Who’s your favorite public thinker? | Hacker News Reader

Who’s your favorite public thinker?

34 points1penny42cents83 comments

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

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.

I don’t know why this is being downvoted, it’s completely true.

Sure but it isn’t helpful in context. It’s a bucket of cold water put on the entire conversation.

The "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.

It'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.

Just now got around to reading the replies.

I actually didn't intend to be tiresomely provocative, I think the other replies with lists of names are appropriate for the question posed.

I just wanted to post a sort memento to remind everybody that the names may be all worth looking into, but that we shouldn't take them as gurus.

We should always filter with our own minds.

Sorry for lashing out. I was sick, so I spent the weekend in bed scrolling through HN and it was just getting to me.

No worries, it's far from the worst I got on HN :)

The 'Decoding the Gurus' podcast is germane to that point: https://decoding-the-gurus.captivate.fm

Alexander Bogdanov: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alexander_Bogdanov

Walter Jackson Freeman III: https://web.archive.org/web/20160627160850/http://sulcus.ber...

Eric Schwitzgebel: http://www.faculty.ucr.edu/~eschwitz/

Walter Segal: http://www.segalbuildings.me.uk/

Adam Smith

David Graeber

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

Michael Sugrue

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

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

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

Il est... "aware"!

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.

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.

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

I 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.

Bertrand Russel, by a wide mile.

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

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

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.

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

I really like what he writes as well, especially: https://vividness.live/

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.

I grew up on Christopher Hitchens.

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.

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

Derek Sivers (https://sive.rs)

Byung-Chul Han: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Byung-Chul_Han

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

Edsger Dijkstra, Cal Newport, and Charlie Munger.

Seneca

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

Dominic "I check my eyesight during lockdowns" Cummings?

This one?

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dominic_Cummings_scandal#:~:te....

Public bullshitter perhaps but I wouldn't have him down as a public thinker

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

Hannah Arendt

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

Why don't you name a woman thinker you admire instead of complaining about other people choice.

Promotion is difficult, creation is difficult... destruction is always the easiest path.

I’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?

Build, create, promote what's good. Do the hard thing. Exactly what I said at the beginning of the statement.

Oh ... The toxicity is strong here.

backreaction blog

Elselijn Kingma

Gulnaz Sharafutdinova

Carol Cohn

Camille Paglia

It'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.

Maybe we are just a bunch of men. So we prefer men “public thinker”.

I guess we identify ourself to them easier.

A healthy spectrum of opinions you would say?

Any 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".

William Macaskill and his Effective Altruism.

Jennette McCurdy

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)

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

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

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.

I 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.

Ze Morphogenetic Fieldz.

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

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.

What specifically? What did he say that changed your values and the thoughts about you?

Lex 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

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

I'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...

Yup, 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.

> 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.).

If 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.

I think he's been advocating for libertarian socialism consistently for his entire life. He's always careful to distinguish it from state socialism, as in, for example: https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=Hr_Qp5k5zDY

I listened to 2 minutes and it seems promising, thank you.

Montaigne once said that he often found himself listening to multiple perspectives and being convinced by all of them, even when they contradicted one another.

Any specifics?

What ideas from Rand, Musk and Thiel in particular?

Bach has interesting ideas - I enjoy listening to him.

Well, I suggest you search them on youtube to have an accurate representation. They all have multiple interviews available. I will probably butcher them and it's not going to be exhaustive, but from the top of my head:

Peter Thiel: His contrarian views enlightened me many many times, for example his views that higher education is not a temple of knowledge anymore, but a big elitist economic bubble. I also suggest you read his book Zero to One, I liked it a lot.

Elon Musk: One could argue he's not really a thinker, since he's working so much on his businesses. Even so, it's evident that he thinks a lot and very deeply. He's willing to figure out the big picture of what's good for humanity and go all-in on it.

Rand: Her philosophy and her system of values which is in a deep contrast with what is preached everywhere else. This would be a start: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mQVrMzWtqgU

Thanks for clarifying.

What’s your view on Thiel supporting Trump? Why would a deep thinker support a charlatan, destructive and narcissistic person like Trump? Zero to one had some good ideas.

And Elon apparently isn’t really a deep thinker. A good hype person… yes. Most of his projects are vanity projects, e.g hyperloop, neurolink, self driving cars etc. He badly wants to be seen as a real life Tony Stark. He’s also a narcissist and a terrible leader… e.g. the hyperloop project was to derail a public transport project.[01]

There is also a good video series outlining Musk’s false claims [02]

And Rand’s ideas are toxic [03]… just look at the state of America… huge inequalities in the richest country of the world. Or UK also getting worse… thanks to a similar mindset. Dog eat dog world… self interest trumps helping others to maintain a stable society.

[01] https://sfist.com/2022/08/11/musk-backlash-continues-with-ti...

[02] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KeUvcJUdRK0

[03] https://www.pbs.org/newshour/economy/column-this-is-what-hap...

I didn't write my choices to start debating them with people. People are more than what you or I think of them. Be mindful of your reductionist view towards other people. You have done that 3 times in your reply.

1- Here's a video explaining his rationale: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CU5TIKTZzk4

2- Yeah, no. Elon has accomplished more than all of us and it will surely stay that way until we die. So I'm not going to tolerate you calling him a hype person, a narcissist and a terrible leader when he has a track record of immense success. He's aiming high with ambitious ideas, who cares if Hyperloop didn't work after all. Try to make a business successful and see how difficult it is.

3- You seem again, to rely on opinion hit pieces to forge your ideas.

I believe this forum exists so people like us can have a civilized debate. Hence why I wanted to find out more why you support the people you listed.

1) Supporting Trump - a populist - was a terrible idea. Thiel's rationale doesn't make sense in this context. If you support a known liar and narcissist who doesn't care about the country then you get what we have now - an ever more divided country and 6th of Jan insurrection attempt - where people died.

2) When experts in the field Musk has businesses in are calling him out on his false claims then I think it's not just opinion based but based on fact. When it comes to Hyerloop, he had no intention to make it a success. It was purely to benefit his business - Tesla. Selling Tesla as self-driving cars and people believing it has cost actual lives as well. Again - Elon doesn't care - he only cares about himself. Or what about calling a rescue diver a pedo. This alone tells you a lot about his character.

3) Look at the state of the US - do you think it's going well? A lot of those folks that are in power believe in Rand's ideas.

So it's not opinion based - but observational and listening to the expert and scientific community.

I agree with you - we need bold visionaries - but Thiel and Musk are not those people. Both are exploitative.

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

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

Jordan Peterson Elon Musk Douglas Adams

What ideas from Peterson and Musk resonate with you?

This comment is the epiphany of failure.

Slavoy Zizek Jordan Petersson

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

If 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/FileSt...

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