YouSaid · the spoken record

Benjamin Franklin

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2019-03-04
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2019-03-04
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  1. “Of finding it met with their approbation. And that in their different guesses as the author, none were named but men of some character among us for learning and ingenuity. So while they're trying to guess who it was, they're just rattling off people that are well respected. So that gave him even more confidence. He's like, oh, that's nice. I'm kind of in piers with these people. So this doesn't last long, though, because Ben and James, like James was kind of a jerk to him a little bit, didn't like Ben got a lot of attention because of his pretty obvious advanced intellect at such a young age. And there's all these other things talked about in the book, but James looked at Ben like an indentured servant, and Ben wasn't the kind of person that wanted to be controlled by anybody. So he says, so he's like, I'm out of here. So I sold some of my books to raise a little money and was taking on board privately.”

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  2. “So, some people would write little pieces for the paper. They'd put it under the door of the printer and they would read it. And if they thought it was good enough, they'd print it in the newspaper. And a lot of them were written under fake names. So Ben's like, hey, I want to write. My brother's not going to take it seriously if his little brother has these ideas. Let me operate under a pseudonym. So he says, I was excited to try my hand among them, but still being a boy and suspecting that my brother would object to printing anything of mine in his paper if he knew it to be mine, I contrived to disguise my hand. And writing an anonymous paper, I put it under night under the door of the printing house. It was found in the morning. And so the next morning, Ben's there when they all find this and they're all reading and commenting on it. And he says they read it, commented on it in my hearing, which means he heard it. And I had the exquisite play.”

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  3. “With our benefit of hindsight. I remember him being dissuaded by some of his friends from the undertaking as not likely to succeed. And the reason why it won't succeed, one newspaper being, in their judgment, enough for America. So, anyways, he continues on. He doesn't let this criticism bother him. He starts the newspaper. And Benjamin Franklin says, I was employed to carry the papers through the streets to the customers. So another one of his first jobs is newspaper delivery boy.”

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  4. “So at this point, Benjamin Franklin is not only known for writing under his own name, but he wrote under several different pseudonyms. And so this is the very beginning of this. And so he says, my brother had begun to print a newspaper. It was the second that appeared in America. I remember him being dissuaded by, oh, this is actually really funny. We always talk about how critics, like anytime you're going to create something new, expect to be criticized. Expect that people are resistant to change, and they don't really know what they're talking about. So that doesn't mean like you can't get good constructive criticism, but just understand that some criticism is unfounded. People aren't really looking deeply into things before they comment on it. They're just, you know, babbling away. So his brother runs into this in 1720, where he has this idea. I'm going to start a newspaper. There's already one. Why not there a second one? And listen to how ridiculous now this criticism is going to be.”

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  5. “He started like writing just like little stories and stuff. He called it wretched stuff, just like, you know, street ballad style stories. But since his brother was a printer and he worked at a printing company, he started printing them. He said when they were printed, he sent me about the town to sell them. The first sold wonderfully, the event being recent having made great noise. This flattered my vanity. So this, again, goes back to that whole point of vanity where he had it really early initial success selling his books and that made him more confident to go off and do other things. So that's what I think he was mentioning with that quote earlier, that aphorism of vanity. It's like, no, don't indulge yourself, but understand that you're capable of learning new things. And then when you have a success like this, let it reinforce you to try to do other things, which I think is a good idea. So he says, writing has been of great use to me in the course of my life and was a principal means of my advancement.”

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  6. “So he's basically saying he had such a desire to learn that he would forego sleep just because he only had a tiny window in which to read these books. So we're also going to see while he's working for James, he's.”

    2019-03-04 · Founders · #62 The Autobiography of Benjamin Franklin · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

  7. “I'm reading books that I'm not going to use in my life, is basically what he's saying. He says, This bookish inclination at length determined my father to make me a printer. So he already had his older son, James, was in that profession. So in 1717, my brother James returned from England with a press and letters to set up his business in Boston. I liked it much better than that of my father, meaning the business. In a little time I made great proficiency in the business and became a useful hand to my brother. I now had access to some better books. An acquaintance with the apprentices of booksellers enabled me sometimes to borrow a small one, which I was careful to return soon and clean. Often I sat up in my room reading the greatest part of the night when the book was borrowed in the evening and had to be returned early in the morning, lest it should be missed or wanted.”

