from Hacker News

Who’s your favorite public thinker?

by 1penny42cents on 8/21/22, 6:19 PM with 83 comments

Someone who’s ideas resonate with you deeply and who you would recommend everyone to at least know about

  • by leto_ii on 8/21/22, 9:04 PM

    I 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.

  • by pessimizer on 8/21/22, 8:41 PM

  • by poxwole on 8/21/22, 7:53 PM

    Noam Chomsky. The man is a true prophet and renaissance man. Everytime I listen to him I learn something new

  • by aamargulies on 8/21/22, 9:02 PM

    Michael Sugrue

    https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PLB5ShJRcpNFPz_2uazuT4XJ3y...

    I didn’t think it possible to learn this much this quickly.

  • by ycombinatorrio on 8/21/22, 8:37 PM

    - Jean-Claude Vandamme esp. his life advices - Jean-Pierre Raffarin "Ze yes nid ze no" - Lorie who artistically taught us about "La positive attitude"

  • by orware on 8/21/22, 9:01 PM

    I'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)

    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-Prosperi... https://www.amazon.com/Wisdom-James-Allen-Difficulties-Trium... 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.

  • by thomassmith65 on 8/21/22, 7:43 PM

    Jeffrey 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.

  • by mindcrime on 8/21/22, 8:05 PM

    Hard to pick just one, but a couple of top choices would include:

    Ben Goertzel

    Joscha Bach

    Michael Munger

    Michael Posner

    Miguel Nicolelis

    Melanie Mitchell

  • by andrewprock on 8/21/22, 8:29 PM

    Bertrand Russel, by a wide mile.

    Spent years proving 1+1=2, and delved deep into the intersection between reason and philosophy.

  • by skywal_l on 8/21/22, 7:59 PM

    Epicurus. 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

  • by stene on 8/21/22, 7:02 PM

    Right now, I'd say Robin Hanson (@robinhanson https://www.overcomingbias.com/).

    Mostly resonates with me because he seems to freely challenge established norms in very thought provoking ways.

  • by soldeace on 8/21/22, 8:42 PM

    David Chapman, hands down. The kind of insights I get reading his pieces can't be found anywhere else on the internet: https://meaningness.com

  • by mikewarot on 8/21/22, 7:32 PM

    Peter 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.

  • by ilrwbwrkhv on 8/21/22, 8:42 PM

    I grew up on Christopher Hitchens.

  • by randcraw on 8/21/22, 7:30 PM

    Derek Lowe of “In the Pipeline” blog. He's informed, rational, and knows when to stop talking. John Oliver. I used to enjoy Christopher Hitchens.

  • by infamia on 8/22/22, 10:02 PM

    Frederic 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

  • by soheilpro on 8/22/22, 12:37 AM

    Derek Sivers (https://sive.rs)

  • by dperalta on 8/21/22, 9:28 PM

  • by Isinlor on 8/21/22, 11:54 PM

    For 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

  • by selfhifive on 8/21/22, 8:39 PM

    Edsger Dijkstra, Cal Newport, and Charlie Munger.

  • by misterioss on 8/21/22, 7:55 PM

    Seneca

  • by james-redwood on 8/22/22, 6:02 AM

    Someone that hasn’t been mentioned yet is Dominic Cummings. His Twitter page and Substack are fantastic.

  • by cnorthwood on 8/21/22, 8:38 PM

    Rutger Bregman in a big picture build a better world way. Shon Faye in the lens of individual liberty.

  • by redwood on 8/21/22, 8:42 PM

    Hannah Arendt

  • by janikvonrotz on 8/21/22, 8:31 PM

    Is there really no woman to be named? What is the gender issue with public thinkers?

  • by xcambar on 8/21/22, 8:38 PM

    William Macaskill and his Effective Altruism.

  • by braingenious on 8/21/22, 9:00 PM

    Jennette McCurdy

  • by erlend_sh on 8/21/22, 9:26 PM

    Sam 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)

  • by sn0w_crash on 8/22/22, 1:44 AM

    -Tim Dillon -Thomas Sowell -Jordan Peterson -John McWhorter -Lex Friedman -Joe Rogan

    Also this thread is an ideological doxxing but it’s hilarious

  • by bmacho on 8/21/22, 6:58 PM

    smbc comic author Zach Weinersmith.

    He mostly takes concepts (from a board range of fields), and abuses them, and it turns out to be funny.

  • by LargoLasskhyfv on 8/21/22, 9:13 PM

    Ze Morphogenetic Fieldz.

  • by mbostleman on 8/21/22, 9:06 PM

    Coleman Hughes, Thomas Sowell, Ayn Rand, Milton Friedman, Friedrich Hayek

  • by eftokay83 on 8/21/22, 8:43 PM

    Prof. 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.

  • by togs on 8/21/22, 9:38 PM

    Me

  • by jfabre on 8/21/22, 8:45 PM

    In 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

  • by BMc2020 on 8/21/22, 9:45 PM

    Some More News had a great, if too brief, takedown of Jordan Peterson

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hSNWkRw53Jo&t=6719s

  • by ultrablack on 8/21/22, 9:03 PM

    Jordan Peterson Elon Musk Douglas Adams

  • by Witosso on 8/21/22, 8:41 PM

    Slavoy Zizek Jordan Petersson

  • by dogcomplex on 8/21/22, 9:11 PM

    Venkatesh 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