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Who’s your favorite public thinker?
Someone who’s ideas resonate with you deeply and who you would recommend everyone to at least know about
- janikvonrotz 4y agoIs there really no woman to be named? What is the gender issue with public thinkers?
- jfabre 4y agoWhy don't you name a woman thinker you admire instead of complaining about other people choice.
- UnpossibleJim 4y agoPromotion is difficult, creation is difficult... destruction is always the easiest path.
- throwoutway 4y agoI’ve been noticing this more in corporate America. People complain about tasks or requirements. Well, why don’t you propose a better idea instead of complaining?
- UnpossibleJim 4y agoBuild, create, promote what's good. Do the hard thing. Exactly what I said at the beginning of the statement.
- _ache_ 4y agoOh ... The toxicity is strong here.
- deleted 4y ago[deleted]
- hamiltonians 4y agobackreaction blog
- SiempreViernes 4y agoElselijn Kingma
- SiempreViernes 4y agoGulnaz Sharafutdinova
- SiempreViernes 4y agoCarol Cohn
- HKH2 4y agoCamille Paglia
- dismantlethesun 4y agoIt's a question about favorites, so everyones opinion is equally valid. For example, I like Heloise d’Argenteuil. Her view on marriage being contractual prostitution was a fun & thought provoking read back in my college days. However, she's hardly my favorite thinker. Francis Xavier is my favorite public thinker. That's not because he's the greatest thinker that ever lived (I'd put Democritus as that one), but rather because he's one of the founders of the order of monks that educated me in high-school/college. He's who I resonate with. It's not a value judgment.
- _ache_ 4y agoMaybe we are just a bunch of men. So we prefer men “public thinker”. I guess we identify ourself to them easier.
- janikvonrotz 4y agoA healthy spectrum of opinions you would say?
- _ache_ 4y agoAny homogeneous group has a limited number of opinions. Knowledge is a strength. The uniformity of this community is a great weakness, not a "healthy spectrum".
- eftokay83 4y agoProf. Jordan Peterson He has fundamentally changed some of my values and thoughts about me, the world and my place within it. Highly recommend some lectures or talks from him.
- uxcolumbo 4y agoWhat specifically? What did he say that changed your values and the thoughts about you?
- jfabre 4y agoLex Friedman just released what I consider his best interview so far, just listen as much as you can if you don't have the 3h. It's insanely good. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sY8aFSY2zv4 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sY8aFSY2zv4
- soldeace 4y agoDavid Chapman, hands down. The kind of insights I get reading his pieces can't be found anywhere else on the internet: https://meaningness.com https://meaningness.com
- jimkleiber 4y agoI really like what he writes as well, especially: https://vividness.live/ https://vividness.live/
- bmacho 4y agosmbc comic author Zach Weinersmith. He mostly takes concepts (from a board range of fields), and abuses them, and it turns out to be funny.
- dllthomas 4y agoI love Zach but I actually prefer his brother (Greg Weiner). Doesn't quite fit here, in that it's not exactly a matter of "resonating" with me; I often disagree with his positions. But in doing so I find I learn a lot about the issue, the other side, and myself.
- stene 4y agoRight now, I'd say Robin Hanson (@robinhanson https://www.overcomingbias.com/ https://www.overcomingbias.com/). Mostly resonates with me because he seems to freely challenge established norms in very thought provoking ways.
- randcraw 4y agoDerek Lowe of “In the Pipeline” blog. He's informed, rational, and knows when to stop talking. John Oliver. I used to enjoy Christopher Hitchens.
- mikewarot 4y agoPeter Zeihan seems to have a very strong handle on geopolitics. Do not approach his work lightly... it's very depressing if you're not in the US. Daniel Schmachtenberger gave me a strong heads up on societal energy blindness Kevlin Henney taught me far more about programming than I thought I even needed to know. I'll never approach multi-threaded programming the same way again. Eric Weinstein made me aware of the embedded growth obligations that have de-ranged so many of our institutions. It was quite a wake-up call.
