on? 2- What’s the most important open problem in your area? 3- Why aren’t they the same? " http://www.chris-lott.org/misc/kaiser.html http://www.chris-lott.org/misc/kaiser.html Igor. http://nuit-blanche.blogspot.com http://nuit-blanche.blogspot.com
nrmehta 19y ago
I enjoy reading your essays. I think the concept of heroes is a worthwhile one and I might compile my own list. Einstein would be there for me but probably as much because my mom put a poster of him in my room when I was six (which remains there today) as anything. I'm also from the 'burgh :) and as I grew up in the next generation of Steelers football, Hines Ward would be my Jack Lambert. His love for his work is truly inspirational and infectious.
Justice 18y ago
A few days ago I learned that Gateway District School Teacher passed away sometime in 2008. A true blessing for everyone concerned.
oo 18y ago
well i thought they were pathetic and you all need to get some lives and stop being fag little nerds with no life and too lazy to stop sitting on your asses...DO SOME WORK U FAGS
anikshah 18y ago
excellent
- WATUPWITYOU 18y ago
  I KNOW IT IS ALL EXELLENT ISN'T IT
seanohagan 18y ago
In "The Scientists" by John Gribbin, Newton is painted as a 1st-class a-hole: taking credit for another's work; sitting on results until an opponent passed away; and others. (It's a good read; I recommend it.)
colladude 18y ago
Implemented "Some Heroes" as a facebook app. Consider adding your heroes..

116 points by mqt 19y ago

Great read! For the same reason as Paul (i.e. it's fun) I'll put my own list here. Apart from the interesting fact that Paul is actually on - my - list (since long before I read this essay, really), so are some of his heroes so I guess that makes 'heroic devotion' transitive or heritable or whatever. In descending order of admiration: Isaac Newton - apart from more or less inventing modern physics (he's up there with Maxwell and Einstein in my physics heroes top 3), he found he couldn't solve the fundamental equations he discovered, so he kinda invented modern maths to help with that. Sweet. As for my maths heroes top 3, that's completed with Gauss and Laplace because they did similar things but in a less earth-shattering way. After all it can happen only once to discover mechanics, gravity, the most powerful series around or differential calculus (but who'd have thought it'd be the same guy!). Noel Gallagher, Paul McCartney - they are realllly smart and creative guys, and instead of caring too much about politics and the likes they just wrote a big pile of Shockingly Good Songs. They had a direct influence in me getting into music (songwriting), and not a month goes by without me fantasizing about becoming famous enough to meet Noel somewhere backstage and chat with him over a beer. In fact, more chance of meeting Noel - together with "playing at nicer venues" - is a big part of why fame in music attracts me. The top 3 is completed by Steve Jobs (really) for similar reasons. Another big reason of why fame attracts me stems from my next hero... Bill Gates - he did not only cofound, ran and drove the software company that makes/made the best products in the world or that understands 'software' orders of magnitude better than anybody else ("it's usability, stupid"), he also now spends his days using his fortune, fame and brains to really try to make this world a better place. I cannot express in words how much I admire both facets of his life and if there's one answer to "if you could choose, where would you want to be in 20 years?" for me the answer is to be like Bill Gates, having made it big and using that to try and make the world a better place. I admire Bono, Warren Buffet and John Lennon for the same reason and very often find myself passionately defending all of these guys to others who slack them for sheer fame (at least that's why I think it is). Joel & Paul - not only did they do A Really Good Job in software business themselves, they also are an ongoing source of inspiration for me and others because they write so well about it. Hacking by itself is not my passion, but somehow every other facet about software development/business is, and that's in large part because of the writings of these guys. Again, there's really a top 3 and it's completed by "all the others" (Stevey, Guy Kawasaki, the Rands, etc...). By the way: I am a music-playing phycisist/mathematician working on software most of the time, as one might have guessed :-) W.

hualibaobao 18y ago

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maturski 18y ago
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WATUPWITYOU 18y ago

THESE ARE NOT DANNYS THEY ARE SUPER HEROS INSTED OF DANNYS AND HOW DO I FIND DANNYS YOU RETARDS IV BEEN LOOKINK TO FIND THEM ALL OVER THE PLACE

