

Ask HN: Greatest Living Thinkers Today - paraschopra
http://www.paraschopra.com/blog/personal/greatest-living-thinkers-today.htm

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michael_dorfman
Am I the only one who finds the notion of (for example) Seth Godin on a list
of "Greatest Living Thinkers" to be terrifying?

And would it be to much to ask to see, maybe, a philosopher or mathematician
or two listed?

~~~
antiform
What I find scarier (or more interesting) is that if all I read were Hacker
News, I would have a list that would be exactly the same as the author's.

Perhaps a better question would be what do all these people have in common,
other than being successful, accomplished males with reputations for being
irreverent?

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unalone
I wouldn't pretend to know. I know the people I consider to be the best in
their respective fields, but I would never pretend that that equates to
"thinking" because frankly, "thinking" is all-too-often a bullshit phrase that
means nothing.

If I had to name some people I thought were really making a mark on the world
(and my list is biased immensely towards artists), that list would include:

* David Lynch, who I think deserves to be on the list for Eraserhead alone;

* Mark Z Danielewski, one of the very few writers I know who manages both to be fascinating, deep, experimental, and a good read;

* Steve Jobs, who has done more for the high-end consumer market than anybody else I know and who has seemingly unfailing instincts;

* Nobuo Uematsu, who is easily my favorite modern composer and who manages to write unique yet powerfully thematic pieces consistently; and

* Philip Glass, who is an absolute master of his style of composition.

But I wouldn't say that these people are necessarily the greatest thinkers
today. They're just the ones whose work fascinates me, the ones who I feel are
innovating the most honestly within their field.

------
clueless
[http://freakonomics.blogs.nytimes.com/2008/06/17/who-is-
the-...](http://freakonomics.blogs.nytimes.com/2008/06/17/who-is-the-greatest-
modern-day-thinker/)

------
tbrooks
Tim Keller is pretty high on my list.
<http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Kxup3OS5ZhQ>

