David's right about that, as soon as you get out into the world and start working for a living, Rand's stuff diminishes in validity and importance.  I had enough of this "superman" stuff when I was fascinated by Friedrich Nietzsche in high school.  The problem with her writing I've found is that once you get to know some of the very ordinary people who make up most of this world's population, the elitist-artist-genius type she wrote about tends to start looking like an asshole.