Euclid

Euclid is another one of my heroes.

It’s not because I know much about his personal life. He may or may not have discovered things that no one knew previously. What makes him extraordinary is that he is a great systematizer of knowledge.

Apparently, he lived in Alexandria around 300 BC. He presented the entire field of geometry in his book, The Elements. He did this in such a compelling way that he effectively taught geometry to many generations of scholars.

You can still learn geometry from a translated version of The Elements today!

There is something powerful and sublime in the process of using logic to build up an entire structure of reasoning from a few basic definitions and axioms. We learn geometry as a way of learning how to think.

And it’s all thanks to Euclid!