Linus Pauling thought Vitamin C cured everything. Isaac Newton spent half his time working on weird Bible codes. Nikola Tesla pursued mad energy beams that couldn’t work. Lynn Margulis revolutionized cell biology by discovering mitochondrial endosymbiosis, but was also a 9-11 truther and doubted HIV caused AIDS. Et cetera. Obviously this should happen. Genius often involves coming up with an outrageous idea contrary to conventional wisdom and pursuing it obsessively despite naysayers. But nobody can have a 100% success rate. Einstein seems to have batted a perfect 1000 (unless you count his support for socialism). But failure shouldn’t surprise us. - Scott Alexander
Makishima Shogo
Character from Psycho-Pass — embodies the “Lost Einstein” archetype: unconventional thinker, avid reader, philosophical.
“Books are not something that you just read words in. They’re also a tool to adjust your senses.”
Physical books as mental tuning tool — tactile sensation of paper and page-turning helps regulate focus. Alludes to Philip K. Dick’s Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? — identity, humanity, artificial life.
See also: Makishima Shogo (full notes)
People
Links to thinkers and interesting people documented in People:
- Adam Cristi
- Adam Nela
- Aella
- Alex Becker
- Alex K. Chen
- Alexander Obenauer
- Alexey Navalny
- Ali Abdaal
- Alina Paunescu
- Andreessen Horowitz
- Andrej Karpathy
- Andrew Tang
- Andrew Tate
- Arno Breker
- Asmongold
- Auren App
- Ayanokoji Kiyotaka
- Brian Muraresku
- Colin Wright
- Destiny
- Dr. K
- Dwarkesh Patel
- Edward Witten
- George Hotz
- George Soros
- Gurwinder
- Gwern
- Jackson Hinkle
- Jacque Fresco
- JK Molina
- Joe Rogan
- John Stuart Mill
- Jordan Peterson
- Josh Duffney
- Kendrick Lamar
- Koos Looijesteijn
- Lex Fridman
- Linus Torvalds
- Mark Fischer
- Martin Shkreli
- Mr. Girl
- Nat Friedman
- Naval Ravikant
- Nelson Quest
- Nick Lane
- Patrick Collison
- Peter Hitchens
- Quantum field theory
- Queens of Sports YouTube channel
- Ross Ulbricht
- Rothschild
- Shawn Ryan
- Sheldon Cooper
- Sigma male
- Sigmund Freud
- Stephen Malina
- Tom Bombadil
- Tony Riddle
- Tyler Cowen
- Von Neumann
- Zvi
- robertus55 🕹️
- Light Yagami
- Yuji Itadori
- Jujutsu Kaisen
- Gus Fring
- Jason Bourne