Prominent economist Bryan Caplan and political commentator Richard Hanania initiated a "Sixteen Fun Facts About Me" meme on their blogs and substacks. Building on this, Ilya Somin shared his own set of personal facts in an article published on July 9, 2026, by Reason.

Somin recounts spending much of his infancy and toddler years in the hospital due to various ailments. A nurse, described as having a "typically awful Soviet bedside manner," pessimistically remarked that he "probably won't live," but fortunately, Somin survived.

He did not learn to read in either English or Russian until age eight, attributing this delay to lack of motivation and possible undiagnosed dyslexia. Once he learned, he quickly progressed to reading adult books rather than children's literature.

Reflecting on his sports experiences, Somin notes that Ray Bourque was the best player on his team, later recognized as one of the greatest defensemen and arguably the second-greatest Boston Bruin after Bobby Orr. He also mentions his teammate Anjan Mukherjee, who became a prominent financier and suggested that Somin should be the one to call Rawls.

Somin contrasts his libertarian influences by stating he was never much influenced by Ayn Rand, despite respecting her role in popularizing libertarian ideas.

He candidly discusses a job experience that went poorly due to unclear expectations and insufficient effort to clarify them, acknowledging shared responsibility. In later years, he made efforts to be clearer with his own research assistants.

Regarding his career path, Somin chose law professorship over political science because the job market seemed less competitive and the male-female ratio in political science graduate school was heavily skewed, leading him to believe he had a better chance of finding a girlfriend in law school.

Additional notable quotes from Somin include reflections on discipline, his first official job at the Lexington, MA public library at age 15, and a provocative title, "The Case for Paying Dead Farmers Not to Farm Instead of Living Ones."

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