To 99% of the population, the web is still a place. Something we go visit. Soon the web will become not only where we are, but who we are. In time we will realize how much of a societal shift the web will have caused. I think it’s fundamental the other 1% understand that. – Nils Geylen

Considering Nils is someone who I read regularly, I’m rather surprised it took Andrew Eglinton pointing it out for me to notice. (To be fair, I mostly read Nils’s blog via RSS.)

I’m in the process now of evaluating a number of things about my life. If, in fact, Socrates was right when he stated that “a life left unexamined is a life not worth living,” then I suppose now is one of those times I’m making sure this life has been as continues to be worth living. The following BSG scene hit on a few important points for me:

Adama: It’s a hard thing to say, but it’s seems like don’t know my son any more. Same goes with the crew, the ship… I feel pretty much alone. Except maybe for you.

Boomer: *slight laugh* I wish I could come back a year and tell the other Admiral Adama about this conversation.

Adama: A year’s a long time.

Boomer: Can I ask you something… very personal?

Adama: [Silently looks at Boomer]

Boomer: Do you feel guilty about leaving the people behind on New Caprica?

Adama: [After a pause] I don’t do guilt.

Boomer: You know, a year ago, when you put me in this cell, I was at a crossroads. I sat in here for weeks just consumed with rage at all the things that had happened to me. And at some point I realized it was just guilt. I was angry at some of the choices I’d made.

Betraying my people, losing the baby…

So, I had a choice: I could either move forward or stay in the past. But the only way to move forward was to forgive myself.

I don’t think we can survive– I don’t think the fleet, Galactica, or the people on New Caprica can survive unless the man at the top finds a way to forgive himself.

Adama: [Thinking. Looks at Boomer. Pours himself and Boomer some tea. Or coffee.]

When the student is ready…

Last night, before watching the episodes, I asked The Wife to tell me what she thought my biggest weakness was. She said I tended to be too hard on myself.

While I’d never really thought about that, I immediately agreed. I, like many people, have a natural tendency — one I’ve been fighting — towards replaying the worst moments of our lives over and over, as if looking at a picture book with all of the worst pictures we’ve taken. We beat ourselves up and then expect to miraculously be able to uplift others and be positive, constructive people. While we may look for constructive criticism from others, often times we’re harder than anyone on ourselves. What’s worse is that we then try to justify it by judging ourselves by our intentions while others have no other choice but to judge us by our actions.

The fact that she me doing that wasn’t what really got to me. It was that she wasn’t the first to ever point this out. It was the fact that I already knew I did that… and I was doing it again.

… the teacher shows up.

As a side note, here’s a little (insignificant) spoiler for those of you who haven seen season 3: Major Lee Adama, the son of the Admiral who some of us hate due only to his outrageously good looks, becomes a fatty — gut, double chin… the works. At one point Admiral Adama calls him out on it, telling him, after Lee’s been whining that his pilots are working too hard, to “Get your fat ass out of here.” As a fatty, this moment kind of hurts. As a fatty who’s slimming down to non-fatty, this moment is… priceless.

What I find interesting in this scene, aside from its obvious comedic value, is how the Admiral calls out his son out for being too weak on himself, mentally and physically. Contrast that with the quote at the beginning of this post and you see where some of my internal struggles lie.

Business School Podcast for Free: America’s leading business schools — Wharton, Duke’s Fuqua School, Harvard — are all making courses available for download via iTunes. (If you expect me to tell you why this is good, you’re wasting your time. Go check it out now.)

The Perfect Mark: Ever wonder if anyone actually ever falls for those emails we all get promising to make you rich if you help out some Nigerian widow stash US$45-million in your bank account? Wonder no more: the answer is yes, and who they ensnare might surprise you. This New Yorker piece is an actual story about a guy who, in his greed and pride, fell victim to these scammers and ended up in jail for it. [Source: Black Marks on Wood Pulp. Also, reminds me of this previous Gnorb.NET piece on avoiding CraigsList scammers.]

Becoming Human: So, how did we get from where we were 4,000,000 years ago as simple, knuckle-dragging Australopithecines to the current state of Homo Sapiens? This very interesting Flash video shows you where we came from and how we got here.

