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Questions about Nietzsche,Sun Tzu,and Ayn Rand

Ubermensch

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@Ubermensch

Well, that puts things into better perspective. I appreciate that well thought out response.

I explored her writings on my own taking them for what I could interpret. You can see how I would be mistaken with some of the things she has said.

Thanks again for the insight. That is the first time I have head her work explained like that.

I find that most critics of Ayn Rand simply misunderstood her.

@Omega

Let's take this thread in the direction of tying all three philosophers together.

As you can see just from reading through the thread, Nietzsche has many interpreters. Each interpretation posted has a grain of truth to it. Each interpretation is somewhat open to debate.

This is not so with Ayn Rand, because she was rigorously specific with how she expressed her philosophy. Nietzsche spouted off aphorisms. Ayn Rand set up logically structured arguments from A to Z.

Perhaps if Nietzsche wrote more fiction - if he had his own Howard Roark and John Galt, on top of Zarasthustra - we would have a different picture of his views.

Sun-Tzu is the only one of the three whose actual existence is questioned, doubted and debated.

All three have had massive influence.

To be continued...
 
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Guest34764

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@Ubermensch

What book do you think Is pivotal to read In order to get a mindset of a more business or self-improvement approach?

There have been a few books recommended In this thread but what Is your opinion on the best book to read for developing yourself and learning more about business.
 

Ubermensch

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What book do you think Is pivotal to read In order to get a mindset of a more business or self-improvement approach?

There have been a few books recommended In this thread but what Is your opinion on the best book to read for developing yourself and learning more about business.

If you want to harness the power of logic, I would study logical fallacies. Understanding logical fallacies - and how to use empirical evidence and research - prevents you from falling for dumb ideas and inaccurate assumptions.

Imagine if your competition has an understanding of the marketplace as inaccurate as @PatricianCat 's understanding of Ayn Rand's work. Or, what if your client has a misunderstanding that blatant and stark. If you understand logic - and know enough factual information about your product or service or marketplace - you will be able to quickly communicate in a way that cuts through the B.S.

If you want to learn how to see through B.S. statements and train your mind in the art of discovering the truth, I would join a site like Online Debate NET.

Unlike the Fast Lane, that forum is rigorously moderated according to the rules of logic and empirical evidence. In other words, you are not allowed to make logically fallacious or unsupported claims.

The books I'd recommend to answer your questions are not written by any of the philosophers we're discussing in this thread.

I certainly would not recommend The Art of War to you at this point. The original copy of the book is written in Chinese. Interpreters have translated it into English.

However, it is wise to read translations and interpretations of Sun-Tzu, interpretations made specifically for business owners and managers.

An example is Gerald Michaelson's Sun-Tzu's Art of War for Business.
 
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DeletedUser396

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Atlas Shrugged is the first book I've ever read, Ayn Rand has a special place in my heart.

If Nietzsche is the extreme right brain, Ayn Rand is the extreme left brain.
If Nietzsche is the subconscious mind, Ayn Rand is the conscious mind.
If Nietzsche is the fire, Ayn Rand is the wood.
They complement each other.

They wrote about the same heroic archetype, the glory you could one day achieve by enduring the pain along the path.
Nietzsche makes you affirm life and aspire for self-deification, Ayn Rand makes you take action to get there.

Ayn Rand isn't liked by the public because she puts all the accountability on your back, slaying your slave morality.
You're not somebody because you don't know how to use the most powerful weapon in existence, the human mind.

"But I have this and that responsibility!" Your fault, no buts.
For example, if you marry, buy a house and have children while being financially insecure you deserve everything that's coming your way, you failed to use your weapon (the mind), recoil is a bitch.

The first chapter of "The 50th Law" is titled "See Things For What They Are - Intense Realism", Greene wrote that realism is the ideal we must aspire to, the highest point of human rationality.

I'm sure Robert Greene and Ayn Rand would be friends if they were both alive today.

Look around you, look at all the options you have at your disposal.

Are you really trapped? Is your situation really hopeless? Are you doing everything in your power to rise? Or are you just lazy?

What would a billionaire do if he woke up as you one day, excluding the suicide option?

You have the power to shape the world around you through your will, and this makes people uncomfortable.
 
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Ubermensch

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Ayn Rand on money and the Glory of Mankind

To the glory of mankind, there was, for the first and only time in history, a country of money—and I have no higher, more reverent tribute to pay to America, for this means: a country of reason, justice, freedom, production, achievement. For the first time, man’s mind and money were set free, and there were no fortunes-by-conquest, but only fortunes-by-work, and instead of swordsmen and slaves, there appeared the real maker of wealth, the greatest worker, the highest type of human being—the self-made man—the American industrialist.

If you ask me to name the proudest distinction of Americans, I would choose—because it contains all the others—the fact that they were the people who created the phrase “to make money.” No other language or nation had ever used these words before; men had always thought of wealth as a static quantity—to be seized, begged, inherited, shared, looted or obtained as a favor. Americans were the first to understand that wealth has to be created. The Meaning of Money,” For the New Intellectual, 93

Ayn Rand on Money as (NOT) the Root of All Evil


So you think that money is the root of all evil?” said Francisco d’Anconia. “Have you ever asked what is the root of money? Money is a tool of exchange, which can’t exist unless there are goods produced and men able to produce them. Money is the material shape of the principle that men who wish to deal with one another must deal by trade and give value for value. Money is not the tool of the moochers, who claim your product by tears, or of the looters, who take it from you by force. Money is made possible only by the men who produce. Is this what you consider evil?

When you accept money in payment for your effort, you do so only on the conviction that you will exchange it for the product of the effort of others. It is not the moochers or the looters who give value to money. Not an ocean of tears not all the guns in the world can transform those pieces of paper in your wallet into the bread you will need to survive tomorrow. Those pieces of paper, which should have been gold, are a token of honor–your claim upon the energy of the men who produce. Your wallet is your statement of hope that somewhere in the world around you there are men who will not default on that moral principle which is the root of money, Is this what you consider evil?

Have you ever looked for the root of production? Take a look at an electric generator and dare tell yourself that it was created by the muscular effort of unthinking brutes. Try to grow a seed of wheat without the knowledge left to you by men who had to discover it for the first time. Try to obtain your food by means of nothing but physical motions–and you’ll learn that man’s mind is the root of all the goods produced and of all the wealth that has ever existed on earth.

But you say that money is made by the strong at the expense of the weak? What strength do you mean? It is not the strength of guns or muscles. Wealth is the product of man’s capacity to think. Then is money made by the man who invents a motor at the expense of those who did not invent it? Is money made by the intelligent at the expense of the fools? By the able at the expense of the incompetent? By the ambitious at the expense of the lazy? Money is made–before it can be looted or mooched–made by the effort of every honest man, each to the extent of his ability. An honest man is one who knows that he can’t consume more than he has produced.’

“To trade by means of money is the code of the men of good will. Money rests on the axiom that every man is the owner of his mind and his effort. Money allows no power to prescribe the value of your effort except the voluntary choice of the man who is willing to trade you his effort in return. Money permits you to obtain for your goods and your labor that which they are worth to the men who buy them, but no more. Money permits no deals except those to mutual benefit by the unforced judgment of the traders. Money demands of you the recognition that men must work for their own benefit, not for their own injury, for their gain, not their loss–the recognition that they are not beasts of burden, born to carry the weight of your misery–that you must offer them values, not wounds–that the common bond among men is not the exchange of suffering, but the exchange of goods. Money demands that you sell, not your weakness to men’s stupidity, but your talent to their reason; it demands that you buy, not the shoddiest they offer, but the best that your money can find. And when men live by trade–with reason, not force, as their final arbiter–it is the best product that wins, the best performance, the man of best judgment and highest ability–and the degree of a man’s productiveness is the degree of his reward. This is the code of existence whose tool and symbol is money. Is this what you consider evil?

But money is only a tool. It will take you wherever you wish, but it will not replace you as the driver. It will give you the means for the satisfaction of your desires, but it will not provide you with desires. Money is the scourge of the men who attempt to reverse the law of causality–the men who seek to replace the mind by seizing the products of the mind.