WATUPWITYOU 18y ago

I WANT TO BE A SUPER HERO BUT I WANT TO FLY IN THE AIR BUT I DON'T THINK THAT NOT 1 PERSON CAN FLY IN THE WORLD AND IF I BE A SUPER HERO IF MY PARENTS GOT IN DANGER AND EVEN IF MY SISTER GOT IN DANGER I WOULD BE THERE IN A HEART BRAKER AND IF I GOT IN DANGER I KNOW MY PARENTS OR MY SISTER WOULD BE THERE IN A HEART BREAKER!! MY MOM THINKS I HATE HER BUT IF SHE SEES THIS THEN SHE WILL KNOW THAT ALL OF THAT IS NOT TRUE AT ALL BECAUSE I LUV MY MOM WITH ALL OF MY HAERT

WATUPWITYOU 18y ago
... AND WHEN YOU GET ON HERE PLEASE WRITE BACK INSTEAD OF SAYING IT TO MY FACE BECAUSE SOME TIMES OTHER PEOPLE THINK IM SOMBODY ELSES DAUGHTER

WATUPWITYOU 18y ago

DID ANY OF YOU ALL WATCH THE MOVIE CALLED BRING IT ON

WATUPWITYOU 18y ago

I LOVE MY MOM WITH ALL OF MY HEART AND I KNOW THAT SHE LOVES ME WITH ALL OF HER HEART AND I LOVE MY SISTER WITH ALL OF MY HEART AND I KNOW SHE LOVES ME WITH ALL OF HER HEART AND SHHE WOULD NEVER LET ANYTHING HAPPEN TO ME AND IF ANYTHING EVER DOES HAPPEN TO ME I KNOW THAT SHE WOULD KILL THE PERSON THAT MESES WIT ME

Alex3917 19y ago

"I used to read a lot of novels when I was younger. I can't read most anymore, because they don't have enough information in them." This is a good one to add to the list of things not to say on a first date. And if it does somehow come up, at least have enough sense not to follow it with "I also don't read biographies/memoirs because I consider them fiction." /Don't ask

astine 19y ago
I'm asking ;D
danohuiginn 19y ago
You think? Sounds pretty good to me - provided you're able to listen to your date explaining why s/he _does_ like novels, and to convey something of the joy you get from reading non-fiction. But then I have a fairly naive concept of a date as a (potential) meeting of minds, rather than a PR exercise.
mrtron 19y ago
Actually I also rejected fiction after university, I find I don't have that much time to sit and read so why bother with fiction. I was a ridiculously avid reader of fiction and I wish that I had of read science books instead of re-reading the Hardy Boys (original series and some of the casefiles). I do read some biographies/memoirs though :P
jsomers 19y ago
This was the only part of the essay that irked me. Bad writing in general has a low information density; the problem is not exclusive to fiction. It doesn't help that information is embedded structurally in a novel, which makes it harder to tease out. But good fiction (say, Ulysses or Crime and Punishment or Nine Stories) is as rich as any essay or monograph. It's also not clear that density, in the strict sense, is what I'm after when I read. If so I'd be buried in technical papers, when what I really want is something to tickle my brain; to that end, I wouldn't want to lose any one of arXiv, the Engineering library, or the literature section at Borders.
mynameishere 19y ago

jwp 19y ago

Kevin Garnett plays exactly the same way that you describe Jack Lambert. He goes only one speed: full blast. Whenever I need motiviation, I find myself asking myself, wwkgd?

