“[Claude Shannon is] someone who is absolutely essential in everything we take for granted in 20th century to 21st century tech – from the internet to mobile computing to artificial intelligence, he was there from the beginning. None of that would have been possible without Claude Elwood Shannon.” Every week at Praxis, participants and…
“After six months, I couldn’t see the value in it. I had no idea what I wanted to do with my life and no idea how college was going to help me figure it out… So I decided to drop out and trust that it would all work out OK. It was pretty scary at the…
“I never went to fashion school. I didn’t know what a designer was. I knew I had something, but I didn’t know what it was. And it could just have easily been nothing.” Ralph Lauren is an entrepreneur and clothing designer, and one of the best. His clothes are classically elegant, transcending momentary fashion trends…
We have made some exciting changes to the Praxis Education Experience and it’s been even more exciting to see those changes come to fruition since implementing them over the past two months and new participants excelling in the program. We have placed a stronger emphasis on building projects (at work and on your own), weekly…
“Stand by your principles and be comfortable with confrontation. So few people are, so when the people with the red tape come, it becomes a negotiation.” Travis Cordell Kalanick (August 6, 1976 – ) is a serial entrepreneur and the founder of the wildly successful ride-sharing service, Uber. Kalanick was like many entrepreneurs, a self-starter looking for…
Today’s post was written by current Praxis participant Josh Jaye. Learn more about participants like Josh here. “Americans fear technology in the near future because they see it as a replay of the globalization of the near past. But the situations are very different: people compete for jobs and for resources; computers compete for neither.”…
“Looking back, I believe that the qualities that make for a great entrepreneur – such as boundless energy, a curious nature and, sometimes, an obstinate streak – are not often attributes demonstrated by top students in the classroom.” – Richard Branson, Entrepreneur Article When Richard Branson was four years old, his mother dropped him off in the…
“Opportunity is missed by most people because it is dressed in overalls and looks like work.” Thomas Alva Edison (February 11, 1847 – October 18, 1931) ended his time in school after three months. If he fit the mold of what most people expect of dropouts, his story would end there. It didn’t. Edison built…
“If we worked on the assumption that what is accepted as true really is true, then there would be little hope for advance.” – Orville Wright Think science and innovation are closed to people without engineering degrees? The Wright brothers challenge that notion. Neither brother graduated from high school. Both were self-taught and well-read. The…
Published for The Freeman. It is 1900. Two visitors from the year 2015 arrive at your doorstep. They are here to tell you about the future. One hundred years of horror The first visitor looks grim. He tells you that “the war to end all wars” will soon begin. It will encompass the globe and destroy…
One of the commonly cited problems with a great deal of self-help philosophy is the overemphasis on positive thinking, affirmations, visualization techniques, and other motivational tools that produce short-term inspiration but that often fail to help people create lasting changes. On a recent episode of the Accidental Creative podcast, Todd Henry addresses this issue in…
It’s not uncommon for the most devoted students of personal health, or business startups, or filmmaking, or success more generally to be only moderately successful themselves. We’ve all met people who have read every “7 Ways”, and, “10 Tips” book on the market, yet still haven’t really gotten off the ground personally. So is greatness…
At one time, everyone farmed. Few could imagine a world where a great majority of people didn’t spend their energy planting and harvesting food. The Industrial Revolution changed everything dramatically. Eventually, almost no one farmed. Machines did. Most people then worked with machines, building them in factories, maintaining them, keeping the production process going with…
Why isn’t every individual their own company, or an independent contractor? There are some very good reasons, but new technology is beginning to change the equation… One of my favorite economists, Ronald Coase, famously postulated that companies, or “firms,” exist because the transaction costs of engaging in tons of exchanges with tons of individual contractors…
We’ve written before on the role the entrepreneur plays as history-maker, and how their primary job is to analyze problems and synthesize new solutions from a combination of all available options in front of them. To introduce this idea, and how it exists historically as a constant cycle, to the participants, we include a brief series…