Text of Steve Jobs' Commencement Address at Stanford (June 12, 2005)
news.stanford.edu
news.stanford.edu
It is an extraordinarily well-crafted speech.
Kinda sad, when you think about how many of the people in the audience would go on to become investment bankers...
I'm just extremely fortunate to experience life in the Valley and it opened up my mind. When doing a startup, its like a roller coaster ride with many ups and downs. Success is not overnight and probably might not even get there on the first attempt. But its speeches like this that kept the fire burning.
Thousands of years ago, most of our ancestors were more likely than not subsistence farming or, if they were doing anything historically interesting at all, laboring on gigantic walls or pyramids or other largely useless monuments for various kings and tyrants. There was no choice as to what one did with one's life, it was dictated by the circumstances of birth.
Even having dreams, much less the ability to follow them, is a rare thing for humans. We're each blessed to have this ability.
Is this really specific to our generation?
For that matter, I don't know what generation you're from. I assume the same one that I'm considered to be, if you're talking about a recent graduation. But, you could be older -- attending someone else's graduation.
Looking at the role that design plays in Apple nowadays, I wouldn't be surprised at all to see Jonathan Ive filling Jobs's shoes in the future, and that would be an excellent choice IMHO.
Of course, I also wonder how the young Steve Jobs would evaluate some of the current Apple's policies...
For some reason it reminds me of that quote from Annie Hall. Woody Allen trying to cop some hippie jargon... "Did it achieve total heaviosity?"