Non-Musical Brilliance

[Bogey]

Who do you admire that you believe is just downright brillliant, outside of music that is?

[bhodges]

Architect Frank Gehry, especially after visiting Walt Disney Concert Hall a few times.  Even after you have been inside to marvel at the interior (which is gorgeous even with no music), when you return outside it is difficult to visualize "where" the hall is positioned in the seeming jumble of arcs, planes and other shapes.  Yet you know there's a concert hall inside, somewhere...

Granted, he benefits from CAD (i.e., computer-aided design) that allows the slightest "what if?" to be explored lightning fast, i.e., letting you know whether a proposed idea is possible without actually waiting to build it to find out.  (I like imagining the very first meeting with him and the Disney building contractors: "You've got to be kidding.  You want to do that?")  Gehry's vision is unique, and he has completely transformed most people's ideas of "what architecture can be." 

--Bruce

[Mozart]

Who do you admire that you believe is just downright brillliant, outside of music that is?

Archimedes of Syracuse
Euclid of Alexandria
Isaac Newton
and well

ME!

[BachQ]

Einstein
Shakespeare

[Greta]

(I like imagining the very first meeting with him and the Disney building contractors: "You've got to be kidding.  You want to do that?")

Can you imagine?



That's his sketch! Actually the page that image came from is hilarious, link below. The Simpsons had a show that featured "Frank Gehry" and "how he got his idea" - so funny.

http://blog.miragestudio7.com/2005/11/frank-gehry-and-the-simpsons/

[JoshLilly]

Kasparov. Thus far, completely unmatched. Sure, someday he will be surpassed in his ultimate strength; this is the way of all things. In a few more years, if one of these kids (say Magnus Carlsen) ends up having only powers equal to Kasparov's, the advances in chess opening theory during those years alone will make him stronger overall than Kasparov. But until then, Kasparov surely must stand at the top of any current list of brilliance; yes, along with the likes of Leonardo da Vinci, Hero of Alexandria, &c.

[Mozart]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=btc4wEjhPDk

Gehry in the Simpsons

Hahah I love this one..

[Tancata]

John Sulston.



Thanks largely to him, the human genome sequence is freely available. If patent-hungry Venter had got there first, it would have been a major and long-term disaster for biology. What he did was particularly brave given the current climate in science - if he wasn't as brilliant as he is, he would have been kicked out long ago. He also did great worm stuff.

Also, I have met Sulston and it is true...he is much more sufferable than most Nobel guys  .

Edit: Oh - let me add Darwin and Wallace to the list!
And JBS Haldane! The reasons should be obvious.
Ronald Fisher gets an honourable mention. He was downright brilliant, but I don't admire him.

[Mark]

British comediene, Victoria Wood.

I love everything she's done, and I still find myself marvelling at her comic genius every time I watch her shows.

[Mozart]

How about...THE SUN?

[Don]

General George S. Patton:

[JoshLilly]

Not to go off onto a tangent, or to question someone's nomination, but... oh hell, I'll do it anyway. Patton, brilliant?? Even if you wanted to name the most brilliant of military leaders, would Patton even be on the top 100 list?? Surely Field Marshall Erich von Manstein was superior in practically every respect - just to pull out an obvious contemporary. Was Patton really more brilliant than another WW2 commander, General Mikhail N. Tukhachevsky? Honestly, can you say that??? Sorry, but... dang.

Okay, okay, I'm a jerk for doing this, but I can't restrain myself.

[71 dB]

George Lucas
Steven Spielberg
Alvar Aalto
Osmo Soininvaara

[Bonehelm]

The future assassin of George Walker Bush.

[orbital]

Probably a lot of painters. I'd nominate a lot of them for originality &talent but for sheer brilliance Maurits C Escher comes to mind.

[EmpNapoleon]

Michael Jordan

Julius Caesar

They have a lot in common.

[cx]

Euler, Gauss, Riemann, Cauchy, etc.

I'm sure most of us will nominate only those who mastered fields we know/are interested in...

[71 dB]

Probably a lot of painters. I'd nominate a lot of them for originality &talent but for sheer brilliance Maurits C Escher comes to mind.

Escher! I should have included him to my list. 

[Don]

Not to go off onto a tangent, or to question someone's nomination, but... oh hell, I'll do it anyway. Patton, brilliant?? Even if you wanted to name the most brilliant of military leaders, would Patton even be on the top 100 list?? Surely Field Marshall Erich von Manstein was superior in practically every respect - just to pull out an obvious contemporary. Was Patton really more brilliant than another WW2 commander, General Mikhail N. Tukhachevsky? Honestly, can you say that??? Sorry, but... dang.

Okay, okay, I'm a jerk for doing this, but I can't restrain myself.

It's not a big deal.  I saw the Patton movie with George C. Scott yesterday, so his name easily came to mind. 

[Tancata]

Euler, Gauss, Riemann, Cauchy, etc.

I'm sure most of us will nominate only those who mastered fields we know/are interested in...

Yes, probably. Mainly to avoid looking like idiots  .

There are a number of especially writers, but also thinkers, politicos, painters etc etc I admire. But my taste in those areas is hardly unimpeachable  0:).