Answers to the "Who would you want to have dinner with?" interview question

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amakhosidlo said:
Nikolai Tesla or Salvador Dali.
Generally, people who toe the line between batsh*t crazy and unrivaled genius would seem to have the most interesting insights to offer..
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Ever heard of Tesla's death ray and how he supposedly caused the Tunguska event?

Speaking of artists, I would totally want to meet Leonardo da Vinci. That man was an effing universal genius.
 
schrizto said:
Ever heard of Tesla's death ray and how he supposedly caused the Tunguska event?
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Or how the U.S government supposedly still has 1/3 of his theories/plans for his inventions locked away somewhere because they're deemed too dangerous to be made public knowledge...70 years after the fact?

Yeah, total bad-ass.
 
Seriously? A lot of replies seem to grope so hard for that tint of uniqueness that they simply seem random or bizarre, and consider the fact they can only be justified by one-liners. I mean, regular blind dates are difficult enough, when you're not sitting across from celebrity or someone from the nineteenth century.

How awkward will the rest of dinner be after asking Wilt about the women he's banged? Or do you think Tesla would reciprocate your eager interest and deign to converse with you? Natalie Portman is okay though...

I'd stick with the mundane: pleasant company you know well = better dining experience.
 
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Food said:
If I was the interviewer I'd be wondering if you were planning on headbutting me.
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So long as you hadn't said anything about my sister :laugh:, then you'd be safe.
 
lol how is ben franklin a safe response?

the question is anybody, it could be your grandpa for all they care
use that to your advantage to reveal things about you

don't overthink interview questions. it's not meant to be difficult.
 
Shakespeare.

Cliche, I know, but he's arguarbly the best writer in the English language and maybe had the most insight into human nature of anyone in history.

Plus he'd just be a fun dude to hang out with. He'd have plenty of crude jokes and would want to go to the pub after dinner. 😀
 
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Tip: I would come up with THREE answers to this question. I had thought of 2 but my interviewer asked me for three.

My answers:
Virgil (Why did he want the Aeneid burned? Did he really finish it or was there more he never got to write? Are modern day scholars totally off base in their interpretations?)
Galen (cool dude)
Obama (blurted this one out)
 
this is easy, Dave Matthews because I'm obsessed with his music
 
Brian Eno (musician/composer)
Mark Kozelek (musician/song-writer)
Sam Harris (author)
David Berman (musician/song-writer)
PZ Myers (biology professor/blogger)

As far as dead people go...
John Lennon
Ian Curtis
 
Kant
Newton
Von Neumann
Kipling
Solomon
Cleopatra
Gödel
Esther
in that order.
 
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Carl Sagan. He has a ton of interesting ideas and has an interesting perspective on god/science (+ to here him say billions and billions👍).
 
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Dead: Rabelais, Voltaire, Chaucer, Jerome K. Jerome

Alive: Hawking, Francis Collins, Jerry Seinfeld, and..hmmm...George Clooney, I think
 
I always been praying not to be asked this question.

I will have to laugh and say, Nagasawa Masami.

Why?
because I am at that age with high levels of testosterone.
 
.
 
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As a history student whose thesis will coincide with med school interviews, I have a feeling my answer will relate to whatever dead person I wish I could question for academic reasons at that time. Which unfortunately means a lot of people who weren't exactly the embodiment of 'first do no harm' (but most of them are not doctors, so I guess it could be worse...).

But to summarize a conversation I had with some friends a few weeks ago.
Me: 'I want to go into medicine...I'm considering surgery...but, I'm doing my undergrad in European Studies with a focus on France...my thesis next year is probably going to be on the Revolution__.'
Them: *uproarious laughter*
 
Nelson Mandela, Charles Darwin, and the Apostle Paul.

The former two have made the biggest impacts on my life of any man not named Jesus. Nelson Mandela is my modern day hero...to spend 27 years in prison and then help lead a nation to democracy using nonviolence is absolutely incredible. I can't wait to go see Invictus this weekend.
 
maslow12 said:
Ok, so my answer to this is without a doubt Christopher Hitchens. I am shocked at his command of language, and intrigued with his comprehensive knowledge of politics and history. I would love to learn as much as I can from him over a dinner.

That is exactly what I would say in an interview. But, I'm wondering if it would be best to mention somebody else who ISNT a polemicist and activist and outspoken atheist...

Its really the honest answer I have to this question, but perhaps it would be better to give a "safer" response to the question such as Ben Franklin...
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In med school interview mode, my immediate answer is Robert Weinberg. I took cancer biology last semester, and though it was somewhat dry (memorizing signaling pathways) it was also exciting. My professor was really into it and was perfectly adorable in making analogies between VGEF upregulation to increase blood flow to a tumor and her teenage son...as in "you're not going to invite 12 people if you can't feed them...unless, of course, you're my son." Seriously, Weinberg has been around for every major development in cancer research, and his book reads like a (very technical but still really cool) story. That's just IMO.

Otherwise, the list is endless and would probably invite plenty of mocking...especially if was allowed to resurrect someone intriguing for the purposes of one dinner!
 
Miked489 said:
Jimmy Page
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Lol that's the first name the popped into my head when I read the thread title. 😀

Awesome seeing another Page fan, I'd probably ask him about how he got some of those awesome sounds and overtones, the man is amazing.
 
First place goes to:
tankman.jpg


Honorable mentions: Thomas Jefferson, Richard Dawkins, Nelson Mandela.
 
Alice Sebold, the novelist who drew me back into reading when I started to lose my bookworm qualities in 7th grade. I have her to thank for the fact that I still read almost compulsively, and her stories are so incredibly vivid and unique that I'd love to discuss them with her.
 
This was actually a question on the Wayne State secondary application, but the question was more specific to science/medicine.
 
rockaction said:
Brian Eno (musician/composer)
Mark Kozelek (musician/song-writer)
Sam Harris (author)
David Berman (musician/song-writer)
PZ Myers (biology professor/blogger)

As far as dead people go...
John Lennon
Ian Curtis
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Sam Harris...

Amen!!

:laugh:
 
Megan Fox. And I'll take whatever she has to offer for dessert too.
 
Aleister Crowley. But he'd probably talk about himself the whole time, call me boring at the end, and make me take the check.
 
I'm not at that stage yet, but my answer would be Bill Clinton for sure. He came from nothing and became president, and he has one of the most massive humanitarian efforts in the world going.
 
armybound said:
they want to learn about you.

answer truthfully.

answer honestly.

do not "bend" answers to what you think they want to hear.
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why not if it gets you in?
 
i always hope people will ask the question : if you could BE anyone in history, who'd you be, but my answers are really similar for both.


cleopatra (dam gurl u fyne, also immensely powerful)
marie antoinette
beethoven
prokofiev
copernicus
hemingway (aw baby cheer up)
frank mccourt
aristophanes
rosalind franklin
 
I would interview Ghandi so that when I finish my dinner i can steal his and he wont stop me.
 
I got asked which 3 people I would have dinner with. I said Robert Muller, Dara Torres, and panicked and said Andy Samberg. He did not know who that was, thankfully... and I got accepted !
 
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