“But there was also a lot of brilliance: genius thinking that transformed information, politics, business, and medicine,” The Daily Beast writes. “For all the pain and the angst, centuries from now historians may well measure the last 10 years by our biggest brains and the transformative changes they set in motion. The Daily Beast thought we’d help them with a present-day measure of the greatest minds of our times: the 25 smartest people of the decade.”
The List:
1. Larry Page and Sergey Brin
2. Steve Jobs: Field: Technology; Position: Co-founder and CEO, Apple Inc.; co-founder Pixar; Why He Was Nominated: Famously temperamental and tenacious, Jobs spent the decade battling health problems—and changing the way people work and communicate. He also helped revolutionize design and marketing. Think about his products that weren’t around a decade ago: the MacBook, the iPod, and the iPhone. Think about the music industry without iTunes, kids’ movies without Pixar’s wondrous digital animation, Jobs is responsible for “just about everything cool about computers,” says Daily Beast nominator Christopher Buckley. Fortune magazine, for one, named him the most powerful person in business in 2007 and the CEO of the decade in 2009. Having survived pancreatic cancer in 2004 and, more recently, a liver transplant, Jobs rules his empire like a philosopher king. He often quotes the wisdom of hockey great Wayne Gretzky: “I skate to where the puck is going to be, not where it has been.”
3. Steven Chu
4. Hillary Clinton
5. Muhammad Yunus
6. Harold Varmus
7. Elizabeth Blackburn
8. David Plouffe
9. Jacqueline Novogratz
10. Elizabeth Warren
11. Jimmy Wales
12. Jeff Bezos
13. Kwame Anthony Appiah
14. Arianna Huffington
15. Manmohan Singh
16. Malcolm Gladwell
17. Nouriel Roubini
18. General David Petraeus
19. Lawrence Lessig
20. Will Wright
21. Karl Rove
22. Michael Bloomberg
23. Ayman al-Zawahiri
24. David Chase
25. Roger Ailes
Full article here.
MacDailyNews Take: As with any list, there are some problems, but we’re satisfied that it took two heads to squeak out a so-called victory over the real, sole smartest man of the decade: Steven P. Jobs.
Hillary Clinton!?
If Hillary were so smart, how come she got suckered into a position of total uselessness?
Who are these first two guys? Seriously.
Again, Hilary?
Yes, I know she is smart, but brilliant?
I’m shocked George Bush is not listed?
Where’s Ballmer?
.
Karl Rove is a smart guy, but how hard is it to persuade a large mass of ignorant dumb asses?
…how much you want to bet that the majority of the comments here will be related to the political figures in the list?
Oh, and I too am amused that they had to combine two people to put ahead of Steve.
I just don’t get hillary!!! I mean smartest people. I think there are a few astronauts, physicists etc. Steve Jobs, you can debate if you want but how does Hillary, Alles, Rove rate? cunning and smart are 2 different things.
Huffington? Truly? She’s not even a real journalist.
Hillary? Where Conde Rice????? Oh my
Hillary is the fourth smartest person of the decade. really? REALLY? How so? anyone…..anyone? I didn’t think so.
Is she smart for staying with her cheating husband? Maybe. She claimed she had no idea he was cheating on her. After about 2000 women claimed they had sex with him, she was still clueless……I guess that’s smart, right?
She couldn’t win her campaign, yet she’s on the list and the person who beat her is not. HMMMMMMM.
@ bon
Ballmer is the smartest people of the world. Please let his shareholders and directors believe this and let the “brightest” man on this planet to run MS as long as it could…… um, until it hit the rock.
Karl Rove. Other than a penchant for calling things what they are not, he likely needs help tying his shoe laces
@ Tiger Leopard
LOL…Well said. Bravo!
Shrillary Clingon – Hahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahaha.
So smart she can’t keep her Billy home.
Hillary??
I know this comment’s been made already, but honestly…
There 26 people on that list. The editors of the “The Daily Beast” are obviously not too smart.
@tigerleopard ; ha ha spot on!
And concerning Hillary, think about it, she had an enormous impact on Bill…
how remarkably ignorant,
To which decade does this article refer. The decade that we are currently in (the first decade of the twenty-first century) ends thirteen months from now.
Shouldn’t this list be compiled one year from now? Most of those “smart people,” to which this article refers, would agree with me. The twentieth century did not end on December 31, 1999 and the twenty-first century did not begin on January 1, 2000. The first year of a decade, century, or millennium ends with the number one. The last year of a decade, century, or millennium end with the number zero.
I guess that one of those smart people did not write the article.
I am completely ignorant, I don’t even know half of the list. 15 to be precise. I wonder how you can quantify smartness?
Especially in so different fields, a general, politician, advisors, business people, etc… . I bet those Daily beast people really impress me….
@ DCJ001
I believe you are wrong. A decade is a period of ten years, regardless of when the period starts. The current decade (The “2000’s”) began on January 1, 2000 and will end on 12/31/2009.
Decades start on the zero’s, i.e. 1950s 1960s 1970s etc…
Here’s one of many sources:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2000–2009
Right I think I know about 5 of those but I suppose the rest of the World isn’t included.
Hillary Clinton?
Hillary Clinton????