The Fountainhead by Ayn Rand (Books to Read #1)

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One type of blog post I want to establish here is a book recommendation series. While I currently don’t have the time to read a book every week, there were years when I finished nearly 100 books in 365 days. I’ve never compiled the best ones into a single list — so why not start right here?

The first book I want to write about is my all-time favorite: The Fountainhead by Ayn Rand.

The Fountainhead

The Fountainhead is my favorite book of all time. Reading it sparked my philosophical journey and ignited a passion for learning and reading that continues to this day. My hope in writing this post is to inspire new readers to discover this classic work of philosophical fiction by Ayn Rand.

The Author

Ayn Rand remains a controversial figure. Her work has been dismissed through ad hominem attacks — and, as is often the case, such attacks suggest that her ideas are indeed worth examining.

Rand fled socialism in the Soviet Union, emigrated to the United States, and encountered capitalism — its complete opposite. After seeing how much wealth, prosperity, and freedom capitalism created, she developed a philosophy that challenges the moral foundation of socialism (altruism) by proposing its opposite: a philosophy based on rational self-interest.

Today, we live in a world that increasingly leans toward socialism everywhere. But our educational, political, and mainstream media institutions often blame capitalism for society’s problems which are actually caused by socialism, which pushes Western civilization even further down what Rand would call a “socialist death spiral.”

Here’s one of Rand’s earliest interviews (1959):

The Novel

The Fountainhead presents the ideal man according to Rand’s philosophy of Objectivism.

The protagonist, Howard Roark, embodies the traits every person should strive to develop on their journey toward a happy and fulfilling life.

Set in 1940s America, the story depicts a world being swallowed by socialism — its ideas slowly infiltrating private life, business, and art. Roark refuses to conform to the prevailing collectivist culture and faces fierce opposition for his independence. Yet he remains true to his principles, finding happiness through reason, logic, and self-confidence — both in his work and his love life.

The story serves as a striking analogy for our modern world, where socialism once again undermines individual freedom and achievement. It exploits the productive while rewarding dependency. The Fountainhead shows how one can not only survive in such a system — but thrive.

The Fountainhead trailer:

The book in a nutshell:

The Philosophy of The Fountainhead

The philosophy behind The Fountainhead is called Objectivism.

In the Russian literary tradition, Ayn Rand presented her philosophical ideas through storytelling. Howard Roark is the embodiment of Objectivism — the living example of her philosophy in action.

In short, Objectivism is about rational self-interest and the right of every individual to pursue their own happiness.

If you want to know more, here is a more detailed video:

The four main pillars of objectivism are:

  • Metaphysics: Objective Reality – “Nature, to be commanded, must be obeyed.”
  • Epistemology: Reason – “You can’t eat your cake and have it too.”
  • Ethics: Self-Interest – “Man is an end in himself.”
  • Politics: Capitalism – “Give me liberty or give me death.”

Howard Roark: The Ideal Man

According to Ayn Rand, the ideal man possesses three core virtues:

  1. Rationality
  2. Independence
  3. Self-Esteem

In simple terms:

  • Understand your emotions, but don’t act on them alone — act on reason.
  • Be independent — rely on your own judgment and abilities.
  • Develop self-confidence through competence — self-esteem is earned by mastery.

It’s said that Steve Jobs drew inspiration from Rand’s characters — particularly in Apple’s early days — at least according to the “Almighty Woz”:

Quotes from The Fountainhead

Some standout passages include:

The Importance of Work

“I have, let’s say, sixty years to live… I’ve chosen the work I want to do. If I find no joy in it, then I’m only condemning myself to sixty years of torture… The best is a matter of standards—and I set my own standards.” (p. 18)

Individualism in Work

“They were sketches of buildings such as had never stood on the face of the earth… They were only Howard Roark.” (p. 18–19)

Independence

“I owe you an apology. I don’t usually let things happen to me. I made a mistake this time… I should have left long ago.” (p. 22)

Defiance

“My dear fellow, who will let you?”
“That’s not the point. The point is, who will stop me?” (p. 23)

Rational Selfishness

“They have no self. They live within others. They live second-hand… He didn’t want to build, but to be admired as a builder.” (p. 605)

Happiness in Individualism

“If any man stopped and asked himself whether he’s ever held a truly personal desire, he’d see that all his dreams are motivated by other men…” (p. 607)

The Power of the Individual

“Throughout the centuries there were men who took first steps down new roads armed with nothing but their own vision… They fought, they suffered, and they paid. But they won.” (p. 736)

Capitalism vs. Socialism

“The creator’s concern is the conquest of nature. The parasite’s concern is the conquest of men.” (p. 738)

The Virtue of Independence

“Independence is the only gauge of human virtue and value… There is no substitute for personal dignity.” (p. 740)

Freedom

“I do not recognize anyone’s right to one minute of my life. Nor to any part of my energy. Nor to any achievement of mine.” (p. 743)

The Fountainhead: A Guide for Living

Objectivism has been called a philosophy for living on Earth.

