People Debate Which Living People Are The G.O.A.T. In Their Field

People Debate Which Living People Are The G.O.A.T. In Their Field
Francesco Ungaro/Unsplash

In the very niche world of purposefully annoying your aging parents with asinine phone calls, I am undeniably the greatest to ever have done it.

I called my mom just to ask her dumb stuff four times in five minutes the other day.

Like, I'm amazing at this, y'all.


Reddit user Glade_Runner asked:

"What person alive today is undeniably and rightfully regarded as the greatest of all time in their field?"

Greatness happens all around you, fam.

Here are the names Reddit came up with:

Better Composers

"When Steven Spielberg approached John Williams to compose for Schindler's List, the latter saw a cut of the film and said 'there are better composers for this than me.' "

"Spielberg replied, 'I know, but they're all dead.' "

- AdvocateSaint

"John Williams has made some of the most iconic songs for movies that are still well known decades later. Most people know at least one song from Jurassic Park, Star Wars, Indiana Jones and Harry Potter."

- fermenttodothat

We Need A P.O.V.

Simone Biles Sport GIF by Team USAGiphy

"Simone Biles."

"They didn't even know how to score the complexity of what she was doing."

"If you made her routines into a theme park ride everyone would f*cking puke and have no idea what is up, down, or where they even where."

- diegojones4

"Simone Biles wakes up everyday and says 'f*ck physics.' ”

- cleo-banana

"Oh man - now I want to see a demo where she has a Go-Pro on her so you see what she sees as she does her floor and vault."

"And yes, people would get motion sickness watching it. Might also give people a true understanding of 'the twisties' which sounds funny but definitely isn't."

- Best_Industry2203

The Best AND Second Best

"Ronnie O'Sullivan - snooker."

- 10110101101_

"For those not in the know, there was a period where the second-best snooker player in the world was also Ronnie o’Sullivan, but playing left-handed."

- pm_me_your_charlie

"This is the one where there isn't really an argument. Virtually every current and former professional snooker player believes O'Sullivan is the best there's ever been."

"He's widely spoken of as the benchmark against which all other players are judged."

"And yeah, as others have said, he was the world's best player with his right hand, and a top 4 player with his left hand, which is just incredible."

"There's no other 'handed' sportsman who was the best with his dominant arm and a top-4 or better player with his other arm. Hasn't happened in tennis, cricket, golf, baseball, badminton, etc."

- OmNomDeBonBon

A Testicular Game Changer

"Dr. Lawrence Einhorn discovered using platinum-based chemo for testicular cancer. This resulted in cure rates jumping from bleak to over 95%."

- farmerjohn_

"Cisplatin, the drug he pioneered for testicular cancer, is now used to help treat several other cancers, including those of the head and neck."

- alexandercecil

Tiger-Proofed

Tiger Woods Sport GIFGiphy

"Tiger Woods was so dominant that he literally changed the game to make it more difficult for him."

"Courses went way longer and became much more challenging. Courses were boasting that they were 'Tiger-proofed.' "

"They'd brag about how Tiger wouldn't be able to shoot par and he would go out and conquer the course."

"Professional golfers in interviews talk about how finishing in second place in a major tournament wasn't even the best part of the day, it was getting to play a round with and admire Tiger."

"Obviously, he has had a fall from grace, but there are more people in the world who took up golf because they admired how dominant Tiger was than any other athlete."

"Gretzky opened up hockey to the American south when he was traded to LA, but Tiger opened up golf to the entire world."

- livinthetidelife

When A Name Says It All

"John B Goodenough."

"Nobody else will ever be good enough after this dude. He invented modern lithium batteries and is currently advancing the next generation of batteries."

"Cheap to produce, recyclable, and are rechargeable with multiple generations of effective charging cycles. Dude reinvented the battery twice!"

- SafetyJosh4life

"I thought you were making his name up. I was like no f*cking way this dudes name is John B Goodenough, but lo and behold Wiki says it’s real."

- Brandon_The_Binosaur

"He also invented Random access memory which is used in every computer too!"

"1980 for Li batteries and 1952 for RAM in air defense computers."

"The cheaper batteries OP mentioned are solid-state batteries which have a much higher energy density than Li ones, are lighter, cheaper to make, recyclable and don't use (or use far less) rare earth metals."

"This guy is almost 100 and just keeps going."

- AlexCook123

"He's a professor, too! That guy is 99 but still teaching at U Chicago."

- Greedy-Secretary-553

She May Never Be Topped

"My fan girl moment is heeeere! Janja Garnbret is undeniably the greatest competition climber in the history of competition climbing, both men and women."

"For comparison, in the men's top competition athletes, both Jakob Shubert and Adam Ondra won 7 world cup seasons and 3 championships. They have been competing in the circuit since 2007 and 2009 respectively."

"Janja has won 9 world cup seasons (in lead and bouldering) and 6 championships (lead, boulder, and combined) and she's only been on the circuit since 2015!!"

"Adam ondra is known (in part) for being the only male athlete to win world cup season titles in both lead and bouldering and for winning championship titles for both in one year."

"Not only has Janja done that; she also is the only athlete (male or female) to win every boulder world cup in a season (2019), to win two championships in a row (boulder and combined, 2018 and 2019.)

"She's one of 2 athletes to win a gold medal at the Olympics by winning both the lead and the boulder round."

"The male gold medalist's win is highly debated."

