Who are your favorite modern day intellectuals?

48 Laws wrote:

Here's a list of some of my favorites who come to my mind:

Noam Chompsky

Christopher Hitchens

Sam Harris

Oliver Sacks

Steven Pinker

Thomas Sowell

E.O. Wilson

Robert Greene

Malcolm Gladwell

....

Who are some of yours?

Wilson, Chomsky are good

Gladwell is totally overrated and there are people who have expressed what he bungles, much better. Most of it is about the audience. Like kanye west, he is not that bad considered by himself, but his fans are do***es, one middle class greedy and violent, the other middle class intellectual poseur. Both types of stupid fans equally serious with negative effects on humankind.

Pinker and Oliver sacks are OK, but same problem here. This is pop middle class cookie cutter taste. Everyone on Facebook having the same shared loser corporate tastes, and the same stupid books they were exposed to at cocktail parties or social sciences at their schools. Oh! But I was a n athlete with a great GPA! Oh I went to grad school and am a professional! But likely you fall into the majority, which is a middle class utterly ignorant and denying of their part in the evils of academia, law school and law, medical school and big pharma, agrochemical and so on.

I find it quite telling that you criticized several people mentioned yet offered none of your own. Quite telling indeed.

Dr. Cornel West

...and you misspelled "Chomsky" you doofus!

Peter Thiel

Donald Trump

At a time when there are 4 million listed positions in computer science, MIS, and software engineering and every parent wants their kids to grow up to be STEM majors, while liberal arts degrees are listed on the 10 worst college majors and law schools are closing because nobody wants to be a lawyer....

Does anybody actually care about intellectuals, you know, people who can't produce anything?

coach d wrote:

... people who can't produce anything?

... unlike ^this astonishing anonymous post on the internet.

Yaron Brook

coach d wrote:

At a time when there are 4 million listed positions in computer science, MIS, and software engineering and every parent wants their kids to grow up to be STEM majors, while liberal arts degrees are listed on the 10 worst college majors and law schools are closing because nobody wants to be a lawyer....

Does anybody actually care about intellectuals, you know, people who can't produce anything?

The utility of something is not dependent on the number of people that value that thing.

Maybe if you had taken more liberal arts classes, like logic, you wouldn't be employing such bad reasoning.

smile wrote:

coach d wrote:

At a time when there are 4 million listed positions in computer science, MIS, and software engineering and every parent wants their kids to grow up to be STEM majors, while liberal arts degrees are listed on the 10 worst college majors and law schools are closing because nobody wants to be a lawyer....

Does anybody actually care about intellectuals, you know, people who can't produce anything?

The utility of something is not dependent on the number of people that value that thing.

Maybe if you had taken more liberal arts classes, like logic, you wouldn't be employing such bad reasoning.

You do understand that logic is the basis for nearly all STEM courses? There is nothing more amusing to me than liberal arts folks (and other non-quantitative-types) acting like they are "analytical". Completely delusional.

Myself

48 Laws wrote:

Here's a list of some of my favorites who come to my mind:

Noam Chompsky

Christopher Hitchens

Sam Harris

Oliver Sacks

Steven Pinker

Thomas Sowell

E.O. Wilson

Robert Greene

Malcolm Gladwell

....

Who are some of yours?

Ugh, except for EO Wilson that's a terrible list. String theory is pretty much dead at this point. Thomas Sowell did some good stuff on the economics of culture back in the 70's and 80's but now he's just a shrill public policy intellectual. Noam Chomsky's politics are a bit shrill from the other side and his linguistics research hasn't aged well. Harris and Hitchens don't even classify as intellectuals. Neither does Malcolm Gladwell, and he's basically the reincarnation of Stephen Jay Gould and carries the same fatal flaws as Gould. Pinker is evolutionary psychology fundamentalist and he subscribes to the modular theory of the brain.

I like:

Herb Gintis

Tyler Cowen

Gerd Gigerenzer

I think both the Wilsons from evolutionary biology make the cut

Carl Sagan

Gladwell is an idiot. I like Oliver Sacks though.

The Great One - Mark Levin

Trey Parker. Sir Matthew Stone

I am not sure he is right about everything he does, but Gabor Mate is a very interesting and important thinker who challenges a lot of the status quo on psychology and health.

Steven Chu was a reasonably competent energy secretary for Obama but is a brilliant visionary for advancing alternatives to fossil fuels.

Elon Musk is generally a weirdo, but he is a rare combination of a hard core capitalist and futurist who is not afraid to bet large on what may not come to fruition for 20 to 30 years.

Arundhati Roy is a bit of a follower when it comes to political activism, but is excellent on issues of hunger, poverty and agriculture.

Naomi Klein may be the last great left wing journalist and intellectual.

Annoyed as Pie has been properly dubbed the genius of our time. His insight into tree counting while engaging in recovery runs with hobby joggers is beyond reproach.

"Chompsky" ---sounds legit.

Freeman Dyson and Gregory Bateson.