Washington’s Farewell Address Translated into Modern English: In the course of human history, not many have had quite as strong an impact as General George Washington, the first President of the United States. His farewell address is agreed upon by historians to be one of the finest in all American politics, since it deals with issues we struggle with even unto this day. The problem is that since it is written in 1790’s English, most people today can’t really understand it, which is why xkcd undertook the task of translating the piece into modern English. One his commenters upped the ante, reposting a modern day translation of the American Declaration of Independence.

The Height of Hubris? Ever seen the movie Gattaca? In it, the main protagonist is a lowly, genetically inferior human trying to get to space. In the process, he begins transforming his body, one of the ways being limb-lengthening surgery. In this BetterHumans piece, Simon asks whether his personal desire for such a surgery (available from a reputable source for as low as US$20,000 in China) is hubris, or whether he really is justified in wanting to make himself taller. After all, “The majority of CEOs are over six foot, the taller US presidential candidate tends to win the election, and people earn more money, on average, with each extra inch of height.” Here, he outlines reasons for and against the surgery. A very interesting read, especially for those interested in Transhumanist topics and cosmetic surgery.

The Last Question: So, we’ve seen where humans came from and where we are. Now, where are we going? Sci-Fi legend Isaac Asimov tells a short, trillion-year tale of how this whole human experience might end, and maybe how it began. “The last question was asked for the first time, half in jest, on May 21, 2061, at a time when humanity first stepped into the light. The question came about as a result of a five-dollar bet over highballs, and it happened this way…”

Multi-Touch Monitors: This is seriously cool. In this video, Jeff Han and Phil Davidson demonstrate how a multi-touch driven computer screen will change the way we work and play.

Holy Crap! Is This Real?! And now, for something totally different.

Online Game: Dodge: Simple and Addictive: Does it get any better than that? It’s the kind of game that keeps you as entertained as a stoner watching a side-loaded washing machine. Whoooa…. hey, nachos!

Well, that does it for this week. You can check out the previous episodes in the Le Linkage category of Gnorb.NET.

If you haven’t heard about the movie, it seems to be doing rather well. I am not too familiar with the storyline, but I believe it is about a man and his son who are overcoming life’s obstacles after having suffered some kind of loss. I really can’t get any more specific (or generic) than that.

Now since I haven’t seen that movie, I can’t write about the impression the father made upon the son in his ability to always look ahead and set an example for the young one to follow. Instead I shall talk about the movie I did see when this one became unavailable the first time: Rocky Balboa.

Now don’t consider this a review so much as it is a commentary on some of the lessons brought about from this movie. I’ll try and keep the spoilers down to a minimum but will give some warning if I reveal something crucial to the plot. Though to be honest a lot of the movie was rather predictable. The beauty of it all was that it’s this little bit of predictability that further enhanced the viewing experience.

I will start out by saying that this was a far more satisfying conclusion to the Rocky series than the fifth movie. Something about the fifth one just seemed sad and depressing despite the ending. When Rocky Balboa ended however, I couldn’t help but feel that the series had been put to rest in a classy way and stayed true to the Rocky image.

One of the interesting dynamics that appeared in the movie was the ever developing relationship with Rocky’s son. Now here is a fair warning. Below this point the article will have scattered spoilers. If you haven’t seen the Rocky movies and wish it all to remain a surprise, then just scroll to the bottom and write a comment about what a fantastic article I wrote. Come on, spread the love.

There have been many great men in our history who have done things that were nothing short of extraordinary. However what of their children? Have the mother and father cast such a great shadow that the child cannot hope but to only measure themselves against their parent’s peak? While it wasn’t the main focus of the Rocky movie, it certainly did play a role in it.

When the father is a great businessman who has affected many lives, the eldest child often feels that it is their duty to follow and build upon the legacy left behind. Yet often times it is still true that the eldest feel they cannot compare and thus pursue a different walk of life altogether.

Now in this movie the son of Rocky decided to have what looks like your average humdrum job working at a firm he could care less about. The dissatisfaction upon his face regarding the work was rather obvious. But even more obvious than that was how distraught the son felt about living in his father’s shadow. Rocky Balboa remained a respected man of the city even after he lost his money and retired from his profession while the son was merely nothing more than ‘the son of Rocky.’

