Peopled by larger-than-life heroes and villains, charged with towering questions of good and evil, Atlas Shrugged is Ayn Rand’s magnum opus: a philosophical revolution told in the form of an action thriller—nominated as one of America’s best-loved novels by PBS’s The Great American Read. Who is John Galt? When he says that he will stop the motor of the world, is he a destroyer or a liberator? Why does he have to fight his battles not against his enemies but against those who need him most? Why does he fight his hardest battle against the woman he loves? You will know the answer to these questions when you discover the reason behind the baffling events that play havoc with the lives of the amazing men and women in this book. You will discover why a productive genius becomes a worthless playboy...why a great steel industrialist is working for his own destruction...why a composer gives up his career on the night of his triumph...why a beautiful woman who runs a transcontinental railroad falls in love with the man she has sworn to kill. Atlas Shrugged, a modern classic and Rand’s most extensive statement of Objectivism—her groundbreaking philosophy—offers the reader the spectacle of human greatness, depicted with all the poetry and power of one of the twentieth century’s leading artists.
One of Silicon Valley's most successful angel investors shares his rules for investing in startups. There are two ways to make money in startups: create something valuable--or invest in the people that are creating valuable things. Over the past twenty-five years, Jason Calacanis has made a fortune investing in creators, spotting and helping build and fund a number of successful technology startups--investments that have earned him tens of millions of dollars. Now, in this enlightening guide that is sure to become the bible for twenty-first century investors, Calacanis takes potential angels step-by-step through his proven method of creating massive wealth: startups. As Calacanis makes clear, you can get rich--even if you came from humble beginnings (his dad was a bartender, his mom a nurse), didn't go to the right schools, and weren't a top student. The trick is learning how angel investors think. Calacanis takes you inside the minds of these successful moneymen, helping you understand how they prioritize and make the decisions that have resulted in phenomenal profits. He guides you step by step through the process, revealing how leading investors evaluate new ventures, calculating the risks and rewards, and explains how the best startups leverage relationships with angel investors for the best results. Whether you're an aspiring investor or a budding entrepreneur, Angel will inspire and educate you on all the ins of outs. Buckle up for a wild ride into the world of angel investing! This audiobook edition of Angel includes exclusive bonus one-on-one interviews with Jason Calacanis and professional angel investors. Featured are Founders Fund Partner Cyan Banister, multiple start up investor Gil Penchina, Founding Partner at XG Ventures Andrea Zurek, and serial entrepreneur and start up mentor Ed Roman.
Humanity is at a crossroads. Never have we had so much potential to do good in the world or literally transform our civilization into transnational gulags. Almost 175 Years have passed since the Communist Manifesto was written and circulated by Marx and Engels. Some statistics point to it being one of the most widely read and distributed works of political science and economics, although the core ideology has led to hundreds of millions of murders worldwide by those who fervently 'believed' and 'reformed' society by its decrees. It's about time something was written to help challenge and potentially unwind some of the moral, intellectual, social, and economic damage done since. * Why is it that an idea with a consistent failure rate draws more young people to it than ever before? * What is it about the original book that's so infectious that it continues to influence people around the world almost two centuries later? * What elements of the original text are accurate observations, and what conclusions are drawn ignorant of human psychology and praxeology that lead to devastating consequences? We wrote The UnCommunist Manifesto to answer these questions and much more. We emulated the format and length of the Communist Manifesto, so it is a sharp, concise and lucid read, but the message contained is a reminder for people to reach upward and become better versions of themselves instead of renouncing individual responsibility by classifying themselves into static groups and intellectually validating their desire to bring others down to their level. One goal was to change the axis of the “struggle.” Marx and Engels outlined it as “a struggle between two classes’, whom an individual is arbitrarily assigned to based on their material wealth. We reject