Het zal je niet ontgaan zijn dat Time weer zijn jaarlijkse lijstje met de 100 meest invloedrijke aardbewoners bekend heeft gemaakt. Tussen namen als Koningin Máxima en Kim Jong Un staan ook Tim Cook en PewdiePie.
Het meten van invloed is in principe onbegonnen werk, maar het kan niet ontkend worden dat de namen op de Times-lijst via hun macht, voorbeeldfunctie of originele ideeën de overige zes miljard behoorlijk beïnvloeden. Net geen 10% van de namen is afkomstig uit de tech-wereld. Geen Elon Musk, maar wel gewoon PewDiePie.
De lijst is opgedeeld in vijf categoriën: Pioneers, Titans, Artists, Leaders, en Icons. De techies vallen allemaal onder de eerste twee.
Felix Kjellberg (PewDiePie)
South Park-bedenker Trey Parker over game-streamer PewdiePie:
I remember thinking, What the hell is this? But the more we saw, the more I understood why Felix Kjellberg, with some 43 million subscribers, is the most-watched person on YouTube. He’s charming and funny, and he knows how to edit himself. And he has turned passive gaming into active, enjoyable entertainment.
Riddley Scott over Oculus-ontwikkelaar Palmer Luckey:
The technology Palmer has shepherded has made it possible to experience storytelling in ways we previously could only imagine. It allowed us to invite everyone to go to Mars and to truly experience what astronaut Mark Watney did.
Ralph Nader over Dan Carder:
Working with his small team of researchers at West Virginia University, Dan Carder exposed a giant corporation’s harmful fraud: although VW’s diesel-engine cars passed lab tests for EPA regulations for emissions of toxic nitrogen oxides, on the road the cars were emitting up to 35 times as much NOx into the air.
Mark Zuckerberg en Priscilla Chan
Bill en Melinda Gates over Mark Zuckerberg en Priscilla Chan:
We admire Priscilla Chan and Mark Zuckerberg’s vision of an interconnected world where all people have a chance to make the most of their talents. Priscilla and Mark are curious. Ambitious. Thoughtful. Open-minded and bighearted. Willing to learn and grow. And they care deeply about fixing the inequities they see in the world.
Bill Nye over Sundar Pichai:
He worked on Google Chrome, Gmail and Android phones. A great many of us can’t tell which side of a street we’re on without checking Google Maps. He was born in Chennai, India, to a middle-class family, and discovered an aptitude for numbers when his family got its first telephone, a rotary, when he was 12.
Stephen Hawking over Yuri Milner:
His investments take the long view. Shifting the culture toward one more committed to science and its virtues of curiosity and reason. Supporting fundamental but underfunded quests, such as the search for life in the universe and a path to interstellar travel. Moon-shot projects that may take decades but, if they succeed, will transform our relationship to the cosmos.
Lev Grossman over Binny Bansal en Sachin Bansal:
Binny Bansal and Sachin Bansal (no relation) started Flipkart in 2007 as an online bookstore. For seed money, they pooled their savings: around $10,000. Their data center was their apartment in Bangalore. So it could have been the height of arrogance when the two Bansals, who had worked together at Amazon, told investors Flipkart could be worth $100 million in a decade. It turned out to be modesty: Flipkart now has 75 million users and a $13 billion valuation.
Bob Iger over Tim Cook:
Apples continued success requires a leader of great courage and character who demands excellence, upholds the highest ethical standards and routinely challenges the status quo, including encouraging vital conversations about who we are as a culture and a community.Tim Cook is that kind of leader.
