But the Einstein/Yoda connection was new information for me, so I thank you.

Well, cheating or not, it’s less fun. The meandering is part of the enjoyment (if surfing through Wikipedia can be considered enjoyable). I suppose it helps to know that Thomas Jefferson, William Shakespeare, Christopher Marlowe, Queen Elizabeth I, and now Georg Cantor are valuable in the search process.

But, to quote Yoda, “There is another.”

A more interesting find, at least to me:

Sir Karl Popper > Albert Einstein > Yoda

Anyway, I can’t accept Spinoza > Bacon for the reason you suspected – links within boxes are off limits according to the rules. But, to quote Yoda, “There is another.”

Sir Karl Popper > Bertrand Russell > Baruch Spinoza > Sir Francis Bacon

I don’t know if that last step should count. On the Spinoza page, Bacon appears only in the blue bio column on the right, and not in the text.

I’ve figured out why I’m not very good at this particular puzzle. I’m excellent with the Kevin Bacon version because I can reverse engineer to a small extent and make the chain quickly and as short as possible. In other words, I tend to gather a group of similarly prolific actors who have worked with Bacon at least once, so that “Six Degrees of Kevin Bacon” becomes “Five Degrees of Jack Lemmon, Laurence Fishburne, Matt Dillon, Tom Hanks, Julia Roberts, Jack Nicholson, Peter Riegert, John Lithgow, etc.” Plus I know Hollywood better than Wikipedia.

I’ve resisted it thus far, but I may have to use the “What Links Here” option and create a penultimate stable of names for Francis as well. Feels like cheating, though.

The interposing individual is neither British nor royal. Discuss.

Sir Karl Popper > Bertrand Russell > Queen Victoria…

Stupid British royals! Please don’t make me go back there.