The Fountainhead

Not the person you were responding to, but if you ignore the hundred-page speech (which isn't that difficult to do) it's a fairly serviceable pulp sci-fi romance novel. It's far from Shakespeare and far from my favorite thing I've ever read, but it'll do in a pinch. I don't care for the philosophy/politics, but I've read a lot of good sci-fi that I didn't care for the philosophy behind. I like Starship Troopers, which isn't as fascist as some people think but is certainly right-wing. I like Orson Scott Card, regardless of what I think of his opinions on gay people. I like the Culture novels, which are lowkey anarcho-communist. I like China Mieville, and he's an unsubtle hardcore Marxist. Those are all much better than Rand, but not totally out of the ballpark (I think the Fountainhead is actually much better written than Atlas Shrugged). I agree with the original thread comment: people who can't separate literary and political merit are usually pretty tiresome in lots of other ways.

Here are some books that pop bubbles, but must be read with humility to avoid becoming its own new bubble, as the world is complex and contains contradictions: Howard Zinn's People's History of the United States Jared Diamond's Guns, Germs, and Steel Michael Pollan's The Omnivore's Dilemma Ayn Rand's the Fountainhead Thomas Sowell's Basic Economics Julian Jaynes's the Breakdown of the Bicameral Mind Iain McGilchrist's the Master and his Emmisary Varlam Sharlamov's the Kolyma Tales Jacques Ellul's Propaganda: the Formation of Men's Attitudes (or alternatively Neil Postman's Amusing Ourselves to Death)

“The Fountainhead” by Ayn Rand shook me when I was younger. I know it’s popular to vilify her, but it showed how commitment to one’s own principles is admirable and at the same time not appreciated by society at large.

Fountainhead is just as good and a much easier read. I used Fountainhead to introduce my kids to Ayn Rand and as a warm up to Atlas Shrugged.

Both Atlas Shrugged and Fountainhead, can be great creativity catalysts if read in your younger years. Though the rage fades as you age and come to grips with the reality and unfairness of life. They are still great books to read. Fight Club is another great movie as well.

That would be a long list, given that I read a lot of books and would generally say that most of the books I've read were worth investing time in to some extent. But for what it's worth, here's a subset, cribbed from my previous HN comments: Something Deeply Hidden - Sean Carroll The Universe Speaks in Numbers: How Modern Math Reveals Nature's Deepest Secrets - Graham Farmelo The Man Who Loved Only Numbers: The Story of Paul Erdos and the Search for Mathematical Truth - Paul Hoffman The Man Who Knew Infinity: A Life of the Genius Ramanujan - Robert Kanigel Lost in Math - Sabine Hossenfelder The First Three Minutes - Steven Weinberg Hyperspace - Michio Kaku Not Even Wrong - Peter Woit The Trouble With Physics - Lee Smolin About Time - Paul Davies Time Reborn - Lee Smolin The Elegant Universe - Brian Greene The Hidden Reality - Brian Greene The Fabric of the Cosmos - Brian Greene Quantum Space: Loop Quantum Gravity and the Search for the Structure of Space, Time, and the Universe - Jim Baggott The Universe Speaks in Numbers: How Modern Math Reveals Nature's Deepest Secrets - Graham Farmelo Three Roads To Quantum Gravity - Lee Smolin…

The Fountainhead by Ayn Rand Atlas Shrugged by the same author It’s striking how fundamental the principles from those books are. An assembly code of the society:-)

It's a shame you're going to get downvoted by a lot of knee-jerk "ooh, I hate Ayn Rand" types (most of whom have probably never read a word she wrote), but FWIW, I second your mention. Atlas Shrugged is definitely worth reading. I won't say it's a great book in many ways - Rand's language is a bit awkward and stilted (especially by contemporary standards), and it probably is a bit too long. But in terms of getting to the heart of the divide between those who adhere to an individualist / internal locus of control mindset, and those who don't, it's very enlightening. Also, FWIW, I enjoyed The Fountainhead more than Atlas Shrugged, and usually recommend that anyone who is new to Rand start with it first.

I found the stories in Fountainhead and Atlas Shrugged to be compelling enough that I could both empathize with (some of) the characters while at the same time disagree wholeheartedly with their choices. They're good books for trying to find out _why_ you agree or disagree.

No, it's good. It stands alone as a piece of literature. Atlas Shrugged doesn't - it's skippable. The Fountainhead is about work, art and passion. It's also just a much better story.

150 pages into The Fountainhead at the moment. So far, I can highly recommend it.

