Alright folks, today I sat down to tackle something that seems simple but got surprisingly messy – picking one super important historical figure whose name starts with ‘S’ to focus on. Seriously, how hard could it be? Well, let me walk you through this rabbit hole.
Digging Up the S-People
First thing I did was grab my laptop and just start typing famous S-names into the search bar. Shakespeare popped up immediately – duh, everyone knows that guy wrote plays. But then I remembered Socrates from that one philosophy documentary, and bam, there’s like fifty more:
- Susan B. Anthony (suffrage stuff)
- Sacagawea (that explorer lady)
- Genghis Khan’s son Sübedai (wait, starts with S?)
My coffee went cold while scrolling through lists thinking “okay this is ridiculous”. My notebook looked like a squirrel attacked it with S-names everywhere – scientists, artists, warriors… total overload.
The Elimination Game
Time to get brutal. I drew a stupid chart comparing impact, name recognition, and how much they actually changed things. Sorry Sacagawea – you’re awesome but most folks couldn’t spell your name right. Marie Curie came up even though her last name’s Sklodowska? Nah, cheating.
Shakespeare felt safe – people still quote him randomly. Socrates kept nagging me though… like that annoying voice in your head asking “but WHY do we care?”. That’s when it hit me – Shakespeare shaped stories but Socrates literally invented how we argue and think critically. Mind blown.
Why Socrates Stuck
Started diving into Socrates stuff and dude was wild. Didn’t write anything down himself (lazy or genius?), just wandered Athens bothering people with questions like “What is justice really?”. Got sentenced to death for corrupting youth – basically because he made politicians look dumb asking simple questions.
The kicker?
His ideas built Western philosophy’s foundation. Like Plato was his student, Aristotle learned from Plato – that whole crew stemmed from this one annoying question-asker. Every TED talk about critical thinking? Socrates started that crap 2400 years ago.
Final Takeaway
Yeah Shakespeare’s quotes are everywhere, but Socrates changed how human brains work. Choosing him felt like finding the root of a massive tree where everybody else is just branches. Went down planning to spend twenty minutes, ended up three hours deep reading trial transcripts. Worth it? Totally. Sometimes the obvious famous people aren’t the most world-shaking ones.
Next time someone asks about important S-people? Socrates. Fight me.