nonrecursive 19y ago

One of my heroes: O Sensei, Morihei Ueshiba. He definitely cared excessively about his "work", and was absolutely honest. He invented aikido, the "art of peace", whose broad purpose is to "make human beings one family." Here's a decent video of him: http://youtube.com/watch?v=0XTlWDOQBno&feature=related http://youtube.com/watch?v=0XTlWDOQBno&feature=related

bloch 19y ago
Watch the attack at 3:53. It is pretty easy being a martial legend if your students attack like that.
- nonrecursive 18y ago
  What was the point of this comment? I was saying that he's one of my heroes and pointed out that, incidentally, he fit some of pg's criteria as well. I also pointed out one of his major accomplishments. I didn't mention anything about him being a "martial legend." If you could explain how your comment relates to anything I mentioned or to the subject of "personal heroes" I'd greatly appreciate it. To address the actual content of your comment, though - no, it takes more than "the attack at 3:53" to be a martial legend. As it happens, he spent virtually his entire life practicing martial arts, and a number of other prominent Japanese martial artists attested to his ability during his lifetime. I encourage you to learn more about him and about aikido. You might still come away thinking "Yeah whatever, the only reason anyone thought anything of him was because he had cowering tools for students", but at least you'll have more evidence for it then a short portion of some youtube video.

deleted 19y ago

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edw519 19y ago

My favorite Jack Lambert story: 1977 Pro Bowl. AFC defense - 8 Pittsburgh Steelers and 3 players from other teams on the field at the same time. Jack Lambert, the middle linebacker and captain, was calling out defensive signals using the Steelers' proprietary lingo. One of the other players asked, "What should we do?" Lambert replied, "Stay out of our way." Second favorite Jack Lambert story: When accused by a referee of biting another player in the finger, Lambert said, "I didn't bite his finger and I can prove it." "How?" the referee asked. "He's still got it, doesn't he?" One of the best teams ever with one of the best players ever. And no one "danced" after making a great play. They just did a great job and acted as if they had done that job before and intended to do it again. Man, how I miss that. Thanks for the memories, pg.

marrone 19y ago
yeah, I thought it was a cool to find a football player on that list, and a Steeler as well

zach 19y ago

Fun to read. I recently found this quote from a contemporary author: “Jane Austen writes about people with desperately restricted lives codified by iron rules. The first thing she does is to choose a genre, the romantic novel, which is exactly the kind of book those women would read if they were reading books.” That illustrates to me a unique approach, where even the genre of the work itself serves the overall message and theme of the work. And let me put in a word for Walt Disney, who I totally dismissed until I read about him. The parallels between his personality and that of Steve Jobs are fascinating.

pius 19y ago

Where in Pittsburgh did you grow up, PG?

pg 19y ago
http://maps.google.com/maps?f=q&hl=en&geocode=&q=109+kelvington+dr+monroeville+pa+15146&sll=37.0625,-95.677068&sspn=53.035373,60.46875&ie=UTF8&t=h&ll=40.401075,-79.75739&spn=0.402632,0.472412&z=11 http://maps.google.com/maps?f=q&hl=en&geocode=&q...
- deleted 19y ago
  [deleted]
- pius 19y ago
  Ah, cool. I went to elementary school about 10 zip codes away. :)
- jfornear 19y ago
  Only a Steeler fan would include a Steeler player in their list of heroes. My dad is from Upper St. Clair... Steeler fans are nuts... Go Cowboys :)
  - pius 19y ago
    Yes. Yes we are. :D
- mynameishere 19y ago
  Ugh. Monroeville. Come for the Sam's Club. Stay for the Popeye's.
  - pg 19y ago
    Yeah, the place was a kind of worst-case scenario for strip development. In my time the big draw was Monroeville Mall, the biggest in the country at the time of its construction (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Monroeville_Mall http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Monroeville_Mall). The one good part, for a kid, was that a lot of the land was too hilly to build on, and was left as forest.

henning 19y ago

Another list: Gary Gordon, Randy Shughart, the Finnish anti-armor teams in the mostly-forgotten Winter War against the Soviets (> 80% casualties), and the 300 Spartans who held off the Persians at Thermopylae.