At the cost of being downvoted, I like The Fountainhead for this. Trusting your own judgement, daring to create something beautiful even if nobody else appreciates it, even if everyone else hates you for it. Because it's beautiful and because your singular vision improves the world by existing in it. And because you become a better person for daring to realize the great work that is inside of you. The love story in it is kind of weird, okay really weird, but besides that I like the book. Most of the over-the-top strawman librul bad guys, and attempts to morally justify Laissez-faire capitalism mostly came from Atlas Shrugged. The Fountainhead is more focused on an individual who wants to realize greatness for its own sake.

The Fountainhead - Ayn Rand Atlas Shrugged - Ayn Rand The Selfish Gene - Richard Dawkins How To Win Friends And Influence People - Dale Carnegie The Game - Neil Strauss The Four Steps To The Epiphany - Steve Blank ... among others.

Atlas Shrugged and The Fountainhead.

I've read both books. I personally didn't find them to be well written, however they convey what they are trying to convey well enough. If anything, people should read them to better understand how libertarians of the Objectivist streak view the world. It would be eye-opening to say the least.

The Fountainhead - Ayn Rand I don't agree with everything in it, but it is one of those books that really makes you rethink your life when read at the right time.

Atlas Shrugged - Ayn Rand Will be reading The Fountainhead shortly afterwards!

Fountainhead

Non-Fiction: "How to Win Friends and Influence People" by Dale Carnegie, because it changed my understanding of people for the better. "Surely You're Joking, Mr. Feynman!" by Richard Feynman, because it gave me a model for how to enjoy life. "Models" by Mark Manson, because it helped shape my understanding of heterosexual relationships. "An Introduction to General Systems Thinking" by Gerald Weinberg, because it illuminates the general laws underlying all systems. Fiction: "Stranger in a Strange Land" by Robert A Heinlein, because it showed me a philosophy and "spirituality", for lack of a better word, that I could agree with. "The Fountainhead" and "Atlas Shrugged" by Ayn Rand, because they showed me how human systems break, and they provided human models for how to see and live in, through, and past those broken systems. "Harry Potter and the Methods of Rationality" by Eliezer Yudkowsky, because it set the bar (high) for all future fiction, especially when it comes to the insightful portrayal of the struggle between good and evil.

It showcases some interesting dynamics regarding businesses becoming involved with politics and power. It's a good walk through of how "we just want the government to make companies give their fair share" can easily turn into something darker. I certainly wouldn't promote objectivist an-cap policy writ large, but there are truthful elements in both Atlas Shrugged and The Fountainhead. I specifically like how Ayn Rand draws a link between collectivism and racism, which was truthful in the era she was writing in. A rare perspective.

"The Fountainhead" by Ayn Rand.

In my early 20s I embraced Objectivism through this and Atlas Shrugged (bad writing aside), and in my 30s I abandoned it. Particularly, the process of abandoning it forced me into a clearer view of my personal value system. That in turn has made me a better person: it is hard to have integrity if one doesn't understand what they believe.

selfish gene, fountainhead

The Fountainhead by Ayn Rand. For motivation

The Fountainhead. Makes me a better person Everytime.

Ayn Rand's "The Fountainhead" changed me when I was younger. Malcolm Gladwell's "Outliers" changed me back when I got older.

I'm sure there are many, but a few that jump to mind, in no particular order, and spanning both fiction and non-fiction: The Selfish Gene - Dawkins A New Kind of Science - Wolfram The Singularity is Near - Kurzweil Gödel, Escher, Bach - Hofstadter Fluid Concepts and Creative Analogies - Hofstadter Atlas Shrugged - Rand The Fountainhead - Rand Nineteen Eighty-Four - Orwell The Trouble With Physics - Lee Smolin Time Reborn - Lee Smolin Ambient Findability - Peter Morville Emergence: The Connected Lives of Ants, Brains, Cities, and Software - Steven Johnson Six Degrees: The Science of a Connected Age - Duncan Watts Linked: How Everything Is Connected to Everything Else and What It Means for Business, Science, and Everyday Life - Albert-laszlo Barabasi Artificial Life - Steven Levy The Four Steps To The Epiphany - Steve Blank The World is Flat - Thomas Friedman not a book, but the various writings of Douglas Engelbart - http://www.dougengelbart.org/library/library.html Glasshouse - Charles Stross Permutation City - Greg Egan Neuromancer - William Gibson The Shockwave Rider - John Brunner The Society of Mind - Marvin Minsky…

