Via Raymond, the idea is who would you give up a day to hang out with, learn from, etc?

So...many...people.

Hell, Raymond himself is one of those guys that you could just learn a ton from.  Having spent some time working with him on a project, I know that I could learn a ton from him about Agile, TDD, and just the right way to do things.

Others on the list would be:

Scott Hanselman - What couldn't you learn from Scott?  He's a mac-daddy pimp of a lot of different subjects, and just seems like a really cool guy to boot.

K. Scott Allen - Another one of those guys who just knows a scary amount of stuff about a scary amount of stuff.  I got to have dinner with Scott at VSLive a couple of years ago, and it's easy to see he's always one of the sharpest knives in the drawer.

Phil Haack - Totally cool guy who seems to be into everything, knows his stuff inside and out, and is always learning new things.

Jeff Atwood - This guy just seems to have insight.  Into everything. 

Yeah I would totally love to just sit and have a few beers (my buy of course) and just have conversations about technology with any of these guys, and really anyone on my blogroll.  I learn so much and have grown so much as a developer just reading what these people have to say on the internets, I can't imagine what a few hours of me picking their brain would yield.  My head asplode!

Sometimes I think how great our profession would be if we apprenticed under people like this for a while before going out into the wide world.  How much better would I be had I worked under a Scott Hanselman or a Jeremy Miller for a few years before striking my own path?  A lot, to be certain.