Welcome to the Gulch. A quick read is "Anthem." I enjoyed "The Return of the Primitive."

Howdy. Welcome aboard.

I am also "new" to the world of Ayn Rand, so I might not be able to help much -- however, here are two books you might read for supporting information:

None Dare Call it Conspiracy, by Gary Allen -- it is an older book, with a forward by one of my personal heroes, Ezra Taft Benson.

The Creature from Jekyll Island, by G. Edward Griffin -- this is a tome which will be difficult to read. However, Griffin put a summary at the end of each chapter. If you just go through the summaries, you can "read" the book in an evening, and understand enough to be dangerous (to the government).

Enjoy!

if you are just getting your feet wet:
Philosophy:Who Needs It?
Capitalism The Unknown Ideal
There are many others
of course, continue with her fiction: The Fountainhead, We The Living, Anthem,
Fountainhead was made into a movie late 40s and there is an Italian version of We the Living for sale in the Gulch store

I don't know if the best decision for you is to reject the p.e. system. Although, we all know that it's a farce, Greenspan didn't "go Galt." And, in one of the essays in Capitalism: The Unknown Ideal, she gives the argument for opposing the system while engaging in it.

After I had read Capitalism, I came to think of Atlas and Fountainhead as builders of coping mechanisms for the competent and a warning to the incompetent, not necessarily practical calls for choosing to lose.

I don't know your goals, so I can't really say what you should or shouldn't do. But, it seems to me, because you identify rejecting the mainstream as going Galt, that you believe that that is the conclusion at which one must arrive from Ms. Rand's arguments. However, it seems to me that Greenspan's long tenure in the Collective and the argument asserted in Capitalism against going Galt would lead one to modify that plan.

What you're proposing isn't going Galt; it may be shrugging, but it's not going Galt. Galt had the ability to defend himself, had currency, and had property upon which to establish his country. Rearden was advised to shrug, but the Gulch was waiting for him.

With respect, if you're just quitting without the personal ability to wage, or at least defend against, war, then you don't meet the first requirement. John Galt is a bad ass first. He destabilizes an economy and walks through the ruins. He runs with titans of industry, parties with playboys, and helps his torturers fix their torture machine.

I think that we get a bad rap because we say we're quitting when nobody cares. It's like we say that we don't want to go to the party before we realize that we weren't getting invited any way.

My opinion is that it's best to be the host from whom everyone is competing for an invitation.

Welcome to the Gulch.