- thomassmith65 4y agoJeffrey Sachs is my favorite public intellectual these days. He has known a lot of powerful people, so when he discusses world events, he doesn't need to talk out of his behind. He's a serious enough scholar that there's substance behind his views. He's not particularly iconoclastic. His opinions are mildly progressive, nothing outlandish. What I value about him is that he's relentlessly reasonable, and that's hard to find online.
- poxwole 4y agoNoam Chomsky. The man is a true prophet and renaissance man. Everytime I listen to him I learn something new
- misterioss 4y agoSeneca
- skywal_l 4y agoEpicurus. In addition to his life changing philosophy, check-out his physics. His notion of Clinamen [0] is basically quantum mechanics from 23 centuries ago. [0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Clinamen https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Clinamen
- mindcrime 4y agoHard to pick just one, but a couple of top choices would include: Ben Goertzel Joscha Bach Michael Munger Michael Posner Miguel Nicolelis Melanie Mitchell
- s1artibartfast 4y agoI don't know the rest but +1 for munger. They way he lay out and clearly communicate complex topics literally awe inspiring. It is a deep pleasure to read and listen to him.
- andrewprock 4y agoBertrand Russel, by a wide mile. Spent years proving 1+1=2, and delved deep into the intersection between reason and philosophy.
- ilrwbwrkhv 4y agoI grew up on Christopher Hitchens.
- deleted 4y ago[deleted]
- selfhifive 4y agoEdsger Dijkstra, Cal Newport, and Charlie Munger.
- ycombinatorrio 4y ago- Jean-Claude Vandamme esp. his life advices - Jean-Pierre Raffarin "Ze yes nid ze no" - Lorie who artistically taught us about "La positive attitude"
- slater 4y agoIl est... "aware"!
- xcambar 4y agoWilliam Macaskill and his Effective Altruism.
- cnorthwood 4y agoRutger Bregman in a big picture build a better world way. Shon Faye in the lens of individual liberty.
- pessimizer 4y agoAlexander Bogdanov: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alexander_Bogdanov https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alexander_Bogdanov Walter Jackson Freeman III: https://web.archive.org/web/20160627160850/http://sulcus.berkeley.edu/ https://web.archive.org/web/20160627160850/http://sulcus.ber... Eric Schwitzgebel: http://www.faculty.ucr.edu/~eschwitz/ http://www.faculty.ucr.edu/~eschwitz/ Walter Segal: http://www.segalbuildings.me.uk/ http://www.segalbuildings.me.uk/ Adam Smith David Graeber
- Witosso 4y agoSlavoy Zizek Jordan Petersson
- redwood 4y agoHannah Arendt
- jfabre 4y agoIn alphabetical order, Ayn Rand Elon Musk Eric Weinstein Jordan Peterson Joscha Bach Noam Chomsky Paul Graham Yeah that's cheesy, but his essays had a big influence on me and is the reason I'm on this forum. Peter Thiel Thomas Sowell
- leto_ii 4y agoI'm really really curious how Ayn Rand and Noam Chomsky made it on the same list. Actually Chomsky is the only odd one out, come to think of it...
- jfabre 4y agoYup, I think that his views on how governments and bigco operate are spot-on. Manufacture of Consent was eye opening for me. I disagree with him politically. Also, anarchy is not so far away from libertarianism.
- leto_ii 4y ago> I disagree with him politically. I think if you agree with him on government, big corporations and manufacturing consent you pretty much just agree with him :D What do you disagree with? > Also, anarchy is not so far away from libertarianism. At some point I thought the same, but I think there are some core differences that would eventually lead to vastly different real world results. Mostly I think they stem from two ways of looking at people: either as primarily individuals who voluntarily form (contractual) bonds with others (this would be the libertarian take), or primarily as social creatures who try to carve out some room for their individual freedoms but always remain part of an organic whole (think of Kropotkin, mutual aid etc.).
