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Things Your Commencement Speaker Won't Tell You

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Re: Things Your Commencement Speaker Won't Tell You

#41

Post by dgbsco »

lmm wrote: post #20
dgbsco wrote: post #16

>Don't try to be great. What the hell? >Being great involves luck and other circumstances beyond your control. Certainly that plays a roll...but to neglect your own agency in becoming "great" is idiotic.

If you set out to be great simple numbers mean you will most likely fail. The famous "mid-life crisis" can easily result. Best to accept that you most likely won't change the world, and be satisfied with things you can reasonably achieve.

I suppose it's the defeatist attitude that bothers me.

Yes, most people will become nothing, because they were never anything to begin with. But why not embrace your potential and fight for greatness. Humility, important - just as is managing your expectations, but acting powerless is so disturbingly passive and disappointing.

You define your greatness, and you fulfill that destiny. Acting as a passive being in life is boring, and meaningless. Accepting mediocrity is just one more step towards insignificance. Grasp your purpose through greatness and find something more rewarding that "accepting you won't change the world."

The "greatest" people want to change something, want to make things different, want to leave a lasting contribution - having that desire should be universally human. Farmers and factory workers are the ones who "accept their insignificance in civilization."

Re: Things Your Commencement Speaker Won't Tell You

#42

Post by enraged_camel »

michaelochurch wrote: post #6

Most commencement speakers are double outliers. 1. They're highly successful. Most people aren't. 2. The validation of an academic meritocracy where many top members (compared to anything else in society) hate the corporate world means that they're likely to be people of merit. Most highly successful people aren't. They're great at inspiring, but they've had just too much good luck to know how the world really works…

I further posit that, while graduation speeches are often inspirational, they rarely provide anything tangible, especially when boiled down to a list of "do this, don't do that."

I wonder how many of the kids at commencement will remember what the speaker told them a year from then? Or five years?

Re: Things Your Commencement Speaker Won't Tell You

#44

Post by rayiner »

127001brewer wrote: post #5

Another point would be to save . When you're young, it's easy to spend and not save. However, it's important to get into a disciplined habit of saving - don't depend on someone else to force you to save. Also, while it's financially advantageous to have a two-income family, once you have kids priorities might change. The better choice may be to have a parent at home with the kid(s) instead of utilizing day-care. You'…

If substantial inflation is on the way, the winning play is not to save but take on debt.

Re: Things Your Commencement Speaker Won't Tell You

#45

Post by volkadav »

hnriot wrote: post #32
127001brewer wrote: post #5

Another point would be to save . When you're young, it's easy to spend and not save. However, it's important to get into a disciplined habit of saving - don't depend on someone else to force you to save. Also, while it's financially advantageous to have a two-income family, once you have kids priorities might change. The better choice may be to have a parent at home with the kid(s) instead of utilizing day-care. You'…

this is very bad advice. saving money with a near nil interest rate is a huge waste of money. spend money on travel, do things with the money you have, life live. It is through expanding our horizons that opportunities present themselves which lead to a far more fulfilling live. Simply hoarding cash for the rainy day scenario seems like such an awful way to live life. Sure, don't over spend, don't waste, and don't fr…

"Saving" can mean much more than a simple savings account (which are still useful even if rates are negligible -- having a few months' worth of living expenses in savings against emergencies is a hugely calming thing), e.g. saving in tax-advantaged retirement accounts. Starting that when you're young increases the chances that you'll have a comfortable retirement, and you can more easily tolerate swings in the markets. (401k/IRA et al. in the US, every industrialized country that I know of has something like this though.)

Not that I entirely disagree with you. Dying a rich miser who never enjoyed life is a crappy way to go, just as crappy as being old and broke. As with all things, there's a middle path that probably maximizes both short and long term happiness. :)

Re: Things Your Commencement Speaker Won't Tell You

#46

Post by hello_newman »

codex wrote: post #19
michaelochurch wrote: post #6

Most commencement speakers are double outliers. 1. They're highly successful. Most people aren't. 2. The validation of an academic meritocracy where many top members (compared to anything else in society) hate the corporate world means that they're likely to be people of merit. Most highly successful people aren't. They're great at inspiring, but they've had just too much good luck to know how the world really works…

This is why I love Steve Jobs' commencement address at Stanford. He was brutally honest. I love how he attributes much of his success to not having a college degree.

