I am, as anyone who knows me will tell, almost pathologically suspicious of authority figures. I’m also a bit freaked by people who are too similar to me (one of the reasons why I held back from moving to SF for so long is walking into a bar where everyone looked like me, smoked like me, languidly slumped in their seats like me and talked forever about computers).
On the other hand, I do have heroes, lots of heroes. They’re generally people who are somewhat bit like me, but in some way … better. My plan in these cases is to monitor these people carefully, and see if I can’t assimilate their more noble characteristics as my own. I vaguely hope at the same time they get something good out of the trade too – certainly good enough for them to be friends with me.
I like this strategy: it means that I often end up friends with my heroes. I prefer heroes you can hang out with than heroes on stamps.
Anyway, my heroes right now are Zooko and Cory Doctorow. I’ve met both of them; when we met, we bumbled around, having fun in both cases. It’s not like either of them are Doc Savage in real life; I think you’d class all three of us in that “bright-looking, somewhat dazed info-feeders” category. But, man, does their work blow me away: it’s got that feel of the attainable goal, of just stepping outside of the tight loops of your daily life and trying to reach something just a bit further out. In both cases, they inspire you (or rather me) to sit down and do some hard thinking. Also, every time I read Zooko’s diary entries about his son Irby, I want to go out and buy a box load of toddlers. I’m not sure if that’s a noble goal or not. Zooko certainly makes it seem like one.