And now for something completely different!

10 Odd people that made the world a better place

Security Executives
Homeland Security
Published in
5 min readFeb 25, 2016

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It’s OK to be a little different. The following people may be judged by the world to be a little different, but the world is definitely a better place because of them. Genius definitely isn’t confined by labels; are you recognizing the best that people have to contribute?

Michelangelo. One of the greatest Renaissance artists apparently had the appalling habit of not taking his shoes off for days at a time and going even longer between bathing. Some modern analysts believe he may have actually had Autism. This didn’t stop him from giving us a the painting of God Creates Adam on the walls of the Sistine Chapel, the statue of David and designing St. Peter’s Basilica.

Shigero Miyamoto is apparently obsessed with distances and carries a ruler in his pocket at all times so he can constantly measure things. His obsession with numbers and measurements may have made him such an excellent programmer and a pioneer in the field. One of the legendary programmers for Nintendo, he brought us Mario, Donkey Kong, and The Legend of Zelda.

Edgar Allen Poe had many peculiar habits, but what bothered his publishers was his peculiar habit of writing his stories on one continues sheet of paper that he would create by connecting multiple sheets of paper with sealing wax. A great writer of the macabre, he brought us such classics as The Raven, The Pit and the Pendulum, and Murders in the Rue Morgue.

The world might think Dr. Yoshiro Nakamatsu is odd because he meditates in a 24 karat gold lined room to block disruptive radio waves or the fact that he comes up with most of his ideas by diving to the bottom of a pool and starving his brain of oxygen. But he is the modern inventor who holds over 4,000 patents and helped start the digital storage revolution with the invention of the floppy disk.

Albert Einstein struggled with language as a child and was very slow to speak. As an adult, he would take his violin with him on bird-watching walks. One of the greatest minds of the past century, his contributions to science, particularly physics and quantum theory include the theory of relativity.

Stephen King has a strong aversion to adverbs; apparently so strong that he attributes part of his success to writing 2000 adverb free words a day. It must work for the author who has been on the New York Times’ bestseller list multiple time with such classics as Insomnia and The Talisman and has had multiple books turned into movies such as Carrie and Cujo.

Thomas Edison was kicked out of school as a child for being addled (mentally disabled). As an adult he was known to interview perspective employees by watching them eat soup. One of the greatest inventors of the early 20th century, he gave the world the phonograph and moving pictures, and the first practical electric light.

Charles Dickens reportedly suffered from obsessive-compulsive disorder and carried a comb in his pocket everywhere because he could not stand for one hair to be out of place. He reportedly remained in such an agitated state that he couldn’t sit still to write. He would constantly pace while dictating his stories to an assistant who would record them. This didn’t keep this Victorian era writer from giving us the story of Ebeneezer Scrooge in A Christmas Carol.

Pythagoras, among his other eccentricities, avoided beans. Not only would he not eat them, but they actually caused his death. Chased from his home by assailants, his path was blocked by a bean field. Instead of crossing the field, he allowed himself to be caught and murdered by his attackers. But before his death, he gave us the Pythagorean Theorem and other contributions to trigonometry. His ideas paved the way for modern physics and even inspired Plato’s theory for democracy.

Nikola Tesla was an apprentice to Thomas Edison. He was infatuated with the number 3 and would walk around a building three times before entering. He was repulsed by jewelry. He also suffered from obsessive-compulsive disorder, was germ-a-phobic, and insisted on having 18 napkins for every meal. But this young inventor gave the world over 300 hundred patents and untold advancements in the field of electronics. He invented the radio, and pioneered A/C current, robotics, radar, and nuclear physics.

SECURITY EXECUTIVES

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