Author: Lena Wang

Movie Review: The Ballad of Buster Scruggs

The Coen brothers released their latest film, The Ballad of Buster Scruggs. It’s an anthology, a collection of six different stories about life in the wild west. Between each story, pages of a book are turned segueing into the next story.

The Ballad of Buster Scruggs pays homage to both western novelists of the past and old western movies.

The first story pokes fun at the absurdism of the American directed westerns from the 1940s and 1950s, with the main character, Buster Scruggs representing that era.

The first story also has a lot of references from spaghetti Westerns, represented by the grit of the characters and the realism of the dirty clothes they wore. Contrast that with Buster Scruggs’ pristine costume, his happy-go-lucky attitude, and frozen smile.

Each story gets more serious than the last and they all share a common theme of death. Life was difficult and illnesses like tuberculosis and small pox were common.

Overall, every scene was beautifully edited and the acting was superb. The stories all have sudden twists and unexpected endings so it keeps you on your toes.

If you haven’t watched any Westerns you might not understand the references being made. So I recommend watching ones with John Wayne or spaghetti westerns with Clint Eastwood to gain a better appreciation.

Five Below is One Reason Why I Love Capitalism

I feel like I’ve been living under a rock because I had no idea Five Below existed until this year. It’s the best place to shop for gifts within a cheap budget and everything is five dollars or under!

Think of it as a higher quality version of the dollar store with more variety. Continue reading Five Below is One Reason Why I Love Capitalism

How to Land a Job Without a Degree

Photo by rawpixel on Unsplash

You can get a job without a degree by creating a value proposition and pitching it to your future employer. A value proposition is basically a work project that a business will find valuable and improve by implementing it.

The truth is employers don’t give a crap about your credentials, internships, degrees, and community service, or Greek life. It doesn’t tell them how you’re valuable to them. Instead, it says, “Thousands of other people have similar resumes and I’m just another cookie cutter, but hire me anyway because I graduated just like everyone else.” Continue reading How to Land a Job Without a Degree

Module 5 of Praxis: The Final Month!

It’s the final module of the Praxis boot camp and this means I’m preparing for the month apprenticeship.

I can’t believe how fast time flew since July when I just started the program and it has been the most productive six months of my life. I keep asking myself, “Is this really happening?”

I experienced imposter syndrome throughout the boot camp. I felt everyone in my class was smarter than me and knew what they were talking about. It turns out that this was a common occurrence for most Praxis participants, in fact T.K. Coleman, the education director reassured us, “You are in the right place at the right time.”

So this module will focus on preparation for the six month apprenticeship. Basically, I’ll be creating projects to increase my hireability and looking for ways to improve a business.

I’ll keep you posted about my progress. Wish me luck!

Review of Month 4 of Praxis

I’ve successfully completed another month of Praxis and it’s been a positive learning experience.

To recap, month four is about consuming content and feeding my brain with philosophy, critical thinking, history, economics, and culture. Every week I watched lectures and read articles then uploaded a video about the content I learned.

Week one

The first week I read articles on critical thinking and the work required to have an opinion. Additionally, I learned something new; philosophers make great entrepreneurs and both have similar mindsets.

Week two

During week two, I dived into basic philosophy like how an actual argument is structured and logical fallacies to look out for.

I already knew most of the fallacies but the structure of arguments was new to me. One drawback during this week was the quality of the professor’s teaching in the videos. I would’ve liked to see the professor elaborate more on each concept. Additionally, it would’ve helped if he could give complex examples.

Week three

In week three I started to feel some resistance and impatience. There were a set of ten lectures from the Commerce and Culture podcast by Paul Cantor. Each lecture was and hour and forty minutes which took a long time to get through. Also, Cantor tends to say “um” a lot which makes it difficult to focus and rather annoying.

Overall, it was an excellent podcast packed with a history of Western culture. Cantor builds a case against Marxism by explaining how culture flourished with the free market.

Week four

This final week was a bit more challenging but enlightening. I wasn’t aware of the argument against intellectual property laws from a tech point of view. I read a series of articles called Breaking Smart which was more academic leaning in the way it was written, dense sentences with lots of technical terms and adjectives.

Additionally, I watched a short documentary series on how everything in culture is a remix. It’s a well done documentary that will keep you interested every minute.

Overall, I’d give this module an 7 out of ten with ten being the best rating. It’s especially more valuable for those who have no prior knowledge of philosophy or economics. But it could be better with shorter lectures since it felt like being in a boring, mind-numbing class again. Praxis could also add an Eastern view of philosophy and culture instead of just a Western one.

Government is Obstructing Innovation

Intellectual property (IP) laws are becoming obsolete. Blockchain has paved the way for a more voluntary society without the coercion of the government.

Blockchain technology like smart contracts are faster and cheaper ways of executing legal contracts. It’s also more trustworthy and it can prevent situations like a dishonest landlord who claimed you didn’t pay rent on time, and provide proof from thousands of other ledgers who confirmed a transaction.

Basically, if the conditions for a contract aren’t met then the code inside it would not execute the end result. Check out this beginner’s guide on how smart contracts work.

Pastoralism is Elitism

Pastoralism is a common form of elitist thinking. The term refers to nostalgia for the pristine “good old days” coupled with future technology to perpetuate a vision for all of society.

The problem with pastoralism is the one size fits all concept. It ignores each individual’s needs and forces them into a predetermined lifestyle.

The prime example of this is the white picket fence suburbia of the 1950s. It’s highly romanticized with cool futuristic technology like jetpacks and flying cars, merely updated for the ideal nuclear family.

What pastoralists don’t understand is that technology was meant to disrupt traditional lifestyles and usher in a new defining age like the one we live in today. Startups flourish by disrupting traditional office environments and it gave people more freedom to define their lives on their own terms. Compare it to the pastoralist’s view that the only path to success is earning a degree, owning a house, getting married, and having kids.

Pastoralism is elitist thinking because it sets back progress (both technological and moral) and demands everyone to live by their one cultural standard. The pastoralist views of the 1950s still affect us greatly today.

Modernist planners created the suburbs to center around the car and commute to work. The problem was it priced the poor out and separated people from economic centers and places with lots of jobs. Not everyone can afford a car.

You can read a longer explanation of pastoralism by Venkatesh Rao.