This page is an open letter of gratitude to some of my favorite people ever. For a handful of reasons, I really admire everyone here and they have significantly influenced my dreams and core values.
My goal is both to thank those listed and to share with any other readers what I find so remarkable about them.
Ron Jarzombek
Ron Jarzombek is, easily, one of the most creative and dedicated musicians whose work I know of. I am a fan especially of his band Blotted Science.
One thing that separates Ron from other guitarists is his history of scoring songs to film. The Animation of Entomology, for example, is exceptionally unique not only for being entirely scored to horror films, but for using bugs as the main horrific element compared to the usual violent stuff you find in metal. But his music is not thematically limited to horror. I was lucky to discover The Cereal Mouse as a kid because someone had charted it to Tap Tap Reloaded as a playable track. That song is scored to a scene from Charlotte’s Web and has a completely different sound from Blotted Science. It’s bright and whimsical but with all of Ron’s characteristic technical chops. For sounding so unorthodox, it’s delightfully coherent. Pretty much only Ron can pull off writing a song like that.
Beyond the unthinkable guitar-playing and song-writing virtuosity, Ron has produced a ton of free and publicly available educational content about his music and the processes behind it. He has also written and released much of the tablature for his songs for free. You can find all of that on Ron’s website and YouTube channel.
Annie Rauwerda (Depths Of Wikipedia)
Depths Of Wikipedia (DoW) highlights pockets of particularly great content on Wikipedia and shares it publicly across social media platforms. Annie Rauwerda created DoW during the Covid lockdown and it has since reached a large audience.
I enjoy the quirky fun facts, but my appreciation for Annie and DoW goes deeper. She is working hard to help to solve the problem of “unknown unknowns” which I think is a seriously worthwhile goal. In other words, she is teaching to a variety of interests and helping people to exceed prior perspective constraints by discovering new topics of understanding, not just drilling deeper into familiar territory.
Reducing “unknown unknowns” is an essential part of education. It’s hard to do alone, though, since being unaware of a concept usually means being unable to effectively educate yourself on it. So we are reliant on social learning for that, somewhat (though LLMs are getting really good at helping too). The onus is mainly on great teachers to interpolate which missing concepts would be most useful to their students and teach them. It’s great to see any skilled teacher step up to that challenge. But, arguably, Annie’s work with DoW has affected many more students, through a broader range of topics, than the typical teacher can.
Guiding viewers to fun and interesting phenomena on Wikipedia is an excellent way to reduce “unknown unknowns.” Annie’s influence with DoW helped inspire FITM.
Mark Minervini
“FinTwit” was a deceptive community, in my experience. A lot of users were inactive, unprofessional, or plainly mean (nothing by 2024 Twitter standards). But a handful of knowledgeable, magnanimous voices made it, overall, a forest of investment wisdom. From about 2018-2021, my period of active stock trading and keeping up with the community, Mark Minervini stands out as a paragon of excellence and honor from the FinTwit world. Despite the usual Twitter personalities, Mark returned to the trenches week after week to encourage new and/or struggling traders with thoughtful and powerful words. Here’s one of many such tweets as an example.
Mark’s trading journey is unique. He learned about speculation in the 1980s as an independent, uneducated (dropped out of high school) rock drummer. He struggled for years while self-teaching, analyzing quote data he recorded by hand from newspapers. (Bear in mind that it was also common then for buy/sell commissions to cost a few hundred dollars each.) He endured the difficulty for about 6 years and crawled into profitability. In 1997 Mark became the US Investing Champion, and again in 2021. Several of his students in the Minervini Private Access program have also ranked highly in USIC competitions.
Outside of trading and mentoring, Mark is the author of several books about his trading approaches and his thoughts about building a good life. I have read Trade Like a Stock Market Wizard, which was enjoyable and informative. He also likes to jam out on the drums.
If you are someone like Mark, it’s probably tempting to relax and enjoy the life you’ve made. Still, he continues to cheer on fans, many anonymous, and drive them to give their best to trading and beyond. He seems truly delighted to see everyone else win, in their own way, and for that I love seeing him win too.
