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foibles-fables · 2 years ago

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hey i was hoping for some advice on how to stop planning fics and actually START?? like i feel like i have to plan out every chapter and then just feel paralysis at actually starting at the fear of the fic derailing into something else (which is part of the beauty ik) any advice helps :’(

HELLO NONNY! First of all, totally flattered you'd want to come here for advice. Second, gosh, yes, this is one of the most difficult parts of fic writing. Happy to try to help out, though this might get long!

So I see that you're primarily concerned with multi-chaptered/longfics here! It's been a minute since I've hunkered down to work on one of those myself--but this is a good warm-up question for me, as I've got a couple current ideas (including original work) that would necessitate more long-term planning.

When you're writing and publishing a longfic, you pretty much have three options, each with a varying degree of rigidity.

Plan your entire fic (however you like--outline, flow chart, etc.!) and finish writing it in its entirety before posting on a schedule per chapter. Benefits here include the ability to let your plot/characters grow organically without being bound to something you've already posted. No worries about a plot "derailing" if you're able to course-correct something earlier in the midst of it! Also, you're able to write in genuinely any order in this case. Downside, though, is that motivation can be a struggle here.

Plan your entire fic roughly and start writing at the beginning. Give yourself a few chapters of leeway (maybe 3-4 ahead of posting??) and post on a schedule while working on future chapters. You'll still be able to account for organic growth, here, but you are more bound by items that have already been posted. A good plus, though, is the motivation you might get from readers along the way.

Plan your entire fic, start writing at the beginning, and post chapters as they're finished without leeway. GREAT for feedback, but it's super easy to get yourself stuck as new ideas develop.

For an original work with the goal of publication, obviously, I'd use option one. For fic writing and posting on AO3, though, I'd make it my goal to pursue option 2. It's a really nice balance of keeping yourself and your plot on track but also picking up some sweet serotonin along the way.

Regardless of your posting method, it also seems like you'd benefit from hearing how I plan longfics in general. Using a typical indentation format, I start with the bare-bones structure of the plot to help determine chapter breaks (which can change as the actual writing occurs) and overall actions. Once I have the main ideas spelled out, I'll go back and fill out each section into as much detail I have in mind at the time. This will definitely vary chapter section by chapter section. Some ideas will already be specifically developed! Others might stay bareboned.

From there, I head to the opening chapter, as I personally write in order (you might not!). I'll fill in the chapter section with as much detail as possible (scenes, dialogue, in-depth prose notes, etc.) to make actually writing out the chapter as easy as possible for me. Using an excerpt from one of my longfic outlines, here's how a ready-to-be-written chapter section might look:

also note how messy they actually are lol

Once I have that level of detail done, I'll write the chapter. It really helps because while the planning was still "planning," it becomes a lot easier to translate the Plan into actual prose. After the chapter drafted and then finished, I'll move on to the next section and flesh it out exactly the same way before writing. Rinse and repeat!

That way, I have my overarching framework all good to go, but the little living details are the ones that can change as the work itself is completed! I think it's a happy medium between rigidity and natural flow, in which neither really impedes the other.

Bottom line, though? Best way to start writing is to just start. Easier said than done, and something that's really hard for my brain to accept as well. It's a universal struggle. But when you find the tools that work for You, it's fantastic!

God this got so much longer than I intended. Apologies and thanks if you sat through all of this without your eyes glazing over. As for me, I'm off to keep agonizing over planning and actually starting various one-shots, lmao.

#please have the best day i'm so flattered #writing

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bonearenaofmyskull · 8 years ago

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Hi! I keep watching the S3 finale and slinging between the theory that Will planned Hannibal's escape and his lines are actually subliminally gesturing his intent to slip away with Hannibal; and the theory that Will decides to be a martyr ("found religion"), kill the Dragon and die with Hannibal ("kill them all") in which is ultimately murder/suicide. I know the latter is the popular theory but the former haunts me, particularly due to Will's last conversation with Bedelia! Thoughts? Thank you!

This is something I’ve written quite a bit on previously but not recently, so I hope you won’t mind if I mostly just defer to Bryan Fuller on this one. The following is an excerpt from an interview with Variety that came out right after the finale, and fwiw, I agree with Bryan: the way he describes it is the way I understood it from watching the show.

Fans already seem to be speculating about Will and Hannibal’s intentions in that final scene — from your perspective, was Will hoping they’d die from that fall, or planning for them to survive? What was going through his mind in those last moments?

All season long, it had been developing this story of Will’s realization, even as he is going into Europe to track down his friend, that his agenda — as Chiyoh (Tao Okamoto) points out — is “I have to kill Hannibal in order to not become Hannibal.” And he gets so fed up with the machinations of the relationship and Hannibal sawing his head open and trying to get at his brain that he’s just like “f–k it, I’m done with you, I’m walking away.” And yet, as he states in the finale, that was all a ruse to get Hannibal to turn himself in. And so it was kind of a band-aid on a bigger wound, and then when Will is pulled back in to the Red Dragon arc, he’s asking Bedelia, “is Hannibal in love with me?” and Bedelia is saying “is this a ‘can’t live with him, can’t live without him?‘” And essentially it is, and that’s sort of the conclusion Will comes to at the end, “I can’t live with him, I can’t live without him. This is the scenario where the least amount of people can die,” meaning, “the two of us.”

I think when Hannibal says, “This is all I ever wanted for you; this is all I ever wanted for both of us,” Will is forced to acknowledge that what they just experienced was actually a beautiful thing. He lingers on that feeling of, “it was beautiful and I will desire it again, and I will be chasing this feeling.” And as he said to Hannibal earlier, “I may not be able to save myself, and that’s just fine.” I feel like we were very honest with the audience in terms of saying exactly what Will does at the end — we said it a few times.

The foreshadowing was delightfully heavy in this episode.

And yet it still feels like a little bit of a surprise at the end. [The post-credits scene with Bedelia] was very intentionally setting up another season of the story … essentially saying that Hannibal could’ve survived….

As you said, Bedelia and Will actually discussed whether he and Hannibal are in love with each other in the penultimate episode, and it feels like the show spelled out the answer fairly clearly, even if it’s not an overtly sexual love — but where do you think Will lands on that, in the end?

