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Comment by purple_ducks | Hacker News Reader

I think Ayn Rand and her writings were a pox on modern life and it is unfortunate she is held in regard by anyone, let alone intelligent people...

However, living off social security wasn't really ironic given that she viewed the social security payouts as reimbursement for the (what she considered unjust) payroll taxes she had been forced to pay.

Also, being selfish was central to her philosophy so this was in keeping with it.

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I see this perspective a lot - having only read The Fountainhead, I don't understand it at all, and suspect this is largely based off her other works (including Atlas Shrugged)?

My interpretation of The Fountainhead was as I described previously - the importance of staying true to who you are, even if this results in missing out on riches (or goes against popular opinion).

Personally, I agree with your summary of the Fountainhead.

If you choose to read Atlas Shrugged, however, her opinions start to get more extreme and unsettling.

I actually managed to read _The Fountainhead_, and found it enjoyable enough, without realizing it was supposed to be a libertarian manifesto.

I usually bring this up to give people a baseline in explaining how loud the preaching eventually got in the _Sword of Truth_ series.

_Atlas Shrugged_ is one of the few books I couldn't finish once started; the characters were just too obnoxiously stupid.

I read fountainhead years ago (and I couldn’t finish atlas shrugged also) but I recall reading about architects was way more enjoyable than about some railroad tycoons.

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