“I have 16,011 subscribers and I would like to tell them about smart people to subscribe to. Who are the smartest FriendFeed'ers around? Any physicists? Scientists? Doctors? Economists? Lawyers? Chemists? Material scientists?”
July 12 at 10:54 pm
- Link
Pedro Beltrao, Ricardo Vidal, Michael Nielsen and 21 other people liked this
I'm not anything you cited :( - directeur
via NoiseRiver
I usually prefer "dumber" people. They are more interesting :) - Tim Hoeck
via NoiseRiver
http://friendfeed.com/giagia is married to a CERN physicist. That's pretty smart. - Robert Scoble
I'm a software engineer and my girlfriend is working toward her masters in biology. Does that count? ;) - xero
xero: yes. - Robert Scoble
I feel special now ;P - xero
I'm a software engineer too, I'm making nice stuff and I love John Coltrane :) - directeur
via NoiseRiver
Me :D - mahyaa
Hey Robert I thought you did not care about number of followers and here you go!!! You can't help it heh. I know it is about who you follow and not who follows you, but you also keep telling me not to worry about numbers that don't matter :) - Loic Le Meur
via twhirl
I don't know, but our friend Mr. Culberson made the Sunday NYT http://www.nytimes.com/2008/07... - Andrew Feinberg
Loic: you'll notice, though, that I'm looking for more smart people to follow. That's what's driving this, not a beg for more followers. And, also, note that I'm trying to add some value to the exhaust I send along to the people who do follow me. I'm trying to find smarter people to listen to, so that my exhaust is smarter too. It's who you follow that defines you. - Robert Scoble
I'm a Physicist, AI & Robotics programmer. Waiting on funding news so I can start my PhD. - CannonGod
via twhirl
Mahyaa, what makes you smart? - Robert Scoble
Just a lowly university teacher here. :P - Rom Feria
"It's who you follow that defines you" Very true. - xero
FriendFeed is full of smart people - Michael Hocter
Rom: what do you teach? - Robert Scoble
Why only scientists, doctors, and the other categories named here? What is "smart"? In my book, there are different types of intelligence, and I don't see any artists, writers, musicians, or smart plumbers on this list. What's with strictly equating an occupation with intelligence? Let's think a little more openly, please. - Cathryn Hrudicka
i think http://friendfeed.com/nova is interesting due to his work with ontology and the semantic web. i really like where you're going with this thread, bring on the BIG thinkers! - Nice Fish Films
@Scoble Computer Science. - Rom Feria
And oh yes! I'm building software to rethink the way socialmedia should be :) - directeur
via NoiseRiver
@Nice Fish Films thanks! Semantic Web is one of my interests... adding nova. :D - Rom Feria
@creativesage: I love Coltrane, Ahmad Jamal, Sonny Rollins, Miles Davis, Dizzy, Birdy... does this count? :) - directeur
via NoiseRiver
Tell them to subscribe to me, even if you use me as an example of who NOT to subscribe to. --- ok, enough bad jokes for tonight. I promise. - Paul Short
That's rather subjective, no? Duncan Riley? - Helen Sventitsky
Robert you forgot about engineers :D - Zahra HB
I like the idea of increasing the clumpiness of your long tail. Help your followers/fans meet each other. The value isn't just in the scale of your fan base but in their interconnectedness with each other. How long before we have Scoblizer meetups? - Phil Wolff
via Alert Thingy
Thanks for starting this thread, @Scoble. Am subscribing to more smart people... hoping that some of their intelligence will rub off to me via the ethers of the internet. :) - Rom Feria
Robert, A high degree of self-confidence! - mahyaa
Zahra: I was trying to find some of the less technology-industry centric smart people. But many of the smartest people in my life are engineers (my dad is one). - Robert Scoble
Come on... It's not about the title/status (I've been a univ. teacher at 23) It's about what we make. What we "create". Don't you think? :) - directeur
via NoiseRiver
@directeur Commentary can carry just as much importance as creation, they are just different categories. - xero
I see:) anyway I'm a software engineer. seems it doesn't count ;) - Zahra HB
Software engineers are extremely smart. What you do is akin to magic for most people. - Robert Scoble
@jokeyxero: Totally agree! Inovation is not just about "making" "things" - directeur
via NoiseRiver
love this thread! has anyone mentioned Phil Plait yet? http://friendfeed.com/thebadas... hubble alum, astronomer. - Nice Fish Films
@zahrahb: Of course it counts! and your firstname is a flower, so it counts more ;-) - directeur
via NoiseRiver
I think by responding to your request, I have some how diminished in smartitudinessosity...besides, smart people aren;t interesting to follow; train wrecks are much more fun (i.e. reality television). - Josh Tabin
via twhirl
Feels like magic sometimes. I actually have a code snippet folder labeled "Magic". - xero
wow. thanks robert and directeur :) - Zahra HB
Robert, you should be following some of the wine geeks (and not just GaryV, who dwells on another plane of existence). There's not many of them of FF yet, but what they lack in intelligence (per se), they more than make up with personality and opinion. - Randy Hall
i am the smartest :D - atalmatal
Someone like Tim Elliot (on FF) or Tom Wark (not on FF, but I'm trying!) - Randy Hall
Respectfully, kind of a one sided list there. There's also the creative, often less linear side. Different kind of "smart" - and not a lot of them on here unfortunately. Writers, directors, artists, etc. Different assumptions about the world, different ways of looking at it and processing it. - Dean Terry
I'm a physicist but never think a phycist can be smart:D - Maryamss
But I haven't seen any geek who could be said smart ... all of them live isolated in their office (Generally) - saee:Dsharif