lux 19y ago

From my limited understanding of art interpretation, in earlier times art was seen somewhat as an attempt to understand or mimic the world around them in order to understand it better. Now we tend to value creativity as a more important quality, but in doing so we sacrifice a degree of sincerity or even nobility that curiosity and mimicry have. All of these heroes share a creative quality, but in a more classical sense. They are true to themselves and their art, but they probably intuited that their art is as much or more about discovery than anything else. Maybe that's the key to making the leap from artistic commoner to greatness... I've totally been looking for a good intro to art history recently (my friend's textbook just doesn't look that appealing...), so thanks for the recommendation! Anyone recommend a good starting point for diving into Wodehouse too? :)

wanorris 19y ago
I've heard it argued pretty convincingly that the birth of photography is the root cause of the death of mimesis in art.
- yters 19y ago
  In what way? Was mimesis about modeling physical appearance or understanding the underlying principles? I can see how photography is a shortcut for the former, but it seems worse for the latter.
jsackmann 19y ago
I've read about a dozen Wodehouse novels, and have yet to be disappointed by any of them. Some characters and some jokes are better than others, but I think you can pick one off the shelf at random and you'll be happy you did. The one that comes to mind is "Leave it to Psmith," but not because it was necessarily such a standout book, but because of one line (concerning the name Psmith) that I still laugh about every time I think of it, years later.
- lux 19y ago
  Sweet, thanks! I ended up with "The Most of PG Wodehouse" just 'cause it seemed a good place to start. Sounds like I'll be happy with it either way! From the sound of it, this'll be quite the welcome contrast to the last book I read: Journey to the End of the Night by Celine. Great book, but not a happy read at all...

deleted 19y ago

[deleted]

icky 19y ago

> Reading The Nude is like a ride in a Ferrari. Just as you're getting settled, you're slammed back in your seat by the acceleration. Before you can adjust, you're thrown sideways as the car screeches into the first turn. His brain throws off ideas almost too fast to grasp them. Apparently it reads just like Snow Crash. ;-)

DaniFong 19y ago
That's just what I was thinking.

wanorris 19y ago

> To do really great things, you have to seek out questions people didn't even realize were questions. ... You only get one life. Why not do something huge? This one really got me thinking. While tackling big questions is certainly admirable, it implies that greatness ought to be a goal one has in life. As I get older (I'm now married with 2 kids), I've become more and more convinced that it's more important in life to strive to be a good person than to strive to be a great person. That's why my list would include people like Lao Tze, who would probably be happy that people found his writings useful, but would likely find the fact that he's still revered thousands of years after his death of far less importance than how he spent some particular day of his life.

Alex3917 19y ago
From what I hear, most modern asian religions scholars believe the Tao was a satire.
- dood 19y ago
  Where do you hear that? Got a link?
  - Alex3917 19y ago
    My asian religions prof. spent a bunch of years of her life studying the text and she was telling us this. Apparently some people still think it's an esoteric text, but they are in the minority. Unfortunately I don't have any references to back it up, and none of the translations I have sitting in front of me mention it in the forward. And of course it's impossible to find anything via Google only because there are so many parodies of the Tao Te Ching itself. There must be academic journals on the study of taoism, but I am having trouble finding any just searching online. I can try emailing her and asking for a cite if you'd like though.
    - dood 19y ago
      If it isn't too much trouble, I'd be very interested to hear more about that. I'm no scholar, but I find Taoism and the Tao Te Ching fascinating. I would understand it being partly satirical of prevailing thought, whilst being esoteric, but it being a simple satire would be quite amazing to me. Perhaps the esoterism is an artifact of translation/interpolation ;)

rokhayakebe 19y ago

"roger verbal kint" my hero number 3.

mattmaroon 19y ago

"Robert Morris has a very unusual quality: he's never wrong." I was only ever wrong once. I thought that I had been mistaken about something 5 years earlier, but it turned out I hadn't. I was wrong about having been wrong.

yters 19y ago
I'm never wrong too, but that's just because I either make trivial, all encompassing, or unfalsifiable claims. It sounds good though:)

mattmaroon 19y ago

"There have probably been other people who did this as well as Newton, for their time" Einstein.

icky 19y ago
Maxwell!

mrtron 19y ago

Really a personal list like this is impacted by a number of factors especically your childhood experiences. So from my perspective, Jane Austen brings me nothing but disgust. Her novels were piss poor from my perspective. However, this was me at 15 working at a library and skimming books as I put them away. Austen books were a slap in the face to me at that age dealing with my parents divorcing during the same time. I really enjoy this article though, but my list would be substantially different. I should write it up.