Money will not purchase happiness for the man who has no concept of what he wants: money will not give him a code of values, if he’s evaded the knowledge of what to value, and it will not provide him with a purpose, if he’s evaded the choice of what to seek. Money will not buy intelligence for the fool, or admiration for the coward, or respect for the incompetent. The man who attempts to purchase the brains of his superiors to serve him, with his money replacing his judgment, ends up by becoming the victim of his inferiors. The men of intelligence desert him, but the cheats and the frauds come flocking to him, drawn by a law which he has not discovered: that no man may be smaller than his money. Is this the reason why you call it evil?

Only the man who does not need it, is fit to inherit wealth–the man who would make his own fortune no matter where he started. If an heir is equal to his money, it serves him; if not, it destroys him. But you look on and you cry that money corrupted him. Did it? Or did he corrupt his money? Do not envy a worthless heir; his wealth is not yours and you would have done no better with it. Do not think that it should have been distributed among you; loading the world with fifty parasites instead of one, would not bring back the dead virtue which was the fortune. Money is a living power that dies without its root. Money will not serve the mind that cannot match it. Is this the reason why you call it evil?

Money is your means of survival. The verdict you pronounce upon the source of your livelihood is the verdict you pronounce upon your life. If the source is corrupt, you have damned your own existence. Did you get your money by fraud? By pandering to men’s vices or men’s stupidity? By catering to fools, in the hope of getting more than your ability deserves? By lowering your standards? By doing work you despise for purchasers you scorn? If so, then your money will not give you a moment’s or a penny’s worth of joy. Then all the things you buy will become, not a tribute to you, but a reproach; not an achievement, but a reminder of shame. Then you’ll scream that money is evil. Evil, because it would not pinch-hit for your self-respect? Evil, because it would not let you enjoy your depravity? Is this the root of your hatred of money?

Money will always remain an effect and refuse to replace you as the cause. Money is the product of virtue, but it will not give you virtue and it will not redeem your vices. Money will not give you the unearned, neither in matter nor in spirit. Is this the root of your hatred of money?

Or did you say it’s the love of money that’s the root of all evil? To love a thing is to know and love its nature. To love money is to know and love the fact that money is the creation of the best power within you, and your passkey to trade your effort for the effort of the best among men. It’s the person who would sell his soul for a nickel, who is loudest in proclaiming his hatred of money–and he has good reason to hate it. The lovers of money are willing to work for it. They know they are able to deserve it.

Let me give you a tip on a clue to men’s characters: the man who damns money has obtained it dishonorably; the man who respects it has earned it.

Run for your life from any man who tells you that money is evil. That sentence is the leper’s bell of an approaching looter. So long as men live together on earth and need means to deal with one another–their only substitute, if they abandon money, is the muzzle of a gun.

But money demands of you the highest virtues, if you wish to make it or to keep it. Men who have no courage, pride or self-esteem, men who have no moral sense of their right to their money and are not willing to defend it as they defend their life, men who apologize for being rich–will not remain rich for long. They are the natural bait for the swarms of looters that stay under rocks for centuries, but come crawling out at the first smell of a man who begs to be forgiven for the guilt of owning wealth. They will hasten to relieve him of the guilt–and of his life, as he deserves.

Then you will see the rise of the men of the double standard–the men who live by force, yet count on those who live by trade to create the value of their looted money–the men who are the hitchhikers of virtue. In a moral society, these are the criminals, and the statutes are written to protect you against them. But when a society establishes criminals-by-right and looters-by-law–men who use force to seize the wealth of disarmed victims–then money becomes its creators’ avenger. Such looters believe it safe to rob defenseless men, once they’ve passed a law to disarm them. But their loot becomes the magnet for other looters, who get it from them as they got it. Then the race goes, not to the ablest at production, but to those most ruthless at brutality. When force is the standard, the murderer wins over the pickpocket. And then that society vanishes, in a spread of ruins and slaughter.

Do you wish to know whether that day is coming? Watch money. Money is the barometer of a society’s virtue. When you see that trading is done, not by consent, but by compulsion–when you see that in order to produce, you need to obtain permission from men who produce nothing–when you see that money is flowing to those who deal, not in goods, but in favors–when you see that men get richer by graft and by pull than by work, and your laws don’t protect you against them, but protect them against you–when you see corruption being rewarded and honesty becoming a self-sacrifice–you may know that your society is doomed. Money is so noble a medium that is does not compete with guns and it does not make terms with brutality. It will not permit a country to survive as half-property, half-loot.

Whenever destroyers appear among men, they start by destroying money, for money is men’s protection and the base of a moral existence. Destroyers seize gold and leave to its owners a counterfeit pile of paper. This kills all objective standards and delivers men into the arbitrary power of an arbitrary setter of values. Gold was an objective value, an equivalent of wealth produced. Paper is a mortgage on wealth that does not exist, backed by a gun aimed at those who are expected to produce it. Paper is a check drawn by legal looters upon an account which is not theirs: upon the virtue of the victims. Watch for the day when it bounces, marked, ‘Account overdrawn.’

When you have made evil the means of survival, do not expect men to remain good. Do not expect them to stay moral and lose their lives for the purpose of becoming the fodder of the immoral. Do not expect them to produce, when production is punished and looting rewarded. Do not ask, ‘Who is destroying the world? You are.

You stand in the midst of the greatest achievements of the greatest productive civilization and you wonder why it’s crumbling around you, while you’re damning its life-blood–money. You look upon money as the savages did before you, and you wonder why the jungle is creeping back to the edge of your cities. Throughout men’s history, money was always seized by looters of one brand or another, whose names changed, but whose method remained the same: to seize wealth by force and to keep the producers bound, demeaned, defamed, deprived of honor. That phrase about the evil of money, which you mouth with such righteous recklessness, comes from a time when wealth was produced by the labor of slaves–slaves who repeated the motions once discovered by somebody’s mind and left unimproved for centuries. So long as production was ruled by force, and wealth was obtained by conquest, there was little to conquer, Yet through all the centuries of stagnation and starvation, men exalted the looters, as aristocrats of the sword, as aristocrats of birth, as aristocrats of the bureau, and despised the producers, as slaves, as traders, as shopkeepers–as industrialists.

To the glory of mankind, there was, for the first and only time in history, a country of money–and I have no higher, more reverent tribute to pay to America, for this means: a country of reason, justice, freedom, production, achievement. For the first time, man’s mind and money were set free, and there were no fortunes-by-conquest, but only fortunes-by-work, and instead of swordsmen and slaves, there appeared the real maker of wealth, the greatest worker, the highest type of human being–the self-made man–the American industrialist.

If you ask me to name the proudest distinction of Americans, I would choose–because it contains all the others–the fact that they were the people who created the phrase ‘to make money.’ No other language or nation had ever used these words before; men had always thought of wealth as a static quantity–to be seized, begged, inherited, shared, looted or obtained as a favor. Americans were the first to understand that wealth has to be created. The words ‘to make money’ hold the essence of human morality.

Yet these were the words for which Americans were denounced by the rotted cultures of the looters’ continents. Now the looters’ credo has brought you to regard your proudest achievements as a hallmark of shame, your prosperity as guilt, your greatest men, the industrialists, as blackguards, and your magnificent factories as the product and property of muscular labor, the labor of whip-driven slaves, like the pyramids of Egypt. The rotter who simpers that he sees no difference between the power of the dollar and the power of the whip, ought to learn the difference on his own hide– as, I think, he will.

Until and unless you discover that money is the root of all good, you ask for your own destruction. When money ceases to be the tool by which men deal with one another, then men become the tools of men. Blood, whips and guns–or dollars. Take your choice–there is no other–and your time is running out.


Ayn Rand on money:


Money is the tool of men who have reached a high level of productivity and a long-range control over their lives. Money is not merely a tool of exchange: much more importantly, it is a tool of saving, which permits delayed consumption and buys time for future production. To fulfill this requirement, money has to be some material commodity which is imperishable, rare, homogeneous, easily stored, not subject to wide fluctuations of value, and always in demand among those you trade with. This leads you to the decision to use gold as money. Gold money is a tangible value in itself and a token of wealth actually produced. When you accept a gold coin in payment for your goods, you actually deliver the goods to the buyer; the transaction is as safe as simple barter. When you store your savings in the form of gold coins, they represent the goods which you have actually produced and which have gone to buy time for other producers, who will keep the productive process going, so that you’ll be able to trade your coins for goods any time you wish. “Egalitarianism and Inflation,”Philosophy: Who Needs It, 127

Ayn Rand on money and altruism:


Money is a great power—because, in a free or even a semi-free society, it is a frozen form of productive energy. And, therefore, the spending of money is a grave responsibility. Contrary to the altruists and the advocates of the so-called “academic freedom,” it is a moral crime to give money to support ideas with which you disagree; it means: ideas which you consider wrong, false, evil. It is a moral crime to give money to support your own destroyers.
 
