Category Archives: Video

Yaron Brook in Texas on inequality

Equal Is Unfair: America’s Misguided Fight Against Income Inequality

Yaron Brook on inequality at the Texas Public Policy FoundationIn this talk hosted by the Texas Public Policy Foundation, Yaron Brook discusses the left’s focus on the issue of income inequality, the issue covered by his new book, Equal is Unfair: American’s Misguided Fight Against Income Inequality.

While the left uses the idea of inequality as a rhetorical device to claim the moral high ground and thereby justify more government intervention, Brook points out that inequality is a metaphysical fact of human nature. We are all different. We read more

Yaron Brook talks to young entrepreneurs in Brazil

[Video] Yaron Brook on Entrepreneurs

In this talk from the Pan American School in Porto Alegre, Brazil, Yaron Brook discusses what it takes to be an entrepreneur and how that fits in to living a flourishing, successful life. A central idea is the role of the mind, not only in discovering the facts of reality necessary to such a life, but also to our emotions.

Reason is how we learn about the world. Emotions are how we experience the world.

Another idea that I found interesting was Yaron’s emphasis on the fact that trade applies read more

Eric Daniels science education

Science Education – Real Reform [Video]

I was very pleased yesterday when I saw a link for a new talk from one of my favorite speakers, Eric Daniels. In this video of a talk from OCON 2015, he discusses the problems he sees in science education today, the historical roots of those problems, and potential solutions to them.

He gives a quote from an historian that summarizes one way in which science education has gone wrong.

In the relatively short time between 1893 and 1920, the justification for science in the curriculum had shifted read more

success - SpaceX stage 1 landing

Success! SpaceX Stage 1 Landing

Success!

Congratulations to everyone involved in the success of today’s landing of SpaceX‘s Falcon 9 first stage rocket! Amazing, amazing achievement to send a full laden rocket, payload headed to the International Space Station, into space and bring its first stage back down to a perfect landing a small barge floating in the Atlantic Ocean. This is a fantastic tribute to the potential of what man’s mind can achieve when he is left read more

In Defense of Monopolies: How Antitrust Criminalizes Business Strategy (OCON 2015)

Business Strategy – Antitrust Laws Criminalize It [Video]

Ayn Rand often referred to antitrust as among the most immoral of laws and in this video from OCON 2015, Associate Professor of Strategy Ryan Krause discusses how antitrust laws destroy a businessman’s ability to plan for the long range success of his company by their effect on business strategy. He defines business strategy and summarizes the impact of antitrust laws in this quote:

Business strategy is the crux of high-level business decision making. Its what business should we be in, what read more

Blue Origin

Blue Origin – Success and Positive Values

On his April 2nd podcast Yaron Brook answered a question about what the Objectivist Movement 2.0 is about. Check out his complete answer starting at about the 68 minute mark, but in essence it is about creating a community where we “highlight success, highlight successful people, highlight successful values, highlight the positive.”

“A spirit, too, needs fuel. It can run dry.” – Ayn Rand, Ideal

This struck a chord for me as I have been thinking a lot lately about read more

[Video] Yaron Brook Q&A in Kiev

Yaron Brook Q&A in KievOne of the greatest sources of motivation for me, in both my thinking and my posting here on the blog, is listening to talks by Yaron Brook. He is an incredibly engaging and prolific speaker and thanks to platforms such as YouTube I am able to watch far more of these talks than if I could only see those I attended in person. Indeed, I have viewed dozens of videos of his talks from all over the world but have only been to one read more

[Video] Defining Basic Moral Concepts

package dealsIn this talk from the 2015 Objectivist Summer Conference, , author of In Defense of Selfishness, discusses the difficulty in defining moral concepts, among other concepts, due to package deals. Package deals are terms that try to integrate items by non-essentials, read more

[Video] Why Inequality is Good for the Individual – Yaron Brook

Equality sucks, inequality is great.Yaron Brook, president of the Ayn Rand Institute, spent several weeks recently on a speaking tour through Europe and Russia. The theme for these talks, largely, was the theme of his, with Don Watkins, forthcoming book: the idea that equality is unfair and that inequality is moral and just.

This particular talk was given at  Högerteknologerna and Fria Moderata Studentförbundet, Sweden. Before he begin the main talk, he commented that in other places where he had given talks the Q&A sessions read more

[Video] The Jihadist Movement – Elan Journo

Elan Journo - The Jihadist MovementAt the 2015 Summer Objectivist Conference Elan Journo, author of Winning the Unwinnable War, presented a talk on the jihadist movement. While he touches on the material strength and successes they have had, e.g. attacks in Paris, Copenhagen and Garland as well as the spread of ISIS, the main emphasis was on what provides the moral strength of the movement. As he states early in the talk:

But more significant than all those material gains and measures of its strength is the moral strength. read more