Designing a Life: Lessons from Benjamin Franklin

Before listening to How to Take Over the World's episode on Benjamin Franklin, my impression of him was limited to “kite, key, electricity.” Afterward, I realized he didn't just discover electricity -- he basically invented the blueprint for self-improvement, then actually lived it.

He wasn't just an inventor; he created institutions and actively built himself. And he did it in a way that it feels surprisingly relevant today, without losing his sense of humour.

Some things that stuck with me.

Benjamin Franklin: The Original Self-Made Person

He's the most literal example of self-made people. He didn't just bootstrap a career, he designed who he wanted to be and iterated toward it.

At one point in his life, he wrote out a list of 13 virtues. Things like temperance, resolution, industry, humility. And then created a tracking system to improve one per week. Like a habit tracker, but from the 1700s. He had a grid and he reviewed it nightly. He built an internal feedback loop before we had that language.

Did it make him perfect? Not even close. But he said something that stuck with me:

“But on the whole, though I never arrived at the perfection I had been so ambitious of obtaining, but fell far short of it, yet I was, by the endeavour, a better and happier man than I otherwise should have been had I not attempted it; as those who aim at perfect writing by imitating the engraved copies, their hand is mended by the endeavour, and is tolerable while it continues fair and legible”

That’s the point.

Learning by reverse-engineering

Franklin taught himself how to write by reading essays in The Spectator. He used to summarize the key arguments, and then he would try to rewrite the entire piece from scratch a few days later. Then he'd compare his version with the original and note where he went wrong.

This is a simple yet brilliant way to learn. He built muscle memory towards it with this approach.

Curious, Playful, and Unafraid to Experiment

This is my favorite part from the episode. Franklin did what interested him, even if it didn't have any obvious ROI.

Someone once asked him why he was experimenting with hot air balloons, and he responded:

“What is the use of a newborn baby?”

He just liked it and trusted that something good would come out of following that instinct. Which is actually how most breakthroughs happen.

Most productive people aren't just focussed on productivity, they are the ones who still let them chase just because it's fun or weird or fascinating.

Peer-driven growth

Franklin started something called the Junto. It was a group of ambitious, curious people who met weekly to debate ideas, share essays, and challenge each other to improve.

This wasn't about ego or point-scoring. The rule was: no arguing, no personal attacks, no pretending you're the smartest person in the room. Just honest enquiry and curiosity.

Junto lasted for 40 years.

And it wasn’t just talk -- real things came out of it. The idea for America’s first subscription library was born in the Junto and became the Library Company of Philadelphia.

Serious About Humour

Franklin was funny, like actually funny. But he didn't use it just to entertain -- it was how he disarmed people, made ideas stick, and built a public persona people trusted.

When he was 15, he wrote letters under the name Silence Dogood and dropped them anonymously on the doorstep of his brother’s print shop. They were supposedly written by a widowed woman who was “handsome and sometimes witty.” That “sometimes” kills me. It’s the perfect character detail, funny, self-aware, instantly charming.

Later, as the fake author of Poor Richard’s Almanack, he’d write snarky fake feuds with imaginary critics. One of my favorites: he predicted another writer’s death, then when the guy wrote in angry that he was very much alive, Franklin insisted the letter must be a forgery -- because the real man would never write so poorly.

Franklin didn’t take himself too seriously. And that was part of his power.

His charm made people want to read him. It made political enemies underestimate him. And it made allies feel like they were in on the joke.

In a world full of Very Serious Men trying to win arguments, Franklin laughed -- and then won anyway.

Lessons

Franklin wasn’t just a scientist, or a writer, or a politician, or a businessman. He was all of those things. But more than anything, he was a systems thinker for human life.

He designed how he lived.
He chased what made him curious.
He got better in public.
He didn't pretend to be perfect.
And he never let ambition overshadow joy.

It’s a good model:

• Create structures that support your growth.
  Build your own systems—track habits, design feedback loops, give your goals shape.
• Form communities that push you forward.
  Don’t just network. Find people who challenge, teach, and grow with you.
• Chase ideas without obsessing over immediate ROI.
  Some of the most useful things start as playful experiments.
• Keep improving, even if you’ll never be perfect.
  Progress matters more than perfection. The act of trying changes you.
• Don’t wait for permission to reinvent yourself.
  Franklin didn’t. You don’t need anyone’s blessing to evolve.
• Use humor as a strategic advantage.
  Be sharp, but approachable. Laugh. It makes people listen -- and keeps you human.

Benjamin Franklin didn't just build a remarkable life -- he left behind a blueprint we can all still follow.

The 13 virtues

• Temperance – Eat not to dullness; drink not to elevation.
• Silence – Speak not but what may benefit others or yourself; avoid trifling conversation.
• Order – Let all your things have their places; let each part of your business have its time.
• Resolution – Resolve to perform what you ought; perform without fail what you resolve.
• Frugality – Make no expense but to do good to others or yourself; waste nothing.
• Industry – Lose no time; be always employed in something useful; cut off all unnecessary actions.
• Sincerity – Use no hurtful deceit; think innocently and justly, and, if you speak, speak accordingly.
• Justice – Wrong none by doing injuries or omitting the benefits that are your duty.
• Moderation – Avoid extremes; forbear resenting injuries so much as you think they deserve.
• Cleanliness – Tolerate no uncleanliness in body, clothes, or habitation.
• Tranquillity – Be not disturbed at trifles or at accidents common or unavoidable.
• Chastity – Rarely use venery (sexual indulgence) but for health or offspring, never to dullness, weakness, or the injury of your own or another’s peace or reputation.
• Humility – Imitate Jesus and Socrates.