Summary

Franklin was the original self-help guru – pragmatic, rational, relentlessly industrious, and the only person to sign all four founding documents. He rose from common folk through middle-class values (industry, frugality) and Socratic indirection rather than confrontation. Scientist, inventor, diplomat, publisher, politician – he pursued knowledge for pure curiosity first, trusting practical uses would follow. The most democratic among the founders, he trusted common people over elites and spurred the compromises that built the Constitution.

Key Takeaways

Notes

2: Pilgrim’s progress

• Debated using Socratic method, indirection rather than confrontation

3: Journeyman

• More practical than philosophical
• Pragmatic, rational, reliable
• Importance of being (+ looking) industrious

4: Printer

• Leather apron club: (the junto) weekly meeting for networking, self improvement
• Most common conversational sins:
  • Talking over people too much
  • Seeking uninterested
  • Speaking too much about self
  • Prying for personal secrets
  • Telling long, meaningless stories
  • Directly contradicting, disputing others
  • Gossip, spreading scandal (less so)
• Pros and cons list
• Deist: believed in one supreme god
  • Crossing to atheism while also recognizing need for man to worship
  • Believed god sometimes interferes, leaving rest to natural law
• 13 virtues chart
• Poor Richard’s Almanac

5: Public citizen

• Don’t take credit for initiatives - let the credit find its way to you
• Public services: libraries, police, firefighters
• Publishing house, postal system
• Formed a private militia

6: Scientist and inventor

• Stove design, first catheter
• Electricity (+/-, charge, conductor)
• 1752: kite lightning experiment
• “Philosophical amusements”: scientific experiments

7: Politician

• Public private partnership for school funds
• Correctly predicted population boom
• Racism: prejudice → abolitionist over life
• “Join or die” snake

8: Troubled waters

• Started as loyalist to England

9: Home leave

• Called for end of proprietary government

10: Agent provocateur

• Loyalist → American patriot
• Frugal

11: Rebel

• Autobiography:
  • Rise from common folk to prominence
  • Written in form of letter to son
  • Rye and without embellishment
• Scientific, but more practical than theoretical (eg. oil on pond)
• Exercise, body warmth, heart rate, calories
• Neutral about Boston Tea Party repirations

12: Independence

• Publicly chose independence in 1775
• Proposed stronger central gov’t than actual
• 12-person executive council (3y terms)
• Constitution: rewrote religious → rational
• Most democratic among colonial leaders
• Went to France to form alliance

13: Courtier

• Played with spy to win France’s support
• One of US’ greatest diplomatic wins ever

14: Bon vivant

• Sam Adams vs Ben Franklin
• Flirted, proposed marriage
• Importance of chess to life

15: Pacemaker

• Set terms for ending the Revolutionary War
• Managed independence, France, Britain
• Science should be pursued for pure fascination and curiosity, then practical uses, would eventually flow from what was discovered
  • “What is the use of a newborn baby?”
• Middle-class values: industry, frugality
• Conservatism, populism

16: Sage

• Geeky, obsessed with technical details
• Oldest among constitution writers (2x avg)
• Most comfortable with “democracy”
• Trust in people, against elitism
• Most well-traveled, spurred compromise
• Solidified bicameral architecture of gov’t
• Man’s ambitions: 1) power, 2) money
• 1:09:00 - fantastic monologue about trusting others’ judgment, learning from others, wisdom of crowds
• Only person to sign all 4 founding docs
• “Nothing is said to be certain but death and taxes”

17: Conclusions

• Striving middle class values
• Rationality vs romanticism
• “The first great American”
• Original self-help guru