Can we find the smartest person on FF and have them make a Gattica room and then they can screen for the genetically and educationally superior among us? That would be awesome - Marco (aureliusmaximus)
Physicists are smart enough to know that they know absolutely nothing. Quantum entanglement still blows my mind. - xero
agree with xero - Maryamss
you should subscribe to Bryan Jones, on twitter as bwjones. He's a scientist and also great photographer. Check his website, linked from his twitter page. - mark zero (Jason)
<- looking for more 'SMARTest' FriendFeed'ers as in SOCIAL INTELLIGENCE and GUT FEELING, creativity & ARTISTS - Margit Hinke
I found most of Iranian users smart.they are very clever and educated - Maryamss
due to maryam's comment, I think all geeks are smart ;) - Zahra HB
Check http://friendfeed.com/rooms/do... out! Or http://friendfeed.com/rooms/th... ! - Berci Mesko
In general Robert, I think we have serious under-representation of the sciences here on FF. There seems to be a vibrant community of Bio-chemists that I am tracking via @neilfws and @mndoci that also tackle more general subjects like doing science in the Web 2.0 setting. Until now I could not find anything comparable in my side of the woods, i.e. systems research in networking, etc. There is a large community of us on Facebook, but my friends there are slow in accepting FF - Vlado Handziski
I agree w/Berci below--that's a good place to start, but it's an aggregate of ALL doc/medstudent bloggers, some far more tech saavy than others. By definition, most docs don't have a TON of time for noodling online to keep active in all communities, but there's no shortage of us who attempt to leverage newer social tech to our professional advantage--and more of a 'purist' approach, not for slimy marketing gimmicks either. - Enrico C.
via twhirl
3rd year Computer Science Undergrad. Yeaah, we need a dedicated CS room. What say you??????? - Roberto Bonini
Does a qualification make you smart? - Michael McGimpsey
via twhirl
That's absolutely right, Vlado! Life scientists and medical professionals are under-represented in Friendfeed and it will take a lot of time to persuade others to join us. For example, I only know about 3 medical students (including me) who are on Friendfeed. What do tech guys think about that? How could we persuade more people of these fields to join Friendfeed? - Berci Mesko
Berci: one problem is that newbies are not able to immediately see the richness of the FF world (the experience is coupled with the number of subs, participation, etc.), and they loose interest fast. That is why I like the approach of creating rooms dedicated to different science areas and exporting their feeds to colleagues, so they can learn about the dynamics on FF even before they join. - Vlado Handziski
I did a Ph.D. in bioinformatics / computational biology and is currently in the process of starting my own research group. I will leave it to others to judge if that is a smart thing to do ;-) - Lars Juhl Jensen
BTW: there is a considerable number of life scientists at FF - just take a look at group "The Life Scientists". - Lars Juhl Jensen
Well, I do have a degree in Physics but do not use it. =) - Jauder Ho
Personally, I look for motivated people to follow, those who are following their passions to make the world (at least THEIR part in the world) a better place. I have 3 graduate degrees (Rehabilitation, Mental Health, and Education) and 2 professional licenses but no longer work in the field. I write about the field, using my knowledge of related topics, but do nothing that requires those qualifications. So the degrees aren't everything. - Shelly Weiss
It's really cool of Scoble to want to "give back" something to those who follow him. Anyway, what's Scoble's definition of "Smart"? I am a Web Ninja (Developer, Engineer, whatever you call it, but because I enjoy my work, I prefer to call myself a NInja), and a part-time Radio Host, so am I smart? Hmm.. - Winston Teo
Winston, he already defined it: 1) Anyone who is a scientist (including, but possibly not limited to: physicists, chemists, and material scientists), 2) doctors, 3) economists, 4) lawyers, 5) some engineers (including, but possibly not limited to software engineers), and 6) Anyone who is married to a CERN physicist. - Mark Trapp
Mark: my definition of smart is much broader than that, but I only have about 200 characters to play with on FriendFeed. I used to room with a janitor who was smart. They are rare, but out there. Probably are programming on weekends like this guy was. I'm thinking about why some people are smart. Probably has something to do with the first words out of their mouth are about ideas, not about celebrities. - Robert Scoble
I have a B.Sc. in psychology, half of a B.Eng., and a graduate certificate in corporate communications & public relations. Does that make me smart? Maybe. Lets have a conversation, and you can judge for yourself. - Rick Weiss
Here's a few excellent subscriptions outside the usual tech crowd: Maxine Clarke, editor at the journal Nature (http://friendfeed.com/mlc), Howard Rheingold, who coined the term "virtual community" (http://friendfeed.com/howardrh...), Richard Akerman, technology architect at Canada's National Science Library (http://friendfeed.com/scilib), Attila Csordas, biotechnologist who is into life extension, Cameron Neylon, chemist at Univ. Southampton (http://friendfeed.com/cameronn...). - Michael Nielsen
Robert, I'd recommend Deepak (http://friendfeed.com/mndoci), Cameron Neylon (http://friendfeed.com/cameronn...) and maybe every other member of the life scientists room (http://friendfeed.com/rooms/th...) - Ricardo Vidal
Here is a link to a small survey about the scientists that participate in the Life Scientists room, regarding on what do they work on. http://friendfeed.com/e/c0dafa... - Pedro Beltrao
