I have many secret internet idols. People I have seen as an inspiration over the years, for various reasons. I would suspect they would be surprised to know this, not only do they not know me, they are most likely going about their daily lives, and just happen to expose some of that to the internet. Well, enough with the secrets, it's time to open the books to the world. The commonality here is that all of these guys I found around 2006.
David Chart: Has been blogging pretty much daily since 2006. You can see his Japanese improve as time passes, and I am impressed at the diligence and discipline. Such focus is something I don't know if I possess, but hope to gain, even still. I have made several attempts at these long term daily practices, but few I can say I have stuck with for years.
Rich Pav: Another nice fellow in Japan I discovered when I started learning Japanese. His podcast was pretty well known then, and he has since reappeared sporadically. I was excited to hear his voice lo, these 9 years later, as having matured, but even more succinct and dryly funny. I admire how he has stuck it out as a gaijin, made career changes similar to those I have often wrestled with, and has been open and self-aware about the struggles of living and working in Japan, although some are the same struggles I feel anywhere I go.
Techzing podcast guys: They began their podcast as a talk show about bootstrapping, with interviews or just the two discussing different Hacker News stories. Over the years, they have taken and left jobs, started and closed start-ups, invested, advised, and sold other businesses. Watching the incremental changes and showing how something like a blog post or a podcast has taken their lives in a different direction has been interesting. Some of the appeal is simply they are about my age, one has spent time in Chicago, and they are in tech like me.
Jonathan: I remember to check in on his blog every year or so. About the time I was moving to Tokyo to learn Japanese, he had also made the decision to pack up and move to Aichi, Japan with the same goal. He came back around the same time I did, and unlike me, has since moved back to Nagoya. As with David, his dedication to Japanese is inspiring, and not quite as dauntingly prolific.