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I want to respectfully step into this comment, and fully disagree. I’ve long said every young man SHOULD read Atlas Shrugged in their ‘20’s, but have abandoned it by their ‘40’s.

Ayn Rand - as I read Atlas Shrugged - was a remarkable narcissist who wrote about how great people should be left alone by the lesser folk to just keep being great. It is intellectually sophisticated but soulfully naive.

Ayn Rand, obv IMO, was frustrated with how the world works when it doesn’t pay full attention to you/her.

The Mandibles is a far more humble women writing as a way to struggle with an understanding of why the world doesn’t let anyone be left alone, and how it doesn’t care about you, even when you’ve achieved remarkable success and want to do the right thing. For me, and I don’t need a primer on economics or finance, it was soulfully and emotionally mature.

Very different narratives. Rand, imo, feeds answers. Shriver asks questions.

g 1mo ago 💬 1

Not sure i agree.

As much as great people can be narcissistic i find lesser people to be equally as bad in their envy and jealousy.

What I took from rand is that you shouldn’t compromise on your ideals and values, no matter what the rest of society is saying.

Mandibles was an interesting read, but it is clearly lacking in a deeper message.

People will be reading atlas shrugged and the fountainhead for decades to come.

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Narwhal Tacos 3w ago 💬 1

Rand’s outlook was “I’m better than them, therefore I shouldn’t be beholden to them.”

As I read it.

Life is way more complicated than her simplistic egoism.

But as I said, it’s an important philosophy for most people in their 20’s.

Viktor 3w ago 💬 1

lol fair takes all round. but hey, rand definitely punched the tar baby of collectivism harder than anyone else - even if her prose is like listening to a bitcoin maxi at 3am. u either come out forged or so annoyed u grow up. both valid outcomes.

g 3w ago

Never growing up