James Walpole – Praxis

August 26, 2016
Alternatives to College, Career Development, FAQ
By: James Walpole

Can I do Praxis as a gap year?

You don’t have to skip college to do Praxis. Some of our participants choose to do Praxis as a gap year after high school, during a four-year college stint, or right after graduation. Why should I do a Praxis gap year? If you like school but don’t know what you want to do with your life, […]

August 5, 2016
FAQ
By: James Walpole

What is it like to move for the Praxis program?

Short answer: it’s pretty awesome. Many of our business partners are located in major startup hubs like Atlanta, Pittsburgh, Austin, or San Francisco. That means participants often choose to pick up and move to take advantage of their best Praxis opportunities. Some of our participants are moving for the first time, so naturally they (and […]

February 24, 2016
Alternatives to College, Career Development, Job Skills
By: James Walpole

Doing Things That Don’t Scale (While You’re an Employee)

“[T]he unscalable things you have to do to get started are not merely a necessary evil, but change the company permanently for the better… if you have to work hard to delight users when you only have a handful of them, you’ll keep doing it when you have a lot.” Companies in the age of […]

February 10, 2016
Alternatives to College, Career Development, Job Skills
By: James Walpole

Finding Fellow Travelers in the Self-Directed Life

In every great story of every great quest, there are fellow travelers, hosts, and wise people who help the heroes out. The Fellowship of the Ring wouldn’t have gotten far without the help of the elves in Lothlorien. Neither would Pilgrim in A Pilgrim’s Progress have gotten far without fellow travelers like Faithful and help […]

February 3, 2016
Alternatives to College, Career Development, Job Skills
By: James Walpole

You Could Have Tried Harder: Thinking Differently About Effort and Responsibility

“At least I did my best.” This is the most common and the most effective excuse in the world. It’s very dangerous. There are two important things we need to know about this statement: There is no such thing as doing our best. There is always something we could have done better. We have to know when to stop […]

January 27, 2016
Alternatives to College, Career Development, Job Skills
By: James Walpole

Stop Trying To Imitate Successful People

“Successful people wake up at 4AM every morning.” “Successful people dress to impress.” “Successful people go to college.” “Successful people read every day.” “Successful people routinely work 60 hours a week.” “Be like this successful person!” This blog post is brought to you by every mutually contradictory and patronizing piece of “Successful people do X” […]

January 20, 2016
Alternatives to College, Career Development
By: James Walpole

Two Questions and a Challenge for Aspiring Entrepreneurs

Many of you who read this blog are probably aspiring entrepreneurs. I count myself among your number. What we all know is that “aspiring entrepreneur” is a tough gig*. We have to spend a lot of time and thought to find out what problem we want to solve and how we want to solve it. It’s a […]

January 13, 2016
Alternatives to College, Career Development, Praxis News
By: James Walpole

What My High School Business Teacher Taught Me About Entrepreneurship (and Business Classes)

There aren’t too many hours spent in class that I wouldn’t take back if I could. But like most people, I have one or two classroom experiences that I look back on fondly. Business class was one of those, precisely because it wasn’t a class. Our teacher was a local businessman. He wasn’t a teacher, […]

Wikihow, Kissing, and the Search Engine Mindset

Do you remember high school? If you don’t, I’m sorry to remind you, but I was thinking the other day about lessons I learned there. I particularly remember when one of my friends started dating a girl at my school. Like most teenage males, he was pretty new to the world of relationships, but he shared […]

Stop Trying to Optimize Your Life

“Some things benefit from shocks; they thrive and grow when exposed to volatility, randomness, disorder, and stressors and love adventure, risk, and uncertainty.” -Nassim Nicolas Taleb, Antifragile Speedreading. Virtual assistants. Mind-enhancing supplements. Ice-cold baths. Soylent diets (*shudders*). These days there are enough lifehacks (and life hack articles) to last a lifetime, and life optimization is the newest craze. […]