After reading your replies to the Ayn Rand quote about goals, I clicked on your name and followed your Comments. Welcome to The Gulch. I assume that you are new to the ideas of Ayn Rand. It is a fascinating and challenge body of work. _Introduction to the Objectivist Epistemology_ is a book that probably not one in ten here have read. Most people here have probably read three of the fiction works. _The Virtue of Selfishness_ is where Ayn Rand defines "sacrifice" in the way that you did not. Like "selfishness" and "capitalism" the word has an objective definition that is different from the common usage. In chess, when you sacrifice a piece to gain position, that is called a "gambit" and is supposed to leave you better off. In ancient religions, when they "sacrificed" a goat, basically, they grilled it and ate it and let the inedible parts go up in smoke to the gods. But... the ancient Semites, the Jews and Philistines the people of Tyre and Carthage, they sacrificed their first born to the god Ba'al. No gains there. And that is what Ayn Rand meant.

Be all that as it may, I note that you have scored a dozen points so far, so you are clearly on track and in stream with the majority here.