In a previous article I mentioned how easy it was to blame ones problems on someone else and use them as the scapegoat for their ever growing misery. I was pleasantly surprised when this movie developed a sub-theme around this topic.

A conversation come up when Rocky’s son blamed Rocky for all the problems and inadequacy he felt in his life. It even went so far that the son called Rocky an embarrassment for pursuing his passion at such an old age and because of it, it was hurting the son’s life. What happened next inspired me for days to come. I will post a quote from the movie that truly got me thinking and had inspired me. It has become the topic of discussion with my visiting family members and so I thought it would great an interesting discussion here.

Now before I post it, here is another spoiler warning. If you didn’t believe me the first time, you should believe me here lest I spoil the dramatic climax of this conversation. Seriously, if you don’t want me to ruin it, stop reading. Close your eyes and open them again when I tell you to.

“Let me tell you something you already know. The world ain’t all sunshine and rainbows. It is a very mean and nasty place and it will beat you to your knees and keep you there permanently if you let it. You, me, or nobody is gonna hit as hard as life. But it ain’t how hard you hit; it’s about how hard you can get hit, and keep moving forward. How much you can take, and keep moving forward. That’s how winning is done. Now, if you know what you’re worth, then go out and get what you’re worth. But you gotta be willing to take the hit, and not pointing fingers saying you ain’t where you are because of him, or her, or anybody. Cowards do that and that ain’t you. You’re better than that!”

Wow. It gets me every time. Personally I think it is true. No matter what you do and who you are, life is always going to come at you with full force and fury. This phrase reinforced my belief that you cannot change the events that brought you to your present course of life but you can control your attitude and response to them.

Sadly I think too many people believe what they have is the best that they deserve. For myself at least I know this is not the case. I can’t tell you why. I have no witty response or joke to explain my confidence in this manner, I just know something better is there waiting for me. I just have to work towards it.

My favorite part of this particular quote is “But it ain’t how hard you hit; it’s about how hard you can get hit, and keep moving forward. How much you can take, and keep moving forward. That’s how winning is done”

The reason for that is so many people tell you to get back on the horse after falling down. I find that to be a dangerous and incomplete quote. You can get back on the horse and never do more than just sit on it or perhaps take it for a little gallop since you are still held back by your own fear. But the point I think Rocky was trying to get across is that when you get back on the horse, you have to fly like the wind and truly prove to yourself that your mind holds no limitations set by your own fears. In my opinion these are the people who truly think. But my opinion only matters so much.

Usually when I want other people’s opinion I give it to them, but in this case I shall ask for it. Is this how you view winning? Do you feel that not everyone who stands back up ever lives up to their full potential? Do the children of great men truly have bigger shoes to fill or just a different set of challenges to fill? Enquiring minds want to know what you think. Mainly mine.

By the way, for those of you who have closed your eyes, now would be a good time to open them.

I think, therefore I am.
– Rene Descartes

The unexamined life is not worth living.
– Socrates (470-399 B.C.E.)

The best way to have a good idea is to have a lot of ideas.
– Linus Pauling

Imagination is more important than knowledge.
– Albert Einstein

Think for yourselves and let others
enjoy the privilege to do so, too.
– Voltaire

My strength lies mainly in my tenacity.
– Louis Pasteur

I find that the harder I work,
the more luck I seem to have.
– Thomas Jefferson

Nothing in the world can take the place of persistence.
Talent will not; nothing is more common than unsuccessful men with talent.
Genius will not; unrewarded genius is almost a proverb.
Education will not; the world is full of educated derelicts.
Persistence and determination alone are omnipotent.
– Calvin Coolidge

And ye shall know the truth,
and the truth shall make you free.
– John VII

Only the educated are free.
– Epictetus

“There was a star danced, and under that was I born.”
– William Shakespeare (1564-1616), Twelfth-Night, II, i, 351
(for my niece, Halley, who was born in December, 1985)

“For rigorous teachers seized my youth,
And purged its faith, and trimmed its fire,
Showed me the high, white star of Truth,
There bade me gaze, and there aspire.”
– Matthew Arnold (1822-1888), Stanzas from the Grande Chartreuse

I have never let my schooling interfere with my education.
– Mark Twain (1835-1910)