this and assert that the real struggle is between individual autonomy, sovereignty, and responsibility versus the collectivist tendency toward group identity politics, rights, entitlements, and co-dependencies. Between cooperation and coercion. It always has been. We hope to see it used as an inspirational text in the years ahead as Individuals seek to maintain autonomy and claim sovereignty while the collective seeks to coerce. Our longer-term hope is that this text can be a beacon of hope, sanity, and sense in a world being swallowed up by the envy inherently justified by Marxist doctrine. Humanity is at a crossroads. We never had so much potential to do good in the world or literally transform our civilization into transnational gulags. The siren call of Marxist entropy is stronger than ever. The greatness and sanctity of the individual and the soul must counter it. May this book be not just an answer to the misguided, nihilistic, and often dangerous ideology of Marxism, but a message of hope, responsibility, and liberty for all. This is the first edition, and we hope that you find deep meaning within it. Aleks Svetski & Mark Moss
THE CLASSIC BOOK THAT HAS INSPIRED MILLIONS A penetrating examination of how we live and how to live better Few books transform a generation and then establish themselves as touchstones for the generations that follow. Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance is one such book. This modern epic of a man’s search for meaning became an instant bestseller on publication in 1974, acclaimed as one of the most exciting books in the history of American letters. It continues to inspire millions. A narration of a summer motorcycle trip undertaken by a father and his son, Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance becomes a personal and philosophical odyssey into fundamental questions on how to live. The narrator's relationship with his son leads to a powerful self-reckoning; the craft of motorcycle maintenance leads to an austerely beautiful process for reconciling science, religion, and humanism. Resonant with the confusions of existence, this classic is a touching and transcendent book of life. This new edition contains an interview with Pirsig and letters and documents detailing how this extraordinary book came to be.
Now a National Bestseller! Climate change is real but it’s not the end of the world. It is not even our most serious environmental problem. Michael Shellenberger has been fighting for a greener planet for decades. He helped save the world’s last unprotected redwoods. He co-created the predecessor to today’s Green New Deal. And he led a successful effort by climate scientists and activists to keep nuclear plants operating, preventing a spike of emissions. But in 2019, as some claimed “billions of people are going to die,” contributing to rising anxiety, including among adolescents, Shellenberger decided that, as a lifelong environmental activist, leading energy expert, and father of a teenage daughter, he needed to speak out with a fact-based approach to climate change to separate science from fiction. Despite decades of news media attention, many remain ignorant of basic facts. Carbon emissions peaked and have been declining in most developed nations for over a decade. Deaths from extreme weather, even in poor nations, declined 80 percent over the last four decades. And the risk of Earth warming to very high temperatures is increasingly unlikely thanks to slowing population growth and abundant natural gas. Curiously, the people who are the most alarmist about the problems also tend to oppose the obvious solutions. What’s really behind the rise of climate alarmism and apocalyptic environmentalism? There are powerful financial interests. There are desires for status and power. But most of all there is a desire among supposedly secular people for transcendence. This spiritual impulse can be natural and healthy. But in preaching fear without love, and guilt without redemption, the new religion is failing to satisfy our deepest psychological and existential needs. How can we solve real environmental problems without the fear-mongering? * Environmental Science vs. Fiction: Separate the facts from the media hype. Learn why carbon emissions are already declining in developed nations and the risk of extreme warming is increasingly unlikely. * The Truth About Extreme Weather: Discover the surprising data showing that deaths from floods, droughts, and storms have plummeted by 80 percent over the last four decades. * The Motives Behind Alarmism: Uncover the powerful financial and political interests driving apocalyptic narratives that ignore real-world progress and pragmatic solutions like nuclear power. * A New Environmental Humanism: Move beyond a religion of fear and guilt toward an approach that satisfies our deepest needs while protecting the natural world.