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ilrein

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There is another great gift Ayn Rand has given.

It is the understanding that intellectualism is a necessity. We must not surrender the domain of ideas to the mediocre, and let those dictate the terms we operate under.

While I had always searched for answers in philosophy, I found myself surrounded by boundless amounts of subjectivism, and its variations.

Plato - believed that all things have a ethereal, perfect version of itself in some fifth dimension. Correlation: you can never achieve perfection in reality.
The Forms, Plato tells us repeatedly, are what is really real.

Decartes - one of the first originators of the mind/body dichotomy. Correlation: you cannot trust your sight, hearing, taste...you have no way of verifying the data your senses are passing along. You cannot believe your body.
They have cut man in two, setting one half against the other. They have taught him that his body and his consciousness are two enemies engaged in deadly conflict, two antagonists of opposite natures, contradictory claims, incompatible needs, that to benefit one is to injure the other, that his soul belongs to a supernatural realm, but his body is an evil prison holding it in bondage to this earth

And of course, Kant was to build ontop of Descartes and provide a philosophical devolution of reason [debunked in The Analytic-Synthetic Dichotomy," (1967)]. And then we had guys like Hume, who flat out said everything our mind interprets is a lie:
The identity that we ascribe to things is only a fictitious one, established by the mind, not a peculiar nature belonging to what we’re talking about.

There were a few good philosophers though, which include Aristotle (one of the original founders of logical, philosophic, nature-based reasoning). Thomas Locke was a complete opposite of Hobbes, the latter of which felt humans were so despicable, only an authoritarian government that had total control over them would constitute a legitimate society. Adam Smith gave us our first visions of Capitalism, and that co-operation could be a defining attribute of man.

Before I was exposed to Objectivist philosophy, I too had some sort of aggregation of various subjective ideals floating around in my head. And the most ironic part about it? I thought I was smarter than everyone, because I knew about secrets of the universe (past lifes, different dimensions of reality, spiritual entities...). Only when I realized that a scientific, realist approach to life would make me infinitely happier, was when I was able to shed my delusional skin.

It was the words of Ayn Rand, of course. So utterly to the point, flowing with a eloquence of a Russian ballerina. I could neither reject her arguments, nor stop consuming every piece of literature she ever put out in hopes of devouring her knowledge. These days, I have all the intellectual ammunition I could ever need. I have long ago graduated from my self-study of philosophy.
 
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Mattie

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In my experience altruism can be a double edge sword. I think it comes down to the circumstances and situation, perceptions of events from all sides, and no matter what side you're on, you can see it as a good or bad thing, and really is there anyway to prevent someone from experiencing pain and suffering? Really it's all out of your power and control, it's their experience, perception, and thinking.

You can help someone, but it's still painful because they're in an illusion and still in the matrix thinking, programmed, and feel you're harming them with truth. As in being a billionaire or millionaire, the lower class, or middle class perceives you to be a certain way out of ignorance. They've never been through the Hero's or Heroine's journey to experience the changes.

There's this certain point you see it wouldn't matter what choice you make, another person will perceive your thoughts, actions, and words in a good or evil way. You can be the Hero and Villain at the same time. Two people can be standing in front of you, and you help both of them, but one see's you as the Hero, and the other the Villain. You can be bittersweet.

For money it's really no different than exchanging pigs, chickens, rice, or fish. You just happen to be the on who goes out fishing and catches 50 fish and your neighbor gets one. You can be sitting in the same boat. You can go hunting and you happen to shoot and have a better aim than your neighbor. Perhaps you're the better warrior of a tribe. The chief of a tribe doesn't have to feed his tribe, he could be selfish, and keep everything to him or self, because he worked for it. Whatever you use to barter, it's exchanging energy.

Isn't it natural and biological to help others. If we have mirror neurons, and empathize naturally to what we witness, we automatically will step in necessary to save a life, or doing what is necessary. If you have no empathy or sympathy I suppose in the worst case scenario you will allow someone to be harmed.
 

DayIFly

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Before I was exposed to Objectivist philosophy, I too had some sort of aggregation of various subjective ideals floating around in my head. And the most ironic part about it? I thought I was smarter than everyone, because I knew about secrets of the universe (past lifes, different dimensions of reality, spiritual entities...). Only when I realized that a scientific, realist approach to life would make me infinitely happier, was when I was able to shed my delusional skin.

It was the words of Ayn Rand, of course. So utterly to the point, flowing with a eloquence of a Russian ballerina. I could neither reject her arguments, nor stop consuming every piece of literature she ever put out in hopes of devouring her knowledge. These days, I have all the intellectual ammunition I could ever need. I have long ago graduated from my self-study of philosophy.

Wow, not bad, you're jumping from one extreme to the next. So now it's: "I thought I was smarter than everyone, because I knew about the unified field theory of Objectivism..."

As you're an enlightened being now, I hope you're completely satisfied with your holy grail philosophy. Well, happiness is all that matters, isn't it? To your health!
 

Ubermensch

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I recently realized how much he really accomplished in his life despite his horrendous suffering. His glory will shine in eternity, illuminating the path of a few chosen people.

Another sentence glistening with truth, mired in ugly paragraph spacing. Your words have such power and poignancy, yet you dress them in bedraggled and dilapidated paragraphs. It's a little maddening.

Between my keyboard, and Nietzsche himself, there is already enough madness in this thread. Please be nice to your reader's eyes - and do justice to your sentences - by making it look like you at least tried to type your words with all five fingers, and not just your two opposable thumbs!

Otherwise, I will have to conclude that you are not, in fact, a precociously intelligent human being and are rather, in fact, a very clever monkey, perhaps of the bonobo clan. :upyours:

Prove you're a human. Tipe guudz.

Anyway.

@DayIFly do you have a question to ask me? Or do you just not like my attitude?

@DayIFly didn't really phrase things cogently or coherently. Not sure what was trying to be said.

It's so rare to hear someone fully understand Ayn Rand. I was beginning to fear I was alone.


I am a wanderer and a mountain climber, Zarasthustra said to his heart. What returns, what finally comes home to me, is my own self. Alas, I have begun my lonelinesst walk. But whoever is of my kind cannot escape the hour. The hour which says to him only now are you going your way to greatness. Peak and abyss, they are now joined together, for all things are baptized in a well of eternity and lie beyond good and evil.


@Omega

From Nietzsche:
And so, onwards, along a path of wisdom, with a hearty tread, a hearty confidence. However you may be, be your own source of experience. Throw off your discontent about your nature. Forgive yourself your own self. You have it in your power to merge everything you have lived through: false starts, errors, delusions, passions, your loves and your hopes - into your goal with nothing left over.

Consider Nietzsche like a father that you have a long-distance relationship with. You don't spend a huge amount of time with him, and yet you carry his wisdom in your heart. When you face a big task, a potential turning point in your life, you reflect upon words like those italicized above, and you go onwards, with a hearty tread, and a hearty confidence - and you attack your goal.
 
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Guest34764

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From Nietzsche:
And so, onwards, along a path of wisdom, with a hearty tread, a hearty confidence. However you may be, be your own source of experience. Throw off your discontent about your nature. Forgive yourself your own self. You have it in your power to merge everything you have lived through: false starts, errors, delusions, passions, your loves and your hopes - into your goal with nothing left over.

Beautiful.

I'm slowly opening up into Nietzsche and the other philosophers.

And I owe the thanks to you and the other contributors.

The book you recommended me The Art of War For Managers Is really good so far.

I commend you on recommending me such a good book.
 

Ubermensch

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Beautiful.

I'm slowly opening up into Nietzsche and the other philosophers.

And I owe the thanks to you and the other contributors.

The book you recommended me The Art of War For Managers Is really good so far.

I commend you on recommending me such a good book.

Nietzsche - The higher we soar, the smaller we appear to those who cannot fly.


Intellectuals and pseuo-intellectuals alike should recognize, at the very least, Cornell West and other philosophers discussing the philosophical lines of thought traced throughout The Matrix trilogy (above).

In this particular clip, they discuss Nietzsche, the Ubermensch, and Neo.