When I was a boy of fourteen my father was so ignorant
I could hardly stand to have the old man around.
But when I got to be twenty-one, I was astonished
at how much he had learned in seven years.
– Mark Twain

A large part of [the purpose] of education may well be
what men have most feared and most desired —
the achievement of moments of ecstasy.
– George Leonard

I do not feel obliged to believe that the same God
who has endowed us with sense, reason, and intellect
has intended us to forgo their use.
– Galileo Galilei

The universe is full of magical things
patiently waiting for our wits to grow sharper.
– Bertrand Russell

“I do not know what I may appear to the world, but to myself I seem to
have been only a boy playing on the seashore, and diverting myself in
now and then finding a smoother pebble or a prettier shell than
ordinary. Whilst the great ocean of truth lay all undiscovered before me.”
— Isaac Newton

———————————————————————–

To laugh often and much;
to win the respect of intelligent people
and the affection of children;
to earn the appreciation of honest critics
and endure the betrayal of false friends;
to appreciate beauty, to find the best in others;
to leave the world a bit better,
whether by a healthy child, a garden patch
or a redeemed social condition;
to know even one life has breathed easier because you
have lived. This is to have succeeded.
– Ralph Waldo Emerson

That best portion of a good man’s life,
His little, nameless, unremembered acts
Of kindness and love.
– William Wordsworth

There are only two ways to live your life.
One is as though nothing is a miracle.
The other is as though everything is a miracle.
– Albert Einstein (1879-1955)

We succeeded in taking that picture [of Earth from deep space], and,
if you look at it, you see a dot. That’s here. That’s home. That’s us…
on a mote of dust, suspended in a sunbeam.
The earth is a very small stage in a vast cosmic arena. Think of the
rivers of blood spilled by all those generals and emperors so that in
glory and in triumph they could become the momentary masters of a
fraction of a dot…Our posturings, our imagined self-importance, the
delusion that we have some privileged position in the universe, are
challenged by this point of pale light.
Our planet is a lonely speck in the great enveloping cosmic dark. In
our obscurity — in all this vastness — there is no hint that help
will come from elsewhere to save us from ourselves. It is up to us.
It’s been said that astronomy is a humbling, and I might add, a
character-building experience. To my mind, there is perhaps no better
demonstration of the folly of human conceits than this distant image
of our tiny world. To me, it underscores our responsibility to deal
more kindly and compassionately with one another and to preserve and
cherish that pale blue dot, the only home we’ve ever known.
– Carl Sagan (1934-1996), Reflections on a Mote of Dust
(an image of Earth taken by Voyager 1 from the edge of
the Solar System)

To sit alone with my conscience
will be judgement enough for me.
– Charles William Stubbs

I am not an Athenian or a Greek,
I am a citizen of the world.
– Socrates

Am I not destroying my enemies
when I make friends of them?
– Abraham Lincoln

Do not regret growing older.
It is a privilege denied to many.
– unknown

Far and away the best prize that life offers
is the chance to work hard at work worth doing.
– Theodore Roosevelt

It is well to remember that the entire universe,
with one trifling exception, is composed of others.
– John Andrew Holmes

At the heart of science is an essential tension between
two seemingly contradictory attitudes — an openness to
new ideas, no matter how bizarre or counterintuitive
they may be, and the most ruthless skeptical scrutiny
of all ideas, old and new. This is how deep truths are
winnowed from deep nonsense. Of course, scientists make
mistakes in trying to understand the world, but there
is a built-in error-correcting mechanism: The collective
enterprise of creative thinking and skeptical thinking
together keeps the field on track.
– Carl Sagan, “The Fine Art of Baloney Detection,”
Parade, February 1, 1987

I’m often asked the question, “Do you think there is
extraterrestrial intelligence?” I give the standard arguments
– there are a lot of places out there, and use the word *billions*,
and so on. And then I say it would be astonishing to me if there
weren’t extraterrestrial intelligence, but of course there is as
yet no compelling evidence for it. And then I’m asked, “Yeah,
but what’s your gut feeling?” But I try not to think with my gut.
Really, it’s okay to reserve judgment until the evidence is in.
– Carl Sagan, The Burden Of Skepticism,
The Skeptical Inquirer, Vol. 12, Fall 87

