Being Selfish : The Virtue of Selfishness | Dr. Yaron Brook | Full Length HD

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About :
Dr. Yaron Brook (M.B.A., University of Texas at Austin; Ph.D., Finance, University of Texas at Austin) is the executive director of the Ayn Rand Institute and a leading advocate of Rand's ideas. A former finance professor, he speaks internationally on such topics as the causes of the financial crisis, the morality of capitalism, and ending the growth of the state. Yaron is a columnist at Forbes.com, and his articles have been featured in the Wall Street Journal, USA Today, Investor's Business Daily, and many other publications. A frequent guest on a variety of national television programs, he is co-author of Neoconservatism: An Obituary for an Idea and contributing author of Winning the Unwinnable War: America's Self-Crippled Response to Islamic Totalitarianism. His newest book, Free Market Revolution: How Ayn Rand's Ideas Can End Big Government, co-authored with Don Watkins is now available. To follow Yaron and see his most current activities, please check out Yaron Brook and Don Watkin's blog Laissez-Faire: The Uncompromised Case for Capitalism.
Born and raised in Israel, Yaron served as a first sergeant in Israeli military intelligence and earned a BSc in civil engineering from Technion-Israel Institute of Technology in Haifa, Israel. Yaron admits to being a socialist until the age of 16--then he read Ayn Rand's Atlas Shrugged. Despite his best efforts to poke holes in Rand's arguments, he couldn't, and went on to become a student of Rand's philosophy, Objectivism.
In the late 1980s, Yaron and his wife started thinking about where in the world they would want to live their lives and raise a family. Where could they find the greatest amount of freedom and the greatest amount of opportunity? The answer was clear, so in 1987 they emigrated to the United States. He would go on to become an American citizen in 2003.
Yaron received his MBA and PhD in finance from the University of Texas at Austin. For seven years he was an award-winning finance professor at Santa Clara University, and in 1998 he cofounded a financial advisory firm, BH Equity Research, of which he is presently managing director and chairman.
While in America, Yaron continued studying Ayn Rand's philosophy. In the mid-1990s, he joined the Ayn Rand Institute's new educational program, the Objectivist Graduate Center. It was in the OGC (now expanded into the Objectivist Academic Center) that Yaron deepened his knowledge of Objectivism, thanks to the efforts of teachers such as Rand's heir, Leonard Peikoff, as well as leading Objectivist thinkers Harry Binswanger and Peter Schwartz.
It was also during this time that Yaron launched Lyceum International, an organization that for many years ran conferences on Objectivism.
In 2000 Yaron left teaching to become the executive director of the Ayn Rand Institute and go-to source for laissez-faire policy. Yaron's field of speciaties include Objectivism (the philosophy of Ayn Rand), capitalism, finance, business ethics, venture capital, economics and foreign policy.
Yaron lives in Orange County, California.
Visit Yaron at capitalism.aynr...

[@C3gossett3]

Brilliant in substance and style. Today's greatest voice of reason, Yaron Brooke is a hero of the highest order who eloquently exposes the destroyers of man's values and happiness in irrefutable terms. If you disagree with Yaron Brooke, you disagree with a proper morality and, consequently, living honestly. Keep fighting the good fight, Yaron!

[@21s]

Ayn Rand did not support the actions of a murderer; she admired small parts of the ethical philosophy that drove him. You're bundling this up in what she would call a "package deal" that doesn't really exist -- i.e. its a bunch of bullshit. You can admire the ambition and perseverance of Tony Montana without endorsing violent criminal action. Anything else you would like to mindlessly regurgitate into a KZbin comment?

[@cheveuxfins1319]

Masterpiece, which should be spread

[@odnilniloc]

A fantastic talk. This Ayn Rand philosophy sits really well with myself and warrants much investigation.

[@21s]

New Video : Being Selfish : The Virtue of Selfishness | Dr. Yaron Brook | Full Length HD ow.ly/2A7qou

[@periteu]

13:08 - Of the effect of irrational guilt 53:23 - Of the obligation of children to their parents 58:30 - Of the possibility of being a social worker and being selfish

[@JohanTillgren]

Great lecture. Thank you for putting this up.

[@Claudio-gt4tn]

His whole philosophy (of reason over emotion) is the exact ideological base for psychology. Pretty explicit at 42.30

[@georgiegingersnap8129]

Rand believed emotions were very important as the driving element behind one's rational decisions and goals. Just don't let your emotions do your thinking or deciding for you.

[@Inductica]

A great application of Objectivism to self improvement!

[@PabloAlvestegui]

This is one of Yaron's best speeches.

