Itamar Feldman“Why aren’t more Objectivists more happy?”
Don Watkins, ARI director of marketing, opens this OCON 2024 panel by raising this question (which he credits to ARI board member John Allison). The panel revolves around common obstacles to happiness that Objectivists face and presents advice on extracting more value out of Objectivism.
All panel members stress the importance of defining highly personal values. Accomplishing that, they agree, requires introspection. The panelists share valuable personal experiences as well as other tips for introspecting successfully. ARI CEO Tal Tsfany raises an introspective question that conveys an aspect of the issue: “What is the Howard Roark in me? What is my architecture?” It was by thinking about questions like this, he says, that he was able to use Objectivism to better understand what values he wanted to pursue.
Dr. Gena Gorlin discusses insights she has reached in the course of her work as a psychologist and coach for ambitious creators. She emphasizes the importance of ambition for achieving happiness, including the ambitious work required to improve one’s life by applying Objectivism.
One of several points stressed by Dr. Tara Smith, a philosopher at the University of Texas at Austin, is the importance of cultivating good relationships with other people, a point Objectivists sometimes overlook. She contends that “People are the richest source of value in our lives” and suggests ways to get more out of this aspect of life.
In the Q&A, the panelists address topics such as:
- How to build relationships that support your ambitions;
- How to integrate introspection and action;
- How to distinguish genuinely personal values from those taken on from others;
- What the panelists’ lives would look like if they hadn’t discovered Objectivism.
For more advice on how to extract the most value from Objectivism, watch the full panel.
Tara Smith
Ibis Slade