To make an apple pie from scratch,
you must first invent the universe.
– Carl Sagan

One ship drives east and the other drives west
With the selfsame winds that blow.
‘Tis the set of the sails and not the gales
Which tells us the way to go.
– Ella Wheeler Wilcox, Winds of Fate

If a man does not keep pace with his companions,
perhaps it is because he hears a different drummer.
Let him step to the music which he hears,
however measured or far away.
– Henry David Thoreau

Two roads diverged in a wood, and I…
I took the one less traveled by,
and that has made all the difference.
– Robert Frost

You think the only people who are people,
Are the ones who look and think the way you do,
But if you walk the footsteps of a stranger,
You’ll learn the things you never knew you never knew…
You can own the Earth and still,
All you’ll own is earth until
You can paint with all the colors of the wind.
– Stephen Schwartz, Colors of the Wind

May God bless and keep you always
May your wishes all come true
May you always do for others
And let others do for you
May you build a ladder to the stars
And climb on every rung
And may you stay forever young
– Bob Dylan, Forever Young

Some say the world will end in fire, some say in ice.
From what I’ve tasted of desire,
I hold with those who favor fire.
– Robert Frost

This is the way the world ends,
not with a bang but a whimper.
– T.S. Eliot

—————————————————————————-

“There’s no roof that has not a star above it.”
– Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803-1882)

“I saw tonight in the observatory, through Alvan Clark’s telescope,
the Dumb-Bell nebula in the Fox and Geese Constellation…
I have rarely been so much gratified…
Of all tools, an observatory is the most sublime…
What is so good in a college as an observatory?
The sublime attaches to the door and to the first stair
as you ascend; – that this is the road to the stars.
Every fixture and instrument in the building, every nail and pin,
has a direct reference to the Milky Way, the fixed stars, and the nebulae,
and we leave … the Americas and history at the door when we come in.

– from the journal of Ralph Waldo Emerson, November 14, 1865

“Look at the stars! look, look up at the skies!
O look at all the fire-folk sitting in the air!”
– Gerard Manley Hopkins (1844-1889), The Starlight Night

“No one regards what is before his feet; we all gaze at the stars”
– Quintus Ennius (239-169 B.C.),
Iphigenia, from CICERO, De Divinatione, bk. II, ch. 13

“Twinkle, twinkle little star,
How I wonder what you are.
Up above the world so high,
Like a diamond in the sky,
Twinkle, twinkle little star,
How I wonder what you are.”
– Jane Taylor (1783-1824), Rhymes for the Nursery [1806], The Star

“Sweet the coming on
Of grateful ev’ning mild, then silent night
With this her solemn bird, and this fair moon,
And these the gems of heaven, her starry train.”
– John Milton (1608-1674), Paradise Lost

“To man, that was in th’ evening made,
Stars gave the first delight.
Admiring, in the gloomy shade,
Those little drops of light.”
– Edmund Waller (1606-1687)

“Apply now, we entreat, your mind to true reason. For a new question struggles
earnestly to gain your ears, a new aspect of things to display itself…
Look up at the brightand unsullied hue of heavens and the stars which it
holds within it, wandering all about, and the moon and the sun’s light
of dazzling brilliancy: if all these things were now for the first time,
if I say they were now suddenly presented to mortals beyond all expectation,
what could have been named that would be more marvellous than these things…
In the first place we see that round in all directions, about, above, and
underneath, throughout the universe there is no bound…in the nature of
bottomless space….
Well then if on the one hand there is so great a store of seeds as the
whole life of living creatures cannot reckon up, and if the same force and
nature abide in them and have the power to throw the seeds of things
together into their several places in our world, you must admit that in
other parts of space there are other earths and various races of men and
kinds of wild beasts.”
– The Roman poet Lucretius (c. 98 – c. 55 B.C.),
“On the Nature of Things”, book II, lines 1023 – 1076)

When I heard the learn’d astronomer,
When the proofs, the figures, were ranged in columns before me,
When I was shown the charts and diagrams, to add, divide, and measure them,
When I sitting heard the astronomer
where he lectured with much applause in the lecture-room,
How soon unaccountable I became tired, and sick,
Till rising and gliding out I wander’d off by myself,
In the mystical moist night-air, and from time to time,
Look’d up in perfect silence at the stars.
– Walt Whitman, When I Heard the Learn’d Astronomer, 1865