[@newdefinithigh]

This guy makes lots of sense

[@lucanope6317]

no contradiction: he says you need to take decision based on logic, and he says your goal is to have good emotion. so if your emotions tell you to do something you ignore them and think it through rationally so you can take the decision that's gonna help you get better emotion. Emotion=aim Ration=tool

[@artofthepossible7329]

@@Impaled_Onion-thatsmine "One day" Well considering how long Objectivism has been in print, I would have expected some epistemological victory over it by this point by a dedicated opponent.

[@LeonidSu]

Great ideas, I like it!!!!

[@2Oldcoots]

This philosophy is very very powerful, engaging, and worth internalizing because it values reason first, not "feelings" .

[@sybo59]

Philip Dennis Rand definitely put reason first, but emotions are also very important in her philosophy. She definitely would not have been a big fan of Spock!

[@khazeemaangel6297]

Really loved this lecture. Yaron is a great speaker and a great human being. Thanks for uploading.

[@Willsturd]

1- he understands that the enlightenment came way sooner. He just says the most important year was 76' because that was when America and Smith was formed. In his opinion that was the peak year 2. We are not ants 3. If you use your rational, its been proven time and time again that helping yourself gives you a better standard of living. If everyone helps themselves, you get places like Hong Kong where 70 years ago it was a rock, now it puts New York to shame.

[@nitirajdaby2554]

Great talk ! He's such a real person.

[@GM-ov1mn]

whew ! delightful ! what a way to look at life !

[@verushkaaraes2516]

I get what he is saying, but the "don't give up your nice meal to write a cheque to kids in Africa" was quite harsh. He should have just used a different example. BTW, IT'S NOT ONLY KIDS IN AFRICA STARVING!!!!!!

[@Iquey]

There's kids down the street.

[@christianescudero3496]

One questionable thing is is the statement that 'Mother Theresa is/was a moral ideal'. Maybe it was just used as an example, since that's how she is regarded generally.

[@YorickReturns]

You haven't read the source material; have you? Read the Journals of Ayn Rand for yourself. Then you'll find out how wrong your conclusion (or someone else's conclusion that you've adopted as your own) is.

[@danthemanporto]

this was a great talk

[@ThanhTLam1]

OMG Yaron is a great talker!

[@susannec659]

I didn't know that Bernie Madoff's son committed suicide. that breaks my heart

[@Floatacious]

At 45 mins he describes my boss not knowing what's real

[@Iquey]

Bernie was selfish-ish, but he was not smart. He was super clever, but eventually ended up in jail. Lying sucks. I'm so glad this speaker touched on this point.

[@humanyoda]

He seems to contradict himself. First he says to choose a career to make one happy (emotion), but later he says NOT to follow emotions because they don't tell one what's "right".

[@adrianodemelo]

Awesome! Thank you!

[@souvikkundu]

Thank you Yaron :)

[@nathansmith7335]

One of the best 21 convention presentations

[@goosegod9901]

Just imagine if we had the industrial/scientific revolution and been using reason since a thousand years ago. May have mastered interstellar travel a couple centuries ago.

[@RebelPixels]

The ads in this are fucking unbearable. Ruin an otherwise fantastic talk.

[@21s]

+Rebel Pixels You didn't pay any money for it, so how would you suggest we otherwise create, edit, and publish the event + speech? - ADJ

[@RebelPixels]

+21 Studios the ads themselves aren't the problem. It's that there's no pauses in the talk for the commercial breaks so it completely ruins the flow of information. If you just ran ads at the beginning and end of the talk I wouldn't complain, but every 5 to 10 minutes is a total downer.

[@Imnotsure89]

+21 Studios Do have any control on whether it's a 30 second add or a 3 minute one? I listen to these talks I don't always watch them.

[@21s]

+kasetizell7 We have some control over the ads. For example, all of our videos have "overlay ads" disabled. These are the image based pop up ads on the bottom of the video. I don't like them and think the videos are better without them. Many of our videos also have only "skippable" ads enabled for the instream ads. Maybe half of our videos have both skippable and non-skip instream video ads. Finally, we have 21university.com where all of our video content streams ad-free. The first month is $1 and then to keep your membership is $14.99/month. - ADJ

[@Imnotsure89]

Fair enough thank you at least I know now.

[@humanyoda]

Around 00:42 : I disagree with him about the need to change conclusions to change emotions. There are methods to do the latter without determining conclusions that have led to the emotions.

[@Iquey]

I think selfishness is useful but it has its limits. Human beings depend on parents and then interdependent aspects of society in order to have a pleasant civilization. If none of this benefits you, then be my guest and try to live alone in the forest with solar powered robot servants.