We have already seen the bullet-stopping power of logic, and empirical data - particularly, data that a would-be assailant is ignorant about.

Logic and facts. That is what wins arguments.

That is what closes sales.

You can think of the words people fire at you as bullets.

Ayn Rand (the mother) + Friedrich Nietzsche (the father) + Genghis Kahn, King Alexander, Spartacus, King Leonidas + Miyomoto Musashi (you may want to add him to your thread title, lol)+ Niccolo Machiavelli (you may want to add his name as well... or start a new thread... haha) + Sun-tzu = "
The Power of "No."


"No" to your doubters. "No" to those who said you would not win, who laughed behind your back - and to your face.

"No" to a life of mediocrity.

"No" of a life any other than the finest life, the best life, the best that money can buy, hustler's heaven.

"No" to getting up late and going to sleep early (ever?).

"No" to anyone other than He who has the power to say Yes: You. (Yelling what you imagine @Potente 's scribbles in his notebook to look like: F*ck you... I will do what I want... You can't tell me what to do... I'm going to do what I want to do... I'm going to go where I want to go... I'm going to live where I want to live... I'm going to enjoy what I want to enjoy... I'm going to live healthy, wealthy and powerfully... I am going to take care of those about... man, I'm going to take care those that I care about... that's the most important part...)

"No" to fly coach.

"No" to living anywhere but the beach.

"No" to snow in the winter.
 
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D

DeletedUser396

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Another sentence glistening with truth, mired in ugly paragraph spacing. Your words have such power and poignancy, yet you dress them in bedraggled and dilapidated paragraphs. It's a little maddening.

Between my keyboard, and Nietzsche himself, there is already enough madness in this thread. Please be nice to your reader's eyes - and do justice to your sentences - by making it look like you at least tried to type your words with all five fingers, and not just your two opposable thumbs!

Otherwise, I will have to conclude that you are not, in fact, a precociously intelligent human being and are rather, in fact, a very clever monkey, perhaps of the bonobo clan. :upyours:

Prove you're a human. Tipe guudz.

Anyway.
Almost spit out my coffee, thanks for the good laugh. :hilarious:

So glad I found this forum, I don't feel that mad anymore.


___________________________________________________________________________________



This scene is one of my favorites.

____________________

Neo: "I know Kung fu."

Just by admitting you can do something, you start a positive feedback loop.

Try breaking a squat PR while thinking "I can't do this, I've never done this before, I'm too weak, this shit is going to crush me!".

You WILL FAIL simply because you BELIEVE YOU WILL FAIL.

Will, desire and belief are what move the universe.

I squat without safety pins.
Knowing that I'll hurt yourself if I don't complete that last rep is enough for me to complete it.

As Sun Tzu noticed, you're twice as strong when you have no other option.
Necessity is the mother of glory.

____________________

Morpheus: "There are rules like gravity. These rules are no different than the rules of a computer system. Some of them can be bent, others can be broken."

Go lift your car.
You can't, right?
Okay then.
Next time, while the most important person in your life is getting crushed by the car, try again.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hysterical_strength

Lions are dangerous and humans can't live with them, right?
Go tell that to this man.
Your game is just too weak, you can't fake anything around lions, they know.

____________________

Then, Neo fights against Morpheus.
He's not fighting to win.
He's just bullshitting around.


Like most people, Neo is not focused on closing.
Like most people, Neo is fighting (working) just because he's supposed to, without an exit strategy.
Plan all the way to the end.

____________________

Neo: "You're too fast!"
Morpheus: "Do you believe that my being stronger or faster has anything to do with my muscles in this place?"


Are masters superhuman? No.

Do they have superintelligence? No.

They simply work a lot more, they know their crafts so well that they're consistently in flow state.
Easier said than done.

____________________

Morpheus: "What are you waiting for? You're faster than this." "Don't think you are, know you are."

Why are you limiting yourself?
Why is selling brandless Chinese gadgets on eBay your idea of entrepreneurship?
What about creating beautiful but generic websites just to sell air?
Why are you idolizing famous people when you can be the idolized one?

____________________

Morpheus: "I'm trying to free your mind, Neo. But I can only show you the door. You're the one that has to walk through it."

Reading philosophy without applying it is like buying condoms to masturbate.
Study a few authors and heroes, but study them intensely.
Apply their teachings in your life.
Steal their ideas and make them yours.

Practice like Musashi;
strategize like Sun Tzu;
enter action with boldness like Alexander the Great;
innovate like Hannibal Barca.
analyze like Ayn Rand;
affirm life like Nietzsche;
politick like Machiavelli and Robert Greene;
think big like Genghis Khan.

Become your subconscious mind.
Know you are.
 
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bonaparten

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I study Philosophy, I'm getting my Master Degree at the University Heidelberg in Germany.
The relationship between Philosophy and Business is at the moment my problem, because I'm trying to USE the Philosophy to start and improve a business.
Everything of what you read and learn has a lot of value, for example reading novels can have a lot of value for the purpose that you have. So if you read articles, books and blogs about Philosophy that is fine because you add value to yourself, but that does not have a direct impact in your business, but in yourself and afterwards undoubtedly in your business too!
If you want to learn philosophy to improve your business skills then you have to read the philosophers, I mean their books and not a couple of books about their philosophy. I'm saying that because learning philosophy from philosophers' books you learn a rational path to interpret and understand the logic structure of the philosophical systems (every philosophers' philosophy is a system for the understanding of the reality, like the equations of the physik try to explain the whole universe). Interpretation and logic skills are very important for your business; it is something like maths, you don't need a degree in maths to become rich, but you need mathematical skills to understand the numbers of your business. If knowing is the best way (and I think it is) to have new ideas, to rich yourself, to have more experience in order to avoid mistakes learning from the past, philosophy is a good think because you learn how the world it could be and how under any premises it could not be.
Anyway you can understand the relationship between Fastlaners, Slowlaners and Sidewalkers understanding Nietzsche's Master-Slave Morality https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Master–slave_morality
You can understand the Fastlaner morality through the Übermensch: The "goal" of the Übermensch is himself, say a lot of nos: no to traditional way thinking about money, about earning etc., improve yourself out from the chant, stay disconnected from facebook, from the noise, add value at home learning. The difference between fastlaners and normal people is like the difference between a monkey and the normal people. The Übermensch is the Monkey 3.0.

https://startpage.com/do/search?q=philosophy and business

Sorry for my english ;-)
 

guy93777

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Where to get started reading on them, any and all useful information and perhaps a few other tidbits.

Uber will start us off.

@Ubermensch

:)



you guys don't really understand their philosophies

all of them were INTJ's


you guys are bragging here : " hey guys i 've read Ayn Rand ! i am a real capitalist , fastlaner or whatever ! "

NOT AT ALL

INTJ don't see themselves as part of the masses. they see themselves as humans above the circus



you guys can't understand Ayn Rand real message because you endorse the masses 's way of living . you have no mission . you think society is there to help you ( politicians, media, whatever )



All these guys : Sun Tzu , Nietzsche, Rand had a mission in life


you don't . your " mission " is to have money in the bank

this is not a mission at all because you have no superior philosophy or understanding of life behind it


28401

 
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Everything you need to know.

"Everything you can imagine is real."
"Action is the foundational key to all success."
"Every child is an artist. The problem is how to remain an artist once he grows up."
To know what you’re going to draw, you have to begin drawing.
"Good artists copy, great artists steal."
Pablo Picasso had a pretty badass mindset, it's no wonder he envisioned himself as the Ubermensch.
Was he an egomaniac?
Was he an arrogant douchebag?
Maybe.
So what?
He had life figured out. When a random painting of yours is worth more than the combined net worths of all your haters you know you're doing something right.

Steve Jobs is another example of Ubermensch. Is it so surprising that the masses think he was a crazy a**hole?

Ever heard the saying "great minds think alike"?
Can you see all the underlying patterns?
Can you connect the dots between Friedrich Nietzsche, Pablo Picasso, Steve Jobs, Kanye West and Walt Disney?
They're all defined as eccentric, crazy, mad, assholes...
Do/did they care? Hell no.
Nietzsche wrote about becoming who you are. What does that mean? Strip away the bullshit social conditioning from your brain and you get your real self, the little kid who isn't afraid of speaking his mind and not giving a F*ck.
How to do it is up to you, you can meditate or you can take drugs (like every legendary artist did), you just have to fold and unfold you brain to understand what is YOURS and what is bullshit baggage you're carrying with you.
"For art to exist, for any sort of aesthetic activity to exist, a certain physiological precondition is indispensable: intoxication." - Friedrich Nietzsche

When Steve Jobs first started Apple his employment strategy was really strange, questions like "Are you a virgin?" or "How many times did you take LSD?" filtered out the people he didn't want to work with him.
The normal people, the boring nerds, the herd, the ones that aren't crazy.

