My absolute hero is Richard Feynman. Required reading:
- "Surely You're Joking"
- "What Do You Care What Other People Think"
- http://history.nasa.gov/rogersrep/v2appf.htm "Personal Observations on Reliability of Shuttle" (Challenger disaster report)
- Also, consider torrenting videos of his "Messenger Lectures". The youtube snippets do not nearly do them justice. They're some of the most intellectually interesting things you'll ever watch:
Richard_Feynman_Messenger_Lectures_at_Cornell_-_The.Character.of.Physical.Law_-_Part_1_The_Law_of_Gravitation
Part_2_The_Relation_of_Mathematics_to_Physics
Part_3_The_Great_Conservation_Principles
Part_4_Symmetry_in_Physical_Law
Part_5_The_Distinction_of_Past_and_Future
Part_6_Probability_and_Uncertainty
Part_7_Seeking_New_Laws