The book that made the most powerful impact in my adolescence was 'El Hombre Mediocre' (The Mediocre Man), Jose Ingenieros' most important work. I read it when I was 17 years old, growing up in my Argentina's Pampas. Upon its completion, and motivated to drink all I could from his rich fountain, I found his published works and made quick progress with all of them as you may as well, once you devour his first page. Jose Ingenieros grew up in Argentina, where he graduated as a physician from the University of Buenos Aires in 1900. He later became a psychiatrist but his deep love for literature kept him active in intellectual endeavors throughout his short life. He was philosophically most influenced by Herbert Spencer, Ralph Waldo Emerson and Auguste Comte. He became an active positivist philosopher, embracing effort and education as the pillars of human development and achievement. His philosophy was akin to Ayn Rand's, but he wrote this book in 1913 when Ms. Rand was just 8 years-old