In Thus Spoke Zarathustra, Nietzsche wrote about the three metamorphoses of the spirit you have to go through.
At first, your pure essence, your spirit, become the camel, the camel bows down and society loads its back with social conditioning.
The camel then meets the dragon, the dragon represents all the things society tells you to do (you must go to school, get a job, behave well, be respectful, be modest and be happy with living life as a slave).
Most people's personal growth ends here, they become the slave of the dragon.
Lots of people here ask about how to tell their parents what they want to do with their lives (entrepreneurship), the answer is you don't. You don't negotiate with the dragon.
Some people, the people Nietzsche wrote to, slay that dragon.
They become a lion.
I WILL is the name of the lion.
I WILL DO WHATEVER THE F*ck I WANT, F*ck YOU.
This is the stage you stem apart from the herd, the "Get rich or die tryin'" mindset.
Then, this is when the magic happens, this is when you truly get close to the Ubermensch, very few people get to this stage. You become a child. You become who you really are. Your pure essence. An artist. Zen. In the moment. The state of pure being. Constant flow state.
The men who change the world are children. The crazy ones. The egomaniacal douchebags.

tl:dr Become who you are, find your craft, build your life around it.
Fvck man. This is it. I love this post so much.
 

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you guys don't really understand their philosophies

all of them were INTJ's


you guys are bragging here : " hey guys i 've read Ayn Rand ! i am a real capitalist , fastlaner or whatever ! "

NOT AT ALL

INTJ don't see themselves as part of the masses. they see themselves as humans above the circus



you guys can't understand Ayn Rand real message because you endorse the masses 's way of living . you have no mission . you think society is there to help you ( politicians, media, whatever )



All these guys : Sun Tzu , Nietzsche, Rand had a mission in life


you don't . your " mission " is to have money in the bank

this is not a mission at all because you have no superior philosophy or understanding of life behind it


View attachment 28401
Thank you for setting us straight professor!
 

Fox

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you guys don't really understand their philosophies

all of them were INTJ's


you guys are bragging here : " hey guys i 've read Ayn Rand ! i am a real capitalist , fastlaner or whatever ! "

NOT AT ALL

INTJ don't see themselves as part of the masses. they see themselves as humans above the circus



you guys can't understand Ayn Rand real message because you endorse the masses 's way of living . you have no mission . you think society is there to help you ( politicians, media, whatever )



All these guys : Sun Tzu , Nietzsche, Rand had a mission in life


you don't . your " mission " is to have money in the bank

this is not a mission at all because you have no superior philosophy or understanding of life behind it


View attachment 28401

Still waiting on you to create any thread of your own let alone a progress thread.

Easier to shout from the stands than to get on the pitch it seems.

Hit me up with size 96 bold font reply.
 
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Raoul Duke

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you guys don't really understand their philosophies

all of them were INTJ's


you guys are bragging here : " hey guys i 've read Ayn Rand ! i am a real capitalist , fastlaner or whatever ! "

NOT AT ALL

INTJ don't see themselves as part of the masses. they see themselves as humans above the circus



you guys can't understand Ayn Rand real message because you endorse the masses 's way of living . you have no mission . you think society is there to help you ( politicians, media, whatever )



All these guys : Sun Tzu , Nietzsche, Rand had a mission in life


you don't . your " mission " is to have money in the bank

this is not a mission at all because you have no superior philosophy or understanding of life behind it


View attachment 28401

Is that you, GMSI7D ????

@AllenCrawley @MJ DeMarco
 

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Still waiting on you to create any thread of your own let alone a progress thread.

Easier to shout from the stands than to get on the pitch it seems.

Hit me up with size 96 bold font reply.

3... 2... 1.... until he announces his self banishment again for the 4th time, calls us fools, leaves, then returns only 3 months later.
 
G

Guest34764

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Damn, Let this thread die already, I hate having to be reminded of it lol .This has to be the dumbest thread anyone has made. Good warning to kids though, this is how it looks when you let someone make the thread and replies for you and post it with your account.
 
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Damn, Let this thread die already, I hate having to be reminded of it lol .This has to be the dumbest thread anyone has made. Good warning to kids though, this is how it looks when you let someone make the thread and replies for you and post it with your account.
Actually there were some really good replies. This is much better than all of these duplicate threads.
 

Odysseus M Jones

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@Omega too much good info here to let this fall into the abyss
You'll have to take one for the team

To anyone new to the thread, links to best posts below
Thank you, @Omega.

In answering your question, I connected some heretofore disconnected thoughts in my head.

Your question revealed an interesting trifecta tie between Robert Greene, Sun-Tzu and Friedrich Nietzsche.

Let's begin with Robert Greene's interview with Joe Rogan, on episode [HASHTAG]#464[/HASHTAG] of the Joe Rogan Experience.

Fast forward and watch 2:16:00 - 2:19:00 in the video.

At this point, the conversation turns to Nietzsche, and the concept of the Ubermensch (the topic of Robert Greene's next book, entitled The Laws of Human Nature).

Notice how Robert Greene discusses his method of writing a book, and his overall concept of strategy? He first talks of his rather odd way of organizing his thoughts: note cards.

Robert Greene uses note cards to organize his thoughts, strategically developing his sentences teaching strategy. In the interview with Joe Rogan, Greene points out how one of Nietzsche's great works - Human, all too Human - is like a verbal maze. Thankfully, Greene's next book - about the Ubermensh - is like a set of cheats, or a shortcut, for reading Nietzsche.

You should not feel bad for seeking a shortcut to understanding Nietzsche. The simple act of reading Nietzsche's words translated into English - as opposed to reading his words in his native tongue of German - is an act of taking a shortcut to understanding Nietzsche. If you rely on a linguistics expert to interpret Nietzsche's language, it logically follows that you would want to rely on an expert equally erudite in Nietzsche's philosophy.

Put it this way. In many regards, there is no scholarly consensus on what Nietzsche meant. Quite literally, PhD philosophers argue about what the hell Nietzsche meant.

@Potente

Nietzsche composed much of his musings while taking brisk walks with a pen and notepad. His ideas came out in rapid-fire sentences, as if he were the first Twitter poster, despite the fact that he died a century before the invention of the Internet.

Few authors have written prolifically both about Nietzsche and Sun-Tzu, in the same work. Robert Greene comes most immediately to mind.

If you comb through the 48 Laws of Power with a fine-toothed comb, you will find strands of truth gleaned from Sun-Tzu, Nietzsche and other philosophers whose wisdom survives the grave.

Perhaps the most important advice I can give you when reading these books is to take them with context.

One of the Laws of Power is to Crush Your Enemy Totally.

Not everyone has an enemy to crush.

Back to Nietzsche.

It should not surprise you if members of the herd speak ill of Nietzsche, for Nietzsche scorned the herd, and - like Ayn Rand - he wrote only to those who might understand him.

He thought of blokes like you and me as fish, and while he did not live to see himself "catch" us, he did catch us nonetheless. Nietzsche once wrote that if he catches no fish, then there were no fish.

Nietzsche was searching for sharks, those who create themselves, those who realize and fulfill the desire of achieving their full potential.

Everything that you need from Nietzsche boils down to:

A) Don't be lazy and B) chase after your dream like you're running for your life.

In this interview with the guys on London Reel, Robert Greene again discusses his method of organizing his thoughts via note cards.

In this interview, he spends more time discussing Sun-Tzu, The Art of War, and the dichotomy between Eastern and Western military thought.

Western military strategy depends heavily upon military strength and direct attacks; Eastern military strategy depends more on maneuver, indirection, subtly and deception.

This split between eastern and western strategy is reflected in the board game chess (mirrors western military strategy) and the board game Go (mirrors eastern strategy).

In the 48 Laws of Power, the 48th Law of Power is "Assume Formlessness." Robert Greene describes this as his "favorite law." It is the Law in which he expounds on - guess what - the dichotomy between eastern and western strategic thought, and the differences between the game Go and the game Chess.
Everything you need to know.

