Why Great Men Crave Volatility (feat. Ben Wilson)

About this episode

The episode discusses how great men leverage volatility for growth, featuring insights from historical figures.

Ben Wilson runs the How To Take Over The World podcast. He is also an OG EXIT Man , and my co-founder at Constitutional Action — which began over steaks at the Utah Valley EXIT meetup. Ben’s podcast focuses on great men of history, and the lessons we can draw from their lives in achieving our own ambitions. EXIT is a fraternity dedicated to shorting managerial systems, and building the human institutions that come next. Learn more here: Too often, the study of history devolves into materialist analysis — human outcomes unfolding deterministically, according to iron physical and economic laws. It locks analytical thinkers into the belief that nothing can change, nothing can be done , that individual human agency is irrelevant. Like so many things, history can be either a tool that makes you powerful, or an excuse that makes you weaker. Ben has spent years gathering practical insight from history as the biography of heroes and villains — asking in every episode, “How did this extraordinary man find solutions to the problems of his time? What did he see that no one else saw? What did he do that no one else was doing?” In this podcast, we discuss the opportunities that lie in…

People in this episode

Host: Bennett's Phylactery

Guest: Ben Wilson

Topics covered

• volatility
• history
• great men
• individual agency
• entrepreneurship

Keywords

• volatility
• history
• great men
• entrepreneurship
• agency

Mentioned in this episode

Organizations: How To Take Over The World, Constitutional Action

More episodes of EXIT Podcast

• Fellow Creators the Creator Seeks · May 22, 2026 · 43 min
• We Have to Prove It (Constitutional Action, American Fork Veterans' Hall, 4/30/2026) · May 14, 2026 · 15 min
• John Carter of Mars: Canada's descent into post-national gangsterism · May 1, 2026 · 33 min
• Q&A: Johann Kurtz on reconnecting wealth, vision, and ambition (Re-release) · April 16, 2026 · 29 min
• You Don't Get To Know · April 10, 2026 · 26 min
• Q&A: Johann Kurtz on reconnecting wealth, vision, and ambition · April 7, 2026 · 29 min