I am a &quot;Rand Fan&quot; and have been for about a decade.  I&#x27;ve done a fair amount of study of her thinking and what others that have written or lectured about her thinking.  I can tell you some of my observations related to your statement: &quot;I found her writing influenced my mindset and made me (personally - not casting this on all Rand fans) more isolationist, individualist, and just a little bit more of an asshole.&quot;<p>First the easy part:  there is no doubt that she is trying to make you be more individualistic.  Between spelling out foundational ideas which lead to an egoist ethics and then what it means to be an egoist.  The individual is paramount to Rand.  Life is a value and the most important life to you is your own.  I have no argument or further observation on that point.<p>The isolationist and asshole parts... well, that analysis is a bit more involved.  I&#x27;m not going to say that your observation is completely unfounded, though I think it&#x27;s wrong to attribute those tendencies -in some people- to her writing.  There are, no doubt, Rand supporters that are assholes and that they see her philosophy as giving them permission so to be.  I would go so far as to say there are more than I would like.  However, if your own life-long self interest, your own happiness, is really the highest goal in her thinking and the purpose of morality: how exactly does adopting a hermetic lifestyle and being an asshole advance you to that ultimate goal?  I would suggest it doesn&#x27;t.  It&#x27;s not in my self interest to isolate myself or to treat others poorly.  The correct default stance when meeting someone new is to give them the benefit of the doubt.  Many times I lose nothing being generous, and the goodwill I create when I am generous and benevolent often times pays dividends which an isolationist asshole will never realize.  A healthy, modern life is a social life: it&#x27;s hard to be a trader (in both material and spiritual values), someone that Rand held up as an ideal, without having others with which to trade.<p>And to be fair to the Objectivists, many of them get a bad rap when they&#x27;re really just defending themselves.  Look at a couple of the comments to your original comment.  Anyone being constantly told that their worldview somehow puts them in the mindset of a fourteen year old is likely to inspire them to be aggressively defensive and maybe just a touch isolationist.  Especially considering that they are in the minority, it&#x27;s really easy for people that adopt conventional worldviews to get a pass when they&#x27;re assholes, and especially when they&#x27;re attacking a minority viewpoint.  I also think there&#x27;s a tendency to build stereotypes like this as well.  I&#x27;ve been on a number Objectivist group outings and attended get-togethers and the vast majority of them are as friendly and generous as anyone else in society that don&#x27;t hold their views; in fact, I would say they really don&#x27;t differ from the general population in this regard.<p>Anyway, saw your comment and thought I&#x27;d pick up the other side.