gms 19y ago

I never comment on Paul Graham essays, but I'll make an exception and say that I really liked this one. It felt like it came from the heart.

maximilian 19y ago
I also usually don't comment because the other comments are often so biting. I really enjoy reading about what influences people and their histories. Opinions about subjects without clear answers can be interesting to read, but always leave one feeling slightly at odds with the writer. Its almost that if written correctly, opinion pieces should have at least something that you don't agree with. In good situations, this initiates a discourse around that point, but often online this just leads to trolling by commenters - which never leads to good things.

webmaven 19y ago

if what you want in novels is more info, you might give Stephenson's Baroque Cycle a try. Regarding the Spitfire, have you ever watched the 1942 movie 'The First of thew Few'?

rglovejoy 19y ago

I like P.G. Wodehouse's stories; I'm quite a bit less impressed with his activities during World War 2. Wodehouse was in France when the Germans invaded in 1940. He was interned as an enemy alien by the Nazis for a year. The Germans were able to persuade him to make some light-hearted radio broadcasts intended for American (but not British) consumption, in exchange for his release from internment. Many Britons (including A.A. Milne) never forgave him for this, though Evelyn Waugh and George Orwell defended him. After the War, Wodehouse found that he could not live in England and moved to the U.S., where he became a citizen in 1955.

yters 19y ago
Do you mean he made Nazi propaganda?
- rglovejoy 19y ago
  No, that would have been Lord Haw Haw and Ezra Pound who made propaganda broadcasts for the fascists. It wasn't as though Wodehouse had shaken hands with Hitler. He merely talked about what his internment was like, and he only made about five broadcasts. Even so, I think he was incredibly naïve of him to do this, given that by 1940, the Germans hadn't simply crossed the line into uncivilized conduct, they had gleefully flown over it with flags raised and fireworks shooting.
  - yters 19y ago
    Ah, you're saying he's a Hanoi Jane. I did not realize that about Ezra Pound. Now I see why people like GK Chesterton and CS Lewis disliked TS Elliot (protege of Pound) so much.
    - rglovejoy 19y ago
      No, I didn't say that at all.
      - yters 19y ago

sage_joch 19y ago

I was hoping to see Feynman on this list (especially after reading the two qualities that these people had in common). Good read, though.

pg 19y ago
I almost included him. But I don't understand his work in physics, and it seemed lame to like him for peripheral stuff like his autobiography.
- yan 19y ago
  Why lame? Physics aside, he seemed to be an extraordinary individual based on accounts of him by other people, not just his auto-biographies.
- harbinjer 19y ago
  I don't think that you have to understand all his work in detail to claim him as a hero. He was more than just his work. I wonder about John von Neumann. I thought maybe he'd be on there too.

yters 19y ago

In regards to the Newton comment, I need to find a solution to the 2nd law of thermodynamics, otherwise there is no such thing as a significant answer!

iamelgringo 19y ago

Thanks, Paul. It was a heartfelt essay and fun to read.

revorad 19y ago

"I've never cried like I cried at his funeral." My favourite sentence in the essay. Made me aware of a dimension I didn't associate pg with.

as 19y ago
The brevity does make him seem a bit stoic.

Anchor 19y ago

Have you read The Nature of Order by Christopher Alexander? I'd very much like to hear your opinions and comments on the book series. And also see, whether he would appear on your next list of heroes. He is definitely on mine.

pg 19y ago
I read (parts of) A Pattern Language. That seemed like it had a lot of good ideas in it.

cadalac 19y ago

"Everyone on the list had two qualities: they cared almost excessively about their work, and they were absolutely honest." Honesty is a quality I really admire in you myself, PG. Be careful not to work too hard though! Thanks for another good read!

jwesley 19y ago

I would put Paul Graham on my list. :)

as 19y ago

This is what I was looking for. http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=152805 http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=152805

