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Harvard is everywhere.

We knew that instinctively, and then we set about assembling this list. We tossed around names. We tossed around more names. We quizzed experts in their fields and consulted discerning generalists. And we soon got a sense of the true extent of the Harvard tentacles. When we say Harvard is everywhere, we mean everywhere.

Before long, we realized that we had started dividing everyone we met, read about, saw on TV, and heard about at dinner parties into two categories, "Harvard" and "not Harvard." We were alarmed, but we persevered. As we compiled names for the Harvard 100, we debated what we meant by "influence." It's more than power, distinct from intelligence, related but not always proportional to fame and fortune, proportional but not always dependent on innovation and originality. Influence is value neutral. It includes an element of public recognition and an element of quiet genius. We singled out people who made us think differently about subjects that already interested us, and we gravitated toward visionaries who made us think about entirely new subjects. The reaction "I want to be like this person" is a good indicator of influence, but sometimes "I want to have a beer with this person" is, too.

The list took on a life of its own. We scrawled names on Post-it notes and turned them into a mosaic, 10 names wide and 10 deep, on a sliding glass door in our office. We added names and took them off. We realized that any 10 names on our door could—to misquote President Kennedy (Harvard)—make the guest list for the best dinner party since Thomas Jefferson (not Harvard) dined alone. Or for a dinner party so entertaining that the film version would have to co-star Wallace Shawn (Harvard) and André Gregory (Harvard) or so horrifying that only Edward Albee (not Harvard) could properly capture it.

We began the ranking process and quickly recognized the utter folly of our task. Only number one was a given. As if to confirm that, Warren Buffett (not Harvard) surfaced in the middle of the process to nail down the top spot for Bill Gates (Harvard, and yes, we know he didn't graduate, and no, we don't care). We debated some more. Things got a little ugly.

If you think you might have been on the list at some point, you're probably right. In the end, we had enough names for the Harvard 200 or 300. As we assembled the final list, we detected obvious trends and unexpected connections; more important, we recognized a theme. Everyone on the Harvard 100 has at least a touch of what one of our editors calls "that Robert Kennedy thing" the impulse to, in the words of Ted Kennedy, "dream things that never were and say why not."

Finally we made peace with the fact that we could place most of the names on the list in any order, and someone would still have a problem with it. The debate is still going on, and we fully expect you to participate. All we know about you is that you have some connection to Harvard. And if we know anything about people with a Harvard connection, we know that they enjoy a good contentious debate. And that they're everywhere.

View The Harvard 100 List