I get why you're being downvoted, but I fully agree with you. When I was still in college and read 'this is water' for the first time it felt like an epiphany. Now, a few years down the road, it just seems pretentious to me.

Also, I don't mean any disrespect here, but the fact that he killed himself kind of taints these sort of speeches for me also. How much better is his proposed lifestyle/world-view really, if it didn't even work for the master-mind himself? (Assuming that the goal is to be happy of course.)

EDIT: Just to clarify, I know he was probably battling depression, but should a person fighting such a severe mental illness really be the one, one listens to for live-advice then?