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Ask HN: Who/What would you have liked to have heard in college?

17 points by speek ↗ HN
If you were in college (computer science/engineering) and had the opportunity to hear absolutely anybody in the world give a talk, who would that person be and what would you want to hear?

Would you listen to Ray Kurzweil giving a talk about Transhumanism or his inventions? Would you listen to Richard Stallman giving a talk about the FSF?

Or would you rather hear someone give a talk about nutrition/something non-computer sciencey?

Names and topics would be really helpful.

36 comments

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scooby
Peter Diamendes, founder of the XPrize. Just heard him a few weeks ago... he will blow anybody's mind.
edw519
Paul Graham, on how the industry has changed in the past 15 years ago and what to do about it.

Or I could just read his essays, but a talk would be nice too.

uptown
I devour everything that guy puts out. Any idea if he's got a twitter account? The one w/ his name doesn't seem to be him.
jrockway
He does, however, have his own social news site.
access_denied
Not necessarily Paul, but in any case someone who has something to say about how the industry developed and is likely to develop. The historical / economic context in which you will work.
zitterbewegung
I am in college but the people I would want to hear in College probably would be John McCarthy Peter Norvig
caffeine
Mohammed Yunus, the Dalai Lama .. (& Barack?)
lleger
Steve Jobs, definitely. He has knowledge and skills that no college professor can teach. To get a glimpse of his business genius would be unfathomably valuable.
aswanson
Any professor who had Founders at Work as the textbook for his class.

A class in Nutrition would have been good for me too.

Xichekolas
Peter Norvig... his talk at SS'08 made me wish he taught all my classes.
vinutheraj
Leonardo Da Vinci.
mdolon
He was my childhood hero, still remains a big influence in all I do to this day. Growing up I always wanted to be a "universal genius" like Da Vinci, so I tried to pick up on science, music, art and pretty much anything I could get my hands on. I think my admiration of his abilities and the realization that he was just a man (like you or I) provided a lot of the drive and ambition I now have. This does have the unfortunate consequence of producing a 'jack of all trades, master of none' type persona, or at least it did for me.

So yes, it would have been amazing to hear him speak. =)

MikeMacMan
I would have liked someone to tell me the following:

1. Double-major in something marketable + something unusual. It's important to differentiate yourself early on, and an unusual skill, like say, Japanese fluency, can open a lot of doors.

2. Get good grades. Even if you think grades don't mean much, you might want to go to grad school, or apply to some company that actually cares about grades.

3. I can't improve on Larry Page's commencement speech, so just watch that: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qFb2rvmrahc

thunk
Ben Franklin as motivational speaker. Title: Industry! Frugality!
joshz
Brian Cox, the physicist. I missed a chance to see Stephen Hawking. Out of some bigger names I saw Stallman, Mitnick and Desmond Tutu, all interesting people.
chris11
I really would like to hear Douglas Hofstadter.
tlrobinson
RMS spoke at my college about FSF. If you're already familiar with FSF, etc, then it won't be particularly interesting.

...until your econ major friend starts arguing with him, and he starts hurling personal insults.

wheels
- David Deutsch, driving force behind the formalization of quantum computing, generally interesting in a wacky way, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/David_Deutsch

- Stallman was interesting to hear in college.

- Lawrence Lessig would also be really interesting.

pingswept
Wendell Berry, as an intelligent counterpoint to all the enthusiasm about technology
joe_bleau
I'd probably attend and listen to anything these people would talk about: Alan Kay, Don Knuth, Feynman, Oppenheimer, Teller, Von Braun, Henry Ford, Edison, Telsa, Edwin "Major" Armstrong (FM), Charlie Munger, Kary Mullis, Ray Kurzweil, Alfred Loomis, Turing, the transistor boys (Shockley, Bardeen, Brattain), Jim Williams (Linear Technology), Robert Pease (formerly National Semi), Bob Widlar (National Semi), maybe even Wozniak.

I would not bother to attend a talk by any politician or Steve Jobs.

sharpn
Alan Turing, Issac Newton or Jimi Hendrix