- jfabre 4y agoIf I remember correctly he's been advocating for socialism a lot in his late years, which I think would be even worse than what we have today and would naturally descend into totalitarianism like it happened so many times in the past.
- braingenious 4y agoJennette McCurdy
- orware 4y agoI'm not an expert on this topic, but one author in particular that I came across as a younger man was James Allen and his writings: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/James_Allen_(author) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/James_Allen_(author) And in particular there is a 3-volume series that was available for a few years that put together a lot of the work he had done during his lifetime, even though his most popular seemed to be "As a Man Thinketh". The Wisdom of James Allen I, II, and III: https://www.amazon.com/Wisdom-James-Allen-Including-Prosperity/dp/1889606006 https://www.amazon.com/Wisdom-James-Allen-Including-Prosperi... https://www.amazon.com/Wisdom-James-Allen-Difficulties-Triumphant/dp/1889606073 https://www.amazon.com/Wisdom-James-Allen-Difficulties-Trium... https://www.amazon.com/Wisdom-James-Allen-III-Heavenlylife/dp/1889606081 https://www.amazon.com/Wisdom-James-Allen-III-Heavenlylife/d... It's been a number of years since I last read them, and unfortunately the publisher above went out of business so you can generally only find the titles above used, but I did enjoy the philosophy/thinking shared in the writing, even if their titles may indicate a somewhat religious slant, overall I'd say the writings focus more on leading a good life. This is a good reminder I should read them again to refresh my memory on all that is discussed within the pages however, since it has been probably over 15+ years since I first read them thoroughly.
- aamargulies 4y agoMichael Sugrue https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PLB5ShJRcpNFPz_2uazuT4XJ3yP3O4fH1H https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PLB5ShJRcpNFPz_2uazuT4XJ3y... I didn’t think it possible to learn this much this quickly.
- deleted 4y ago[deleted]
- ultrablack 4y agoJordan Peterson Elon Musk Douglas Adams
- uxcolumbo 4y agoWhat ideas from Peterson and Musk resonate with you?
- janikvonrotz 4y agoThis comment is the epiphany of failure.
- leto_ii 4y agoI won't offer names, but I have a contrarian piece of advice: whenever you find yourself 'resonating' too much with a certain thinker, a certain religion, ideology etc. stop, take a deep breath and start asking why that is. The odds that any particular person will always be right are basically zero. It's way more likely that you're just consuming things that reinforce prior beliefs and make you feel good. Make sure that you're periodically engaging with people who challenge your beliefs.
- thomassmith65 4y agoThe 'Decoding the Gurus' podcast is germane to that point: https://decoding-the-gurus.captivate.fm https://decoding-the-gurus.captivate.fm
- HL33tibCe7 4y agoI don’t know why this is being downvoted, it’s completely true.
- true_religion 4y agoSure but it isn’t helpful in context. It’s a bucket of cold water put on the entire conversation.
- drewcoo 4y agoThe "conversation" here is mostly a list of names. It's like reading a glorified phone book. I thought the comment was provocative, thus more likely to yield actual conversation.
- muzani 4y agoIt's akin to "What's your favorite book?" being responded with "Have you considered that books maybe be untrue and are just reinforcing your biases?" It's become regular and tiresome on HN to have these "provocative comments" on top. When I click an Ask HN, I come for answers, not for someone educating me on how the question is stupid.