“Images of broken light which dance before me like a million eyes
They call me on and on across the Universe.
Thoughts meander like a restless wind inside a letterbox
They tumble blindly as they make their way across the Universe.
Jai Guru De Va Om. Nothing’s gonna change my world.”
– John Lennon, Across the Universe

“Satellites gone up to the sky.
Things like that drive me out of my mind.
I watched it for a little while.
I love to watch things on TV.
Satellite of Love.
Satellites gone, way up to Mars.
Soon it will be filled with parking cars.
I watched it for a little while.
I like to watch things on TV.
Satellite of Love.”
– Lou Reed, Satellite of Love

———————————————————————–

In this galaxy,
I looked for a man who knew the temperatures of stars;
one who could draw rings around Saturn with a fine pen,
and would sleep with me as if a shower of meteors was
a common occurence around the bed each night.
But love and science — they are both gambles;
and if you try to win the sun’s light,
you must be prepared also to lose every day.
– Diane Wakowski, read by Julie Ayers on
May 21, 1988 in Stillwater, Minnesota

An ode to my favorite astronomer,
since you are the only on I know…
but then how could a girl in love with the sun,
who fancies herself the moon, how could she not
fall in love with the natural historian,
the one who defines her life?
This is a rhetorical question like,
“Will the sun rise tomorrow?”, or,
“Is the snow cold?”, or,
“Do you remember my name?
– Diane Wakowski

Was she so loved because her eyes were so beautiful
or were her eyes so beautiful because she was loved?
– Anzia Yezierska

“I arise from dreams of thee
In the first sweet sleep of night,
When the winds are breathing low
And the stars are shining bright.”
– Percy Bysshe Shelley (1792-1822), The Indian Serenade

“It were all one
That I should love a bright particular star
And think to wed it, he is so above me.”
– William Shakespeare (1564-1616), Twelfth-Night, I, i, 97

“When I behold, upon the nights’ starr’d face,
Huge cloudy symbols of a high romance.”
– John Keats (1795-1821), Sonnet, When I Have Fears

“What is love?…It is the morning and the evening star.”
– Sinclair Lewis (1885-1951), Elmer Gantry [1927]

Till we watch the last low star,
Let us love and let us take
Of each other all we are.
On some morning with that star
One of us shall lie awake,
Lonely for the other’s sake.
– Witter Bynner, A Tent Song, 1917

————————————————————————–

“Though my soul may set in darkness, it will rise in perfect light;
I have loved the stars too fondly to be fearful of the night.”
– Sarah Williams,”THE OLD ASTRONOMER TO HIS PUPIL”,
Best Loved Poems of the American People, 1936

“It ended…
With his body changed to light,
A star that burns forever in that sky.”
Anonymous: North American Indian
– The Flight of Quetzalcoatl

“When he shall die,
Take him and cut him out in little stars,
And he will make the face of heaven so fine
That all the world will be in love with night,
And pay no worship to the garish sun.”
– William Shakespeare (1564-1616), Romeo and Juliet III, ii, 21

“When lilacs last in the dooryard bloomed,
And the great star early drooped in the
western sky in the night,
I mourned, and yet shall mourn with ever-
returning spring.”
– Walt Whitman (1819-1892), Leaves of Grass

CALPURNIA: When beggars die, there are no comets seen;
The heavens themselves blaze forth the death of princes.
– JULIUS CAESAR, ACT II, SCENE II

“Suns haste to set, that so remoter lights
Beckon the wanderer to his vaster home.”
– Ralph Waldo Emerson

“Still through the dusk of dead, blank-legended
And unremunerative years we search
To get where life begins, and still we groan
Because we do not find the living spark
Where no spark ever was; and thus we die,
Still searching, like poor old astronomers
Who totter off to bed and go to sleep,
To dream of untriangulated stars.”
– Edward Arlington Robinson, Octaves XI (1890-1897)