Discover how $55 million in cryptocurrency vanished in one of the most bizarre thefts in history Out of the Ether: The Amazing Story of Ethereum and the $55 Million Heist that Almost Destroyed It All tells the astonishing tale of the disappearance of $55 million worth of the cryptocurrency ether in June 2016. It also chronicles the creation of the Ethereum blockchain from the mind of inventor Vitalik Buterin to the ragtag group of people he assembled around him to build the second-largest crypto universe after Bitcoin. Celebrated journalist and author Matthew Leising tells the full story of one of the most incredible chapters in cryptocurrency history. He covers the aftermath of the heist as well, explaining the extreme lengths the victims of the theft and the creators of Ethereum went to in order to try and limit the damage. The book covers: * The creation of Ethereum * An explanation of the nature of blockchain and cryptocurrency * The activities of a colorful cast of hackers, coders, investors, and thieves Perfect for anyone with even a passing interest in the world of modern fintech or daring electronic heists, Out of the Ether is a story of genius and greed that’s so incredible you may just choose not to believe it.
APRENDE A LEER EN LA ESCUELA DE MONSTRUOS. Con letra mayúscula y texto rimado, ¡aprender a leer está chupado! Más de 1 millón de pequeños lectores. ¡No te pierdas la serie con la que los más pequeños aprenderán a disfrutar de los libros! María y su mascota van juntas a todas partes: ¡incluso a clase! El problema es que la mascota hoy tiene mucha hambre, tanta que empieza a comer y comer... ¡todo lo que hay en la escuela! ¿Cómo conseguirán que vuelva a ser una bolita pequeña y peluda? ¡Se está convirtiendo en la mascota más grandota! La Escuela de Monstruos es la serie más divertida para aprender a leer: - Letra mayúscula - Frases rimadas - Vocabulario sencillo - Ilustraciones a todo color - Protagonistas geniales: ¡una clase de monstruos! Los niños y niñas ganarán confianza para disfrutar de la lectura y practicarán nuevo vocabulario en las actividades de cada libro.
¡Descubre el poder transformador de la concentración mental para llenar tu vida de felicidad y plenitud, de la forma más clara, práctica y accesible! Esta obra te sumergirá en un viaje fascinante hacia el dominio de tu mente, revelándote los secretos de la concentración mental. ¿Qué es y por qué es crucial en nuestro día a día? ¿Qué puede hacer una mente enfocada para ayudarnos a alcanzar la vida de nuestros sueños? Aquí encontrarás respuestas claras y prácticas que cambiarán tu perspectiva para siempre. Aprenderás los beneficios incomparables de la concentración mental en todos los aspectos de tu vida. Por ejemplo, mejorará tu rendimiento en el trabajo y en los estudios, enriquecerás tus relaciones personales y alcanzarás un estado de paz interior. Entenderás por qué vale la pena practicar la concentración de manera regular. Hallarás aquí prácticas probadas y efectivas para desarrollar la concentración, armándote con todo un abanico de técnicas para enfocar tu mente, basadas en la respiración, sonidos, mantras, símbolos y mucho más. Además, descubrirás cómo aplicar paso a paso este poder en las más variadas situaciones cotidianas, llegando a dominarlas: estudiar para un examen, descansar mejor, hablar en público, resolver conflictos, enfrentar desafíos, entre otros. Entenderás exactamente qué estás haciendo, por qué lo estás haciendo y para qué lo haces. ¡Tienes en tus manos la llave que abrirá la puerta hacia una existencia mejor, gracias al control de tu mente! ¡No esperes más para transformar tu vida con el poder de la concentración mental! ¡Aquí encontrarás todas las claves!
