[rpm4321]

In addition, I'd rank Minsky, Larry Page, Bill Gates, Dean Kamen, Rafael Reif, Tomaso Poggio, Dileep George, and Kurzweil's other supporters as much more qualified to judge the merits of his ideas, than Kurzweil's detractors like Hofstadter, Kevin Kelly, Mitch Kapor, and Gary Marcus. It seems that Hofstadter is the only one of that group who is really qualified to render a verdict.

http://howtocreateamind.com/

[etrain]

To put it another way - if a visionary isn't controversial, she's probably not a visionary.

[dalke]

I believe your summary suffers from selection bias.

I think most people have views that are controversial. Only when one is famous do others hear about those controversial views. Furthermore, just about every famous project has its distractors, leading to controversy.

Take Stephen Hawking as an example. He doesn't believe there was a god who created the universe. That's a controversial view to many. But when an non-famous atheist says exactly the same thing, few take notice, so you don't hear about those people.

Take Alan Kay as another example. He's one of the key people behind OLPC, which given its criticism could be considered controversial. But name any big project which has neither criticism nor controversy.

Ole Kirk Christiansen founded Lego. He was visionary in that he saw a future in plastic bricks as toys for children. What were his controversial views? I have no clue. But he probably had some. Perhaps his motto "Only the Best is Good Enough" is controversial to someone who believes that that second best may be good enough for some cases.

[etrain]

Controversial views are a necessary but not sufficient condition for visionary status.

[dalke]

While I believe that everyone has controversial views. Do you think god exists? Do you think there should be more gun ownership? Or less? Do you think abortion should be banned? Only available for a few cases. Up to the mother to decide? But only until the third trimester?

Should there be public drinking of beer? Public nudity? Public urination? Public displays of affection?

Should women always have their heads covered while in public? What about men? Should we ban male circumcision until the male is old enough to make the decision for himself? Should we have the draft? What about mandatory civil service?

Do you believe in mandatory bussing? Separate but equal? Co-ed schools or sex segregated schools? State income tax or not? Legalized gambling? What if it's only controlled by the state? Should alcohol sales only be done by the state, or can any place sell vodka? What about beer? Should alcohol sales be prohibited within a certain distance of schools? Are exceptions allowed?

Do vaccines cause autism? Was the Earth created less than 10,000 years ago? Can you petition the Lord with prayer? Is the Pope God's representative on Earth, or the anti-Christ? Should non-believers be taxed at a higher rate than believers?

Should I go on? All of these are controversial. If you have views one way or the other, then your views will be controversial at least to some, if not to most. And if you have no views on a topic then that itself can be controversial. As the morbid joke goes, during the height of the Troubles in Ireland: "yes, but are you a Catholic Jew or a Protestant Jew"?

If everyone has controversial views, then of course they are precondition for being a visionary. They are also a precondition for not being a visionary. Name one famous (so I have a chance of knowing something about that person) non-visionary who did not have controversial views.

But first, name a controversial view of the founder of Lego ... who is definitely described as a visionary.

[ebrenes]

The degree of controversy is obviously diminished when someone has been successful. But I'll take a stab at the last question...

As for controversy with LEGO's founder: 1. Structuring the company around "doing good" instead of profitability and other more "corporate values". Google gets flack for this to this day, and LEGO almost went broke following this tenet until they revamped the corporate structure to follow profitability instead. 2. Use of plastics instead of wood, deviating from the company's original product base. Surely, that's what paved the way for LEGO, but I'm sure it was somewhat controversial switch in some circles, not least of which were carpenters and some employees. 3. LEGO's many legal battles and use of patents might be construed as controversial in some circles.

More to the point of the OP, it's hard to be a visionary if your view does not in any way shape or form deviate from the norm. Deviation from the norm is what sets the visionary apart, hence it's some times said that visionaries are controversial, because this deviation from the norm more often than not causes controversy in the areas in which they are deviating.

[dalke]

"Doing good" is a standard crafter/engineer approach, so it's not like that alone is visionary. My Dad's phrase "do your best or don't do it at all." Was he a visionary?

He wanted the whole world to be Christian, and went to Ecuador to work as a missionary. Did that make him and my Mom (and my dad's parents (also missionaries) and various other of my extended family) visionaries? What about all of the Mormons who do their two years of missionary work?

Consider also all the people who were visionary, tried something, and failed. In part, perhaps, because their vision wasn't tenable. You don't hear about all of those visionary chefs who had a new idea for a restaurant, only to find out that it wasn't profitable.

Add all those up, and there are a lot of visionaries in the world. Enough that the non-visionaries are the exception.