Oh, I have slipped the surly bonds of earth
And danced the skies on laughter-silvered wings;
Sunward I’ve climbed, and joined the tumbling mirth
Of sun-split clouds, and done a hundred things
You have not dreamed of, wheeled and soared and swung
High in the sunlit silence. Hov’ring there,
I’ve chased the shouting wind along, and flung
My eager craft through footless halls of air.
Up, up the long, delirious, burning blue
I’ve topped the windswept heights with easy grace
Where never lark, or even eagle flew
And, while with silent, lifting mind I’ve trod
The high untrespassed sanctity of space,
Put out my hand, and touched the face of God.
– “High Flight”, by John Gillespie Magee, Jr.,
(killed in the Battle of Britain, age 19)

————————————————————————–

Where there is no vision, the people perish.
– Proverbs 29:18.

Man’s mind and spirit grow with the space in which
they are allowed to operate.
– Krafft A. Ehricke, rocket pioneer

The committee judged the promises and offers of this mission to be
impossible, vain, and worthy of rejection: that (it) was not proper to
favor an affair that rested on such weak foundations and which
appeared uncertain and impossible…
– Talavera Commission, 1491, turning down Christopher Columbus’
proposal for finding a new trade route to the Indies.
Queen Isabella of Spain later funded the project.

We shall not cease from exploration
And the end of all our exploring
Will be to arrive where we started
And know the place for the first time.
— T. S. Eliot, Little Gidding

Some people see things as they are and ask ‘Why?’;
I dream things that never were and ask ‘Why not?’
– George Bernard Shaw (and RFK)

For I dipped into the Future, far as human eye could see; saw the
vision of the world, and all the wonder that would be.
– Alfred, Lord Tennyson, 1842

Give me a lever long enough, and a prop strong enough.
I can single-handed move the world.
Give me a place to stand, and I will move the earth.
– Archimedes (287-212 B.C.E.)

There shall be wings!
If the accomplishment be not for me, ’tis for some other.
The spirit cannot die; and man,
who shall know all and shall have wings…
– Leonardo da Vinci (1452-1519)

First I believe that this Nation should commit itself
to achieving the goal, before this decade is out,
of landing a man on the Moon…
– John F. Kennedy, May 24, 1961

But why, some say, the moon? Why choose this as our goal?
And they may well ask, why climb the highest mountain?
Why, 35 years ago, fly the Atlantic? Why does Rice play Texas?
We choose to go to the moon.
We choose to go to the moon in this decade,
and to do the other things, not because they are easy
but because they are hard.
– John F. Kennedy, 1962

BUZZ ALDRIN: “…contact light.
Okay, engine stop, ACA out of detent.”
NEILL ARMSTRONG: “Got it.”
ALDRIN: “Mode controls both auto,
descent engine command override, off.
Engine arm off. 413 is in.”
CAPCOM(DUKE): “We copy you down, Eagle.”
ARMSTRONG: “Houston, Tranquility Base here.
The Eagle has Landed.”
CAPCOM(DUKE): “Roger Tranquility.
We copy you on the ground.
You’ve got a bunch of guys about to turn blue.
We’re breathing again. Thanks a lot.”
ALDRIN: “Thank you.”

– Buzz Aldrin, Neill Armstrong,
First words spoken from the surface of the Moon, July 1969

Here men from the planet Earth
first set foot upon the Moon July 1969, A.D.
WE CAME IN PEACE FOR ALL MANKIND.
– Apollo 11 plaque left on Moon.

Because of what you have done
the heavens have become part of man’s world…
For one priceless moment in the whole history of man
all of the people on this Earth are truly one.
– President Richard M. Nixon (on first lunar landing.)

I urge you to dream — I did, and one day
I found myself standing on the surface of the moon.
– Apollo astronaut Gene Cernan

To set foot on the soil of the asteroids,
to lift by hand a rock from the Moon,
to observe Mars from a distance of several tens of kilometers,
to land on its satellite or even on its surface,
what can be more fantastic?
From the moment of using rocket devices
a new great era will begin in astronomy:
the epoch of the more intensive study of the firmament.
– Konstantin E. Tsiolkovsky, Father of Russian Astronautics, 1896

Whether outwardly or inwardly,
whether in space or time,
the farther we penetrate the unknown,
the vaster and more marvelous it becomes.
– Charles A. Lindbergh’s “Autobiography of Values.”

