A list of men and women I admire because they are mavericks. These are true individuals who made a difference. They have changed my view of the world. And they did it quickly.

10/04/2022 [Update] — Just a little tidying up. I need to review this page, maybe even redo it. There are some YouTube channels i might add. The biggest change will be using a different word that mavericks. It implies they did what they did on their own. They all had helpers, but they each contributed something unique to the world.

7/29/2014 [Update]— So I’m putting the update above this list this time. Other updates below. I’ve added a few names. Some of those names play bigger in my imagination than others. I don’t mean to give women short shrift in my list, so I’ll work on adding more of them to it as well. Ayn Rand would have been on the list at one time because I did read a lot of her non-fiction too, but her ideas are basically unworkable and damaging.

  • Richard Feyman
  • Joseph Campbell
  • Isaac Asimov
  • Carl Sagan
  • Martin Gardner
  • R. Buckminster Fuller
  • Bruce Lee
  • Monty Roberts, Horse Whisperer
  • Cesar Milan, Dog Whisperer
  • Lon Chaney, Sr.
  • Lee Covey, Seven Habits
  • Covert Bailey, Fit or Fat
  • Freeman Dyson
  • Gerard K. O’Neill
  • John Gardner, Grendel
  • Joel Salatin, Polyface Farms
  • Julian May
  • Julian Jaynes
  • Douglas Hofstadter
  • Robert Heinlein
  • Arthur C. Clarke
  • Ted Wong
  • Robert Kerbo, JKD instructor
  • Graham Kendall
  • Elizabeth Moon
  • Nikola Tesla
  • Nikolai Gogol
  • Adam Smith
  • Occupy Wall Street
  • Vangelis
  • Darryl Merle, my dad
  • Teddy Roosevelt
  • Howard Zinn
  • Gayaleen Williams, my high school chemistry teacher

More names to come and and explanation of why I chose them.

9/15/2008 [Update] — This is an election season and there is one name conspicuously absent. John McCain. He may have been a maverick–and I’m being generous here–but only up until 2006. Then he sold out to the Bush administration. I don’t admire all mavericks only the ones that inspire me, so even if McCain could be classified as one by my definition, I do not admire him. In fact, I feel sorry for him. Here’s a man who’s given so much to his country who’s sold out his principles in order to win an election. I know I would have voted for him in 2000 if he’d gotten the nomination. Much to my shame and regret I did vote for Bush in 2000.

11/14/2008 [Update]— The election is over. Obama won. McCain gave a very gracious concession speech. Even though I know the next four years will be tough, we now have the leadership that will get us through it.

I’m going to repurpose this website and probably sanitize it. Remove all of the non-professional material. Nothing on the Intertubes is gone forever. Free speech is free speech. There are stories about people losing their jobs for what they post online. Well there isn’t much I can do about that now. If I wanted to live in a cardboard box, I’d have stayed off the net. I’ll leave my more personal stuff that I feel like sharing on another site. I think it’s more important for those that know me about what I don’t say online.

5/14/2012 [Update]—  I added a few more names. The last four years have been tough. President Obama has had an incredibly tough job. He’s accomplished a lot, but he’s also failed us a lot. Rather than things being better they didn’t get too much worse. He’s managed to stave off some of the worst. So that’s something. Not looking forward to this election. He’ll probably win re-election but Congress will probably go totally to the Republicans. The only bright spot in all of this is Occupy Wall Street. Dunno how that is going to play out, but however it does it will be ugly but not on their part. It will be the ugliness done against them.