[@georgiegingersnap8129]

Objectivism recognizes the individual human desire for social relationships, whether for commerce, physical survival, or love. It also recognizes the fact that relationships with others are deeply enriching to most individuals, either emotionally, psychologically, or for material gain. Though one could exist on a deserted isle, life there would be lonelier, and certainly more difficult due to that gift of Western civilization: Specialization. All of these contribute to the happiness or betterment of the individual. The purpose of social interdependence is to serve the betterment of each participating individual. Also, each social association must be non-coercive to be moral, and if it is to truly contribute to the betterment of each person involved. Objectivism merely insists that social relationships should be voluntary, and they should be in the context of the "win-win" formula. One should not exist at the cost of another. No one is born to martyr himself on the altar of someone else's goals, ideals, needs, or values. Nor can one claim rights for oneself if one does not recognize that other individuals also have them. Only the self-destructive disagree. Each person is born to live and enjoy his own life, not to intrude upon and live out the life of another. And, likewise, no group has the right to exist at the expense of the rights of its individual members. The Objectivist thinker believes that, since the group exists only to serve each member in it, those not being served by inclusion in that group should be free to leave it. The individual and his rights and his good come first, the group comes second---never the reverse. Collective rights don't exist, and in fact negate the existence of individual rights and freedoms.

[@humanyoda]

The problem is that following logic doesn't always lead to more pleasant emotions. So, if emotions aren't a criterion in a decision making process, then one could end up in a situation that feels worse.

[@allenkvextreme]

this is my whole semester of "intro to ethics" class in one hour.

[@LucisFerre1]

Madoff's brother, Peter, was recently sentenced to 10yrs in prison. Bernie's son, Mark, committed suicide and Bernie's other son, Andrew, died of lymphoma two weeks ago.

[@lucanope6317]

PS: though he does say stuff that's untrue 1- enlightment come way sooner than America and Smith. 2- there are species who sacrifice themselfs for the community (ex. the are some ants who willingly suicide themselfs in order to prevent manace to get inside the nest by blocking the entrance with their body) 3- when he says no argument can sustain helping others, well it's the same for helping yourself: "why is yourself better than others?" the answer to both question is idealogical, not rationa

[@LucisFerre1]

At the end, when he says that everyday we allow children to starve, what he's saying is that even if you give 99% of your wealth away to aid starving children, you could give more, and in that sense you're STILL allowing children to starve. You would have to give away everything and be completely destitute in order to not be someone who "allows kids to starve". What does Christianity say about this? Luke 14:33 "So likewise, whosoever he be of you that forsaketh not all that he hath, he cannot be my disciple." That's nonsense. That's win-lose, not win-win. You're not REALLY helping the "unfortunate" if you destroy your future ability to do it again, i.e. by putting yourself out on the street without two dimes to rub together.

[@21s]

Yeah, and a long time ago, someone invented the wheel to "deal with" lugging shit around. What an asshole.

[@ahsaiahzephaniah8512]

We do have instincts the thinking man in trouble disconnects from them

[@HaloAngelBoy]

"Selfish" vs "Self-interest" is important. To me "Selfishness" is the shift from accepting win win, to being willing to tilt the balance, even to "Win:Lose" (win for me, even if others lose) ... Self-Interest, is protecting the "win" on your side, whilst the other side also wins. Also, this talk ignores the fact that social good is in an individual's self interest. It is in my interest to have people not destitute, disease ridden, thieving, murderous etc. All of which are end results of poverty

[@lucanope6317]

they are critirias, they just don't factor as decision making: you logically think about evrything (including your emotions) and than you come up with an answer ^^

[@rockchartrand8005]

I don't understand how Yaron Brook is not a multi billionaire superstar selling out stadiums

[@lucanope6317]

1- I knowo he does but his audience may not. I was just underling he said something wrong in the end though this mistake is almost irrelevant to the point he was making. 2-never said we are, i was just underling that his statemet: "all animals are egoist" is false 3-I agree utmostly on the need to be rational, the point here is that the choice between selfhelp and otherhelp is not based on rationality, it comes first. You choose your path first than you use rationality to get it though.

[@Nuisance_Bear]

Dude sounds like Elmer Fudd

[@TheNoblot]

selfishness is impossible for the human being, as he is a duality, unfortunately, there are men & women/ this duality makes the human mind. however an individual that is manufactured he will have just an individuality/ in huxley brave new world is quite easily explained.

