Tech's Enduring Great Man Myth

I don't think that Great Person is a myth. Yes, everybody is a product of their environment, but some people manage to seize the opportunity and place their stamp on history that we can still see centuries later.

I think history would be massively different were it not for:

Cyrus the Great

Qin Shihuang

Alexander the Great

Julius Caesar

Arminius

Mohammed

Charles Martel

Genghis Khan

Queen Elizabeth I

George Washington,Abraham Lincoln

Napoleon Bonaparte

Adolf Hitler, Joseph Stalin, Winston Churchill

Mao Zedong

And in computers:

Bill Gates

Steve Jobs

Richard Stallman

Linus Torvalds

Not only do I think that the Great Person is true, but it also very inspiring. Many times we feel we are just a cog in the machine, looking at the lives of these Great People can remind us that an individual can place their stamp on history and be talked about and studied centuries later.

I think the issue expressed here is rather common. Media has a knack of singling out individuals. I'm not sure whether it due to the urge to be kingmakers or it's an artifact of the monarchy and belief in a supreme being.

I don't think the reverence is completely unwarranted in certain cases. Most people understand that there is a team of highly skilled people who are running the show but I think it deserves some credit that one would go all-in to achieve one's ambitions. I think this could perhaps be attributed to the fact that if one is a self-made millionaire, one perhaps gets the confidence that they can restore their wealth by their sheer will.

PS: I think the title of this submission needs to reflect original submission so that we can get some discussion on this topic.