Well, the number who may have flipped K seems to be growing. Add my name to the list although I shouldn't admit it here.

Back in 1962 late at night when I should have been asleep I used to stay up late watching TV. M-F it was Johnny Carson. Weekends it was pot luck. Channel surfing was tough. No remotes. Back in '62 when I was but 15 I stayed up late on Sunday night much to my usual detriment the next morning. Next time I am 15 I will know better. So it was 11PM and each time I wanted to change channels on the B&W TV in my room I had to get up to do it. What a pain. Horrible night on the Telly. By the time I got to KCRA Channel 3 out of Sacramento CA (I was in Stockton) it was 1115PM. What was on was an old movie and it was already 15 minutes into the story. There was no way to hit rewind. I had to do without. The film was The Fountainhead. I quit channel surfing and watched it to the end. Next day I bought the book. I was an Objectivist although at the time I had no idea what that was. Then I followed up with the rest of the novels and The Objectivist Newsletter then the Nathaniel Branden LP recordings. Even went to a meeting of an Objectivist Club in San Francisco and attended a talk by NB himself. By the time I had landed here I had read all of the non fiction works and did not to go on to read books I had already finished. Long story short. No I did not. Well maybe to late for the short part.

Thanks for posting a link to the schedule. It was not worked out yet when we signed up and I have been forgetting to look for it. ;-)

Not answering your question precisely, but ...
In my 20s I was working with another young man in real estate finance and development. He had read AS and often recommended it, as he thought my views were developing in that logical way. I was too busy with my career for reading fiction at the time. A few years later, I was flying on business frequently and one trip took me to Detroit. While there I visited my uncle and he had a paperback of AS in his bookcase, and he gave it to me. I read it slowly as I travelled over the next few weeks. The front cover wore off from travelling in an overstuffed leather bag, but I taped on a DIY front cover and kept reading. I still have that worn copy. I have since bought almost everything Rand wrote in its first published form if possible, and have read almost all of it. (Still have to find time to read some Objectivist, Objectivist Newsletter, and Ayn Rand Letters.)

Ditto here also. A friend gave me AS. Then I started with regular book stores for Fountainhead, etc., then NBI (Nathaniel Brandon Institute), and then Palo Alto Book Service as mentioned below.

Only to one military academy. The real one. :)

It's also the title essay in a book by the same name (thus the title essay :) ).

I don't remember all the details about how I found my way to reading Rand, but, in retrospect, I realize I was always on a mission for things to make sense when so many things, and people, around me didn't.
I know at one point I heard Rand Paul, in an interview answer the question about him being named after Ayn Rand and he explained that Rand was short for Randall, but he admired Ayn Rand. I looked her up, watched a video that shed her in a bad light and I thought she was nuts...like left wing nuts (I have no idea how I got that idea). But I dismissed her. (omg!!!!)
I then saw Atlas Shrugged I on netflix and enjoyed it so I started researching the author and watched The Prophecy of Ayn Rand (also on Netflix) and I was hooked. I bought AS immediately, took it on vacation and devoured it on my parent's back porch a few Summer's ago in MI. I remember telling my Mom when I finished part I "This is where the movie left off, but there is sooo much more going on in this book than the movie. And so much of it is actually happening in this country right now, and this was written in the 50's! You HAVE to read this!" (And she did :)).
I soon starting looking for info on Part II of the movie and found a website where I signed up for notifications...soon thereafter I was informed of galtsgulchonline and I dove in head first without blinking.
I have since read many of her other works, both fiction and non fiction, sometimes more than once and I am continually blown away by the spot on perfection of Rand's explanations and reasoning.
My only regret is not finding my way to Objectivism sooner. Finally, somewhere where everything makes sense. Much like sitting on your parent's back porch and breathing the fresh air of HOME. :)

My father left a copy of Anthem around the house, and I picked it up and read it. It made a big impression on me. In HS, I checked out a copy of AS.

I began reading it after school on a Friday...was abstracted through dinner...continued reading as soon as dinner was done. When my mother woke up in the morning, I was in the middle of Galt's speech. She pointed out that I had not yet done the dinner dishes (my chore) from the previous night. "I will, I will. Just let me finish this chapter." An hour later I finished. Wow.

I got up to do the dishes, and stumbled...I had sat in the same position all night, reading. My mother looked at me, "You look beat - go to bed. I'LL do the dishes. Just go."

That was my real intro to Rand. It is not so much that I felt I wanted to follow her philosophy as that she had elegantly articulated the thoughts I was forming in my own brain. Her words 'clicked' into place - and have not left.