Aaron Swartz
It’s shocking how many vital, ubiquitous features of the modern web tie back to Aaron Swartz’s vehement efforts. During his tragically short life, Aaron contributed to the authoring of RSS 1.0 in 2000 at age 14, helped to build and proliferate Creative Commons copyright license formats [1] in 2002, inspired and guided development of Markdown language in 2002, and helped to lauch Reddit.com in 2005 (rewriting the codebase using web.py, which he created and open-sourced).
Aaron also bravely confronted informational and political injustice through a range of influential commitments. He became an early leader of the Progressive Change Campaign Committee (PCCC) in 2009, which raises millions annually from small donors to fund uphill advocacy initiatives for fairer governance, and in 2010 he co-founded the Demand Progress organization which raises support for Internet transparency and freedom. Demand Progress played a critical role in the fight to halt passing of the Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA) and PROTECT IP Act (PIPA), whose terms would have annihilated online free speech as we know it and gutted the creative and expressive potential of sites like YouTube, Facebook, Reddit, and others that billions use today (that is, if these acts did not first destroy the global Domain Name System and render the remaining detritus of the web insecure, mechanically unreliable, and inhospitable to further organic growth [2]).
Moved by his belief that information should be free for everyone and separate from profit-driven enterprise (an opinion I share), Aaron attempted in 2010-11 to illegally collect numerous academic journals from JSTOR while connected to MIT’s private network. He was charged with wire fraud and violations of the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act, facing up to 35 years in prison, asset forfeiture, restitution, supervised release, and up to $1 million in fines [3]. Neither MIT nor JSTOR pursued prosection; the charges came solely from the United States Attorney’s Office in Boston. Aaron’s harsh and controversial prosection led to his suicide in 2013.
Rest in peace, Aaron. Your sacrifices have made countless lives so much better.
[1]. an introduction to why Creative Commons is so important
[2]. https://circleid.com/pdf/PROTECT-IP-Technical-Whitepaper-Final.pdf
Justin Wong
Justin Wong, unlike others on this page, is not an educator per se. But his achievements have educated fans on the limitless potential of practice and determination. He is a professional fighting game player who I came to know as an icon in the community of Ultimate Marvel vs. Capcom 3, my favorite video game ever.
In the early years of “Mahvel”’s life, Justin was a frequent finalist in tournaments. Despite being infamously unbeatable in the previous edition of the series, Justin was often considered an underdog in Marvel 3. It’s frankly not a very fair game, and tactics to produce nearly riskless victories were, even in 2013, well-known. Many abused these strategies against Justin but he (almost) never ceded and joined them. He stuck to a relatively fair gameplan, making it harder for himself. Why? I believe it comes from the opinion, which I agree with, that the process of truly earning a victory is more important than just getting one.
(You might be thinking, “that sounds like a bad game if it’s so unfair,” and you would be right. But it’s also an amazing game for reasons I won’t get into here.)
Still, he often came out ahead through incredible skill and some other mysterious force. A name was given to it: the “Wong Factor.” The phenomenon which caused him to suddenly, in the most dire and hopeless moments, make the exact decisions and executions needed to clutch a game. Beholding the Wong Factor in the finals of Evolution 2013 and 2014 was like witnessing magic happen. I consider it a defining moment of my life. It was an immaculate display of talent but, more importantly, it was a broadcast to the world that nothing is impossible.
Years later, I still occasionally replay Justin’s matches from that era. If he did that, what else might be possible that few believe in?
By the way, in the decade-plus and thousands of Marvel matches I have spectated and played, Justin Wong is the only player I have ever seen to pull off that same-side overhead mixup from the Evo 2013 clip linked above. Nobody even attempts that mixup because if your opponent isn’t scared shitless then it’s basically guaranteed to fail and leave your character for certain death.
Justin only used that mixup twice as far as I know: once in 2013 in Evo Grand Finals against Flocker, and once more here in 2022, nearly 10 years later, against Chris G. Chris G is another Evo champion and multi-time Evo finalist who is renowned for his composure and defensive skill. Chris G blocks everything. But not the simplest possible mixup when it’s dealt by an absolute master.
Tim Ferriss
Tim Ferriss does a lot of things, but personally I am most grateful for the effort he has put into The Tim Ferriss Show. Like Annie Rauwerda, Tim does a spectacular job of offering people fun ways to shed “unknown unknowns.” His podcasts are typically interviews/conversations, and guests come from a range of backgrounds. Of the handful of podcasts I have tested, it is by far the one with the highest average episode quality.