[@50martinko]

Yaron Brook is a very intelligent and gifted person, and he is absolutely right in economics. But he seems to me wrong in ethics. What he says about Mother Teresa is simply not true and uninformed, if not defamatory. She never doubted of the existence of God, as Brook says; the truth is that she lived a long time with the belief that he had abandoned her; despite of this, she continued to trust. Brook seems to be unable to understand this spiritual experience. Moreover, as everybody knows and Yaron Brook seems to ignore, Christian ethics does not teach that one should love one's neighbor MORE than oneself! Also his example that one should care more about saving one's own children than those of others is a way of acting absolutely in accordance with Christian ethics! Read Thomas Aquinas! In the case of self-defense, he explicitly writes that one has not only the right but that one is obliged to care more for one's own life than for the life an aggressor. Finally, Yaron Brook seems to ignore the kind of happiness Mother Teresa disseminated, and the thousands of persons she induced thought her life to ameliorate the fate of the poor and the sick in India and elsewhere. As it seems to me, also in his books, Yaron Brook is arguing out of hate against religion. His argument in his “Free market Revolution” p. 81 seems to me inconsistent, based on construing false alternatives. P.S. Note that, in many regards, I am a defender of Ayn Rand's ideas, I am also a defender of market capitalism, and I have read Atlas Shrugged with great pleasure and admiration. And I am a Christian an even a Catholic priest.

[@fireball0762]

i think he's wrong about one thing. Being kind to others isn't wrong, on our own terms. You do well in business, why not be kind to those you wish to be kind to.

[@Willsturd]

Ran out of room We are not ants. Ants have a hive mentality. Although yes individual ants do sacrifice themselves, they do it for the queen. If you can view the entire ant colony as one big ant, then they always act in order to survive. We cannot be viewed this way because we do not have a hive mentality.

[@inthedark334]

Yeah biblical Christianity is not about serving other people's lives, the gospel of the grace of God is trusting the one with Christ did and not alone in anything you do to save your trusting alone his work in his righteousness. Once you do that you should live right you should do right but that's not what makes you a Christian what makes you a Christian is believing the gospel now this may be handy belief that all Christians have to help everybody not biblical you should try to get along with your fellow man as best as you can that's according to your Apostle Paul. But nowhere in scripture does it say that we're supposed to bend over and just let people step on us and treat us like the trash, that's some new age form of Christianity that has nothing to do with actual biblical Christianity if you want to actually learn more about what an actual Christian is doctrinally look up Columbus Bible Church and watch his video on the body of Christ if you have any questions feel free to ask

[@susannec659]

Eastern philosophy has no problem with taking care of this one. one must get this one right. otherwise one cannot endure the world . we must live in the world for a while. we are no good to anyone else unless we get this one right

[@TheSkypeGirls]

think about Bitcoin as a tool to look around & to figure out.

[@chiefprimo5827]

2 billion dollars = happiness

[@MrAaaaaaaaaahhhhhh]

what are the 7 formula's?

[@jorgezepeda2461]

At minute 47

[@mt.shasta9127]

remove guilt block, dont work, and laugh like me

[@susannec659]

selfish people live longer

[@Maerra7]

>hot wife Seems too much possession of a person here.

[@albionicamerican8806]

Put down the Kool-Aid for a minute, young man. Have you actually read books by people who have done their homework on Rand and have come up with adverse information about her? Albert Ellis knew Rand and Branden in the 1960's, and he had a really creepy experience in a public debate with Branden which made him realize that they ran a cult. He originally titled his book, "Is Objectivism a Religion?" (yes, apparently), but I think he reissued it under a different title a few years before he died.

[@troyfreedom]

Rand is a good start, but Max Stirner’s book “The Ego and it’s Own” is way better. It mows down Rand’s version of morality.

[@Paul-yk7ds]

Are you familiar with "How I Found Freedom in an Unfree World" by Harry Browne? For me, it's my favorite version of egoism I've found. I'm wondering if it's based on Stirner or some other earlier thinker, though?

[@troyfreedom]

@@Paul-yk7ds Have yet to read it, but I’ve heard of it.

[@Paul-yk7ds]

@@troyfreedom It's like a self-help book, so really easy to read. I guess he is a psychological egoist because he says that everyone is selfishly pursuing what they believe will make them feel good in their own way. And I guess he is also an ethical egoist because he says whats right/good is what will make you happy (? but he doesn't spend a lot of time trying to prove that or anything). And there's a strong emphasis on using rationality to plan/design a life that includes all the stuff that will make you happy, and removing all the constraints on your life that you don't want. My favorite aspect is that he really emphasizes that different things work for different people, so f*ck what other people say is right/good/etc, just find what actually makes you happy and do that. At the same time, don't try to control or influence others or change the world/politics-just use "direct alternatives" to make your own life into what you want. It's my favorite book haha, really speaks to me at this time in my life anyway. Wish I could find more books similar to it, but it seems kinda unique.

