Influencers — Updated 2023.04
This is a list of people who have inspired and shaped my thinking and the way I approach life over time. Although I have never met any of them in person, I consider them mentors from afar.
The list below only features authors and personalities whom I’ve read significantly — in the form of books, blogs, or podcasts. However, other relevant sources who have also taught me quite a bit, are excluded, as I feel that I haven’t still explored their work enough. I don’t feel comfortable considering them “true mentors”, yet.
I also want to emphasize that I have learned the most from my mentors in real life. Perhaps that will become another list in the future.
Modern thinkers
- Balaji Srinivasan
- Daniel Kahneman
- Eric Weinstein
- Jordan Peterson
- Lex Fridman
- Nassim Taleb
- Naval Ravikant
- Sam Harris
- Steven Pinker
- Tim Urban
- Tristan Harris
- Yuval Noah Harari
Product
- Ben Evans
- Ben Thompson
- Chris Dixon
- Eugene Wei
- Horace Deidu
- John Gruber
- Matt Ball
- Packy McCormick
- Tobias Lütke
Life advice
- Derek Sivers
- Cal Newport
- Celeste Headlee
- Greg McKeown
- Kevin Rose
- Malcolm Gladwell
- Oliver Buckerman
- Scott Adams
- Seth Godin
- Tim Ferriss
Health
Investing
- Charlie Munger and W. Buffett
- Dan Ariely
- Ray Dalio
- Steven Levitt and Stephen Dubner
- Tyler Cowen
Physics
- Carlo Rovelli
- Michio Kaku
- Neil deGrasse Tyson
- Richard P. Feynman
- Robert Reid
- Sean M. Carroll
- Steven Weinberg
Philosophy
- Anthony de Mello
- Ryan Holiday
- Sebastian Junger
- William B. Irvine
Old thinkers
- Arthur Schopenhauer
- Cato the Younger
- Epictetus
- Friedrich Nietzsche
- H. David Thoreau
- Marcel Proust
- Marcus Aurelius
- Michel de Montaigne
- R. Waldo Emerson
- Seneca the Younger