I think that’s what motivates the leap, is his realization that Hannibal was right all along. As beautiful as that felt to him, he understands that it is a place that who he is will not survive in, and so his option is essentially to pull the plug on the whole story, and that’s the only way he’s going to win himself back. It’s a sad gesture in so many ways….

When did you come up with the idea for this finale — was it between seasons, or further back?

It came about halfway through season two and we knew that Will Graham and Hannibal Lecter had to work together to defeat the Red Dragon, and that was a big move forward in their relationship, that the two actually hunt side by side … we needed something much more impactful and much more intimate, and Steve Lightfoot started talking about Sherlock and Moriarty and Reichenbach Falls and then it was like, “of course, that’s exactly what we need to do, and that murder-suicide for Will is what’s going to define his character and his last heroic act,” and it just felt perfect, so hats off to Arthur Conan Doyle. (x)

My problem with the theory that Will was planning a true escape for Hannibal has two parts (besides the fact that that just isn’t the story they told, as Bryan said here).

First, it doesn’t follow a logical character-growth arc for Will. I suppose the argument must be that Will discovered that he missed Hannibal too much and therefore decided to run off with him after all, as he talked about wanting to back in “Aperitivo.” But that just ignores Will’s struggles with his compassion and morality: he’s mortified by what he’s caused to happen to Frederick Chilton, he feels responsible for the attack on his family, plus the original thought he’d had that he’s afraid of becoming Hannibal (which he feels is very real when he finds killing Dolarhyde beautiful). At no point do they tell the reverse story that Will is warming up to the ideas of killing or becoming like Hannibal. He doesn’t come away from Frederick Chilton’s maiming going, “That was gr9,″ or the attack on his family thinking “My ex is gr9,” or anything else he goes through. This version of the story is just not present.

Secondly, it’s not in keeping with the style of storytelling that the writers engage in on Hannibal. Bryan withholds information a number of times to generate big reveals, but he does it in a way that is driven by emotional content rather than intellectual content. In other words, Hannibal isn’t a story that you can “solve” the way people try to solve for the big twist in, say, Mr. Robot., or an M. Night Shyamalan movie, or trying to make it so the monolith in 2001 is a metaphor for a film screen. The theory that Will was planning Hannibal’s escape–while emotional in the sense of being romantic–is a story that would have to play by “solving”: the plan was X, Y, Z, but Will really planned A, B, C, and blah blah. (And in the meantime, shoehorning some goofy explanation in to make his conversation with Hannibal at the Chesapeake Bay house be #CODE since they didn’t actually, yanno, discuss escaping, but instead talked a lot about dying for a friend.) I mean, maybe Bryan’s special touch could make this feel a lot less like “solving,” but I’m pretty skeptical.

Another facet of the issue of style of storytelling comes down to the secondary role the romance plays, next to the horror, and IMO, this is one of those places where fandom, being so primarily caught up in the relationship, goes astray with trying to interpret the story. Shipper goggles, I guess. Hannibal may have some things in common with a romantic comedy in terms of trope and device, but it has nothing in common with it in terms of tone and mood (and theme), and make no mistake: nothing controls the nature and quality of a story more strongly than tone and mood. In spite of the title, this is how you know it’s more Will Graham’s story than Hannibal Lecter’s story. Hannibal is horror about loneliness and grief and trauma. It’s not about finding love and mischievous reunions and getting off scot-free. It’s not about to let Will off the hook that easily, frankly.

None of this is to say that some part of Will won’t always want to run off with Hannibal. He says so himself, and, in the sense of a subconscious thing, or a while-falling-to-your-death kind of revelation, he may very much want to escape with Hannibal even while he plans and tries to kill him. It just isn’t what he was endeavoring to achieve in “The Wrath of the Lamb.”

#hannibal meta #will graham #hannibal lecter #hannigram #bryan fuller #season 3 #the wrath of the lamb #Anonymous #bear answers #yes i am attempting to get my fandom life back together again #going to try to get several meta posts done this week #and finish a story #*crosses fingers*#long post for ts

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spilledreality · 6 years ago

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the hippie phenomenon

“The New Yorker has always dealt with experience not by trying to understand it but by prescribing the attitude to be adopted toward it. This makes it possible to feel intelligent without thinking, and it is a way of making everything tolerable, for the assumption of a suitable attitude toward experience can give one the illusion of having dealt with it adequately.”

—Robert Warshow, "E. B. White and the New Yorker"

I wanna take issue with Kerouac and Didion, not so much with their writing’s literary value but as cultural criticism. Chance aside, a prerequisite of good criticism as I see it is a penetrating, upper-percentile comprehension of the subject at hand, coupled with an epistemic humility sufficient to the task of staying open-minded. Both Kerouac and Didion, though they represent opposite sides of the cultural and political coin, seem most primarily in judgment of their subjects, rather than intrigued by them. Both their practices show a dedication to deduction over induction, which is to say the opposite of learning. There is little demonstrated effort to adequately reconcile their worldviews, motivations, and values with that of an other (in Kerouac’s case, PTA moms and nuclear families; in Didion’s, the acidfreaks of Haight-Ashbury). Any good lawyer will tell you, if you don’t adequately understand your opponent’s position, your rebuttal will follow in inadequacy, cf. Ideological Turing Tests.

Here's Kerouac in My Woman describing a job application (one implication being that the American laborer is a drone, a zombie, whose guise Jack and his friends must take on to get hired):

We entered [the office] with our arms stretched out in front of us [drunk] like the zombies we'd seen in a picture the other day; we made our feet go slow and automatic like the ghost of death. We asked the man for a job. The poor idiot said, 'I don't think you boys will do.' We got out of there... laughing at the top of our lungs.

As the 50s turned into the 60s, the Beat ethos into flower power, Kerouac drifted into Long Island alcoholism; Ginsberg adapted, stayed relevant. The transition between decades bridged by the Merry Pranksters’ cross-country quest to "tune out, drop out" in a refurbished 1939 school bus per Wolfe’s Electric Kool-Aid Acid Test.

