I was going to say Feynman for the same reason. Outside his classes it sounds like the guy was a lot of fun to be around.

Yeah I was just reading a book that mentioned something Feynman said and it’s something I feel is true for me as well.

Don’t remember word for word but it was something like “Any subject is interesting if you look deep enough.”

I feel like Feynman and I could have a riveting conversation about knitting for 3 hours even though neither of us are passionate about it.

Those are the people I want to talk to.

You could absolutely blow leonardo's mind away with modern knowledge such as "washing hands before performing surgery is good actually"

einstein was an outspoken socialist though, so he clearly liked people on some level

Yep, this is the guy who might be able to teach me something. The rest of then would be used to talking to their peers, which I am not.

Feynman's way overrated, though. Sure, he was a smart enough guy to land a job on Manhattan project and university prof afterwards, but the only reason people know him are the books written by batshit crazy groupies (he didn't write any) and based on his elderly ramblings, so none of the stories in those are even remotely true.