The Four Steps To The Epiphany - Steve Blank Neuromancer - William Gibson Predictable Revenue - Aaron Ross, Marylou Tyler The Fountainhead - Ayn Rand The Ultimate Question 2.0 - Fred Reichheld‎ The Singularity is Near - Ray Kurzweil Moonshot! - John Sculley Zero To One - Peter Thiel Republic - Plato Meditations - Marcus Aurelius Nineteen Eighty-Four - George Orwell Fahrenheit 451 - Ray Bradbury The Mysterious Island - Jules Verne Discipline of Market Leaders - Michael Treacy, Fred Wiersema False Memory - Dean Koontz NOS4A2- Joe Hill Revival - Stephen King Barbarians At The Gate - John Helyar and Bryan Burrough Into Thin Air - John Krakauer How To Measure Anything - Douglas Hubbard and any collection of the works of H.P. Lovecraft.

ayn rand, the fountainhead jean jacques rousseau, the confessions sterling seagrave, dragon lady knights of king arthur's court romance of the three kingdoms

1. The Fountainhead 2. The Power of Habit 3. Think and Grow Rich 4. The 4-Hour Workweek 5. Pragmatic Thinking and Learning

Atlas Shrugged The Fountainhead (both by Ayn Rand)

The Fountainhead and Atlas Shrugged by Ayn Rand. Those are the two to start with. If you like those, check out some of her nonfiction books: The Virtue of Selfishness: A New Concept of Egoism, Philosophy: Who Needs It, and Introduction to Objectivist Epistemology (these are but a few - Rand wrote a long series of nonfiction books). Ayn Rand's Normative Ethics: The Virtuous Egoist by Tara Smith (a philosophy professor at UT-Austin) is excellent because it unpacks Ayn Rand's ethical system in an academic style. Finally, Leonard Peikoff's Objectivism: The Philosophy of Ayn Rand gives a comprehensive view of Rand's entire philosophy. Light reading (not by Objectivist authors, and not in any particular order): Masters of Doom: How Two Guys Created an Empire and Transformed Pop Culture by David Kushner The Soul of A New Machine by Tracy Kidder The Double Helix: A Personal Account of the Discovery of the Structure of DNA by James Watson What Do You Care What Other People Think?: Further Adventures of a Curious Character by Richard Feynman Surely You're Joking, Mr. Feynman!: Adventures of a Curious Character by Richard Feynman

Aaaah, a couple of ones that jump to mind: Atlas Shrugged and The Fountainhead by Ayn Rand. I prefer the latter, but they're both great books. I discovered Rand later in life, after a lot of my beliefs were probably already pretty well locked in, but her outlook certainly resonates with me, and the inspiration I found in her books helps nudge me in the direction of truly to live my life more fully as my life, not someone else's idea of what my life should be. The Selfish Gene - Richard Dawkins. I was already a borderline atheist anyway, although I tended to use the term agnostic to avoid arguing with friends & family, considering that I live in the Bible Belt. But Dawkins' book showed me a counter argument to the "irreducible complexity" argument that made sense on a very fundamental level, and IR was one of the last things that kept even a vestige of "mystical" thought alive in me. After reading this book, I felt very comfortable in being an atheist, and I also decided to quit dodging the issue and start telling people that I'm atheist, whether they like it or not. Also, see above: I'm not interested in living a life that's about trying to please other people. I get one…

The Alchemist - Paulo Coelho. King, Warrior, Magician, Lover by Moore and Gillette The lean startup Paul Graham how to start a startup Mark Hyman Ultimate Mind Solution Tribal Leadership Wheel of Time Think and Grow Rich Superior Man David Deida The Fountain Head Eckhart Tolle New Earth 50th Law Good to Great Jed Mckenna Earl Nightengale Long Walk to Freedom Outliers Good to Great Psycho-Cybernetics by Maxwell Maltz (Self-image) Seven Habits of Highly Effective People by Steven Covey(Being awesome) Wealth of Nations Wayne Dyer The Tao System of the World Origin of Species Brave new world Thank you economy Crush it Built to Last Who Moved my Cheese Stillness Speak Eckhert Tolle Mastery George Leonard Steve Jobs Biography The Last Lecture Steve Pavlina Books Iacocca Striking Thoughts Bruce Lee Carlos Castaneda Ghost in the Wires Richest Man in Babylon Way of the Superior Man Losing My Virginity Think and Grow Rich Delivering Happiness

Other books that influence how I build software: "The Biological Basis of Teleological Concepts" by Harry Binswanger, "The Fountainhead" by Ayn Rand, "The Autobiography of an Idea" by Louis H. Sullivan, "Reason and Analysis" by Brand Blanshard

Atlas Shrugged, The Fountainhead, and Introduction to Objectivist Epistemology, by Ayn Rand. To a lesser extent, The Double Helix, by James D. Watson.