A comprehensive and authoritative exploration of Bitcoin and its place in monetary history When a pseudonymous programmer introduced “a new electronic cash system that’s fully peer-to-peer, with no trusted third party” to a small online mailing list in 2008, very few people paid attention. Ten years later, and against all odds, this upstart autonomous decentralized software offers an unstoppable and globally accessible hard money alternative to modern central banks. The Bitcoin Standard analyzes the historical context to the rise of Bitcoin, the economic properties that have allowed it to grow quickly, and its likely economic, political, and social implications. While Bitcoin is an invention of the digital age, the problem it purports to solve is as old as human society itself: transferring value across time and space. Author Saifedean Ammous takes the reader on an engaging journey through the history of technologies performing the functions of money, from primitive systems of trading limestones and seashells, to metals, coins, the gold standard, and modern government debt. Exploring what gave these technologies their monetary role, and how most lost it, provides the reader with a good idea of what makes for sound money, and sets the stage for an economic discussion of its consequences for individual and societal future-orientation, capital accumulation, trade, peace, culture, and art. Compellingly, Ammous shows that it is no coincidence that the loftiest achievements of humanity have come in societies enjoying the benefits of sound monetary regimes, nor is it coincidental that monetary collapse has usually accompanied civilizational collapse. With this background in place, the book moves on to explain the operation of Bitcoin in a functional and intuitive way. Bitcoin is a decentralized, distributed piece of software that converts electricity and processing power into indisputably accurate records, thus allowing its users to utilize the Internet to perform the traditional functions of money without having to rely on, or trust, any authorities or infrastructure in the physical world. Bitcoin is thus best understood as the first successfully implemented form of digital cash and digital hard money. With an automated and perfectly predictable monetary policy, and the ability to perform final settlement of large sums across the world in a matter of minutes, Bitcoin’s real competitive edge might just be as a store of value and network for the final settlement of large payments―a digital form of gold with a built-in settlement infrastructure. Ammous’ firm grasp of the technological possibilities as well as the historical realities of monetary evolution provides for a fascinating exploration of the ramifications of voluntary free market money. As it challenges the most sacred of government monopolies, Bitcoin shifts the pendulum of sovereignty away from governments in favor of individuals, offering us the tantalizing possibility of a world where money is fully extricated from politics and unrestrained by borders. The final chapter of the book explores some of the most common questions surrounding Bitcoin: Is Bitcoin mining a waste of energy? Is Bitcoin for criminals? Who controls Bitcoin, and can they change it if they please? How can Bitcoin be killed? And what to make of all the thousands of Bitcoin knockoffs, and the many supposed applications of Bitcoin’s ‘block chain technology’? The Bitcoin Standard is the essential resource for a clear understanding of the rise of the Internet’s decentralized, apolitical, free-market alternative to national central banks.
A NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER A WALL STREET JOURNAL BESTSELLER "This book blew my mind. It’s a riveting read, full of instantly actionable advice-not just for high-stakes situations, but also for handling everyday conflicts at work and at home." ―Adam Grant, author of Think Again This international bestseller, with more than 5 million copies sold, offers a field-tested approach to high-stakes negotiations―whether in the boardroom, in your community, or at home. Life is a series of negotiations, and essential negotiation skills are at the heart of collaboration―whether you are a business executive, a salesperson, a parent , a community leader, or a spouse. As a former FBI hostage negotiator, Chris Voss gives you the tools for effective persuasion in any situation: negotiating a business deal, buying (or selling) a car, negotiating a salary, acquiring a home, renegotiating rent, deliberating with your partner, or communicating with your children. Taking the power of tactical empathy, active listening, and intuition to the next level, Never Split the Difference gives you the competitive edge in any difficult conversation or conflict resolution scenario. This book is a masterclass in influencing others, no matter the circumstances. After a stint policing the rough streets of Kansas City, Chris Voss joined the FBI, where his career as a hostage negotiator brought him face-to-face with a range of criminals, including bank robbers and terrorists. Reaching the pinnacle of his profession, he became the FBI’s lead international kidnapping negotiator. Never Split the Difference distills the Voss method, revealing the communication skills that matter most when it comes to achieving your goals in both your professional and personal life. Step-by-step, Voss show you how to: * Establish Rapport * Create Trust with Tactical Empathy * Gain the Permission to Persuade * Shape What Is Fair * Calibrate Questions * Transform Conflict into Collaboration * Spot Liars * Create Breakthroughs by Revealing the Unknown Unknowns Never Split the Difference is your definitive source for defusing potential crises, winning people over, and achieving your goals at work and at home with proven negotiating strategies.
