You've def heard of "The Hero's Journey", the narrative structure dating back to Homer's Odyssey in ~7th century BC.
A great way to learn the framework is comparing scene-by-scene images from 2 modern classics of the story type: "Star Wars" and "The Matrix". #TheMatrix
THREAD🧵
0/ The "Hero's Journey" was coined by Joseph Campbell, an American literary prof.
He studied ancient myths and found many shared a similar character arc (AKA the "monomyth").
It follows 12 stages, with a hero venturing from an "ordinary world" to a "special world" and back.
1/ Ordinary world
The hero's normal life before the adventure begins:
◻️ Luke Skywalker lives on a farm in Tatooine
◻️ Neo is a corporate slave in The Matrix
2/ Call to adventure
The hero is faced with an event, conflict, problem, or challenge that starts the adventure:
◻️ R2D2 flashes a hologram of Princess Leia asking Obi-Wan for help
◻️ Neo is sent a message to "follow the white rabbit"
3/ Refusal of the call
The hero refuses the adventure because of hesitation, fears, insecurity or other:
◻️ Luke tells Obi-Wan he has to stay on Tatooine farm to help his aunt and uncle
◻️ When agents come to his office, Neo can escape by climbing out a window (but wimps out)
4/ Meeting the mentor
The hero encounters a mentor that can give them advice, wisdom, information, or items that preps them for journey:
◻️ Luke's aunt and uncle murdered by stormtroopers, he agrees to have Obi-wan train him
◻️ Neo meets Morpheus, who soon trains him
5/ Crossing the threshold
The hero leaves the ordinary world for the first time and crosses the threshold into adventure:
◻️ Luke follows Obi-wan to the Mos Eisley spaceport (a "wretched hive of scum and villainy", Luke is no longer safe)
◻️ Neo takes red pill and leaves Matrix
6/ Test, Allies, Enemies
The hero learns the rules of the new world and endures tests, meets friends, and confronts enemies:
◻️ Luke meets Han Solo / Chewy, starts journey
◻️ Neo meets the team on the Nebuchadnezzar Ship, learns about the "real world"
7/ The Approach
The initial plan to take on the central conflict begins, but setbacks occur that cause the hero to try a new approach:
◻️ Luke to meet Rebels on Alderaan, but the planet is destroyed
◻️ Neo meets The Oracle, who says he's *not* The One
8/ The Ordeal
Things go wrong and a new conflict is introduced, incl. a potential life or death situation:
◻️ Luke and Co. save Leia but Obi-Wan sacrifices himself to Vader
◻️ Morpheus is abducted during an ambush. Neo and Trinity return to save him.
9/ Seizing the Sword
After surviving The Ordeal, the hero gains a reward (knowledge, physical item) to take on to the biggest conflict:
◻️ Luke saves Princess Leia and has Death Star plans
◻️ Neo saves Morpheus and has confidence he is The One after fighting Agent Smith
10/ The Road Back
The hero sees the light at the end of the tunnel, but they are about to face even more tests and challenges:
◻️ Luke and Co. bring Death Star plans to rebel base and are chased by the Empire
◻️ Cypher betrays team and Neo is unable to exit The Matrix
11/ The climax.
The hero faces a final test, using everything they have learned to prevail:
◻️ Luke, Co. and rebels take on the Death Star (Luke uses the force to aim the kill shot)
◻️ Neo is killed by agents, resurrected by Trinity..he's The One and stops bullets
12/ Return With Elixir
The hero brings their knowledge or the “elixir” back to the ordinary world.
◻️Luke is a f*cking Jedi and gets a fat medal for it
◻️Neo can f*cking fly, is The One and is gonna cause some havoc in The Matrix
13/ Star Wars' creator George Lucas credits "The Hero's Journey" for improving his original script.
Prior to applying the framework, Star Wars was "a Saturday morning space movie" according to composer John Williams.
Lucas went on his hero's journey, too (naming hero "Luke").
14/ If you enjoyed that, I write interesting threads like this 1-2x a week.
The invention of bánh mì is a combination of climate, trade and urban layout of Saigon in late-19th century designed by French colonist.
When the French captured the area in 1859, most economic activity in the region took place along the Saigon river.
The population built makeshift homes tightly bundled by the river banks. Outgrowth from this eventually lead to narrow alleyways between many buildings that is trademark of the city (the Khmer named the region Prey Nokor then French renamed it Saigon and then it was renamed to Ho Chi Minh City in 1976 after end of Vietnam War).
Over decades, the French created European street grids and built wide Paris-type boulevards in the city to funnel commerce to larger markets (also make the city easier to administer).
It was at these markets that French baguettes were introduced and traded.
Bánh mì bread is known for being flaky and crispy on the outside while fluffier on inside (so god damn good).
Two features of Saigon helped create this texture:
▫️Climate: The heat and humidity in Southeast Asia leads dough to ferment faster, which creates air pockets in bread (light and fluffy).
▫️Ingredient: Wide availability of rice meant locals added rice flour to wheat flour imports (which were quite expensive). Rice flour is more resistant to moisture and creates a drier, crispier crust.
Fast forward to the 1930s: the French-designed street layout is largely complete. Now, the city centre has wide boulevards intersected by countless narrow alleyways.
The design was ideal for street vendor carts. These businesses were inspired by shophosue of colonial architecture to sell all types of goods as chaotic traffic rushed by.
Vietnam has some of the most slapping rice and soup dishes, but many people on the move in the mornings wanted something more portable and edible by hand.
Bánh mì was traditionally upper class fare but it met the need for on-the-go food.
Just fill the bread with some Vietnamese ingredients (braised pork, pickled vegetable, Vietnamese coriander, chilies) along with French goodies (pate).
Pair it with cà phê sữa đá (aka coffee with condensed milk aka caffeinated crack) and you’re laughing.
Haven’t lived in Saigon for 10+ years but ate a banh mi every other day when I did.
While there, I also sold a comedy script to Fox (pitch: “The Fugitive meets Harold & Kumar set in Southeast Asia”).
reminder that no “asian guy and stripper” story will ever top Enron Lou Pai’s “asian guy and stripper” story
Totally forgot Lou Pai got the stripper pregnant.
If this story was transplanted to 2020s, Pai would probably have been a whale on OnlyFans and gotten got…anyways, I wrote about the economics of OF here: readtrung.com/p/onlyfans-sti…
Boston Consulting Group (BCG) trained an AI slideshow maker called “Decker” on 900 templates and apparently gotten so popular that “some of its consultants are fretting about job security.”
Sorry, called “Deckster”. That excerpt was from this BI piece that also looked at McKinsey and Deloitte AI uses: businessinsider.com/consulting-ai-…
The Mckinsey chatbot is used by 70% of firm but same anonymous job board said it’s "functional enough" and best for "very low stakes issues." x.com/bearlyai/statu…
Here’s a r/consulting thread based on Computer World last year. Deckster was launched internally March 2024…some think it’s BS…some think it helps with cold start (B- quality): reddit.com/r/consulting/s…