CharlieInCO 19y ago

Uh, Paul, I assume that you mean Robert Morris the younger? Or his dad? If the younger, I'd think you're well equipped with at least one example where he was less that perfectly right about something.

pg 19y ago
I mean the younger. And of course his sw has bugs, like anyone's might (though fewer, actually). I'm talking about statements, not choices.

uuilly 19y ago

Winston Churchill would top my list. Definitely passes the PG criteria. Post WWII: Churchill's Grandson (after running into his office without knocking): "Grand papa, is it true that you're the greatest man in the world?" Churchill: "Yes, now bugger off."

uuilly 19y ago

Also worth noting that a Calder sculpture is on the cover of a common Algorithms book: http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/41WDWECWVCL._SS500_.jpg http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/41WDWECWVCL._SS500_.jp...

pg 19y ago
Most of the mobiles are literally recursive. I spent a couple days trying to reproduce them once, and one thing you learn when you do that is that each subelement is a complete mobile in itself. In fact I suspect he must often have incorporated "finished" mobiles into larger ones later.
- uuilly 19y ago
  Yes! I remember learning infinite series in college and thinking about Calder. His work is similar to measuring the area under an infinite curve that approaches zero. Infinite line, finite area area. Calder has the recursive mobile(s) and a counter weight. Literally Counter Weight == recursive mobile(s). Something seemingly infinite equated with something finite. His big one in the East Wing of the National Gallery is outstanding. They blow the HVAC on it to make it move. IM Pei requested that it be the centerpiece of his great building. IM Pei, another possible hero. Fun essay.

cpr 19y ago

No question that PGW was the greatest prose stylist of the 20th century. Makes sense, from his biography: every morning, 6 days a week, year after year for decades, he would sit down and churn out some 10-20-30 pages of new or edited prose, without fail. Much of it ineffable lightness, some of it a bit clunky, but on the whole an incredible body of work. Here, in a somewhat explaining-the-joke kind of criticism, is still some pretty rummy stuff about Plum: http://www.uni-tuebingen.de/uni/nec/leimberg1312.htm http://www.uni-tuebingen.de/uni/nec/leimberg1312.htm He had a rather sad life, but he was a great artist.

finnern 19y ago

One of the greatest that often get overlooked is Doug Engelbart. Everyone connects him with inventing the mouse. What he did in the 60 aka punchcard times in one demo revolutionizing the computer: http://sloan.stanford.edu/mousesite/1968Demo.html http://sloan.stanford.edu/mousesite/1968Demo.html For the first time real time connection to a computer using a monitor. Introducing the concept of files, documents, ... Primitive graphical UI. Video conferencing between Menlo Park and Fort Mason in San Francisco. That was done wirelessly by parking transmitter trucks on skyline ... When he was young he set the principle for his life: Let me design a professional goal which will maximize the contribution my career can have to mankind! Weeks later his lifetime goal emerged: As much as possible, to boost mankind's collective capability for coping with complex, urgent problems. He is in his 90s and still at it: http://www.futuresalon.org/2004/11/future_salon_do.html http://www.futuresalon.org/2004/11/future_salon_do.html Truly amazing, Mark.

D_T 19y ago

Hey PG, You talk about Isaac Newton, here's something that might interest you: Newton was a “glandeur”; In Dijksterhuis 2004: George Spencer Brown has famously said about Sir Isaac Newton that “to arrive at the simplest truth, as Newton knew and practiced, requires years of contemplation. Not activity. Not reasoning. Not calculating. Not busy behavior of any kind. Not reading. Not talking. Not making an effort. Not thinking. Simply bearing in mind what it is that one needs to know.” Written by Nassim Nicholas Taleb: "Glander best describes the notion of lifting all inhibitions to “tinker intellectually in an undirected stochastic process aiming at capturing some idea that will enrich your corpus”. “Researching” or “thinking” smack of a top-down activity." More on Glander by Taleb: "It is an irony that the academy does not have a word for the process by which discovery works best –but slang does. I was trying to describe in a letter what I am currently doing: French would not let me. But argot lends itself very well... I am involved in an activity called “Glander”, more precisely “glandouiller”. It means “to idle”, though not “to be in a state of idleness” (it is an active verb). Gandouiller denotes enjoyment. The formal French word is “ne rien faire” (to do nothing), which misses on the active part –so do words that have a languishing connotation. Glander is what children without soccer moms do when they are out of school. It resembles flâner which has this perambulation part; though Glander does not have any strings attached. The Italians have farniente but it is really doing nothing. Even the Arabs do not have a verb for Glander: the construction takaslana from the Semitic root ksl denotes laziness (other words imply some inertia)." [Taken from http://www.fooledbyrandomness.com/notebook.htm http://www.fooledbyrandomness.com/notebook.htm]

