Really smart people are intriguing

By nature I think most of us find really smart people to be fascinating. Of course Albert Einstein is among the list, but I’m not a physics major, so it’s hard to relate (even though it’d be hard to relate if I were a physics major). Those who probably intrigue me the most are the one’s who do what I attempt to do. Such as programming.

At a recent Ruby conference, a presenter had an abrupt situation that resulted in the presentation belonging to no one. With less than an hour to prepare, two members of the Rails core team (Marcel Molina, Jr. and Jamis Buck) were asked to do a live code review of an application they had never seen before. Whether or not the application code was hard to follow, it was entertaining to watch/listen to two very knowledgeable people, who’ve done so much for Rails, talk about things I can relate to. Maybe I’m alone on this one, but I think watching really smart people discuss what they know best is captivating and inspirational.