In Ayn Rand’s novel Atlas Shrugged, the world’s hidden producers gathered for one month each summer and in part they traded the intellectual products that they had produced during the prior year. Similarly, Objectivists (those who study and apply Ayn Rand’s philosophy of Objectivism) gather for a week to socialize with their peers and trade ideas relevant to living life on Earth.

This gathering is called OCON and information about the current conference can be found at ObjectivistConferences.com.  Additionally, for those who can’t break away from producing to travel, the conference offers a LiveStream option of selected content.

If you are missing out on this opportunity to selfishly enhance your own life, the Ayn Rand Institute has shared some full presentations by leading Objectivist thinkers from prior OCONs on their YouTube channel; I have listed many below for your enjoyment. Not to worry, if this sampling only wets your appetite, MP3s of many more OCON lectures and additional materials are available via the Ayn Rand eStore.

Why should you care what Objectivists are thinking? Check out this video overview of Objectivism in Ayn Rand’s own words from her initial column in the Los Angeles Times.

If after consuming this feast of ideas, you decided that this is a value that you want to add to your life, including meeting such thinkers face-to-face, then plan to attend the next OCON and I will see you there, or watch the LiveStream and you can look for me in the audience.

Live virtuously, achieve your values, and enjoy your life, because it is your life.

Real Life Inspiration

• Vaccination: An Essential History of an Essential Technology by Amesh Adalja (OCON 2016)
• The Heroes of Capitalism by Andrew Bernstein (OCON 2015)
• Black Innovators and Entrepreneurs Under Capitalism by Andrew Bernstein (OCON 2015)
• The Andrew Lewis Trio, a jazz concert (OCON 2014)

Objectivism Championing Reason

• From Sputnik to the Internet: Real Solutions for Reforming Science Education by Eric Daniels (OCON 2015)
• Defining Basic Moral Concepts by Peter Schwarz (OCON 2015)
• Thinking Objectively (OCON 2014) by Gregory Salmieri
• Ayn Rand’s Sacred Atheism by Robert Mayhew (OCON 2014)
• Ayn Rand and the New Atheists; a panel with Onkar Ghate and Robert Mayhew (OCON 2014)

Objectivism as a Tool for Life

• What Can One Do? (OCON 2016) by Yaron Brook
• Spreading Objectivism by Living It by Ben Bayer (OCON 2014)
• Objectivism is Radical (and Applying It Can be Hard) by Yaron Brook (OCON 2013)

Objectivism for Understanding Politics

• The Israeli/Palestinian Conflict by Elan Journo (OCON 2015)
• Understanding the Arguments for Universal Health Care by Rituparna Basu (OCON 2015)
• How Does Objectivity Apply to Law? by Tara Smith (OCON 2015)
• The Jihadist Movement by Elan Journo (OCON 2015)
• Magna Carta and Its 800-Year Legacy by Andrew Lewis (OCON 2015)
• Charlie Hebdo, the West, and the Need to Ridicule Religion by Onkar Ghate (OCON 2015)
• In Defense of Monopolies: How Antitrust Criminalizes Business Strategy by Ryan Krause (OCON 2015)
• The Smartphone Wars and “Patent Trolls” – What They Mean to You by Adam Mossoff (OCON 2014)
• The Sacred Self: Ayn Rand On Abortion, Foreign Policy and Environmentalism by Keith Lockitch (OCON 2014)