Hi, my name is Rob and I discovered Objectivism completely by accident a year ago and this is a life changing event, as I am sure you know too.
I usually rudely blast-in with some sort of error-of-haste and learn afterwards e.g. I noticed this introductory part of the forum after I made a post and some replies but now I know better.
I was thrown out of university, a long time ago, because I had no philosophy - I mean, they threw me out for not doing any work but that was not the real reason, the real reason was that I had no sense of self-worth.
Gradually, after 40 years of self-education, I learned some electronics and some programming and some other things but never anything so mind-blowingly “obvious” as Objectivism even though, by then, from experience that is what I had become i.e. an Objectivist with a definite sense of self-worth.
The educational system allows philosophy to begin, unchallenged, in the playground, litterally, with pressure groups and bullying and that continues on into adulthood, into politics - that was the part that I avoided hence my adolescent rejection of (modern) philosophy (I now realise).