Jan

Before I even introduced him to AS and Ayn Rand, I had been teaching him about self reliance and making your own way. Although I had not ever started my own business, people would come to me and have me do work for them. My son asked me why I didn't start my own business as I had the people skills and mechanical ability to easily do so. I explained to him that by my keeping a stable income and insurance for him, I was allowing for him to have that "cushion" to take the risk (and fail, possibly) because I wanted better for him. Also, by being in management, I've learned techniques that work and those who don't. I want him to be a Dagny Taggart or Hank Reardon "hands on" type owner instead of someone that just hires people and solely relies on them. Sweat equity has been a big part of his growth and seems to be an underlying theme in AS that unless you get your hands dirty, you don't really run your business, you just take the profit from it while it runs itself into the ground.

As a scientist I try to approach my understanding of the world from an objectivist perspective. My specialties are astronomy and theoretical physics so I am constantly exposed to the extraordinary complexity of what we call "reality". As we search the depths of the cosmos or the inner workings of the atom we encounter layer upon layer of seemingly endless detail. So the question for me is "Is the complexity of physical reality infinite or finite." The answer to this question is of profound significance because it reveals if there is a limit to knowledge. Trying to maintain objectivity in the face of of such a realization is difficult in the extreme.

wow. I knew that you had met Rand. what an amazing life you have had. I certainly hope it was not me that accused you of such. lol what an asset you are to the Gulch!

thanks tech. We all knew you were well read in this philosophy

Yes, something like that occurred to me. I think the explanation of the Casimir effect is based on the Copenhagen Interpretation

Heisenberg wrote a book on philosophy and physics, which I want to delve into in more detail.

+1 for that clever retort

you are referring to her speech to the military academies. Here is a dramatic excerpt: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1oj5drOi...

I read The Fountainhead in 1958. My new husband had a copy. I got Atlas Shrugged a couple of years later, attended the 1965 NBI 20-lecture course on tape and met Ayn Rand at the opening session. Shortly thereafter I divorced to regain my life. I am now happily married for 45 years to a man who loves me for who I am.

I have all of Rand's books, fiction and non-fiction, and all the original copies of the various newsletters, to which I subscribed in real time. I have all 3 Atlas films and other Rand-related videotapes. I have read AS seven times, including the new paperback edition put out by Peikoff's group. I sent him a list of all the typos (hundreds of them) in that volume. My own original volume is in tatters, and I've bought both the deluxe hard cover and paperbacks for friends. And yes, I have Branden's book on self-esteem and his vengeful Judgment Day, and Barbara Branden's biography of Rand. Read them with a grain of salt.

I have lived through, in real time, the Rand/Branden split and the Peikoff/Kelley split. It amused me greatly when I first joined the Gulch that, in the first discussion in which I participated, one of the commenters accused me of being a Communist. I appreciate that the disruptive elements have been purged or have chosen to withdraw from the Gulch. The conversations here are a bright spot in the otherwise dismal current state of the world, and there is always something new and worthwhile to learn. I probably spend way too much time here, amidst running my business.

I want to make clear that I am not a Rand worshipper. I admire the intellect that produced the statement of values and principles, the body of philosophy that expressed with full clarity and non-contradiction the values I had always held but lacked the words to express. It was like coming home.

I read AS and Fountainhead years and years ago. Saw a blurb about the movies and bought 1&2 on Amazon. Also have Fountainhead on dvd.

Looking for word on #3, brought me to the Atlas Shrugged site, which led me here.

I have a mix of both her fiction and non-fiction.

I think the first Rand writing I read was her speech: Philosophy - who needs it?

That was doubly appropriate as I was then a philosophy major at the place where she gave the speech. I then read AS and F and many of her non-fiction writings as well.

thanks eye. rockymountainpirate is a huge fan of Goodkind

Yes, the 1949 film closely follows the book. Ayn Rand herself wrote the script.

That is a fun story, dbhalling and khalling.

the good kind of busy :)

If I were heading to an Atlas Summit in 2016, perhaps we should also have a panel discussion or town hall on considerations for a physical Atlantis. Several of us started game planning for that almost a year ago under the "jbrenner assigns HOMEwork" posts. One of them is at
http://www.galtsgulchonline.com/posts/d9...

The other was in the Producers Lounge.

While quite a few people have contributed to the discussion, the primary contributors thus far offline have been freedomforall, johnpe1, and Temlakos (who lives 5 miles from this year's Atlas Summit).

thank you for reminding me of that article. here it is, gulchers:
http://ellensplace.net/mm_text.html

I don't know. We haven't planned the 2016 Atlas Summit yet.

New Hampshire is lovely in June.