"Everything you can imagine is real."
"Action is the foundational key to all success."
"Every child is an artist. The problem is how to remain an artist once he grows up."
To know what you’re going to draw, you have to begin drawing.
"Good artists copy, great artists steal."
Pablo Picasso had a pretty badass mindset, it's no wonder he envisioned himself as the Ubermensch.
Was he an egomaniac?
Was he an arrogant douchebag?
Maybe.
So what?
He had life figured out. When a random painting of yours is worth more than the combined net worths of all your haters you know you're doing something right.

Steve Jobs is another example of Ubermensch. Is it so surprising that the masses think he was a crazy a**hole?

Ever heard the saying "great minds think alike"?
Can you see all the underlying patterns?
Can you connect the dots between Friedrich Nietzsche, Pablo Picasso, Steve Jobs, Kanye West and Walt Disney?
They're all defined as eccentric, crazy, mad, assholes...
Do/did they care? Hell no.
Nietzsche wrote about becoming who you are. What does that mean? Strip away the bullshit social conditioning from your brain and you get your real self, the little kid who isn't afraid of speaking his mind and not giving a F*ck.
How to do it is up to you, you can meditate or you can take drugs (like every legendary artist did), you just have to fold and unfold you brain to understand what is YOURS and what is bullshit baggage you're carrying with you.
"For art to exist, for any sort of aesthetic activity to exist, a certain physiological precondition is indispensable: intoxication." - Friedrich Nietzsche

When Steve Jobs first started Apple his employment strategy was really strange, questions like "Are you a virgin?" or "How many times did you take LSD?" filtered out the people he didn't want to work with him.
The normal people, the boring nerds, the herd, the ones that aren't crazy.

In Thus Spoke Zarathustra, Nietzsche wrote about the three metamorphoses of the spirit you have to go through.
At first, your pure essence, your spirit, become the camel, the camel bows down and society loads its back with social conditioning.
The camel then meets the dragon, the dragon represents all the things society tells you to do (you must go to school, get a job, behave well, be respectful, be modest and be happy with living life as a slave).
Most people's personal growth ends here, they become the slave of the dragon.
Lots of people here ask about how to tell their parents what they want to do with their lives (entrepreneurship), the answer is you don't. You don't negotiate with the dragon.
Some people, the people Nietzsche wrote to, slay that dragon.
They become a lion.
I WILL is the name of the lion.
I WILL DO WHATEVER THE F*ck I WANT, F*ck YOU.
This is the stage you stem apart from the herd, the "Get rich or die tryin'" mindset.
Then, this is when the magic happens, this is when you truly get close to the Ubermensch, very few people get to this stage. You become a child. You become who you really are. Your pure essence. An artist. Zen. In the moment. The state of pure being. Constant flow state.
The men who change the world are children. The crazy ones. The egomaniacal douchebags.

tl:dr Become who you are, find your craft, build your life around it.
Rousseau's Discourse on the Origin of Inequality

Descartes's Discourse and Method & Meditations

Plato's Republic

Kant's Prolegomena to Any Future Metaphysics

Nietzsche's Genealogy of Morals

Aristotle's Introductory Readings (Mainly the Metaphysical Aspect)

Hume's An Enquiry Concerning Human Understanding

Enjoy, it's a rabbit hole!
I edited @Potente 's perfect post below, perfect but for the terrible paragraph spacing (LOL).

Potente, that post rippled with explosions, each one thundering with Nietzschean mental defiance and dominance. So often, when people prattle and pontificate about philosophy, they forget the philosophy's duty to enlighten his fellow man. Instead of enlightenment, philosophers create paragraphs of text that befuddle and bemuse the average reader, the layman, the guy just trying to get more out of life.

@Omega Nietzsche makes for a great philosophical father. He can provide you with a great foundation, with concepts like the Will to Power, and the idea of the Ubermensch. On the lonely days and nights you spend on the path of Hustler's Ascension, you may derive comfort not so much from Nietzsche's philosophy, but from Nietzsche's life itself.

Someone once said that you either die a hero, or live long enough to see yourself become the villain. Nietzsche did not live to see himself become a legend.


And yet, listen to the opening of the above video. Nietzsche knew his fate. He knew - in some vague and dark sense of glory - that his thought bubbles would one day grow into dark clouds. These clouds were the prelude to the future, our present.

Nietzsche died before Ayn Rand's first birthday.

Everything you need to know.

"Everything you can imagine is real."

"Action is the foundational key to all success."

"Every child is an artist. The problem is how to remain an artist once he grows up."

To know what you’re going to draw, you have to begin drawing.

"Good artists copy, great artists steal."

Pablo Picasso had a pretty badass mindset, it's no wonder he envisioned himself as the Ubermensch.

Was he an egomaniac?

Was he an arrogant douchebag?

Maybe.

So what?

He had life figured out. When a random painting of yours is worth more than the combined net worths of all your haters you know you're doing something right.

Steve Jobs is another example of Ubermensch. Is it so surprising that the masses think he was a crazy a**hole?

Ever heard the saying "great minds think alike"? Can you see all the underlying patterns?
Can you connect the dots between Friedrich Nietzsche, Pablo Picasso, Steve Jobs, Kanye West and Walt Disney? They're all defined as eccentric, crazy, mad, assholes...

Do/did they care? Hell no.

Nietzsche wrote about becoming who you are. What does that mean? Strip away the bullshit social conditioning from your brain and you get your real self, the little kid who isn't afraid of speaking his mind and not giving a F*ck.

How to do it is up to you, you can meditate or you can take drugs (like every legendary artist did), you just have to fold and unfold you brain to understand what is YOURS and what is bullshit baggage you're carrying with you.

"For art to exist, for any sort of aesthetic activity to exist, a certain physiological precondition is indispensable: intoxication." - Friedrich Nietzsche

When Steve Jobs first started Apple his employment strategy was really strange, questions like "Are you a virgin?" or "How many times did you take LSD?" filtered out the people he didn't want to work with him.

The normal people, the boring nerds, the herd, the ones that aren't crazy.

In Thus Spoke Zarathustra, Nietzsche wrote about the three metamorphoses of the spirit you have to go through.

At first, your pure essence, your spirit, become the camel, the camel bows down and society loads its back with social conditioning.

The camel then meets the dragon, the dragon represents all the things society tells you to do (you must go to school, get a job, behave well, be respectful, be modest and be happy with living life as a slave).

Most people's personal growth ends here, they become the slave of the dragon.

Lots of people here ask about how to tell their parents what they want to do with their lives (entrepreneurship), the answer is you don't. You don't negotiate with the dragon.

Some people, the people Nietzsche wrote to, slay that dragon.

They become a lion.

I WILL is the name of the lion.

I WILL DO WHATEVER THE F*ck I WANT, F*ck YOU.

This is the stage you stem apart from the herd, the "Get rich or die tryin'" mindset.

Then, this is when the magic happens, this is when you truly get close to the Ubermensch, very few people get to this stage. You become a child.

You become who you really are. Your pure essence. An artist. Zen. In the moment. The state of pure being. Constant flow state. The men who change the world are children. The crazy ones. The egomaniacal douchebags.

tl:dr Become who you are, find your craft, build your life around it.
Ayn Rand did not write to a reader with your mindset. She knew those with your mindset would misunderstand, misrepresent and make mistakes with her message.



The rest of your post after this is typical uninformed Ayn Rand criticism, which clearly stems from a weak understanding of her fiction, buttressed by complete ignorance of her non-fiction.

Typing sentences is easy.

Typing sentences that accurately describe the truth, instead of factually inaccurate descriptions, is harder.



If you read a quasi-philosopher's fiction work, and attempt to draw conclusions about her philosophy without consulting her non-fiction work - while simultaneously not taking the care and time to specifically understand what the philosopher means with words like "altruism" - then you will certainly waste an enormous amount of your own time and energy.



These three paragraphs depict the type of sloppy thinking that Ayn Rand so masterfully decimated with her work.

We see the sloppy thinking clearly when we look at the slipshod definitions of terms.

PC says that he disagrees with embracing "acute self-interest" and rejecting the so-called ideals of altruism. PC defines altruism as "helping people" and "interacting with other people" and points out that "the good contributors here selflessly give to this community to help others."