uwiuw 19y ago

i don't know what to say but one thing i know i dont know most them...honestly, you, as an essayist is one of my favorite..please don't stop write thank you!

osullivj 19y ago

Thanks for mentioning so many English heroes: Newton, Austen, the Spitfire, Wodehouse. I love em all too. As an Englishman, I'd like to nominate some American heroes: Paul Feynmann, Jimi Hendrix, Willard Van Orman Quine, Jackson Pollack & Hunter S Thompson. Where would the English speaking world be without them ?

jim_collins 19y ago

"For example, it returned false for Montaigne, who was arguably the inventor of the essay." The essay was invented by the Stoic philosopher Seneca.

fematronik 19y ago

I am with all those, who would put you, Paul, on the list of heroes. You do great things.

PRoth 19y ago

Paul, call me weird, but I searched Larry Mihalko after you had written about him, and I came across this: http://www.post-gazette.com/regionstate/19991031newabuse1.asp http://www.post-gazette.com/regionstate/19991031newabuse1.as... Was he a teacher at Gateway? If so, then it says that he was being charged with sexual assault or something strange like that. I wanted to let you have the last word on it, because charges don't necessarily mean that much. Anyways, I would rather take your word that he was a genuinely good teacher (which your post indicates)

kstafford 18y ago
You'r not weird. I did a search on Mr.Mihaldo as well. Please check out: www.thepittsburghchannel.com/news/489065/detail.html
- kstafford 18y ago
  Apologies. Mr. Mihalko

magpi3 19y ago

No Alan Turing? I am surprised. I always thought the cover of ANSI Common Lisp was a nod towards his life (and death). For those of you who do not know much about the Alan Turing man, I suggest that you check out one of the excellent biographies that have been written about him. He was a really amazing and interesting guy. And the persecution that lead to his suicide provides a valuable (and tragic) lesson on the evils of homophobia.

ic 19y ago

Hamming ? "Richard Hamming’s three questions for new hires at Bell Labs: 1- What are you working on? 2- What’s the most important open problem in your area? 3- Why aren’t they the same? " http://www.chris-lott.org/misc/kaiser.html http://www.chris-lott.org/misc/kaiser.html Igor. http://nuit-blanche.blogspot.com http://nuit-blanche.blogspot.com

nrmehta 19y ago

I enjoy reading your essays. I think the concept of heroes is a worthwhile one and I might compile my own list. Einstein would be there for me but probably as much because my mom put a poster of him in my room when I was six (which remains there today) as anything. I'm also from the 'burgh :) and as I grew up in the next generation of Steelers football, Hines Ward would be my Jack Lambert. His love for his work is truly inspirational and infectious.

Justice 18y ago

A few days ago I learned that Gateway District School Teacher passed away sometime in 2008. A true blessing for everyone concerned.

oo 18y ago

well i thought they were pathetic and you all need to get some lives and stop being fag little nerds with no life and too lazy to stop sitting on your asses...DO SOME WORK U FAGS

anikshah 18y ago

excellent

WATUPWITYOU 18y ago
I KNOW IT IS ALL EXELLENT ISN'T IT

seanohagan 18y ago

In "The Scientists" by John Gribbin, Newton is painted as a 1st-class a-hole: taking credit for another's work; sitting on results until an opponent passed away; and others. (It's a good read; I recommend it.)

colladude 18y ago

Implemented "Some Heroes" as a facebook app. Consider adding your heroes..