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  8. “One of his other sons, Josiah, had left to a life on the sea and it really, he says it caused him great vexation, which means he pissed him off. Okay, so he says, from a child, I was fond of reading. And all the little money that came into my hands was ever laid out in books. Now keep in mind, Benjamin Franklin did not have much organized education. He's widely self-taught through just reading and talking to people. He said, my father's library, a little library, consisted chiefly of books in polemic divinity, most of which I read and have since often regarded that at a time when I had such a thirst for knowledge more proper books had not fallen my way since it was now resolved that it should not be a clergyman. Remember what he's referencing there is his dad originally thought hey, I'm going to have his occupation is going to be one of the church and then he changed routes. So he's like, why did I read all these books? At a young age, it's so much easier to read.”

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  9. “And so now we're going to learn how what Elon was saying, how did Ben get his start in the printing business? And it had to come through several years of dealing with being under the thumb of his brother, which he did not appreciate, which causes him to run away, which Elon was mentioning earlier. But now he's still working for his father. He says, but my dislike to the trade continuing, my father was under apprehension that if he did not find one for me more agreeable, I should break away and get to sea. So Benjamin Franklin had threatened multiple times that he'd just jump on a boat. They're living in Boston at the time. He'd go on the port and he'd go for a life of adventure. So he therefore sometimes took me to walk with him and see joiners, bricklayers. Now he's just, this is...”

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  10. “Private persons about their affairs when any difficulty occurred and frequently chosen as an arbiter between contending parties And at his table, he liked to have as often as he could some sensible friend or neighbor to converse with and always took care to start some ingenious or useful topic for discourse which might tend to improve the minds of his children. By this means he turned our attention to what was good, just and prudent in the conduct of life. So he likes to have interesting people, to have intelligence discussions over at his house, and he wants his kids and audience so they can learn from these discussions. So this is kind of like a mini podcast hundreds of years before they were invented.”

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  11. “An arithmetic. He did that for a year, and then at 10 years old, I was taken home to assist my father in his business, which was that of a tallow chandler and a soap boiler. So I guess he makes soap and candles. And he says, accordingly, I was employed in cutting wick for the candles, filling the dripping mold, and the molds for cast candles, attending the shop and going out for errands, etc., etc. I disliked the trade. So before he continues on the fact that he doesn't like the job he's doing and he needs to find a different one, this is how he's remembering his father many years after his father's passing. He says, I remember well him being frequently visited by leading people who consulted him for his opinion in affairs of the town or of the church he belonged to and showed a good deal of respect for his judgment and advice. He was also much consulted by”

    2019-03-04 · Founders · #62 The Autobiography of Benjamin Franklin · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

  12. “So I'm just going to jump. Now I'm going to jump into Ben's early education, his first job, and then memories of his father. And so he says, my elder brothers were all put apprentices to different trades. I was put to the grammar school at eight years of age. My father intending to devote me to the service of the church. My early readiness and learning to read, which must have been very early, as I do not remember when I could not read, and the opinion of all his friends that I should certainly make a good scholar encouraged him in the purpose of this side note. Ben was the youngest child his father had seventeen kids. I had risen gradually from, so he's talking about once he's in school, I had risen gradually from the middle of the class of that year to be the head of it. But my father altered his first intention, took me from grammar school, and sent me to a school for writing.”

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  13. “Someone's just going to be quotes like this is just an aphorism on vanity. And he says most people dislike vanity in others. Whatever share they have of it have of it themselves. But I give it a fair quarter whenever I meet with it. Being persuaded that it is often productive of good to the possessor. So let me read that sentence again. He says, most people dislike vanity in others, whatever share they have of it themselves. So, you know, people don't like you to take pride in your own accomplishments, even though we all do that ourselves. We just don't want, you know, to display it outwardly. But I give it fair quarter whenever I meet with it, being persuaded that it is often productive of good to the possessor. So he has a little counterintuitive point saying, I understand you don't like this, but actually think it's beneficial for people to have pride in their accomplishments. So I found that thought interesting.”

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  14. “Imagining it may be equally agreeable to you to know the circumstances of my life, many of which you are yet unacquainted with. I sit down to write them for you. Having emerged from the poverty and obscurity in which I was born and bred to a state of affluence and some degree of reputation in the world, and having gone so far through life with considerable share of felicity, I actually had to look that word up. Felicity means happiness. The conducing means I made use of my posterity may like to know as they may find some of them suitable to their own situations and therefore fit to be imitated. Okay, so that's the beginning of the book that I want to talk to you about today, which is the autobiography of Benjamin Franklin. And the part I just read to you is actually a letter that he's writing to his son William at the time Ben is in his 60s, and he's kind of explicitly stating the goal of his autobiography, which is in parallel, the goal of”

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