Wednesday, June 15, 2005

Steve Jobs' commencement speech inspires


Now, THAT is probably one of the most-inspiring speeches I've read in a long time. Sure, there may be a few cliches in there for you academics who sit through painful hours of commencement speeches every year. I suffer under no such burden. I need to print it out and frame it in my office just to remind myself what the hell I'm doing. The full version can be found here, where he also discusses how getting fired from Apple was the best thing that ever happened to him.

5 comments:

Anonymous said...

As someone who took 7 years to get a four year degree, I have to agree with Mr. Jobs on several points.

1) Dropping out to drop in gave me much more knowledge about the real world.

2) Having the rug pulled out from under my feet at two different jobs (both closed their doors) has put me where I am today.

3) Degrees are overrated. Go to any University and you can count on one hand the number of PhD's that have any common sense left.

In case anyone is wondering what the letters in front of a degree stand for:

BS - Bulls**t
MS - More s**t
PhD - Piled higher and deeper

Mr. Smith

Anonymous said...

One suspects that Mr. Jobs' advice on this topic is comparable to a lottery winner's advice on how easy it is to win the lottery.

Howard Lovy said...

In confess that I do not know a great deal about Steve Jobs' biography, except that he's responsible for the brand of computer I've been using since 1988. Are you saying anybody could have done what he has done -- twice -- had he or she only been in the right place at the right time?

Anonymous said...

About Mr. Jobs:
By the sound of it, I'd go with the second option Howard.

About Education:
Perhaps you are right Mr. Smith, but you must admit that sometimes you just can't walk out from the street and into a venture without, at least, a bit of knowledge beforehand.

Anonymous said...

A piece of paper does not give you knowledge. All it says is that you managed to BS your way through school. Or MS if you go that far.

As far as I know, none of the mechanics who work on my car have a BS in anything. And they make more per hour than I do.

I also doubt that the advice that Mr. Jobs gives is even remotely comparable to advice on how to win the lottery. First off, you need to have a lot less brain power to play the voluntary tax that is know as the lottery. A lack of knowledge is the prime motivator in that case.

Mr. Smith