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Wall of heroes

These are the people I aspire to be like. I know I'm probably not going to win a Turing award, someday at the end of my career I'll be very happy if I can look back and think that these people would have been proud.

This list is very important to me.

Unless otherwise stated, if someone is on here it's for what they've done, rather than who they might be.

Ivan Sutherland

Created Sketchpad, greatest program of all time. Also made the first VR headset.

Bret Victor

Fearless explorer and inventor who builds on a set of deeply important principles. He's a great communicator and inspired me to pursue a different path in computer science. His talks are legendary, much like his work.

Alan Kay

A very thoughtful person whose has a keen and precise vision of a better future with computers

Doug Engelbart

In a mission to augment human intellect, invented the modern (a la 2010s) computer workstation in 1968.

Seymour Papert

Inventor of the LOGO childrens programming language and author 'Mindstorms', Papert foresaw the potential that computers have to change how we learn. Many of his ideas are still far ahead of today.

Frances Allen

Powerful advancements in the field of compiler optimization, which she shared openly.

Evan Wallace

He's a bit less known than others on the list, but an early inspiration of mine for his WebGL demos. Later I found out he created Figma and ESBuild. He's extremely talented, and I repeatedly stumble upon great things he has made.

Joe Armstrong

Visionary language designed and creator of Erlang. Designed systems that heal and don't fail