On assignment for The Saturday Evening Post, Joan Didion traveled to the Haight-Ashbury district of San Francisco, where she saw posters of Ginsberg hung on the walls and devotees treated his opinions on the Krishna as of equal authority with the Swami. Didion saw a world falling apart, spiritually and socially in crisis. People forget, so it's worth reminding that Didion was not a progressive in this era. She was a National Review contributor and a Goldwater voter. And while I have no problem with her political conservatism, it’s important to link “Slouching” with the general moral hysteria over longhairedness taking place at the time, a hysteria which contributed in large part to Nixon's presidential and Reagan's gubernatorial elections.

The central argument (or assumption, or presumption of “Slouching” is that San Francisco is home to a generation of children (some literally, some relative maturity) who have embarked on an extended bad trip (either literally or figuratively) from which they may not ever return. Affectless and out-of-it, they show emotion only when discussing, acquiring, or ingesting narcotics (peyote, acid, smack, crystal, amps, and a now-mysterious “STP”). “Pathetically unequipped" for the real world, they lack any serious political convictions or critical thinking abilities, instead swimming in self-delusion and macrobiotic diets.

I can't speak of Dideon's intent so I'll stick to her prose, sociopathic in its lack of empathy and interest. The essay’s divided into bits so that each section sports an ominous closing sentence cum punchline-zinger. Interviewees divide into strawmen or caricatures; none are depicted or explored as complex, flesh-and-blood human beings. Juvenile delinquents and drug dealers are picked as the primary representative spokespeople of a sizable neighborhood and subculture. There’s Debbie, 15, a runaway because “[her] parents said she had to go to Church.” There’s John, 16, who has left home because his mother “didn't like boots” and made him help out around the house: “Tell about the chores,” Debbie says. John: “For example, I had chores. If I didn't finish ironing my shirts for the week I couldn't go out for the weekend. It was weird, wow.” Shortly after her wide-eyed relay on chores, Didion recounts Debbie literally chipping a nail, then getting upset that the author isn't carrying extra polish on her. I'd say you can't make this stuff up, but I'm tempted to invoke Richard Bradley:

Some years ago, when I was an editor at George magazine, I was unfortunate enough to work with the writer Stephen Glass on a number of articles. They proved to be fake, filled with fabrications, as was pretty much all of his work. The experience was painful but educational; it forced me to examine how easily I had been duped. Why did I believe those insinuations about Bill Clinton-friend Vernon Jordan being a lech? About the dubious ethics of uber-fundraiser (now Virginia governor) Terry McAuliffe? The answer, I had to admit, was because they corroborated my pre-existing biases. I was well on the way to believing that Vernon Jordan was a philanderer, for example—everyone seemed to think so, back in the ’90s, during the Monica Lewinsky time.

I can't say whether Didion fabricated these stories. It doesn't matter either way. A piece which confirms existing biases of its readers, or which confirms its own initial biases at its start, doing little more than elaborate variations on a stereotype for thousands of words, is poor criticism and shoddy historiography.

A generic structure for a given section of “Slouching”: observe events unraveling around her, hazard a guess at (and editorialize heavily on) what is occurring, entertain the possibility of asking a participant or knowledgeable observer for more accurate information, and then—inexplicably—decide not to. In other words, there’s a lack of respect for her subjects’ subjectivity, or for her own ability to be wrong. Equally as incredible as this journalistic practice is Didion’s willingness to admit to it (and in the same breath berate Time and other publications for their own misunderstandings of the hippie phenomenon).

Didion gets haughty at points, seamlessly transitioning from picking on a teenager’s amateur poetry to a bout of philosophical reflection:

As it happens, I am still committed to the idea that the ability to think for one's self depends upon mastery of the language and I am not optimistic about children who will settle for saying, to indicate that their mother and father do not live together, that they come from a “broken home.”

For myself, I’m not so hot about the idea of a journalist who dedicates forty pages to belittling literal teenage runaways, especially when so many avenues of more substantial cultural interest are ignored. It’s off-handedly mentioned that McLuhan is read by many in the Haight community, as are the Hari Krishna and the writings of Zen Buddhism, but Didion never meaningfully pursues any of the community's beliefs.

Some of the more interesting documents on this subject come from the exchanges between literary, Cold War liberal moderates and the generation of beatniks and hippies who were pulling the country toward a more radical vision. Adam Kirsch’s Why Trilling Matters charts the relationship between Lionel Trilling and his former student at Columbia, Allen Ginsberg. (Kirsch, drawing on Trilling, distinguishes between the Blakean and Wordsworthean impulse, Wordsworth a “representative of wisdom,” Blake as the blazing voice of passion. As Trilling writes, Blake's poetry would be one of the more significant influences on the art and voice of Sixties counterculture: “American undergraduates seem to be ever more alienated from the general body of English literature, but they have for some time made an exception of William Blake... uniquely relevant to their spiritual aspirations” and acting as a model for its “transvaluation of social and aesthetic values.”)

Equally good is the lifelong correspondence between Allen and his also-poet father Louis Ginsberg. Trilling and L.’s sensibilities are of moderation and qualification, both sure only of their own fallibility; the Blakean hubris is an ideology propping up conceits of heroism, a Manichean dualism where only the counterculture keeps it real. “Save me from that mixed-up, confused view of the Beat Generation which maintains it has a blueprint of Truth, obviously handed over to them in a mystic, blinding revelation from Heaven," Louis wrote to his son in ‘58.

An avid communist in the early-to-mid 1960s (before a trip to Cuba changed his mind w/r/t the freedom of its citizens¹) Allen berated his father in letter after letter over Lou's democratic socialist views, and got bit back:

Your holier-than-thou attitude, with your noble intentions, does not prove that you have a Heavenly blueprint of the truth. You may be a great poet, as I believe you are, but you can still have false ideas and false facts, despite your noble intentions. T.S. Eliot and Pound had Fascist ideas.

