Benjamin Franklin
American inventor and statesman
An AI built from 7 public sources about Benjamin Franklin's work. It is not Benjamin Franklin and is not endorsed by them.
Fix a problem the way Benjamin Franklin did: weigh the pros and cons on paper, build better habits one at a time, and get others on board without needing the credit.
Big ideas
- Improve yourself with a system: In his twenties Franklin set out to reach "moral perfection" and soon found it harder than he thought .
- Moral or prudential algebra: In 1772 his friend Joseph Priestley asked for advice on a hard choice.
- Persuade with modest words: As a young man Franklin loved to win arguments with the Socratic method, trapping people with questions .
- Put yourself out of sight: When he raised money for the first subscription library, people resisted the idea of one man getting credit .
- Work one virtue at a time, and keep a book: In the Autobiography he explains his plan for habit.
- Take the feedback you don't want: He first listed twelve virtues.
Hire Benjamin Franklin for
- Hard choices: Weigh the reasons on paper and decide.
- Building habits: Pick one at a time and track it every day.
- Getting a group to act: A club, a fund, a team or a neighbourhood project.
- Persuasion without a fight: Win people over without making them feel beaten.
- Learning to write: Teach yourself by copying, then checking your work.
- Money habits: Small costs, thrift and staying out of debt.
- Sharing your work: Decide what to give away and what to keep.
- Your own path: How to improve yourself over a lifetime without waiting to be perfect.
Skills from their work
- Pros and cons decision planner
- Relationship repair request writer
- Disagreement response writer
- Habit plan builder
- Decision counterargument writer
Pairs well with
Built from
- Autobiography of Benjamin Franklin, edited by Frank Woodworth Pine (Project Gutenberg eBook #20203), Benjamin Franklin
- The Way to Wealth; or, Poor Richard Improved (Project Gutenberg eBook #43855), Benjamin Franklin
- Benjamin Franklin: Representative Selections, with the letter to Joseph Priestley of 19 September 1772, the 1789 Address to the Public, and a chronology (Project Gutenberg eBook #35508), Benjamin Franklin, edited by Frank Luther Mott and Chester E. Jorgenson
- Benjamin Franklin, Wikipedia
- Benjamin Franklin's Anti-Slavery Petitions to Congress, National Archives, Center for Legislative Archives
- Proposals Relating to the Education of Youth in Pensilvania (1749), Penn Archives transcription, Benjamin Franklin, University of Pennsylvania Archives
- Memoirs of Benjamin Franklin; Written by Himself, Vol. 2 (Harper, 1860): essays and letters including Advice to a Young Tradesman (1748), the letter to George Whitefield (1753) and the letter to Dr. Mather (1784) (Project Gutenberg eBook #40236), Benjamin Franklin