Already famous throughout Europe, this international bestseller plumbs recently opened archives in the former Soviet bloc to reveal the actual, practical accomplishments of Communism around the world: terror, torture, famine, mass deportations, and massacres. Astonishing in the sheer detail it amasses, the book is the first comprehensive attempt to catalogue and analyze the crimes of Communism over seventy years. "Revolutions, like trees, must be judged by their fruit," Ignazio Silone wrote, and this is the standard the authors apply to the Communist experience―in the China of "the Great Helmsman," Kim Il Sung's Korea, Vietnam under "Uncle Ho" and Cuba under Castro, Ethiopia under Mengistu, Angola under Neto, and Afghanistan under Najibullah. The authors, all distinguished scholars based in Europe, document Communist crimes against humanity, but also crimes against national and universal culture, from Stalin's destruction of hundreds of churches in Moscow to Ceausescu's leveling of the historic heart of Bucharest to the widescale devastation visited on Chinese culture by Mao's Red Guards. As the death toll mounts―as many as 25 million in the former Soviet Union, 65 million in China, 1.7 million in Cambodia, and on and on―the authors systematically show how and why, wherever the millenarian ideology of Communism was established, it quickly led to crime, terror, and repression. An extraordinary accounting, this book amply documents the unparalleled position and significance of Communism in the hierarchy of violence that is the history of the twentieth century.
#7 New York Times Bestseller #1 Wall Street Journal Bestseller #1 Amazon Charts Bestseller #1 USA Today Bestseller #1 Publisher's Weekly Bestseller 20 Weeks on the New York Times Bestseller List 19 Weeks on the Publisher's Weekly Bestseller List 20 Weeks on the Amazon bestseller list 22 Weeks on the USA Today Bestseller List 20 Weeks on the Wall Street Journal Bestseller List Over 1.4 million copies sold despite censorship, boycotts from bookstores and libraries, and hit pieces against the author. Pharma-funded mainstream media has convinced millions of Americans that Dr. Anthony Fauci is a hero. Hands down, he is anything but. As director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID), Dr. Anthony Fauci dispenses $6.1 billion in annual taxpayer-provided funding for rigged scientific research, allowing him to dictate the subject, content, and outcome of scientific health research across the globe—truly a dark agenda. Fauci uses the financial clout at his disposal in a back handed manner to wield extraordinary influence over hospitals, universities, journals, and thousands of influential doctors and scientists—whose careers and institutions he has the power to ruin, advance, or reward in an authoritarian manner. During more than a year of painstaking and meticulous research on his laptop and through interviews, Robert F. Kennedy Jr. unearthed a shocking story that obliterates media spin on Dr. Fauci . . . and that will alarm every American—Democrat or Republican—who cares about democracy, our Constitution, and the future of our children’s health. The Real Anthony Fauci reveals how “America’s Doctor” launched his career during the early AIDS crisis by partnering with pharmaceutical companies to sabotage safe and effective off-patent therapeutic treatments for AIDS. Fauci orchestrated fraudulent do-nothing studies, and then pressured US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) regulators into approving a deadly chemotherapy treatment he had good reason to know was worthless against AIDS. Fauci did the unthinkable and repeatedly violated federal laws to allow his Pharma partners to use impoverished and dark-skinned children as lab rats in beyond order, deadly experiments with toxic AIDS and cancer chemotherapies. In early 2000, Fauci shook hands with Bill Gates in the library of Gates’ $147 million Seattle mansion, cementing a partnership that would aim to control an increasingly profitable $60 billion global vaccine enterprise with unlimited growth potential. Through funding leverage and carefully cultivated personal relationships with heads of state and leading media and social media institutions, the Pharma-Fauci-Gates alliance exercises dominion over global health policy and our beautiful country. This is not just another political book. The Real Anthony Fauci details how Fauci, Gates, and their cohorts use their control of media outlets—both conservative and liberal leaning, scientific journals, key government and quasi-governmental agencies, global intelligence agencies, and influential scientists and physicians to flood the public with fearful propaganda about COVID-19 virulence and pathogenesis, and to muzzle debate and ruthlessly censor dissent.