“The toughest thing about John Carmack is picking which career highlight to call out — creating the 3D game genre, Wolfenstein 3D, Doom, Quake — any of these would suffice. A self-described ‘technology idealist,’ it’s hard to engage him in conversation until you hit a hot spot — OpenGL versus D3D, for example. Through the success of the Quake licensing initiative, his work is actually more important to the industry now, with legions of ‘next Carmacks’ trying to equal his impact.”