First, this is not how Ayn Rand defined altruism. Ayn Rand did not oppose this type of so-called "altruism," and her definition of altruism was much different.

Obviously, PC does not know this, because he only tried to piece together Ayn Rand's opinions by interpreting and inferring from the fictional stories she wrote (Anthem, Fountainhead, Atlas Shrugged).

He pontificates about Rand's so-called view on selfishness, without even citing the book she wrote on the subject of selfishness. She wrote this book precisely because she used the term differently than how people colloquially use it.

You can buy The Virtue of Selfishness at most bookstores.

In a 1994 interview with Playboy Magazine, Ayn Rand had this to say about charity, the type of altruism PC refers to: "My views on charity are very simple. I do not consider it a major virtue and, above all, I do not consider it a moral duty. There is nothing wrong in helping other people, if and when they are worthy of the help and you can afford to help them. I regard charity as a marginal issue. What I am fighting is the idea that charity is a moral duty and a primary virtue."

You can read basically everything Ayn Rand ever wrote on the online Ayn Rand Lexicon.

Ayn Rand defined altruism not as charity, not as the act of "selflessly giving to a community."

She defined altruism as living for others. An act of altruism, in Ayn Rand's mind, is giving up the last piece of bread not for your own family, but that of a stranger or even an enemy. It was simply a more extreme viewpoint.

Most importantly, it is true that I own a business that "helps people." This is not precise enough wording at all. Yes, a business "helps" a customer, but that does not make this "helping" an act of altruism.

Ayn Rand defined altruism very similarly to dictionary.com's definition: "behavior by an animal that may be to its disadvantage but that benefits others of its kind, as a warning cry that reveals the location of the caller to a predator."

Running a business means running an organization for profit. Even if and when a business "help people," it does so for profit. It is not a charity; it is not a 501(c)3 organization. It is an incorporation, a sole proprietorship, or a limited liability company, it "helps" people for profit; it earns revenue by providing a solution to a need.

This is not altruism. This is not charity.

This post is not charity either, nor are any of @AndrewNC 's motivational and educational posts. When he types those posts, he receives the benefit of further ingraining in his own mind the very wisdom he is sharing. When @Mattie attempts to lift someone's spirits with a positive post, she empowers her own mind by finding the words to help lift another. Like a personal trainer that receives a workout while training his client, a teacher learns even while teaching.

@PatricianCat obviously hasn't read any of Ayn Rand's non-fiction, and even seems entirely unaware of her existence.

Ayn Rand wrote Capitalism: The Uknown Ideal. There, you will find rational arguments that "properly depict what is good about Capitalism."

An old cliche says that everyone has an opinion, just like everyone has an anus. It seems to me that opinions are kind of like businesses, because it seems as though everyone considers themselves a hustler or a businessperson these days. Hence the term "Wantrepreneur."

And, just like businesses, not all opinions are created equally. Some businesses rest upon the sharp mind of a brilliant CEO, on solid work ethic in a niche bustling with growth and opportunity. Other businesses see their value to society reflected in less preferable results, in the form of no sales, no revenue, bankruptcy and eventual death.

Some opinions, like businesses, are formed with the proper amount of work, through rational thought, through the reading of all of the relevant material, etc. Other opinions formed by some sort of hamfisted approach, an approach
@PatricianCat clearly took when reading and comprehending Ayn Rand.

What makes Sun-Tzu unique is the holistic nature of his philosophy.

Ayn Rand did not regard any of her books as the ultimate fleshing out of her philosophy, Objectivism. Rather, she considered that book to be Objectivism: The Philosophy of Ayn Rand, written by her philosophical protoge, Leonard Piekoff.




Atlas Shrugged was Steve Jobs' guide in life (8:45 - 9:00). It is one of Mark Cuban's favorite books.

It is a favorite of many CEO's. I actually got a client once, because the CEO and I connected over our mutual appreciate for Ayn Rand.

You can follow the leaders and CEO's, or can you listen to people who literally don't know what they're talking about.
Ayn Rand on money and the Glory of Mankind

To the glory of mankind, there was, for the first and only time in history, a country of money—and I have no higher, more reverent tribute to pay to America, for this means: a country of reason, justice, freedom, production, achievement. For the first time, man’s mind and money were set free, and there were no fortunes-by-conquest, but only fortunes-by-work, and instead of swordsmen and slaves, there appeared the real maker of wealth, the greatest worker, the highest type of human being—the self-made man—the American industrialist.

If you ask me to name the proudest distinction of Americans, I would choose—because it contains all the others—the fact that they were the people who created the phrase “to make money.” No other language or nation had ever used these words before; men had always thought of wealth as a static quantity—to be seized, begged, inherited, shared, looted or obtained as a favor. Americans were the first to understand that wealth has to be created. The Meaning of Money,” For the New Intellectual, 93

Ayn Rand on Money as (NOT) the Root of All Evil


So you think that money is the root of all evil?” said Francisco d’Anconia. “Have you ever asked what is the root of money? Money is a tool of exchange, which can’t exist unless there are goods produced and men able to produce them. Money is the material shape of the principle that men who wish to deal with one another must deal by trade and give value for value. Money is not the tool of the moochers, who claim your product by tears, or of the looters, who take it from you by force. Money is made possible only by the men who produce. Is this what you consider evil?

When you accept money in payment for your effort, you do so only on the conviction that you will exchange it for the product of the effort of others. It is not the moochers or the looters who give value to money. Not an ocean of tears not all the guns in the world can transform those pieces of paper in your wallet into the bread you will need to survive tomorrow. Those pieces of paper, which should have been gold, are a token of honor–your claim upon the energy of the men who produce. Your wallet is your statement of hope that somewhere in the world around you there are men who will not default on that moral principle which is the root of money, Is this what you consider evil?

Have you ever looked for the root of production? Take a look at an electric generator and dare tell yourself that it was created by the muscular effort of unthinking brutes. Try to grow a seed of wheat without the knowledge left to you by men who had to discover it for the first time. Try to obtain your food by means of nothing but physical motions–and you’ll learn that man’s mind is the root of all the goods produced and of all the wealth that has ever existed on earth.

But you say that money is made by the strong at the expense of the weak? What strength do you mean? It is not the strength of guns or muscles. Wealth is the product of man’s capacity to think. Then is money made by the man who invents a motor at the expense of those who did not invent it? Is money made by the intelligent at the expense of the fools? By the able at the expense of the incompetent? By the ambitious at the expense of the lazy? Money is made–before it can be looted or mooched–made by the effort of every honest man, each to the extent of his ability. An honest man is one who knows that he can’t consume more than he has produced.’

“To trade by means of money is the code of the men of good will. Money rests on the axiom that every man is the owner of his mind and his effort. Money allows no power to prescribe the value of your effort except the voluntary choice of the man who is willing to trade you his effort in return. Money permits you to obtain for your goods and your labor that which they are worth to the men who buy them, but no more. Money permits no deals except those to mutual benefit by the unforced judgment of the traders. Money demands of you the recognition that men must work for their own benefit, not for their own injury, for their gain, not their loss–the recognition that they are not beasts of burden, born to carry the weight of your misery–that you must offer them values, not wounds–that the common bond among men is not the exchange of suffering, but the exchange of goods. Money demands that you sell, not your weakness to men’s stupidity, but your talent to their reason; it demands that you buy, not the shoddiest they offer, but the best that your money can find. And when men live by trade–with reason, not force, as their final arbiter–it is the best product that wins, the best performance, the man of best judgment and highest ability–and the degree of a man’s productiveness is the degree of his reward. This is the code of existence whose tool and symbol is money. Is this what you consider evil?

But money is only a tool. It will take you wherever you wish, but it will not replace you as the driver. It will give you the means for the satisfaction of your desires, but it will not provide you with desires. Money is the scourge of the men who attempt to reverse the law of causality–the men who seek to replace the mind by seizing the products of the mind.

Money will not purchase happiness for the man who has no concept of what he wants: money will not give him a code of values, if he’s evaded the knowledge of what to value, and it will not provide him with a purpose, if he’s evaded the choice of what to seek. Money will not buy intelligence for the fool, or admiration for the coward, or respect for the incompetent. The man who attempts to purchase the brains of his superiors to serve him, with his money replacing his judgment, ends up by becoming the victim of his inferiors. The men of intelligence desert him, but the cheats and the frauds come flocking to him, drawn by a law which he has not discovered: that no man may be smaller than his money. Is this the reason why you call it evil?

