What motivated the three of you to come together on this project, and why did you feel now was the right time to publish it?

Doug Casey: I've wanted to write a book like this for well over a decade. I talked Matt into co-authoring it because, frankly, I've become rather lazy, and writing is hard work. Matt only became interested in it, though, when Maxim, his son, turned 17. Matt didn't want to encourage his son to wander off to a college—because colleges have turned into intellectual and social cesspools. Matt became quite interested in it, and more importantly so did Maxim, because Maxim has actually been a guinea pig for the ideas and solutions we propose in the book. For the last two years, Maxim has been putting the theory in the book into practice, and all of us are absolutely thrilled with the results from every angle.

Now is the right time for a book like this, because the nature of college has changed radically. It was once an institution that gave young men a chance to perfect their critical thinking skills and expand their knowledge of the world. Now it's just an expensive extension of adolescence—a halfway house to lounge around, take a few classes, and party, while being indoctrinated with insane ideas from thoroughly corrupt professors. The nature of college has degraded over the last hundred years, and its downhill descent has accelerated in recent years.

I used to say—after I graduated in 1968—that I considered college a misallocation of four years of time and a bunch of money. Even though in those days it was still reasonably worthwhile, fairly exclusive, and relatively cheap. Now, paradoxically, it has little value, most everyone goes, but it's brutally expensive. As time went on, I increasingly saw it as a waste of time. Now I see college as destructive, an active detriment.

International Man: What do you see as the central purpose of this book, and why do you believe it is especially important for young men today?

Doug Casey: This is the book I wish I'd had when I was in high school, contemplating college. I didn't have any guidance, but went off to college because it was what most people from my background did. College was seen as the key to success and higher income. But if someone had shown me what I could have done with those four years—if I'd had this book– I would've been way better off in every way.

===========================

The Preparation - Doug Casey interview with Ernest Hancock
https://www.freedomsphoenix.com/Media/383357-2025-08-22-2025-08-22-doug-casey-on-his-new-book-the.htm

The Preparation - Interview with Maxim Smith (20 yrs. old) living The Preparation
https://www.freedomsphoenix.com/Media/383484-2025-08-25-2025-08-26-ernest-hancock-interviews-maxim-smith-on-his.htm

As part of Maxim's "Entrepreneur" training we created a Work Session with one of our graphic artists to create the 3 Banner Ads below for placement in our Email Dispatch sent to our subscribers.