Where Are All the Great Thinkers?
A love letter to curiosity, education, and the thinkers hiding in plain sight.
By NelleDavid – Sep 1, 2025 – Column
Where are all the great thinkers?
This is the question that FKA Twigs posed to the audience during a live interview with Resident Advisor. The question went quite viral for all the wrong reasons; it’s been considered slightly tone-deaf and pretentious – maybe because FKA Twigs personally has 2.5 million followers and therefore seems to have an immense platform for promoting great thinkers across the world.
Where are all the great thinkers?
FKA Twigs
However, I don’t think the question is as silly or pretentious as it’s been made out to be.
Growing up in the age of information, we know of all the great discoveries, theories, and art made before us — and it can be hard to see how the last 15 years have contributed to progress. It’s easier to call out the regression.
So, what has happened? Why is this the society we live in?
I don’t know. I am no expert.
But I do have a lot of opinions.
And now I also have a blog — so here we go.
Having to pay for universities makes academics just another subculture in an already divided society. That means the knowledge and conversations being had in those circles are not shared throughout.
If every curious person had the opportunity to go to university — if all they needed was the want — great thinkers would start coming out from the most unexpected places.
Education shouldn’t be a means to a job — it should change the way you see the world.
It is as if we all watched Dead Poets Society, finished it, and then forgot the message of it:
We don’t read and write poetry because it’s cute.
N.H. Kleinbaum
We read and write poetry because we are members of the human race.
And the human race is filled with passion.
In Denmark, most people you see perform during a rap battle are from all different walks of life. Most of them have a degree in linguistics or literature, so they can intertextualise their rhymes and create layers — because they know the power of words.
So much education is looked upon like filler knowledge — only because the right people haven’t been allowed into those classrooms yet.
So where are the greatest thinkers of today?
They are everywhere, looking for a way to quench their curiosity.
They are reading, working, knitting, rebelling.
Some are free and freeing others.
Some are caged, unsure where to start.
Dear great thinkers — don’t worry.
There is still room for you in this world.
Some rooms are already waiting for you.
Some you’ll have to build yourself.
We can’t wait to see what you’ll do.
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