Gyroscopic Investing

I never understood the cult of Ayn Rand. Personally she struck me as a harsh, bitter woman....as for her philosophy, its simplicity appealed to me early in college but I soon realized that the world was a lot more nuanced and complicated in reality. This answer reminds me kind of why I fell out of love with her.

Harry Browne is the Ayn Rand that Ayn Rand should have been.

Never been a big Ayn Rand fan. This doesn't do much to raise her stock in my book.

Ayn Rand never seemed to take any opportunities to refute her status as a hateful bitch, did she?

I only know Atlas Shrugged and a few of her interviews.

Her writing style is not exactly Tolstoy, but she makes important and well stated defenses of capitalism, in this age (last 50 years) of the rise of marxism i.e. of course any follower of Marx will hate her, and many of the events in Atlas are  all too prophetic.

Whether or not she was an asshole (sounds like it) does not change whether or not she had valid points. Hitler was a vegetarian (which many especially on the left praise as a virtue) and whatever else she did aside from the above is irrelevant to whether her points were/are valid or not. JFK is still held in almost godlike status, Teddy got drunk and left woman for dead, etc.

EDIT: GENERAL POINT: judging people on their style/"flavor" and whether or not they are an asshole will not tell you anything about whether or not they are competent in their field, make valid points, etc.  And good luck finding a surgeon if any of you ever need one ;-)

wiki says

saying European colonists had the right to take land from American Indians,[85] and calling homosexuality "immoral" and "disgusting", while also advocating the repeal of all laws about it.[86]

Complex person.

I did enjoy (it's been quite a while, so I "think" I remember enjoying it) Atlas Shrugged.  I thought it was an entertaining read, as well as stimulating the brain cells to think of "what if" scenarios.  At least it was good enough that I remembered reading it and some of the plot line.  But, I view it in the same category of entertainment as I do movies like "Noah", "Batman", "Star Trek", "Top Gun", and "The Passion of Christ" - I do not go to Hollywood to get my factual information, nor do I read fiction for factual information.  Just my two cents.

By the way, where is John Galt? 

... Mountaineer