One more excerpt, for joy:

Dear Allen,

You have a right to your opinion, according to your lights; but I retain my energetic insistence to differ with you... on your whole Beat Generation's views that everything that is, to paraphrase Pope, is wrong. Everything, according to your views, is all wrong, all in ruins, all warmongering, all immoral—except you (plural; i.e., the Beat Generation). Nobody wants “beauty, poetry, freedom” but you (plural)... all is false; all civilization messed up, all progress in the wrong, false track; all doomed... (March 10, 1958)

The truth the Beats claimed to seek or else contain was partly religious, the result of chemical visions, Ginsberg hearing Blake’s voice come to him mid-orgasm, Cassady meditating. But it was also of the writers’ attempted escape from social structure, to chase an idea of the authentic self as the self unencumbered by the social. Trilling “...the idea of... surrendering oneself to experience without regard to... conventional morality, of escaping wholly from the societal bonds, is an ‘element’ somewhere in the mind of every modern person.” Hence the enormous success of On the Road, which functions as simulation, a virtual joyride for those unwilling, unable, or who know better than to take such a trip themselves.

Morris Dickstein, Gates of Eden:

Postwar prosperity had provided [sixties radicals] with the freedom to protest, the freedom to run wild, and the luxury of dropping out without worrying about a job. But by the 1970s the economy turned sour and, as I wrote in [the 1977 edition of] this book, “we could see how much the rainbow colors of the culture of the sixties were built on the fragile bubble of a despised affluence, an economic boom that was simply taken for granted.”

This is not to invalidate the legitimacy of radicals’ complaints, but to complicate the picture of inheritance in dissent.

It’s no secret the Beats were a stretch short of sainthood. Cassady and Kerouac were philanderers, promising women marriages only to subsequently abandon them (illegitimate children included). Cars were stolen only to be drunkenly totaled. And Carr, of course, infamously knifed an overly attached romantic pursuer in Manhattan's Riverside Park, dumping his body in the Hudson River under conditions still unclear today.

Tied up in this transgressiveness is the question of privilege, a critique which Diana Trilling, wife of the famous Lionel, launches in her essay for Partisan Review, “The Other Night at Columbia”:

I had heard about [Ginsberg] much more than I usually hear of students for the simple reason that he got into a great deal of trouble which involved his instructors, and had to be rescued and revived and restored; eventually he had even to be kept out of jail. Of course there was always the question, should this young man be rescued, should he be restored? There was even the question, shouldn’t he go to jail? We argued about it some at home but the discussion, I’m afraid, was academic, despite my old resistance to the idea that people like Ginsberg had the right to ask and receive preferential treatment just because they read Rimbaud and Gide and undertook to put words on paper themselves.

Alexander:

The “heroes” of On The Road consider themselves ill-done by and beaten-down. But they are people who can go anywhere they want for free, get a job any time they want, hook up with any girl in the country, and be so clueless about the world that they’re pretty sure being a 1950s black person is a laugh a minute. On The Road seems to be a picture of a high-trust society. Drivers assume hitchhikers are trustworthy and will take them anywhere. Women assume men are trustworthy and will accept any promise. Employers assume workers are trustworthy and don’t bother with background checks. It’s pretty neat. But On The Road is, most importantly, a picture of a high-trust society collapsing. And it’s collapsing precisely because the book’s protagonists are going around defecting against everyone they meet at a hundred ten miles an hour.

I would hesitate to agree that America in the early 20th century was markedly higher-trust than modern times. Rates of violent crime in the interwar period are comparable to the highs of the 70s crime wave, and despite sagging post-1945, were only slightly lower in Kerouac's time than our own. (Trust != crime, I know.) But the mechanisms of opportunity and exploitation remain in play. It is a phenomenon in which transgressive parties advocate for their transgressive way of life as a replacement to the present social order, without realizing or acknowledging that their transgressions are logistically possible through this very structure. Behavior is advocated as moral in Beat writing which would fall apart as a Kantian imperative.

In Kerouac this is both identitarian and pragmatic; J.K.’s lifestyle is possible because it exploits a trusting industrial society and its hard-earned resources. But in Maggie Nelson’s queer theory, it’s primarily a matter of identity and spirituality, where transgression is an end (autotelic) in itself. This is the paradoxical relationship of hegemony to the queer: it is at once mortal enemy and dearest ally, struggle’s basis in every sense of the word.

The Argonauts is frequently brilliant; its idea of flux (“a constant becoming which never becomes”) is infinitely valuable. But Nelson condemns at every turn the category, the pigeon-hole, the label. Words to her are cages which imprison minds and bodies. And yet both Nelson and Kerouac seem not to acknowledge that the lifestyles and self-images they hold so valuable—the rebellion, transgression, and self-elevation practiced by Kerouac; the queerness valued by Nelson—are possible only through the existence of a majority body or structure from which to self-elevate and self-other. They are advocating for identities of negation as if they were autonomous.

[1] Ginsberg was expelled from Cuba in February of 1965 for "talking too much about marijuana & sex & capital punishment"; he traveled from there to the less oppressive Czechoslovakia.

#jack kerouac #joan didion #allen ginsberg #william blake #adam kirsch #lionel trilling #maggie nelson #scott alexander #slate star codex

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cleancutpage · 7 years ago

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This is Why I Love Working in Real Estate Tech…

This post originally appeared on Michael Beckerman's Blog and is republished with permission. Find out how to syndicate your content with theBrokerList.

I get the pleasure of meeting people like Ofo Ezeugwu, thanks to my friend Jon Schultz, who was able to connect me with this future leader, visionary, and entrepreneur– who is destined for great things! If you don’t know Ofo, you need to. His personal story and vision is really, really inspiring. And his startup is doing meaningful things. He has a way about him that is both inspiring and incredibly humble at the same time. Very rare, indeed.

Check out his site and if you’re so inclined and support his mission (https://republic.co/whoseyourlandlord). He is exactly the type of person we need to be mentoring, supporting, and investing in, as he is going to no doubt change the world– one satisfied apartment renter at a time.

Here are some excerpts from our conversation:

Michael Beckerman: What’s your background?

Ofo Ezeugwu: I was born in Paterson, NJ. My parents are from Nigeria and Barbados. I grew up primarily in Ellicott City, MD and was always taught from day one that the most important thing you can do on this earth is to help others. So, I do that each and every day. I graduated from Temple University in 2013 and have no founded two companies and I’m also a professional actor and model.

MB: What led you to start WYL?

