Conversations For Transformation: Essays Inspired By The Ideas Of Werner Erhard

Conversations For Transformation

Essays By Laurence Platt

Inspired By The Ideas Of Werner Erhard

And More


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(working title)

New One

(working title)

Cowboy Cottage, East Napa, California, USA

September 27, 2025



This essay, New One (working title), is the companion piece to When You're Being Like Werner, You're Not Being Like Werner.

It is also the thirty fifth in an open group on People: I am indebted to Mark Spirtos who inspired this conversation.



Werner is the kind of guy you have to be around  to appreciate fully. You'll hear about him from people who know him. You'll hear about him from the millions of people who have participated in his programs. You may even read about him or listen to audio of his presentations. But until you've actually been around him, you won't really get a handle on how he be's, that je ne sais quoi  quality he brings to every interaction with everyone in his life.

It's that quality people are so attracted to that they have to have it in their lives. To that end, they'll do (and try to do) almost anything: read the books and study the materials he has read and studied, dress like him, have their hair styled  like his, sip miso soup from the same thermos cup as he does while he's working etc etc, anything and everything to be like him, most of which don't work.

So what does it imply exactly: to "be like Werner"? What is  that exactly? Try this on for size: you're being like Werner ie you're being the way Werner be's, when you're being like yourself. That's the way Werner be's: he be's himSelf. It's that simple: people who are being like Werner, are being like themselves. So (and I really want you to get this) when you're being like Werner, you're not being like Werner  - as paradoxical as that sounds. When you're being like yourself (ie when you're fully being who you really  are, when you're being the way you be), you're being like Werner.

* * *

Werner: "You're only the second person to notice that."

[... work in progress ...]



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