What makes Tim’s podcast so good? A mix of interesting subject matter (for virtually all tastes), great questions (often the same or variations… because they work well), focused conversions with few detours, a willingness to congratulate and empower rivals (the opposite suggests selfish ulterior motives and is a red flag, in my opinion) and, often, a sincerity between speakers that other podcasts lack.
Tim is the author of several great books and has recommended others (both directly and indirectly, e.g., by bringing on a guest who recommends one) that I have also loved. A few noteworthy recommendations were Vagabonding by Rolf Potts and Anything You Want by Derek Sivers. His own works tend to focus on performance optimization but, compared to alternatives in that genre, also offer a refreshing dose of humor and good spirit. He is very transparent about personal struggles, endeavoring not to portray the typical image of the “unflappable juggernaut” (his words) self-help coach. That authenticity amounts to approachable and inspiring writing, I think. Tim’s deft word choice (see aforementioned example) is always a treat and has drawn me to attempt more writing too.
Paul Graham
Paul Graham (PG), through brilliant and prolific rhetoric, has also nudged me to start writing more in public. PG has written a lot on his own website. Those essays are a goldmine of clear and practical ideas. A few that I especially like are How to Write Usefully, How to Do What You Love, and Maker’s Schedule, Manager’s Schedule. I don’t know of another writer having both PG’s technical experience and appetite for dissecting psychology and behavior. Consider exploring his articles page if you haven’t already.
Aside from great essays, PG is responsible for creating Hacker News, one of my favorite and most-visited Internet sites. (Fun fact: the HN backend is written in Arc, a dialect of the Lisp programming language which PG authored. It is possibly the only use of Arc used in production code today.) He is also well known for his role at YCombinator, helping to identify and sponsor important startups to bring dreams to reality. I don’t tend to glorify venture capital, but I really like some companies/nonprofits that YC has backed (Reddit and 80,000 Hours, for instance).
Despite huge success, PG is humble, compassionate, and happy to see others succeed. Maybe being a father helps to cultivate that positivity. I respect and thank him a lot for his commitment to improving broad quality of life through startup advising, setting Hacker News on a path to greatness, and openly sharing his thoughtful excerpts with the world.
Terry Crews
Terry Crews hardly needs an introduction. What do I admire so much about him that has got him featured here? Terry has spoken openly about his journey to overcome toxic aggression. It’s no surprise that he wound up that way (abusive father, football player lauded for toughness), but it is incredible who Terry has become since then. He has not only undone his tendency for violence, but has become an icon of love and joy among fans.
Admitting fault is difficult, especially at the core identity level. For Terry to voluntarily give up toughness, a key ingredient in his recipe for fame and success, in order to align with higher ideals and live happily, is a real show of character. I can’t understate the importance, nor the difficulty, of such a choice.
Terry, like most people on this list, is someone who had ample chances to sell out but never did. He could have found other partners after his affair was discovered, without internally reconciling the crime of infidelity. He could have continued to live violently, especially since it is arguably a virtue in competitive football. He has been offered an easier but less honorable life many times, but has instead chosen to become a role model for the community, particularly for men who battle the addiction of feeling tough.
Joyce Kaufman
Joyce Kaufman is my grandma, who is also the kindest and most selfless person I’ve ever known. She lives in Elma, NY in the same ramshackled farmhouse where she raised my dad and his 5 siblings. If I had to summarize her favorite things in approximate order, they would be 1) hugs, 2) making people laugh, and 3) telling you all about how much she loved my grandpa, Sol.
Joyce has always done her best to provide for those around her, regardless of lineage or any other differences. She fostered many kids and pets throughout her adult life, both temporarily and indefinitely. My aunt Jessica and uncle Dan are two such kids, but I’ve only ever known them as family because that’s how she treats everyone. Years before I was born, she and grandpa would invite kids and teenagers over from Buffalo inner-city group homes during the summers, some of whom had committed horrific crimes, and they would enjoy picnics together, play in the lawn or by the pool, and try to give everyone a great time.
My grandpa suffered from pretty severe dementia toward the end of his life, and caring for him became a huge challenge for Joyce. She refused to ever send him away to assisted living. She wanted to be together, and devoting a decade of her life to keeping him safe until he passed was worth that.
She was my very first idol, before I even realized it. I love you, grandma.