OE: During my senior year at Temple University, I was the VP of the student body. In that position, I dealt with many things happening off campus that were affecting students on campus. Housing was a top issue with students due to the rapid gentrification adversely hurting folks from the community and the students who were often left to live in subpar conditions (black mold painted over, poor plumbing, harassment, etc.). I felt there had to be a way to review landlords, that way you’d know what to expect before signing a lease.

MB: What does the site do? And how big is the site today?

OE: WYL is a web platform that’s empowering and informing the rental community through landlord reviews, neighborhood focused content, and by providing access to over 500k listings in the US. Breakdown below:

750k users – people looking for reviews/rentals (25% MOM growth)

70k blog readers/mo (43% MOM growth)

500k+ active listings nationwide

Renter search queries – 230% MOM growth

10k+ landlord reviews in the northeast

Corporate partnerships with American Express, Allstate, Roadway Moving, Dominion, etc.

Recent coverage: Featured in Forbes, NY Post, NowThis, Philly Inquirer, Blavity, Curbed, Newsweek, TechCrunch, etc.

MB: How have you funded the site and what are your future funding strategies?

OE: We’ve funded the site through bootstrapping and then by raising a pre-seed through several angels and investment groups. We’re now raising capital on Republic.co/whoseyourlandlord, so I’d encourage folks reading this to invest today! Time is running out on the campaign.

MB: What are your expansion plans, short and long term?

OE: When it comes to expansion, as our recent Forbes feature stated, we’re going global with this. There are rental issues happening all over and we receive daily emails and social media messages requesting our services in other cities, countries, etc. In the short term, we need to continue encouraging the free flow of transparent, thorough home provider reviews while also scaling our voice of advocacy for fair, equitable, and quality housing for all. By developing our voice through our content, we’re stronger as a collective community. The next step is expanding to new cities and partnering with several institutions of higher ed, landlords, and local municipalities.

MB: What do you enjoy about being an entrepreneur and what is your personal motivate and drive based on?

OE: I enjoy being an entrepreneur because I’m a creator, a doer, and Liver! Each day I get to create the future I see ahead of me. I’ve surrounded myself with an AMAZING Team that is all about doing the work. To see them win, our community members win, and my family win means everything to me.

MB: You have a pretty amazing personal network of contacts in business, politics, culture etc…who are some of the people that inspire you and why?

OE: People I admire: My parents and family, Felix Addison (WYL), Dave Patrick (Columbia University), Chris Coleman (N. 13th), Jon Jackson (Blavity), Rhonda Elnaggar (Mic), Pat Robinson (Emmis Group), Liris Crosse (Project Runway), Nick Bayer (Saxbys) and many more! These folks are in my personal network. And then I admire Will Smith, J. Cole, Kendrick Lamar, Yara Shahidi, Ryan Coogler, and more. Both these lists are actually so much longer; nevertheless, my reason for the Love: These folks are builders, creators, Lovers of Life, and will stop at nothing to achieve their success, their community’s success, their happiness.

MB: What’s next for Ofu?

OE: I’m going to keep building WYL. Keep making the world a better place. And, keep living. I know this is just the beginning. If you’d like to connect, reach out to us at [email protected] and make sure to join the journey and invest at republic.co/whoseyourlandlord

Left to right: Felix Addison COO, Kelley Green Dir of Comm, Ofo Ezeugwu CEO, Nik Korablin CTO

Ofo Ezeugwu is co-founder and CEO of WhoseYourLandlord, a platform empowering and informing the rental community through landlord reviews, community focused content, and by providing access to quality listings. He graduated from Temple University, where he was the VP of the student body and also the youngest alumni convocation speaker in the school’s history. He’s a Techstars’ Risingstar, one of BET’s #30Under30, a Black Enterprise: Modern Man, and his work has been featured in Forbes, TechCrunch, Newsweek, The Philadelphia Inquirer, Blavity, The New York Post, and more. As many of you are already aware of, Ofo is also a professional actor and model who’s walked in NYFW (3x), been featured on the Today Show (7x), and worked with Nike, ESPN (2x), and Alfani.

Ofo is also very actively plugged into the community and speaks with local high schools and middle schools on leadership, college planning, entrepreneurship, and life skills. He’s a Big in the Big Brothers Big Sisters entrepreneurial program. And, he’s also spoken on tech – entrepreneurship – and leadership at prestigious locations and universities such as The White House, Harvard, Princeton, Columbia, Wharton, Temple, Villanova, etc. He lives by the motto, “No steps backward; just forward progress.”

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lindyhunt · 7 years ago

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The 23 Best Motivational Speeches of All Time

It was halftime during one of my 7th-grade football games. And we were losing 14 - 0. With our knees planted in the grass, my team was quietly huddled, drenched in sweat and defeat. We all knew the game was over.

That’s when our assistant coach bursted through our circle and shattered our pity party, delivering one of the best motivational speeches I’ve heard to this day.

I can’t directly quote him because he said some things that are inappropriate for a blog post (and, in hindsight, probably for a bunch of 13-year-olds too). But the point is, he harnessed the power of words to rejuvenate a physically and emotionally drained team. And we came back clawing to win the game.

Just like in sports, being motivated at work is crucial for your performance. This rings especially true when you have a looming deadline, an important meeting, or colleagues or customers depending on your performance.

To help you stay motivated, no matter what your job throws at you, we decided to compile 23 of the best motivational speeches from business, sports, entertainment, and more. If you want to get fired up for a project, watch these videos.

Trust me, I was wiping my eyes after I saw them. And while the messages vary from speech to speech, they will put you in the optimal frame of mind for tackling and crushing your next big challenge.

(Disclaimer: Some speeches -- *cough* Al Pacino *cough* -- may contain NSFW language.)

