I know that I have been dragging my heels on this for months. Admittedly, I was scared to start because I was afraid that it wasn’t going to be as good as Atlas Shrugged or at least it was going to be repetitive. Then, there was the whole moving thing. It was hard for me to keep up with all of the things I was doing as well as AltF4. The grind of reading, thinking and writing on a consistent basis takes a lot of discipline and prioritization. I also will admit that both The Art of War and Surprised by Joy kind of took it out of me. They were not my favorites.

Actually, it is probably more correct that I really didn’t give The Art of War it’s due. I kind of went about it more like a chore than the proper philosophical study. I have been thinking that I should probably read it again without the pressure of trying to write about it every week. But, that will be for later. I have read quite a bit of The Fountainhead already and I am finding that I really like it. Maybe even more Atlas Shrugged for different reasons.

My grandfather used to use the phrase “The Lord hates a coward” somewhat frequently. I think that means that just because there are a lot of options and you don’t know exactly what to do that doesn’t mean freeze. It means without resounding evidence of what direction to go, pick one and figure it out as you go. Well, I have been a bit of a coward afraid that I cannot keep up or that I will group things together that may not go together and that has to end.

Rather than make this study go on for a year like I did with Atlas Shrugged, I will pick a path that seems reasonable to me. I want there to be enough content that I am not struggling to piece something meaningful every week but not so much reading that I have a hard time staying ahead. For that reason, it seems like chapters that fit into a 75 page block is aggressive enough. It won’t go all year and hopefully I can stay ahead.

I am proposing the following schedule.

  1. Part 1, Chapters 1-5
  2. Part 1, Chapters 6-12
  3. Part 1, Chapters 13-15 and Part 1 Summary
  4. Part 2, Chapters 1-7
  5. Part 2, Chapters 8-12
  6. Part 2, Chapters 13-15 and Part 2 Summary
  7. Part 3, Chapters 1-5
  8. Part 3, Chapters 6-9 and Part 3 Summary
  9. Part 4, Chapters 1-7
  10. Part 4, Chapters 8-14
  11. Part 4, Chapters 15-20 and Part 4 Summary
  12. Conclusion

For me, that means that I have the first month already read. It will also give me motivation to keep going. I picked the book up on a recent business trip after putting it down in April and I was able to make significant progress. It is definitely not because the book is not enjoyable but my work schedule, moving, baseball playoffs, football season and all of the usual excuses. I do need to fight my eyes closing when I lay down in bed though.

I will go ahead and save all of the deep analysis for next week but what I can tell you is that this book strikes personal to me. I think what is different between Atlas Shrugged and The Fountainhead is societal versus personal consequences. Since my whole moniker is about changing your programming this strikes a chord. We need to realize that no matter how much the direction that everything around us is not going the way that we wanted, the only real person we can control is ourselves. More on that in the upcoming weeks.

End Your Programming Routine: My dad is fond of the phrase “it’s the principle”. Trust me, he has the fortitude to accept the consequences of a principle based decisions. That is the way that we have to be if we are going to stand into the wind. I tend to be a little more pragmatic than that. Sometimes the cost is not worth the effort or we may simply not have enough fortitude, social capital, money or whatever to withstand the ‘the principle’. These are the lessons that The Fountainhead is going to explore. Ultimately, we will see how that works out.