Wednesday, May 05, 2010

100 Most Influential People List from Time

Interesting stuff written about some really interesting people in the Time Magazine "100 Most Influential People in the World" list for 2010... as featured in the May 10 issue.



Linked to below aren't the ones that stood out to me as most influential (note the omission of President Barack Obama), but rather the ones whose story struck me as particularly interesting and/or entertaining.

- President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva of Brazil profiled by filmmaker Michael Moore. Incredible to me that Brazil will be making the dual splash (hopefully positive) of hosting first the 2014 World Cup and then 2016 Summer Olympics.

- Admiral Mike Mullen Chairman Joint Chiefs profiled by Joe Klein. An important guy that I recently posted about being on the cover of Fast Company.

Performing artist Lady Gaga by Cyndi Lauper. As is written about in great detail in this Esquire piece, someone in the mold of Madonna at the height of her fame who's been able to transcend performance and package themselves as the product.

Actor Neil Patrick Harris by fanboy darling Joss Whedon. A seemingly super cool guy (based on this Joel Klein piece from Time).

Singer/songwriter Prince by not even near Prince's level singer/songwriter Usher. Another artist like Lady Gaga who made themselves a persona. Additionally... the genius behind the song Purple Rain.

Surgeon, writer and policy advisor Atul Gawande by Tom Daschle. The author of three insightful books... last of which I reviewed here.

Apple CEO Steve Jobs by artist Jeff Koons. Piece contains an interesting comparison of consumer product and art.

Pandora founder Tim Westergren by novelist Kurt Andersen. A missive by an excellent writer about a guy who created just an excellent service.
Ivory Coast soccer star Didier Drogba by Eben Harrell. Can't wait for the World Cup to begin next month...

US Military Chief Master Sergeant Tony Travis by Sully Sullenberger. A guy called into post-earthquake Haiti that took control of the wreckage that was the airport and immediately got aid flowing in.

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There was certainly some great and influential people from this issue I didn't include above (and I'm sure are also great and influential people that Time left off the list), but this was quite a cross-section of interesting folk that in many cases had very compelling stuff written about them.