I can think of a handful of books that have had a major impact on me. Off the top of my head: Nineteen Eighty-Four - George Orwell Fahrenheit 451 - Ray Bradbury The Game - Neil Strauss The Fountainhead - Ayn Rand Atlas Shrugged - Ayn Rand Four Steps to the Epiphany - Steve Blank Business @ The Speed of Thought - Bill Gates The Art of the Start - Guy Kawasaki

Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance The Fountainhead Ishmael by Daniel Quinn The Selfish Gene by Richard Dawkins The Power of Now by Eckhart Tolle

Few of them are: - I am OK you are OK, Thomas Harris (not sure) - Fountain Head, Ayn Rand - How to win friends .. - Lateral Thinking, Bono

'The Fountainhead'. It would have assured me that there were many other people with the hacker mindset (which ultimately is what the book is about), it would have helped me prepare for a world where that mindset was not the norm, and hence would probably have avoided years of agony and depression later.

I'd suggest "Gone with the Wind", an ultimate classic. It is tagged as epic romance but I personally feel that it is more than just romance. It has changed a few perspectives of mine and I couldn't get off the story for nearly 3 months. I really enjoyed the book. If you've enjoyed "Atlas Shrugged, which I'm planning to read, try reading "The Fountain Head" by the same author.

"The Fountainhead" by Ayn Rand my bible.. you definitely love it if you like Atlas Shrugged.. same author and same philosophy.. more centered towards one protagonist.

Fiction: I am fan of The Fountainhead, though I still have fond memories of The Lion The Witch and the Wardrobe from when I was younger. Nonfiction: So many good ones, but I think Surely your joking, Mr. Feynman! is probably the top.

>> would you mind writing up a comment with why you found it so profound and enjoyable? It's been many years since I read it, but I can still remember the terror of identifying with its hero and his struggle against insanity and alienation. His struggle to create a connection with his son, his deep sense of caring for him and yet not being able to fully reach him. Pirsig's genius was to get us to identify with its hero Phaedrus, a deeply damaged human being fighting to make sense of his world. Phaedrus is rather clearly an INTP/INTJ personality type, which should only deepen the identification with him by HN readers. His clear explanations of the scientific method in terms of motorcycle maintenance are a big plus as well, especially for me. I worked for several years repairing electronics and, being a philosophical type, was often struck by how similar the process was to scientific experimentation and theory formation. Great read. My books: The Fountainhead, Ayn Rand -- A sharp, bitter, and ultimately soaring defense of the individual against the conformity of the compact majority, without the didacticism and moralizing that marred Rand's later novel, Atlas Shrugged.…

Two good books I read recently: 1) Parallel Worlds: A Journey Through Creation, Higher Dimensions, and the Future of the Cosmos by Michio Kaku 2) The Fountainhead by Ayn Rand (I haven't read Atlas Shrugged yet. So cannot compare them.) Yesterday I finished Outliers by Malcolm Gladwell and it is a very good book too. Currently reading: What They Teach you at Harvard Business School: My Two Years Inside the Cauldron of Capitalism by Philip Delves Broughton

Fountain head by Ayn Rand.

The Fountainhead by Ayn Rand Atlas Shrugged by Ayn Rand Much of what makes an audiobook great is the reader's grasp of the material. Both of these books are great works of literature, but the skill of the reader makes them even better as audiobooks.

Star Trek, Plays by George Bernard Shaw, Fountainhead, Atlas Shrugged, Firefly

Some books: "The Fountainhead" - gave me the gift of self-confidence "The Ancestor's Tale: A Pilgrimage to the Dawn of Evolution" - helps me understand where I come from and where I fit in the Biosphere "The Use of Knowledge in Society" - This, along with other pieces on economics and capitalist anarchism, gave me an appreciation for distributed non-hierarchical systems. (http://www.econlib.org/Library/Essays/hykKnw1.html) Paul Graham's stuff - Got me to the point where I'm quitting my job in two weeks. I read a ton of fantasy, sci fi, and historical fiction growing up. I'm sure that has something to do with my grand imagination, distaste for authority, and idealism.

The Fabric of Reality - David Deutsch Godel, Escher, Bach - Douglas Hoftstadter Karl Popper's books (too many to list) The Fountainhead - Ayn Rand Atlas Shrugged - Ayn Rand