Without an explicit system of ideas to guide you in life, you are a rudderless ship, adrift on whatever current of thought captivates you for the moment. Your positions on any number of issues are subject to manipulation by maudlin appeals to emotion, by clever pseudo-intellectual trickery, and by the seemingly safe default of mass consensus.

On what do you base your decisions when faced with difficult ethical problems? On what do you base your positions on a range of political topics? How is your relationship with art a reflection of your values? What is the proverbial "meaning of life"?

"As a human being, you have no choice about the fact that you need a philosophy. Your only choice is whether you define your philosophy by a conscious, rational, disciplined process of thought and scrupulously logical deliberation -- or let your subconscious accumulate a junk heap of unwarranted conclusions, false generalizations, undefined contradictions, undigested slogans, unidentified wishes, doubts and fears, thrown together by chance, but integrated by your subsconscious into a kind of mongrel philosophy and fused into a single, solid weight: self-doubt, like a ball and chain in the place where your mind's wings should have grown." [1]

A human life properly lived is not one overshadowed by confusion, guilt, and a vague sense of unease. Developing an explicit, rational, and consistent philosophy will equip you with the tools necessary to live a fruitful, successful life - by whatever standard you choose to define success.

[1] Rand, Ayn. Philosophy: Who Needs It. First Signet Printing, November 1984, paperback. p5.