David Foster Wallace's Kenyon Commencement Speech (2005) | Hacker News Reader

David Foster Wallace's Kenyon Commencement Speech (2005)

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90 pointsjohnjwang17 comments

Classic! I always thought that there should be a course (ideally starting from middle school but definitely in college), perhaps called Life Engineering, where kids/young adults are taught tools to help them shape their lives. Alongside this, pg's essay "What You Wish You'd Known" (http://www.paulgraham.com/hs.html) and Randy Pausch's "Last Lecture" (http://www.paulgraham.com/hs.html) would be included in class materials.

This class should would also teach you important little life skills like how to tie your shoes better using the Ian knot (http://lifehacker.com/5451765/ditch-the-granny-knot-to-tie-y...), how to match clothing items so that you don't look like a total clown (unless intentional), how to write legibly with proper handwriting, etc.

I wish I had that kind of class growing up. Even a basic life skills class would be helpful. It would be much better than all those "teachers aide" classes I took in high school.

http://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/university_of_life

I don't know about the shoe-tying, but yes, this would have been great.

How to talk to people you don't know, how to consider what other people are thinking, how to nourish healthy relationships (and the many possible options for not-so-healthy relationships). Practice semi-public speaking. How to become an "expert" on something.

I think many of "how to your life" type classes might run afoul of parents' preferences, though, for younger students (how to talk about religion?), and run into the limitations of the professors for older students -- professors aren't necessarily good representatives for interesting and unusual life choices, especially if they're never really left academia since they were students themselves.

Of course we're going to reinvent the wheel using tech-industry terms here on HN. :)

One of the points that DFW is getting at in this speech is that this is exactly what a classic liberal arts education is supposed to do for you (ideally). But both the ideal and the practical reality of that education have suffered terribly at the hands of social institutions that see education primarily as an industrial input and higher education as a credentialing tool. And it's a bit of an uphill fight against some of the less-enlightened sides of human nature to begin with.

Selections from this speech were used to create the "This is Water" video (which I love) that made the rounds in 2013: http://www.adweek.com/adfreak/story-behind-water-inspiring-v...

I watch this video every 3 months. Its message is so important, yet easy to forget.

I found the sound effects too distracting. It's a shame you can't turn them off and just hear the speech with the video.

I've found the youtube video of DFW delivering the speech to be much better. It's unpolished and has no visuals, and there's a lot moRe silence in which to digest: https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=8CrOL-ydFMI

I prefer this version as well. The other one shortens it and cuts out some great parts.

Here's a link to audio of David Foster Wallace reading the speech:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IYGaXzJGVAQ

I have to laugh a bit about his comments on point of view, and arrogance.

The atheist prays, and is rescued by a couple of passing Eskimos -- he credits the Eskimos (no God involved), the believer credits God, and I (somewhat arrogantly) notice that:

- the "experiment" doesn't offer any evidence in either direction, BUT

- prayer in a life-or-death situation does seem like it would strengthen religious belief, because if someone prays and dies, well, that's that. They're not around to tell others how prayer failed them. But those that pray and survive will preach the seeming intercession to the world with utter conviction.

This is why his other points about worship are excellent -- if I take intellectual agility or rationality to the level of worship, and keep a self-centered focus, well, I just have to run into someone who's mastered this far more than I have to be deflated.

My favorite part from this speech, "Everybody Worships."

http://www.pixelmonkey.org/2014/11/26/everybody-worships

I mean, this is the best.

Here's my random tip: I have this copy/pasted into an e-mail so that I can forward to friends and random people when it comes up - easy way to share such an insanely valuable read.

This is a wonderful speech. Wish we still had him with us.

A beautiful video was made from this speech by The Glossary, it's available here: https://vimeo.com/68855377

The story behind it is here: http://www.adweek.com/adfreak/story-behind-water-inspiring-v...

I can't relate to the way this guy feels in traffic or in crowded supermarkets.

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