Best Motivational Speeches

J.K. Rowling: “The Fringe Benefits of Failure, and the Importance of Imagination” (2008)

David Foster Wallace: "This Is Water" (2005)

Fearless Motivation: "It's Not Easy, But It's Worth It" (2018)

Jim Carrey: Commencement Speech at Maharishi University of Management (2014)

Brené Brown: "The Power of Vulnerability" (2013)

Steve Jobs: "How to Live Before You Die" (2005)

Ellen DeGeneres: Tulane University Commencement Speech (2009)

Sheryl Sandberg: Harvard Business School Class Day Speech (2012)

Dan Pink: "The Puzzle of Motivation" (2009)

Denzel Washington: "Fall Forward" (2011)

Elizabeth Gilbert: "Your Elusive Creative Genius" (2009)

Charlie Day: Merrimack College Commencement Speech (2014)

Orlando Scampington: "The Pillars of C.L.A.M." (2015)

Vera Jones: “But the Blind Can Lead the Blind…” (2016)

Jim Valvano: ESPY Speech (1993)

Kal Penn: DePauw University Commencement Speech (2014)

Charles Dutton: Speech from Rudy (1993)

William Wallace: Speech From the Battle of Stirling Bridge (1297)

Al Pacino: "Inch by Inch" (1999)

Sylvester Stallone: Speech from Rocky Balboa (2006)

Frank Oz/Yoda: Speech from The Empire Strikes Back (1980)

Will Smith: Speech from The Pursuit of Happyness (2006)

Kurt Russell: “This is Your Time” (2004)

The Best Motivational Speeches of All Time

1. J.K. Rowling: “The Fringe Benefits of Failure, and the Importance of Imagination” (2008)

Theme of Speech: Failure

In J.K. Rowling's 2008 Harvard commencement speech, the Harry Potter author explored how two phenomena -- failure and imagination -- can be crucial to success. While failure can help you understand where your true passion lies, and where you should focus your energy moving forward, imagination is what will allow you to empathize with other people so you can use your influence to do good.

We do not need magic to change the world, we carry all the power we need inside ourselves already: we have the power to imagine better."

2. David Foster Wallace: "This Is Water" (2005)

Theme of Speech: Life and Career

From the opening minutes of David Foster Wallace's 2005 Kenyon College commencement speech, in which he questions commencement speech conventions, it's clear that Wallace has some serious wisdom to share. The crux of his speech: Many of us are oblivious to our own close-mindedness. We picture ourselves as the centers of our own, individual universes, instead of seeing the bigger, more interconnected picture.

If you're automatically sure that you know what reality is and who and what is really important, if you want to operate on your default setting, then you, like me, probably won't consider possibilities that aren't annoying and miserable. But if you've really learned how to think, how to pay attention, then you'll know you have other options. It will actually be within your power to experience a crowded, hot, slow, consumer hell-type situation as not only meaningful, but sacred -- on fire with the same force that lit the stars: love, fellowship, the mystical oneness of all things deep down."

3. Fearless Motivation: "It's Not Easy, But It's Worth It" (2018)

Theme of Speech: Perseverance

youtube

Fearless Motivation is primarily a musical artist, but its library of inspirational messages is hard to ignore lately. The group's most popular speech is the video above, and it preaches a powerful lesson about staying positive when things all seem to be negative. The final line is as powerful as the quote from the speech below -- "Keep going. Your future self is begging you."

It’s easy to be positive when everything is working out. It’s much harder, much much harder when nothing is working out. But that’s when we need it the most ... Everything is worth the prize."

4. Jim Carrey: Commencement Speech at Maharishi University of Management (2014)

Theme of Speech: Taking Risks

youtube

Jim Carrey might make a living as the goofiest comedian around, but in 2014, he combined classic Carrey humor with unforgettable insight at Maharishi University of Management's graduation ceremony. Jim Carrey opened his speech dishing punchlines, but he eventually opened up about his upbringing and the role fear plays in our lives. You can actually hear the amazement in the students' reactions in the video above.

"I learned many great lessons from my father -- not the least of which is that you can fail at what you don't want, so you might as well take a chance on doing what you love."

5. Brené Brown: "The Power of Vulnerability" (2013)

Theme of Speech: Failure

The video above is an animated excerpt from researcher Brené Brown's speech, "The Power of Vulnerability." In the speech, Brown explores how our fear of not being good enough (among other fears) drives us to shield ourselves from our own vulnerabilities. The alternative to wearing this emotional suit of armor: Embrace vulnerability through empathizing with others.

Empathy is a choice, and it's a vulnerable choice. Because in order to connect with you, I have to connect with something in myself that knows that feeling. "

6. Steve Jobs: "How to Live Before You Die" (2005)

Theme of Speech: Life and Career

Considering the YouTube video of Steve Jobs' 2005 Stanford commencement speech has 24 million views (not counting the 10 million+ additional views from duplicate uploads), it's likely that you've seen this one already. In the speech, Jobs plays on two themes: connecting the dots (anecdote: how taking a calligraphy class helped inspire the design of the Mac) and love & loss (anecdote: how getting fired from Apple helped inspire his greatest innovations). Perhaps the most memorable part his speech comes at the end, when he quotes the (now-famous) lines from the final issue of his favorite publication, The Whole Earth Catalog:

Stay hungry. Stay foolish."

7. Ellen DeGeneres: Tulane University Commencement Speech (2009)

Theme of Speech: Life and Career

Ellen's speech, as you might expect, has its humorous moments. But it also explores some of the very personal and tragic episodes in her life that helped push her into comedy in the first place. Two key themes of DeGeneres'speech: overcoming adversity and being true to yourself. ForDeGeneres, that meant pushing onward with her career after her sitcom was canceled in response to her publicly coming out as gay.

Really, when I look back on it, I wouldn’t change a thing. I mean, it was so important for me to lose everything because I found out what the most important thing is ... to be true to yourself. Ultimately, that’s what’s gotten me to this place. I don’t live in fear. I’m free. I have no secrets and I know I’ll always be OK, because no matter what, I know who I am."

8. Sheryl Sandberg: Harvard Business School Class Day Speech (2012)

Theme of Speech: Life and Career

In her speech to the HBS class of 2012, Lean In author and tech executive Sheryl Sandberg deconstructed the idea of the "career as a ladder." For Sandberg, a career is about finding opportunities where you can make an impact, not about chasing titles and planning out a meticulous path. "If I had mapped out my career when I was sitting where you are, I would have missed my career," she commented. What's more, Sandberg eschews the traditional wisdom of keeping emotions out of the workplace. For Sandberg, you need to care not only about what you're working on, but also who you're working with. 