"I love how he attributes much of his success to not having a college degree."

I love the part where he talks about Reed College and says something along the lines of "It was almost as expensive as Stanford" and he chuckled. The camera pans to the audience, and you can see the Professors behind him just stare with a straight face. Kind of seemed like he reminded all the students in the audience (and some adults I am sure) that they are now carrying around a mountain of debt.

Re: Things Your Commencement Speaker Won't Tell You

#47

Post by YokoZar »

rayiner wrote: post #44
127001brewer wrote: post #5

Another point would be to save . When you're young, it's easy to spend and not save. However, it's important to get into a disciplined habit of saving - don't depend on someone else to force you to save. Also, while it's financially advantageous to have a two-income family, once you have kids priorities might change. The better choice may be to have a parent at home with the kid(s) instead of utilizing day-care. You'…

If substantial inflation is on the way, the winning play is not to save but take on debt.

If substantial inflation is on the way, the interest rate earned by your savings will increase accordingly provided you're not investing in mattress funds.

Re: Things Your Commencement Speaker Won't Tell You

#48

Post by rayiner »

YokoZar wrote: post #47
rayiner wrote: post #44

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If substantial inflation is on the way, the winning play is not to save but take on debt.

If substantial inflation is on the way, the interest rate earned by your savings will increase accordingly provided you're not investing in mattress funds.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stagflation

Re: Things Your Commencement Speaker Won't Tell You

#49

Post by 6d0debc071 »

pat_punnu wrote: post #26
cjoh wrote: post #21

The 11th thing your commencement speaker won't tell you? "You just spent four years of your life here, and are now six figures in debt as a result. You didn't have to do that. Hopefully in that 4 years and with that six figures, you learned how to educate yourself without this institution."

Yeah, I'll just call myself a surgeon and pick it up as I go along. No problem! Who needs to spend time learning from best academic minds in CS? I can just tweet to some jackass Javascript 'rockstar'! I'll just teach myself philosophy by reading these library books! I don't need some stuffy Oxford tutor who has been doing it for their whole life passing on their knowledge one-to-one! Civil engineering? Making mistake…

You're not learning from the best academic minds, and if you were that would be a bad thing anyway.

Having the best academic minds teaching Bachelors, or even Masters level comp sci is a waste of resources. They might be an excellent researcher but most of what you're covering is not particularly new or controversial and can be better taught by someone whose main skillset lies in the realm of teaching rather than research.

The idea that you need someone who might otherwise be doing important work to turn up and read their power-point presentation to a bunch of undergrads in order for them to learn is retarded. Almost anyone with a decent familiarity with comp sci could be reading that stuff, or the students could be reading it from one of the many books on the subject.

Lectures were originally there, as I recall, so that people could copy down from the extremely rare book that was being read, and with very few exceptions little has changed in that regard with respect to education.

And what the hell's your distribution for best anyway? I went to university, didn't meet anyone smarter than myself. I'm probably not a genius but since none of the professors were trying to do anything hard in our presence....

The best argument for university has nothing to do with professors, it has to do with other students you'll meet and having the chance to argue over subjects with them and work on projects with them. But that you need to be in a lecture hall with the best minds to learn? That's just cargo-cult bullshit.

Re: Things Your Commencement Speaker Won't Tell You

#50

Post by umsm »

tokenadult wrote: post #33

I can't believe that five hours after this interesting essay was posted, none of the comments have yet mentioned Paul Graham's essay (also a commencement speech never heard at an actual graduation) "What You'll Wish You'd Known" (January 2005). http://paulgraham.com/hs.html I like much of the advice of that essay, which is the second Paul Graham essay local friends recommended that I read. I have all my children read…

He mentions that "the school authorities vetoed the plan to invite me"... why?
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