For men especially, The Fountainhead offers a powerful role model — a guide to success and happiness grounded in reason and integrity.

Even if philosophy seems dry, stories like The Fountainhead bring ideas to life through narrative — much like Star Wars or Harry Potter, which also carry philosophical themes. Just as Luke Skywalker teaches us about courage and overcoming fear, Howard Roark teaches us how to live with purpose and self-respect.

Resources

Why I’m Putting All My Books into Kindle Unlimited

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Yes, Amazon pays you peanuts if you’re not a big name.

Today’s Kindle Unlimited is primarily designed to attract the well-known authors. Amazon changed its payment structure about a decade ago to achieve that. When I first published some of my writing on Amazon, I earned more than a dollar for each read—no matter how long the book was. That made short stories surprisingly profitable. I remember earning almost $1.50 for a ten-page story collection.

Then Amazon decided that more pages should mean more money.

We can debate whether that was the right move creatively. Personally, I don’t think page count determines quality. I’ve read short stories years ago that still stay with me, and 700-page fantasy slogs that I wish I could forget the moment I finished it.

On the other hand, I understand the argument that a short story written in a day shouldn’t earn as much as a full-length novel that takes months to complete. It’s hard to find a fair system that respects everyone’s effort.

From a business perspective, Amazon’s decision wasn’t really about helping writers, though—it was about attracting big names like Stephen King. Amazon wants those authors exclusively in Kindle Unlimited, because they bring in subscribers.

Today, authors are no longer paid per book read but per page read. From what I’ve seen, a single page earns around half a cent.

Amazon also added a reward system that gives bonuses to authors with the most pages read. The result? The top 3% of authors earn roughly 50% of the total payout according to the data that I’ve seen. And that’s how Amazon gets the “Stephen Kings of the world” on board.

For me—and for most independent authors—Kindle Unlimited brings in just a few dollars a month.

So why am I still putting all my books into Kindle Unlimited?

Because I want people to read my work, even if it means I’m basically writing for a couple of dollars. When you’re just starting out, nobody knows or cares about you. You have your family, a few friends, maybe some coworkers to get your books—and that’s it.

To get strangers to check out your writing, you have to make it as easy as possible for them. If you can, even give your books away for free. Readers who already have a Kindle Unlimited subscription are much more likely to give me a chance, as for them, my books are somewhat free.

When you’re a beginner author with no publishing house behind you, money isn’t your goal. Finding an audience is. And once you’ve find that audience, money comes in as a side effect anyway.

Kindle Unlimited gives me access to readers who might never have discovered my work otherwise. These readers could be the audience of my future.

Write For Humans, Not Machines

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Not long ago, standard SEO advice was to include a specific keyword at least once every 100 words in your website articles to make them rank better on Google.

This led to a practice called keyword stuffing — the result of Google’s early algorithm favoring pages that repeated the main keyword multiple times. People discovered that the more often they added the keyword, the higher their articles could rank.

The outcome? Millions of unreadable, low-quality articles cluttered the web. Google eventually adjusted its algorithm and started penalizing sites that overused keywords. What human readers hated soon became what Google’s algorithm hated, too.

Around the same time, headlines like these flooded the internet: “12 Things You Didn’t Know About Your Cat (Number 7 Will Shock You)”. They worked for a while, attracting clicks and views. But once readers realized that Buzzfeed-like listicles were mostly fluff designed to generate traffic rather than offer real value, engagement plummeted.

I can’t prove that Google adapted its algorithm in this case as well—but I certainly adapted. Whenever I see an article with a typical clickbait list headline, I skip it. I even avoid returning to that website altogether.

The blogs I continue to read are usually one-person sites. The authors behind them feel real and authentic. They write about their lives, work, and hobbies as if they were talking to a friend. In short: they write for humans, not machines.

