first-handers: those independent thinkers who face nature directly and thereby survive first-hand, i.e., by their own effort. These are the individuals who discover how to make fire, how to grow crops and domesticate livestock, how to cure diseases, how to build homes, etc.—and also those who use their own minds to learn from the innovators, and are therefore able to live productively.
Source: The Fountainhead by Ayn Rand.
Connecting to Source is a first-hander’s act, that’s why there are so few. At this writing the number is still around 1,000 for the whole planet.
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