"So yeah Janja Garnbret may never be topped."

- IHaveNoClue_98

A Long-Running And Unchallenged GOAT

Tim And Eric Comedy GIFGiphy

"Weird Al Yankovic is the GOAT of parodies."

- bagpipesfart

"And relevant for… what, 40 years?"

"It’s mind blowing that he is still famous and beloved (in the best way)."

- Secular-Flesh

"Five artists have top 40 hits in 80s, 90s, 00s, and 10s."

"Michael Jackson, Madonna, Kenny G, U2 ...and Weird Al."

- turducken138

"And if you think about it, he is an INSANELY good vocalist."

"It's one thing to sing somebody else's song. But Weird Al sings their song in their vocal style, matching their inflections and intonations."

"It's kind of mind blowing how he was able to make it sound LIKE the song, not just a simple cover with changed lyrics for comedy."

"And its mind blowing because for pretty much everybody the exact minute detail of how you sing a lyric, and the tonality of your voice is basically hard coded by your anatomy. So Al has to modify HOW he makes sounds to force his vocal anatomy to function differently rather the way it wants to."

"It's a bit like re-learning to walk with every song."

"And then...he will do a live concert where he strings the songs together, back to back, so he can flip from one artist's style to another instantly. No need for a warm up, or a bit practice to 'get into the mode.' He just jumps at will."

"The man its quite a good musician all around."

- nordoceltic82

Showboating

"Usian Bolt is the greatest sprinter in history and I would have a hard time taking anyone seriously if they opposed that."

"Nobody every repeated in the 100m at the Olympics. (Carl Lewis got beat, and should have been banned himself that summer.)"

"Bolt 3 peated in both the 1 & 2!"

"And 13 years later, nobody has been within a tenth of his 100m record. And only his teammate has been within 3 tenths of his 200m WR."

- killbot0224

"Even more intriguingly, he showboated in the 2008 Olympic 100m final."

"If I recall correctly, he started slowing down, beating his chest and mock-running at about the 70m mark, which is incredible. His time was 9.69, and if he'd run full tilt it's possible he would've run faster than 9.58, the record he set a year later that still stands."

"Even while showboating, he utterly annihilated what was by far the strongest 100m field in Olympic history."

"Looking at the list of 100m records, the 9.58 in Berlin has stood for 12 years and 7 months."

"This is the longest-standing 100m record since Jim Hines held it for 14 years and 8 months, ending in 1983. Hines' record, however, was set at high altitude in Mexico City."

"As Michael Johnson once said, the person to beat Usain Bolt's records has probably not been born yet."

- OmNomDeBonBon

A Stretcher, Not A Chaser

The Simpsons Animation GIF by FOX TVGiphy

"Jane Goodall."

- Stinkydadman

"This was the name that popped into my head immediately. Seems like one of the more 'undeniable' ones to me."

- alniwoo

"Not only she was the undeniably best in the field, but she basically laid down the foundations for so many other studies in primates and comparative behaviour."

"She was a stretcher and not a chaser."

- Tamarnouche

Four Decades Of Pop Culture

"Shigeru Miyamoto, the game designer."

"From Donkey Kong in 1981 through to Zelda: Breath of the Wild in 2017 - that's nearly four decades of critically acclaimed smash hit games."

- [Reddit]

"This should be at the top. Huge influence in the gaming world and pop culture."

- Steve_Kastle_75

"He is single handedly the reason Nintendo is still alive and well today."

"It's insane that when he wants to, he just completely changes entire genres because the games he makes are so good. BotW alone was so good that the game that basically copied it is, in and of itself, a huge hit."

- Mr_Dunk_McDunk

Alright readers, who is your GOAT and what are they the GOAT at?

Want to "know" more?

Sign up for the Knowable newsletter here.

Never miss another big, odd, funny or heartbreaking moment again.

Man walking away with a briefcase
Marten Bjork/Unsplash

One must really hate their job in order for them to get fired.

Depending on the actual job, it's not that difficult to follow established rules and work protocols. Deviating from them just to get terminated can take more effort.

That is, of course, the employees are completely inept or severely disgruntled and have no problem going on a self-sabotaging mission to be let go.

Why can't they just quit, you ask? Well, that'll be less dramatic.

Keep reading...Show less

For many people, escaping to the woods, either in a tent or a cabin, is just what they need to escape from their current realities and reset their mind.

Allowing themselves to be one with nature, and cut off from technology.

Not everyone finds the woods a peaceful place, however.

Indeed, being cut off from the rest of the world, all the while surrounded by wildlife, it's easy to see why some people find the woods scary, and not at all relaxing.

Particularly if their time in the woods included an experience which made them never want to return, ever again.

Keep reading...Show less

The older you get, the more you realize that having a worldview can be a disappointing aspect of life.

It's all the knowledge we acquire.

Sure, the more you know, the smarter you get.

But the more you know, the less you can pretend.

History can be difficult to learn.

Everything opinion and thought can change in an instant.

Sometimes that is a great thing.

Sometimes... not so much.

Keep reading...Show less
Woman laughing and covered in popcorn while watching TV
Photo by JESHOOTS.COM on Unsplash

Whether we're huge television watchers or not, most of us have at least one television show that we've really enjoyed.

And all too often, the show ends long before we're ready for that final episode, and we dream of a reunion episode or encore season.

Keep reading...Show less