And that’s the best long-term strategy. Think about it:

Google (and other search engines) are ultimately trying to connect readers with writers. Its algorithm aims to understand what humans want to read—and over time, it’s getting better at imitating human interests.

On top of that, social media has become a major driver of website traffic. And on social media, it’s humans—not algorithms—who share links to your blog.

Another trend is that the traditional era of SEO is coming to an end. Now, everything is shifting toward optimizing content for AI. But what are tools like ChatGPT trying to do? They’re designed to think and respond like humans. So, in the end, writing for humans also means writing for AI.

Finally, you don’t just want traffic, clicks, leads, or sales—you want an audience. And that audience is made up of humans. So why not write directly for them instead of trying to game algorithms and machines? After all, Google, Twitter, and ChatGPT exist to bring human eyes to your work. And you want these humans to follow you (and even buy your products and services).

What’s the point of generating massive traffic with an SEO-optimized article if it’s so poorly written that no real human actually wants to read it? You’re not going to gain a following like this and you’re not going to earn the trust that is needed to sell books or other products.

In the end, writing for humans will always be the best approach.

No Surrender, No Retreat (Movie/Show Review #2)

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I want to primarily write about entertainment that I love on this blog. On Twitter, I also post shorter reviews of films and shows I’ve recently seen. But here, it’s about building a map to the good movies.

To kick things off, I recommend a movie from the 1980s—one of the very first movies I ever watched. I remember coming home from kindergarten at age five. My brother had gotten No Surrender, No Retreat on VHS, and we watched it on a rainy afternoon.

In Germany, the movie was actually sold as Karate Tiger. But no matter the title, it’s the flick that launched Jean-Claude van Damme’s movie career. It also introduced me to Bruce Lee and, I believe, inspired my own interest in martial arts a couple of years later.

The plot is simple: a lost boy is rejected by friends, society, and family. But he finds meaning and confidence in martial arts, guided by Bruce Lee’s ghost, who teaches him that martial arts are not just a sport, but a way of life. Along the way, the movie also introduced Van Damme’s trademark split.

One standout aspect of the film is its music, which perfectly complements the training and fight scenes. The choreography still holds up today, as all the side characters clearly had solid martial arts experience.

The movie was a low-budget production, but the director made the most of limited resources. Sure, the dialogue can feel cheesy at times now, and the plot is paper-thin, but the film has a remarkable ability to motivate you to work out and practice fighting. If you have a young son, show him this movie—and maybe get him into kickboxing the next day!

IMDb rates it only 5.6 here. Likely because No Surrender, No Retreat is a classic “boys’ movie,” a type of story that isn’t really told anymore today.

By the way, the movie is currently (as I’m writing this post) freely available on YouTube: Watch here

Write A Done List

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I use to-do lists almost every day. I set goals for the year, break them down into milestones, and even make New Year’s resolutions. Sometimes I accomplish my goals and stick to the plan — sometimes I don’t.

Creating a plan and defining goals can be motivating. It helps you give structure and direction to your life. But on some days, it also feels like you’re trapping yourself in a self-imposed rat race.

  • Complete my STORY52 short story project
  • Write the next novel
  • Finish editing my last novel
  • Write at least ten tweets
  • Publish that blog post
  • Do your workout
  • And don’t forget the day job tasks and household chores
  • …

Reviewing that list every day and crossing things off until the page is empty can make me more productive, yes — but when there isn’t enough time and items remain unchecked, it can also feel like I’ve accomplished nothing. It’s draining and demotivating.

That’s why it makes sense to use the opposite of a to-do list from time to time: a Done List. It reminds you of everything you’ve already worked on and achieved.

In 2025:

  • I published my next novel, Forever
  • I set up my mailing list, including another published book, Endless, which I give away for free to subscribers
  • This blog became a reality — and I’ve already written more than 80 posts
  • My YouTube tutorial channel grew to over 10K subscribers
  • I’ve gained almost 1K followers on Twitter
  • Seven of my short stories are already available on Amazon
  • I started two more YouTube channels to document my Author in Progress journey (and yet another one is in the works)

That’s a lot of progress since March 2025, when I decided to take my writing hobby a bit more seriously.

Sure, not everything went as planned. Not every goal was achieved. And I’m far far away from being able to pay any bills with my writing. But the list of accomplishments shows a lot of progress after just over half a year of focused effort.

Create your own Done List. Look back at what you’ve achieved in the past six months — and just imagine what you could do in the next ten years.