Maybe there’s too much of a population today for this to happen, yet that’s precisely the reason it should.

When you look at the broader strokes of human history, it is filled with nameless, faceless people who merely lived their lives. A few pockets of stories—some great, some not, but nothing more remarkable than a few lines in a historian’s book.

Yet, periodically, you get a culture bomb of a figure: Plato, Alexander, Michelangelo, Cleopatra, DaVinci, Isaac Newton. A litany of biographies that fill libraries and shape history. But, why so few? And why so few today?

You would think with the unlimited access to knowledge and seemingly endless opportunities at our disposal (not to mention the tools), the great figures of the past would be the stepping stones as opposed to the goal. I am dumbfounded that we are on the threshold of unlocking some big mysteries of the universe and yet science teachers are still pulling their hair on trying to engage students.

That we are facing some of our greatest challenges and endless people are claiming to be bored.

Have we become so accustomed to an easy life that we no longer strive for more? Or we have we always felt this way?

In a world of eight billion, it would seem that some culture bombs of figures should emerge to shape the future and while there are many great people today, what we need are extraordinary ones.

Where are they?