- mbostleman 4y agoColeman Hughes, Thomas Sowell, Ayn Rand, Milton Friedman, Friedrich Hayek
- dogcomplex 4y agoVenkatesh Rao (??? post-postmodernist tech philosopher?). Nicholas Taleb (skeptic/economist), Alexander Wales (rationalist author), /r/rational (rationalist fiction), Chapo Trap House podcast (leftist politics, comedy), Richard D Wolff (economist), Stephen West (philosophy historian), Jonathan Blow (game designer, skeptic programmer), Vitalik Buterin (kinda the only crypto person I trust who is genuinely smart) Then of course Noam Chomsky / Slavoy Zizek (famously-rigorously-intelligent leftists). William Macaskill (Effective Altruism, moral utilitarianism at its finest). Adam Curtis (prescient documentary-style reporter). Long list to not have a female on... feelsbad. Um - not sure how to change that - it seems like at least partially a general topic of interest thing? Not so many women in the philosophy/tech/economics/world-politics space? Kinda should actively search for that now tbh Edit: I was downvoted to negatives presumably for saying "ngl some cringe names around here"... referring of course to the much larger collection of Rand and Peterson fans than I expected. I have since acknowledged my mistake, that use of woke terms like "cringe" in this neutral-thought safe-space is itself clearly a far greater crime and thus my post should be cancelled, and there is no irony in that or inherent political bias embedded in the platform by maintaining such neutrality as sacrosanct above passive-aggressive behavior like mine
- SiempreViernes 4y agoIf you're fishing for female philosophers but aren't feeling inspired you can always punch in "feminism" on your computation device, that's the one field where women are unquestionably the hegemons. A lot of the books being recommended during the heights of BLM were also by women, so you can probably cast your net into that topic and get a good haul. Personally I'm more into finding good works rater than just an author to worship, so here's a fun little ditty critiquing american defence intellectuals: https://www.qub.ac.uk/Research/GRI/mitchell-institute/FileStore/Filetoupload,756488,en.pdf https://www.qub.ac.uk/Research/GRI/mitchell-institute/FileSt...
- LargoLasskhyfv 4y agoZe Morphogenetic Fieldz.
- erlend_sh 4y agoSam Harris (new atheism, meditation) Douglass Rushkoff (techno-anarchy, collectivism) Charles Eisenstein (ecosystems) Duncan Trussel (mysticysm, spirituality) Richard Rour (non-dual religiosity) Tara Brach (meditation) Sharon Salzburg (meditation) Jane McAlevey (organizer)
- dperalta 4y agoByung-Chul Han: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Byung-Chul_Han https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Byung-Chul_Han
- togs 4y agoMe
- BMc2020 4y agoSome More News had a great, if too brief, takedown of Jordan Peterson https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hSNWkRw53Jo&t=6719s https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hSNWkRw53Jo&t=6719s
- Isinlor 4y agoFor me personally: Alan Turing for model of computation Kurt Gödel for incompleteness theorem Erwin Schrödinger for "What is life?" book Hugh Everett for many-worlds interpretation of quantum mechanics Seth Lloyd for ultimate physical limits to computation John von Neumann for self-replicating spacecraft or von Neumann probe Robin Hanson for Grabby Aliens model Nick Bostrom for idea of existential risk Richard Dawkins for many God debates and books John Stuart Mill for Harm principle Elon Musk for rockets reusability Diogenes for simplicity and Diogenes and Alexander anecdote Horace for Exegi monumentum poem
- soheilpro 4y agoDerek Sivers (https://sive.rs https://sive.rs)
- deleted 4y ago[deleted]
- sn0w_crash 4y ago-Tim Dillon -Thomas Sowell -Jordan Peterson -John McWhorter -Lex Friedman -Joe Rogan Also this thread is an ideological doxxing but it’s hilarious
- james-redwood 4y agoSomeone that hasn’t been mentioned yet is Dominic Cummings. His Twitter page and Substack are fantastic.
- simonswords82 4y agoDominic "I check my eyesight during lockdowns" Cummings? This one? https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dominic_Cummings_scandal#:~:text=The%20Dominic%20Cummings%20scandal%2C%20or,pandemic%20in%20the%20United%20Kingdom https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dominic_Cummings_scandal#:~:te.... Public bullshitter perhaps but I wouldn't have him down as a public thinker
- infamia 4y agoFrederic Bastiat [0] is very underrated in my opinion. John McWhorter, whom I admire very much as a person and a thinker. [0] = The Law by Bastiat https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_Gob_pa3BAU https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_Gob_pa3BAU