Only the man who does not need it, is fit to inherit wealth–the man who would make his own fortune no matter where he started. If an heir is equal to his money, it serves him; if not, it destroys him. But you look on and you cry that money corrupted him. Did it? Or did he corrupt his money? Do not envy a worthless heir; his wealth is not yours and you would have done no better with it. Do not think that it should have been distributed among you; loading the world with fifty parasites instead of one, would not bring back the dead virtue which was the fortune. Money is a living power that dies without its root. Money will not serve the mind that cannot match it. Is this the reason why you call it evil?

Money is your means of survival. The verdict you pronounce upon the source of your livelihood is the verdict you pronounce upon your life. If the source is corrupt, you have damned your own existence. Did you get your money by fraud? By pandering to men’s vices or men’s stupidity? By catering to fools, in the hope of getting more than your ability deserves? By lowering your standards? By doing work you despise for purchasers you scorn? If so, then your money will not give you a moment’s or a penny’s worth of joy. Then all the things you buy will become, not a tribute to you, but a reproach; not an achievement, but a reminder of shame. Then you’ll scream that money is evil. Evil, because it would not pinch-hit for your self-respect? Evil, because it would not let you enjoy your depravity? Is this the root of your hatred of money?

Money will always remain an effect and refuse to replace you as the cause. Money is the product of virtue, but it will not give you virtue and it will not redeem your vices. Money will not give you the unearned, neither in matter nor in spirit. Is this the root of your hatred of money?

Or did you say it’s the love of money that’s the root of all evil? To love a thing is to know and love its nature. To love money is to know and love the fact that money is the creation of the best power within you, and your passkey to trade your effort for the effort of the best among men. It’s the person who would sell his soul for a nickel, who is loudest in proclaiming his hatred of money–and he has good reason to hate it. The lovers of money are willing to work for it. They know they are able to deserve it.

Let me give you a tip on a clue to men’s characters: the man who damns money has obtained it dishonorably; the man who respects it has earned it.

Run for your life from any man who tells you that money is evil. That sentence is the leper’s bell of an approaching looter. So long as men live together on earth and need means to deal with one another–their only substitute, if they abandon money, is the muzzle of a gun.

But money demands of you the highest virtues, if you wish to make it or to keep it. Men who have no courage, pride or self-esteem, men who have no moral sense of their right to their money and are not willing to defend it as they defend their life, men who apologize for being rich–will not remain rich for long. They are the natural bait for the swarms of looters that stay under rocks for centuries, but come crawling out at the first smell of a man who begs to be forgiven for the guilt of owning wealth. They will hasten to relieve him of the guilt–and of his life, as he deserves.

Then you will see the rise of the men of the double standard–the men who live by force, yet count on those who live by trade to create the value of their looted money–the men who are the hitchhikers of virtue. In a moral society, these are the criminals, and the statutes are written to protect you against them. But when a society establishes criminals-by-right and looters-by-law–men who use force to seize the wealth of disarmed victims–then money becomes its creators’ avenger. Such looters believe it safe to rob defenseless men, once they’ve passed a law to disarm them. But their loot becomes the magnet for other looters, who get it from them as they got it. Then the race goes, not to the ablest at production, but to those most ruthless at brutality. When force is the standard, the murderer wins over the pickpocket. And then that society vanishes, in a spread of ruins and slaughter.

Do you wish to know whether that day is coming? Watch money. Money is the barometer of a society’s virtue. When you see that trading is done, not by consent, but by compulsion–when you see that in order to produce, you need to obtain permission from men who produce nothing–when you see that money is flowing to those who deal, not in goods, but in favors–when you see that men get richer by graft and by pull than by work, and your laws don’t protect you against them, but protect them against you–when you see corruption being rewarded and honesty becoming a self-sacrifice–you may know that your society is doomed. Money is so noble a medium that is does not compete with guns and it does not make terms with brutality. It will not permit a country to survive as half-property, half-loot.

Whenever destroyers appear among men, they start by destroying money, for money is men’s protection and the base of a moral existence. Destroyers seize gold and leave to its owners a counterfeit pile of paper. This kills all objective standards and delivers men into the arbitrary power of an arbitrary setter of values. Gold was an objective value, an equivalent of wealth produced. Paper is a mortgage on wealth that does not exist, backed by a gun aimed at those who are expected to produce it. Paper is a check drawn by legal looters upon an account which is not theirs: upon the virtue of the victims. Watch for the day when it bounces, marked, ‘Account overdrawn.’

When you have made evil the means of survival, do not expect men to remain good. Do not expect them to stay moral and lose their lives for the purpose of becoming the fodder of the immoral. Do not expect them to produce, when production is punished and looting rewarded. Do not ask, ‘Who is destroying the world? You are.

You stand in the midst of the greatest achievements of the greatest productive civilization and you wonder why it’s crumbling around you, while you’re damning its life-blood–money. You look upon money as the savages did before you, and you wonder why the jungle is creeping back to the edge of your cities. Throughout men’s history, money was always seized by looters of one brand or another, whose names changed, but whose method remained the same: to seize wealth by force and to keep the producers bound, demeaned, defamed, deprived of honor. That phrase about the evil of money, which you mouth with such righteous recklessness, comes from a time when wealth was produced by the labor of slaves–slaves who repeated the motions once discovered by somebody’s mind and left unimproved for centuries. So long as production was ruled by force, and wealth was obtained by conquest, there was little to conquer, Yet through all the centuries of stagnation and starvation, men exalted the looters, as aristocrats of the sword, as aristocrats of birth, as aristocrats of the bureau, and despised the producers, as slaves, as traders, as shopkeepers–as industrialists.

To the glory of mankind, there was, for the first and only time in history, a country of money–and I have no higher, more reverent tribute to pay to America, for this means: a country of reason, justice, freedom, production, achievement. For the first time, man’s mind and money were set free, and there were no fortunes-by-conquest, but only fortunes-by-work, and instead of swordsmen and slaves, there appeared the real maker of wealth, the greatest worker, the highest type of human being–the self-made man–the American industrialist.

If you ask me to name the proudest distinction of Americans, I would choose–because it contains all the others–the fact that they were the people who created the phrase ‘to make money.’ No other language or nation had ever used these words before; men had always thought of wealth as a static quantity–to be seized, begged, inherited, shared, looted or obtained as a favor. Americans were the first to understand that wealth has to be created. The words ‘to make money’ hold the essence of human morality.

Yet these were the words for which Americans were denounced by the rotted cultures of the looters’ continents. Now the looters’ credo has brought you to regard your proudest achievements as a hallmark of shame, your prosperity as guilt, your greatest men, the industrialists, as blackguards, and your magnificent factories as the product and property of muscular labor, the labor of whip-driven slaves, like the pyramids of Egypt. The rotter who simpers that he sees no difference between the power of the dollar and the power of the whip, ought to learn the difference on his own hide– as, I think, he will.

Until and unless you discover that money is the root of all good, you ask for your own destruction. When money ceases to be the tool by which men deal with one another, then men become the tools of men. Blood, whips and guns–or dollars. Take your choice–there is no other–and your time is running out.


Ayn Rand on money:

Money is the tool of men who have reached a high level of productivity and a long-range control over their lives. Money is not merely a tool of exchange: much more importantly, it is a tool of saving, which permits delayed consumption and buys time for future production. To fulfill this requirement, money has to be some material commodity which is imperishable, rare, homogeneous, easily stored, not subject to wide fluctuations of value, and always in demand among those you trade with. This leads you to the decision to use gold as money. Gold money is a tangible value in itself and a token of wealth actually produced. When you accept a gold coin in payment for your goods, you actually deliver the goods to the buyer; the transaction is as safe as simple barter. When you store your savings in the form of gold coins, they represent the goods which you have actually produced and which have gone to buy time for other producers, who will keep the productive process going, so that you’ll be able to trade your coins for goods any time you wish. “Egalitarianism and Inflation,”Philosophy: Who Needs It, 127

Ayn Rand on money and altruism:

Money is a great power—because, in a free or even a semi-free society, it is a frozen form of productive energy. And, therefore, the spending of money is a grave responsibility. Contrary to the altruists and the advocates of the so-called “academic freedom,” it is a moral crime to give money to support ideas with which you disagree; it means: ideas which you consider wrong, false, evil. It is a moral crime to give money to support your own destroyers.
 

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