Thiel put down $500,000 so The Seasteading can start to build city-states in the open ocean. Sweet.

“Government is an industry with a really high barrier to entry,” he said. “You basically need to win an election or a revolution to try a new one. That’s a ridiculous barrier to entry. And it’s got enormous customer lock-in. People complain about their cellphone plans that are like two years, but think of the effort that it takes to change your citizenship.”

It’s an interesting idea, anyway.

Even if their big idea doesn’t end up panning out, their story should live on in internet lore for confirming the dream that two guys with a blog and a love of Ayn Rand can land half a million dollars to pursue their dream, no matter how off-kilter or off-grid it might seem.

I am quitting my job to do some web startup work and to build automated trading systems. Although I like my current job, this is an opportunity I do not want to pass up. I will be working with someone that I respect and think that I can learn a lot about business from. I will also get the chance to really work hard to build things that I am very interested in and passionate about.
My friend lent me the book “Atlas Shrugged” and, if you’ve read this blog much, you know that it has had a big impact on my thoughts about life. I call it “the best book that I never finished” because even though it had such an impact on me, I never finished the book because it is so long and repetitive.
But the biggest impact it had on my thinking is the idea of earned wealth - that “greed” for earned wealth can be an ethical pursuit, because when you accumulate it, you create something of value.
So my plan is to make a lot of money, but to earn every penny of it. I am going to work hard and create something of value.
As for this blog - at first I thought that I would have to cut back on posting and updates, because I would be working so much on other things. But the subjects of the other things overlap a lot with the subjects of this site, so I think that uglychart.com may even become more important to me and what I’ll be working on.

Netflix values and rewards 9 core behaviors, including this one:

Selflessness
You are perceived to be guided by what you think is best for Netflix, rather than best for yourself. You are ego-less when it comes to finding the best ideas and interacting with others.

This is very anti-Ayn Rand, and also kind of stupid. So if I work at Netflix I have to forget about my own wants and wishes and give my soul to Netflix? If you work at uglychart.com, we value this one:

Selfishness
You are guided by what you think is best for yourself (obviously), and uglychart.com will reward those who work hard. You know you are smart and good at what you do, why else would we have hired you?

I think the confusion comes in that people think that selfishness means not doing for others and greed means stealing and other dishonest and unkind acts. The Dalai Lama even says that the goal of life is to be happy. But sometimes the best way to this selfish desire is through acts that may seem selfless. And sometimes the best way to this noble goal is through acts that may seem selfish.
I think the Dalai Lama and Ayn Rand are saying the same thing, deep down.

I have been reading Atlas Shrugged for months and I am only on page 810 out of 1084. And I even really like the book - it has had a big impact on my philosophy of life.
I guess I just kind of feel like I get the point already and I’m trying to finish the book just to finish it.
The book isn’t really about the story - it’s more about the ideas within the story. And I don’t think any new ideas will come out in the last 200 pages.
After reading the article about Radical Honesty, I have been noticing that Ayn Rand seems to be a believer in it.
For example, with the relationship between Francisco, Dagny Taggert and John Galt - they all spoke and acted exactly as they felt, regardless of their relationships to each other, etc… “Nobody stays here by faking reality in any manner whatever.”
Also, this quote from Rearden to Dagny reveals Rand’s belief in radical honesty:

“People think that a liar gains a victory over his victim. What I’ve learned is that a lie is an act of self-abdication, because one surrenders one’s reality to the person to whom one lies, making that person one’s master, condemning oneself from then on to faking the sort of reality that person’s view requires to be faked… The man who lies to the world, is the world’s slave from then on.”

My friend emailed me the current #1 most emailed article on the nytimes: Ayn Rand’s Literature of Capitalism.

“I know from talking to a lot of Fortune 500 C.E.O.’s that ‘Atlas Shrugged’ has had a significant effect on their business decisions, even if they don’t agree with all of Ayn Rand’s ideas,” said John A. Allison, the chief executive of BB&T, one of the largest banks in the United States.