[@troyfreedom]

@@Paul-yk7ds Thanks mate. You’ve convinced me to get this for my 15 year old son.

[@emil8018]

Dr. Yaron. Both Selfishness and Care has to be in a person. These two contradicting behaviors balance each other out. If you are only selfish but not caring about others you become a criminal. If you only care about others without being selfish, you lose power and instead start hating others. You cannot have one without another. I learned that from kabbalah.

[@shaggboy239]

well being a criminal is not a honest job. if what you want to do in life is selling drugs then you probobly have a mental problem. you should be honest to people and to yourself. i think this is where the line goes :)

[@Youhavethebody]

Why must selfishness and caring be contradicting behaviors? I think Dr. Brook's talk can open up other discussions, like "can a rationally selfish person care about someone else?" How do we really care about other people? What does that mean? In Rand and Brook's view, we should have a "hierarchy of values," a structure of our values, ranked from highest to lowest, and use that as a guide to determine what we should do. And it is completely acceptable for other people to become a part of that hierarchy, and to me that is what it means to really "care" about someone: you value them, they impact your life and your actions in some way. A selfish person should not care about all people equally, or care about evil people, but he should not stop caring about all people, either. There are proper and improper ways to care about people, and I think Rand's philosophy offers a path towards the proper way to be selfish and care about other people, when that is appropriate.

[@holdenha]

Roderick Fitts Wow, that is the best explanation of her views that I have ever seen.

[@Youhavethebody]

***** Thanks. I've studied her ideas for nearly 8 years now, and I'm still working on my own understanding of Rand and of Objectivism. If you have any questions or comments about either, I can probably answer them, or at least point you in the right direction. I'm even alright with answering any objections, since I started out as skeptical of the philosophy myself.

[@YamiShadowKitty]

Could you please explain how it is, to your mind, that selfishness and care 'contradict' each other? I care for a lot of people, but to my mind this is a fundamentally selfish act. I value these people and so, selfishly, I want to see these people do well and flourish. Selfishness is contradictory to self sacrifice, altruism, the doctrine of sacrifice as a necessity. This doctrine is a mistake. It claims to be about caring for others, but at base it's about sacrificing values. You don't need to make sacrifices to be caring. In fact, you need to be quite the opposite to be caring. There is no conflict of interests between my saying that I'm selfish and my saying that I love my dearest (my romantic partner) enough to die for her. I value her so much that, being the selfish (and rightfully so) person that I am, I'd give effectively anything for her sake. That is not a sacrifice. A sacrifice would be leaving her to die, since I value her so much. There is no conflict between selfishness and compassion. I think part of your confusion is that you probably believe politically in the necessity of welfare and government healthcare. You probably think that we must make these kinds of sacrifices, otherwise we're 'heartless' and 'uncaring'. This is not the case. Opposition to these programs has nothing to do with their substance and everything to do with the fact that the particular proposed means to those ends require sacrifice by means of extortion.

[@jessicazamora2904]

I respect this guy but at times I couldn't take him seriously because he sounds like Peter Griffin [x

[@sybo59]

Jessica Zamora You sound like a fucking moron, Jessica.

[@carlosomanaarredondo]

Buuuurrrrrrrn.

[@lizziechaplan865]

What the he k

[@lucanope6317]

I never tried to see Humans as ants, we are not like them. But we are not like polar bears either. We are a social species. We also have choice, we can choose to work for ourselves or for the others (or, as usual, an unbalanced mix of the two). I'm sure that nowadays mentality is too close to the selfcentred area, we are too many to handle ourselves this way: either we drastically diminuish the numer of people on the planet or we go for a more society-oriented culture, only sustainable choices.

[@albionicamerican8806]

Tyler Blevins didn't make this up. Look up Michael Prescott's essay, "Romancing the Stone-Cold Killer: Ayn Rand and William Hickman," where Prescott documents Rand's chick boner for a famous murderer in the 1920's based on her own words.

[@sybo59]

Venturist Church Actually, she called him a monster. Are you always this dishonest?

[@luciferistheprincejesusist8701]

I haven't watched any of this video and I don't care. There is no such thing as a selfish virtue. That would be called a sin. Obvious clickbait.

[@humbertohidalgo]

Because GOD says Help others. That is why u should help others