"If you want to win hearts and minds, you have to lead with your heart as well as your mind. I don’t believe we have a professional self from Mondays through Fridays and a real self for the rest of the time ... It is all professional and it is all personal, all at the very same time."

9. Dan Pink: "The Puzzle of Motivation" (2009)

Theme of Speech: Life and Career

Commissions, bonuses, other incentives ... in the business world, these are the things that motivate people, right? According to Dan Pink in his 2009 TED Talk, such extrinsic motivators (a.k.a. "carrots and sticks") could actually be doing more harm than good. The most recent sociological research suggests that the real key to producing better work is to find intrinsic motivation inside of yourself.

There is a mismatch between what science knows and what business does. And what worries me, as we stand here in the rubble of the economic collapse, is that too many organizations are making their decisions, their policies about talent and people, based on assumptions that are outdated, unexamined, and rooted more in folklore than in science."

10. Denzel Washington: "Fall Forward" (2011)

Theme of Speech: Failure

In his 2011 UPenn commencement speech, Denzel Washington highlighted three reasons why we need to embrace failure in order to be successful. First, everybody will fail at something at some point, so you better get used to it. Second, if you never fail, take that as a sign that you're not really trying. And third, at the end of the day, failure will help you figure out what path you want to be on.

Fall forward. Here’s what I mean: Reggie Jackson struck out twenty-six-hundred times in his career -- the most in the history of baseball. But you don’t hear about the strikeouts. People remember the home runs. Fall forward. Thomas Edison conducted 1,000 failed experiments. Did you know that? I didn’t know that—because #1,001 was the light bulb. Fall forward. Every failed experiment is one step closer to success."

11. Elizabeth Gilbert: "Your Elusive Creative Genius" (2009)

Theme of Speech: Life and Career

Following the extraordinary success of her book, Eat, Pray, Love, people began asking author Elizabeth Gilbert the same question over and over and over: How are you going to top that? In her 2009 TED Talk, Gilbert explores that question while also examining how our ideas of genius and creativity have shifted over the generations. While once seen as separate entities or states of being that anyone could tap into, genius and creativity have increasingly become associated with individuals. And according to Gilbert, that shift has been putting more and more pressure on artists, writers, and other creatives to produce great work.

I think that allowing somebody, one mere person to believe that he or she is like, the vessel, you know, like the font and the essence and the source of all divine, creative, unknowable, eternal mystery is just a smidge too much responsibility to put on one fragile, human psyche. It's like asking somebody to swallow the sun. It just completely warps and distorts egos, and it creates all these unmanageable expectations about performance. And I think the pressure of that has been killing off our artists for the last 500 years."

12. Charlie Day: Merrimack College Commencement Speech (2014)

Theme of Speech: Taking Risks

Best known for his role in the sitcom It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia, actor Charlie Day had lots of wisdom to share during the 2014 commencement speech at his alma mater, Merrimack College. Day explained to the audience how college degrees are inherently valueless, since you can't trade them in for cash. Instead, it's you, your hard work, and the risks you take that provide real value in life.

You cannot let a fear of failure or a fear of comparison or a fear of judgment stop you from doing the things that will make you great. You cannot succeed without the risk of failure. You cannot have a voice without the risk of criticism. You cannot love without the risk of loss. You must take these risks."

13. Orlando Scampington: "The Pillars of C.L.A.M." (2015)

Theme of Speech: Life and Career

Sometimes humor is the best motivator. So here's an INBOUND Bold Talk from self-proclaimed author, thought leader, dreamer, cat owner, visionary, and "believer in unlimited human potential," Orlando Scampington. As you'll soon realize upon reading the quote below, it's hard to explain what his speech is actually about -- so I think it's better that you just dive in and enjoy.

"Culture is the bitter drunken coachmen lashing motivation into the ungrateful workhorses, so they drag the wagon of growth down the road of success. I think that's a very apt analogy."

14. Vera Jones: “But the Blind Can Lead the Blind…” (2016)

Theme of Speech: Perseverance

Last year at INBOUND, Vera Jones told a moving story about the life lessons she’s learned from raising her blind son. She explains how having faith in your future and letting it lead you toward your true purpose will help you overcome blinding obstacles. She also discusses how following your passion and trusting your vision develops empathy, which is a critical leadership skill.

“Passionately play your position no matter how bad things get. You are significant. Why we are here is not for our own glory. Ultimately, we’re here to lead and serve everybody else. By doing that, we encourage others to do the same.”

15. Jim Valvano: ESPY Speech (1993)

Theme of Speech: Life and Career

Less than two months before he lost his battle to cancer, Jim Valvano delivered one of the most impactful and timeless speeches about living life to the fullest. My words can’t do it justice, so be prepared for some laughter, tears, and thought.

“I just got one last thing; I urge all of you, all of you, to enjoy your life, the precious moments you have. To spend each day with some laughter and some thought, to get your emotions going. To be enthusiastic every day, and Ralph Waldo Emerson said, “Nothing great could be accomplished without enthusiasm,” to keep your dreams alive in spite of problems whatever you have. The ability to be able to work hard for your dreams to come true, to become a reality.”

16. Kal Penn: DePauw University Commencement Speech (2014)

Theme of Speech: Life and Career

In 2014, Kal Penn delivered an uplifting speech that DePauw University will never forget. He advised graduates to strive for success but to not let it loosen their grip on the things that actually matter, like staying connected with loved ones, being adventurous, and acting selflessly. He also comforted millennials everywhere, convincing them that their futures are full of potential and promise because their generation’s identity is rooted in innovation.

“Opportunity is all around us. You’re graduating at a time where youth unemployment is high. And yet your peers are refusing to sit idly by. You’re the most active, service-driven generation, the most imaginative, the most tech-savvy. You’re creating opportunities, inventing gadgets, placing an emphasis on social responsibility over greed. So stop worrying so much. Why are you worried?”

Famous Short Speeches With Inspirational Takeaways

17. Charles Dutton: Speech from Rudy (1993)

In the film Rudy, Sean Astin’s character, Rudy Ruettiger, quits the Notre Dame football team because he has to watch one of his last games from the stands. After two years of grueling practices and never once being apart of the team on the sidelines, he’s done dealing with the humiliation. But his friend Fortune -- played by Charles Dutton -- flips the script on him. He shows Rudy that he shouldn’t be humiliated. He should be proud because he’s proven to everyone that his perseverance and heart can carry him through any challenge. He just needs to realize that himself. And the only way he can do that is if he stays on the team for the rest of the season.