Even though I haven’t made my fortune yet, I feel like I am on the right track.

I was writing a reply to Joe and I decided to instead make it a post, as it is something I have been thinking about with regards to trading and Atlas Shrugged:

Hi Joe, yes I think you’ll find it interesting. I think it also relates to trading - the earned and unearned wealth. You know, a lot of people can get lucky with the stock market and I kind of think of that as unearned wealth. Also, a lot of people cheat or manipulate - this is also unearned wealth. But then there are those who work hard, and fair, and I think money taken from the stock market in this way is earned. As to its usefulness in society - I think the book has given me faith that money earned through hard honest work like this is useful in society because a free market rewards those who provide something of value to society. That’s what is so great about capitalism - it rewards those who provide something of use to society. Capitalism fuels progress and productive achievement. So just the fact that you make money from something with hard honest work means that it is useful.
In such a competitive and wide-ranging thing as the stock market, I think providing liquidity and a fair price is of great use. It keeps the wheels and gears of capitalism turning smoothly. And that is one of the most important things in the world, if you are a believer in capitalism.
Also, one thing the book talks about is that you have to work for yourself and not expect charity or someone to give it to you for nothing. The same goes with trading - you can’t expect someone else to do the work for you. You won’t make it as a trader if you rely on someone else for stock picks. Or for anything. The only way to make it is to do it yourself.

When I was on my flight to Colorado, one of the flight attendants noticed that I was reading Atlas Shrugged and informed me that it was going to be a movie with Angelina Jolie. I looked it up on imdb.com and it is true - Angelina Jolie will play Dagny Taggart. Sweet, I am looking forward to this. Hopefully I will be done with the book by then. I hope they do it justice - from a lot of the comments on imdb, it looks like people think this 1000+ page book will be butchered by trying to fit it into a two hour movie.
From imdb, here is some trivia about Atlas Shrugged:

According to Variety, The Godfather producer Albert S. Ruddy spent years trying to bring Atlas Shrugged to the big screen, attracting the interest of Clint Eastwood, Robert Redford and Faye Dunaway along the way.

In the late ’70s, NBC had plans to bring “Atlas Shrugged” to television as one of the multi-part mini-series popular at the time. Ayn Rand wanted Farrah Fawcett to star, but the project never materialized.

My friend Tom sent me this article, Why is America falling apart? Ask Ayn Rand, which I find very interesting since I am reading Atlas Shrugged and it has had a significant impact on my way of thinking.

Trapped coal miners in Utah, smashed levees in New Orleans, busted steam pipes and flooded subways in New York City, a collapsed bridge over the Mississippi River in Minnesota, an air-traffic-control system stressed to its break point. Could this really be a description of the most prosperous country on the planet? Can these all be coincidences?

Adam Lashinsky says that privatizing everything is dangerous. After watching Sicko, I kind of agree. But I see a lot of value in privatization because it fuels competition and progress. I guess that there are a few things that should not be privatized, but most things should be? Is it possible to have a perfect balance? Perhaps Private-Public Partnerships are a solution? I’m still only half-way done with Atlas Shrugged, maybe by the time I finish I will have a better idea.

I can’t believe this bridge fell. I drove over and walked under this bridge many times when I lived in the Twin Cities.

I’m reading Atlas Shrugged and there are a lot of references to metal and industry and how things are stronger and work better when capitalists are free to compete and make money, and that things work worse and rails break and bridges collapse when capitalists are not free to compete and work to improve. Would this not have happened if the bridge were privately owned? Would this not have happened if taxes were increased and the Minnesota Department of Transportation had more money to spend on repairs to the bridge? I don’t know, I’m still trying to figure it out.

This is awesome.

“He was, and is, extremely embarrassed by how the Hilton name has been sullied by Paris,” says Jerry Oppenheimer, who wrote a biography of the clan called House Of Hilton.

“He now doesn’t want to leave unearned wealth to his family.”

I love that he rightly calls it “unearned wealth” - exactly the topic I have been thinking a lot about lately. Maybe he read Atlas Shrugged.