Steve Pavlina—If I was stranded on a desert island, the one person whose wisdom I would like to continue receiving is definitely Steve Pavlina. Steve consistently delivers jaw-droppingly good ideas and advice in a huge number of areas of life, covering everything from finances to spirituality to health. If there is one blog I recommend keeping up with, it is without question StevePavlina.com. I recommed you start with the article 10 Reasons You Should Never Get a Job.

Fred Wilson—Fred Wilson is a venture capitalist in New York who has been an early-stage investor in many of the most innovative companies in the modern Internet era–Twitter, Etsy, and delicious among others. Fred covers technology and has a perspective that is enlightening because it just makes sense. He shows us the future by investing in the companies of the future. Read this article about Fred to get a sense of what he’s about.

Kevin Kelly—Kevin Kelly is a genius basically. He started Wired Magazine and wrote a book that was a good 15 years ahead of its time that was required reading for the filming of the Matrix. How’s that for a recommendation? I especially enjoy his ability to make me think bigger about what it means to be human and to take a more scientific look at spirituality. Kevin examines the nature of technology and of the universe and his conclusions make you expand your definition of yourself. I recommed you start with 1000 True Fans.

Seth Godin—Seth Godin is really a modern-day Mark Twain disguised as a marketer. A man who shows again and again why at the end of the day, it’s the marketing, stupid! Seth consistently makes you think, tells great stories, and is on top of it all, a kind, generous human being. Just start reading anywhere. All of his posts are amazing!

Tim Boucher—Tim is like a modern-day Taoist Jack Kerouac. Exploring the very edges of reality by experimenting with his own life, he takes the new world in fascinating directions and it is a true pleasure just watching his mind work. On top of this, Tim adds real value to my life by freely giving away his ideas and embracing a philosophy of continual change and letting go. It seems his recent musing about web divination trails is as good a place to start as any!

Justin Boland—Like Einstein on weed. This shockingly intelligent guy explores subjects that are difficult to even understand and then manages to make them engaging and fun. A phenomenal researcher, Justin’s work filters through the chaff and gives only the finest wheat of the new reality. Also be sure to check out more of Justin’s musings on Pizza SEO. Check out his piece about how Saving The World Starts In Africa to get a feel for him.

Mark Pesce—Mark Pesce is like an Internet-era John Dewey—a revolutionary educator who sees how technology is causing all of our long-held notions about schooling to crumble and shows us how to pick up the pieces-, both for ourselves and for our society. His articles are fascinating thought experiments on where we are headed in the near-future and inspire great hopes as to the near-utopia we are headed toward. Oh yah, and he is one of the inventors of VRML aka old-virtual-reality. Check out his article Crowdsource Yourself if you want your mind blown!

Gerd Leonhard—Gerd is a media futurist who specializes in predicting and researching where the media landscape is headed. As more and more of us become photographers and video creators and artists of various ilks, Gerd’s work encourages us to move from a vantage point of trying to control our creations to moving into a dialogue with our audiences. Gerd is like a sci-fi author in an era where his predictions come true in months and years instead of decades and centuries! Check out his amazing Blogs Will Be The New Record Labels to get a sense of the man and his work!

Tom Bomb—Tom Bomb, author of Jump Point, shows how the landscape that we have grown accustomed to is falling apart, replaced by an always-on connected planet that is blurring the line between producers of content and consumers of content. His work shows that the work we do now must involve a greater respect for the creativity of the audience. Start with his article about bemes and go from there.

Vinay Gupta—A blog that focuses on the nitty-gritty work of pulling the world’s poor out of poverty, using innovative design and street-level techniques such as teaching gardening over text message. I am inspired by the real-world pragmatism of their work and find encouragement to stay on my path pursuing a better world. I recommed you start here, with the article What’s Going to Happen in the Future?