“You’re 5 feet nothin’, a 100 and nothin’, and you got hardly a speck of athletic ability. And you hung in with the best college football team in the land for two years. And you’re also gonna walk outta here with a degree from the University of Notre Dame. In this lifetime, you don’t have to prove nothin’ to nobody – except yourself. And after what you’ve gone through, if you haven’t done that by now, it ain’t gonna never happen. Now go on back.”

18. William Wallace: Speech From the Battle of Stirling Bridge (1297)

OK, I'll admit it: I couldn't find a recording of the actual speech Scottish freedom fighter William Wallace gave at the Battle of Stirling Bridge in 1297 (the historian I spoke with said something about "nonexistent technology" and me "being an idiot," but I digress). Historical accuracy aside, there's no denying that Mel Gibson's version of the speech from the 1995 film Braveheart can help get you pumped up.

"Aye, fight and you may die. Run and you'll live -- at least a while. And dying in your beds many years from now, would you be willing to trade all the days from this day to that for one chance, just one chance to come back here and tell our enemies that they may take our lives, but they'll never take our freedom!!!"

19. Al Pacino: "Inch by Inch" (1999)

Yes, this speech is from a football movie (Any Given Sunday), but trust me: This isn't your stereotypical rah-rah-go-get-'em sports speech. It's deeper than that. It's about life, and loss, and ... gosh darn it just listen to Al Pacino, he's pouring his soul out!

Either we heal as a team or we’re gonna crumble, inch by inch, play by play, till we’re finished. We’re in hell right now, gentlemen, believe me. And we can stay here and get the $&#@ kicked out of us, or we can fight our way back into the light. We can climb out of hell, one inch at a time."

20. Sylvester Stallone: Speech from Rocky Balboa (2006)

I had to put this one next since it plays along the same themes as Denzel Washington's UPenn speech. In the scene above, from the 2006 film Rocky Balboa, the title character (played by Sylvester Stallone) is having a heart-to-heart with his son. The advice he gives him: Don't let your failures or the adversity you face slow you down. Keep. Moving. Forward.

Let me tell you something you already know. The world ain't all sunshine and rainbows. It's a very mean and nasty place, and I don't care how tough you are, it will beat you to your knees and keep you there permanently if you let it. You, me, or nobody is gonna hit as hard as life. But it ain't about how hard you hit. It's about how hard you can get hit and keep moving forward. How much you can take and keep moving forward. That's how winning is done!"

21. Frank Oz/Yoda: Speech from The Empire Strikes Back (1980)

This speech fromThe Empire Strikes Back felt like a natural follow-up to Charlie Day's speech. In the scene above, Yoda -- voiced by Frank Oz -- is teaching Luke the ways of the force. One of his key teachings: Whether or not something can or can't be done (e.g., lifting an X-Wing out of a swamp) is all in your head. So instead of doubting yourself, believe in yourself.

"Do, or do not. There is no try."

22. Will Smith: Speech from The Pursuit of Happyness (2006)

Here's another speech from the big screen, this time from the 2006 film The Pursuit of Happyness. In the scene above, Will Smith's character explains to his son why he shouldn't pursue basketball (because he'll end up being "below average") before having a major change of heart.

Don't ever let somebody tell you ... you can't do something. Not even me. All right? You got a dream. You gotta protect it. People can't do something themselves, they want to tell you can't do it. If you want something, go get it. Period."

23. Kurt Russell: “This is Your Time” (2004)

The Miracle on Ice is still considered the biggest upset in Olympic hockey history. And for good reason. The Soviet Union won six of the last seven Olympic gold medals, and the U.S. team consisted only of amateur players. It was obvious the Soviets were better. But, in the movie Miracle, which told the incredible story of the 1980 U.S. Olympic Hockey Team, Kurt Russell’s character -- Coach Herb Brooks -- knew that this game was different. The U.S. was better than the Soviets that day. And his speech conveyed such a strong belief in his team that they pulled off one of the greatest sports moments of the 20th century.

"If we played ’em ten times, they might win nine. But not this game… Not tonight. Tonight, we skate with them. Tonight, we stay with them. And we shut them down because we can! Tonight, WE are the greatest hockey team in the world. You were born to be hockey players, every one of you. And you were meant to be here tonight. This is your time.”

Want more? Read How to Motivate Yourself When You're Absolutely Exhausted.

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cleancutpage · 7 years ago

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This is Why I Love Working in Real Estate Tech…

This post originally appeared on Michael Beckerman's Blog and is republished with permission. Find out how to syndicate your content with theBrokerList.

Here are some excerpts from our conversation:

Michael Beckerman: What’s your background?

MB: What led you to start WYL?

MB: What does the site do? And how big is the site today?

750k users – people looking for reviews/rentals (25% MOM growth)

70k blog readers/mo (43% MOM growth)

500k+ active listings nationwide

Renter search queries – 230% MOM growth

10k+ landlord reviews in the northeast

Corporate partnerships with American Express, Allstate, Roadway Moving, Dominion, etc.

Recent coverage: Featured in Forbes, NY Post, NowThis, Philly Inquirer, Blavity, Curbed, Newsweek, TechCrunch, etc.

MB: How have you funded the site and what are your future funding strategies?

MB: What are your expansion plans, short and long term?

MB: What do you enjoy about being an entrepreneur and what is your personal motivate and drive based on?

MB: You have a pretty amazing personal network of contacts in business, politics, culture etc…who are some of the people that inspire you and why?

MB: What’s next for Ofu?

Left to right: Felix Addison COO, Kelley Green Dir of Comm, Ofo Ezeugwu CEO, Nik Korablin CTO

RSS Feed provided by theBrokerList Blog - Are you on theBrokerList for commercial real estate (cre)? and This is Why I Love Working in Real Estate Tech… was written by Michael Beckerman.

This is Why I Love Working in Real Estate Tech… published first on https://greatlivinghomespage.tumblr.com/

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