

Ask HN: Who/What would you have liked to have heard in college? - speek

If you were in college (computer science/engineering) and had the opportunity to hear absolutely anybody in the world give a talk, who would that person be and what would you want to hear?<p>Would you listen to Ray Kurzweil giving a talk about Transhumanism or his inventions? Would you listen to Richard Stallman giving a talk about the FSF?<p>Or would you rather hear someone give a talk about nutrition/something non-computer sciencey?<p>Names and topics would be really helpful.
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cake
I feel foolish but : Steve Jobs of course !
([http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UF8uR6Z6KLc&fmt=18](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UF8uR6Z6KLc&fmt=18))

He's a great storyteller, that's why I guess his keynotes are so successful.

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MikeMacMan
I would have liked someone to tell me the following:

1\. Double-major in something marketable + something unusual. It's important
to differentiate yourself early on, and an unusual skill, like say, Japanese
fluency, can open a lot of doors.

2\. Get good grades. Even if you think grades don't mean much, you might want
to go to grad school, or apply to some company that actually cares about
grades.

3\. I can't improve on Larry Page's commencement speech, so just watch that:
<http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qFb2rvmrahc>

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Mutio
Definitely marvin minsky (<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marvin_minsky>) . He
is pretty much the father of artificial intelligence, and not a bad speaker
either.

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Xichekolas
Peter Norvig... his talk at SS'08 made me wish he taught all my classes.

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mkyc
I think you mean 07?

<http://singinst.org/media/singularitysummit2007>

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Xichekolas
Was referring to Startup School (in 2008)...

But thanks for the link to a bunch of great videos! Watching them now.

Edit: Not the best quality, but video here:
<http://www.justin.tv/clip/116fb17d94c>

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naveensundar
Roger Penrose. <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Roger_Penrose>

~~~
pmjordan
Funny you should say that. He spoke at my graduation (York, 2006), and being a
graduation speech it was unfortunately relatively insight-free.

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grinich
Feynman.

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tlrobinson
RMS spoke at my college about FSF. If you're already familiar with FSF, etc,
then it won't be particularly interesting.

...until your econ major friend starts arguing with him, and he starts hurling
personal insults.

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zitterbewegung
I am in college but the people I would want to hear in College probably would
be John McCarthy Peter Norvig

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joe_bleau
I'd probably attend and listen to anything these people would talk about: Alan
Kay, Don Knuth, Feynman, Oppenheimer, Teller, Von Braun, Henry Ford, Edison,
Telsa, Edwin "Major" Armstrong (FM), Charlie Munger, Kary Mullis, Ray
Kurzweil, Alfred Loomis, Turing, the transistor boys (Shockley, Bardeen,
Brattain), Jim Williams (Linear Technology), Robert Pease (formerly National
Semi), Bob Widlar (National Semi), maybe even Wozniak.

I would not bother to attend a talk by any politician or Steve Jobs.

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justlearning
Ramanujam(indian mathematician with no formal training)
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Srinivasa_Ramanujan> \- for an insight into how
his thought process may be. Without all that formal training, how did he treat
maths?

Kathy Sierra -In college, there is nothing motivating than talks about "being
passionate" and "You can do it!" - talks. Kathy Sierra knows the hacks of the
brain (i think).

Someone who talks about HOW they hacked their way rather than someone who
presents their entire hardwork in one sentence. [for context, Adam Savage
talking about creating a dodo skeleton,
[http://fora.tv/2008/12/12/MythBusters_Co-
Host_Adam_Savage_on...](http://fora.tv/2008/12/12/MythBusters_Co-
Host_Adam_Savage_on_Obsession)]

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lleger
Steve Jobs, definitely. He has knowledge and skills that no college professor
can teach. To get a glimpse of his business genius would be unfathomably
valuable.

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scooby
Peter Diamendes, founder of the XPrize. Just heard him a few weeks ago... he
will blow anybody's mind.

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vinutheraj
Leonardo Da Vinci.

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mdolon
He was my childhood hero, still remains a big influence in all I do to this
day. Growing up I always wanted to be a "universal genius" like Da Vinci, so I
tried to pick up on science, music, art and pretty much anything I could get
my hands on. I think my admiration of his abilities and the realization that
he was just a man (like you or I) provided a lot of the drive and ambition I
now have. This does have the unfortunate consequence of producing a 'jack of
all trades, master of none' type persona, or at least it did for me.

So yes, it would have been amazing to hear him speak. =)

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aswanson
Any professor who had _Founders at Work_ as the textbook for his class.

A class in Nutrition would have been good for me too.

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edw519
Paul Graham, on how the industry has changed in the past 15 years ago and what
to do about it.

Or I could just read his essays, but a talk would be nice too.

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uptown
I devour everything that guy puts out. Any idea if he's got a twitter account?
The one w/ his name doesn't seem to be him.

~~~
jrockway
He does, however, have his own social news site.

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wheels
\- David Deutsch, driving force behind the formalization of quantum computing,
generally interesting in a wacky way,
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/David_Deutsch>

\- Stallman was interesting to hear in college.

\- Lawrence Lessig would also be really interesting.

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deutronium
Nikola Tesla

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chris11
I really would like to hear Douglas Hofstadter.

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thunk
Ben Franklin as motivational speaker. Title: Industry! Frugality!

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joshz
Brian Cox, the physicist. I missed a chance to see Stephen Hawking. Out of
some bigger names I saw Stallman, Mitnick and Desmond Tutu, all interesting
people.

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caffeine
Mohammed Yunus, the Dalai Lama .. (& Barack?)

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CarolynM
I did hear Dijkstra speak while I was in undergrad, on some graph algorithms.
That was a win.

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pingswept
Wendell Berry, as an intelligent counterpoint to all the enthusiasm about
technology

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sharpn
Alan Turing, Issac Newton or Jimi Hendrix

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xenophanes
David Deutsch on epistemology.

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travisjeffery
Leonhard Euler or Carl Gauss.

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prawn
Robert Hooke.