It is the policy of the United States that activities in space
should be devoted to peaceful purposes for the benefit of all mankind.
– Space Act of 1958

The only weapon we have to oppose the bad effects of technology is
technology itself. There is no other. We can’t retreat into a
nontechnological Eden which never existed…It is only by the rational
use of technology, to control and guide what technology is doing, that
we can keep any hopes of a social life more desireable than our own:
or in fact of a social life which is not appalling to imagine.
– C. P. Snow

“We cannot simultaneously prepare for and prevent war.”
– Albert Einstein

————————————————————————-

Never doubt that a small group of
thoughtful committed citizens can change the world.
Indeed, that’s the only thing that ever has.
– Margaret Meade

“He who exercises government by means of his virtue
may be compared to the north polar star, which
keeps its place and all the stars turn toward it.”
– Confucious (551-479 B.C.), The Confucian Analects, bk. 1:3

Finding the occasional straw of truth awash in a great ocean of confusion
and bamboozle requires intelligence, vigilance, dedication and courage.
But if we don’t practice these tough habits of thought, we cannot hope to
solve the truly serious problems that face us — and we risk becoming a
nation of suckers, up for grabs by the next charlatan who comes along.
– Carl Sagan, “The Fine Art of Baloney Detection,”
Parade, 1 Feb 1987

“But I am as constant as the northern star,
Of whose true-fix’d and resting quality
There is no fellow in the firmament.”
– William Shakespeare (1564-1616), Julius Caesar

First they went after the Communists,
and I did not stand up, because I was not a Communist.
Then they went after the homosexuals and infirm,
and I did not stand up, because I was neither.
Then they went after the Jews,
and I did not stand up, because I was not a Jew.
Then they went after the Catholics,
and I did not stand up, because I was Protestant.
Finally, they went after me,
and there was no one left to stand up for me.
– Pastor Martin Neimoller

————————————————————————-

In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth.
And the earth was without form, and void;
and darkness was upon the face of the deep.
And the Spirit of God moved upon the face of the waters.
And God said, Let there be light: and there was light.
And God saw the light, that it was good:
and God divided the light from the darkness.
And God called the light Day, and the darkness he called Night.
And the evening and the morning were the first day….

And God said, Let there be lights in the firmament of the heaven
to divide the day from the night; and let them be for signs,
and for seasons, and for days, and years:
And let them be for lights in the firmament of the heaven
to give light upon the earth: and it was so.
And God made two great lights;
the greater light to rule the day,
and the lesser light to rule the night:
he made the stars also.
And God set them in the firmament of the heaven
to give light upon the earth,
And to rule over the day and over the night,
and to divide the light from the darkness:
and God saw that it was good.
And the evening and the morning were the fourth day.
– Genesis 1 (English-KJV)

“Now when Jesus was born in Bethlehem
of Judea in the days of Herod the King,
behold, there came wise men from the
east to Jerusalem, saying,
Where is he that is born King of the Jews?
for we have seen his star in the east, and
are come to worship him.”
– Matthew 2:1-2

When they had heard the king, they departed; and, lo, the star,
which they saw in the east, went before them,
till it came and stood over where the young child was.
When they saw the star, they rejoiced with exceeding great joy.
– Matthew 2:9 (English-KJV)

This is my chosen fast:
to loosen all the bonds that bind men unfairly,
to let the oppressed go free, to break every yoke.
Share your bread with the hungry,
take the homeless into your home.
Clothe the naked when you see him,
do not turn away from people in need. . . .
If you remove from your midst the yoke of oppression,
the finger of scorn and the tongue of malice,
if you put yourself out for the hungry and relieve the wretched,
then shall your light shine in darkness,
and your gloom shall be as noonday. . . .
And you shall be like a watered garden,
like a never-failing spring.
And you shall rebuild ancient ruins,
restoring old foundations.
You shall be known as the rebuilder of broken walls,
the restorer of dwelling places.
– Book of Isaiah

“President Bush unveiled his new $2.2 trillion budget. The president settled on $2 trillion after being told that $2 bazillion was not a real number.” – Conan O’Brien

“The trial of Enron chiefs Jeffrey Skilling and Ken Lay began four-and-a-half years after perpetrating — allegedly — the fraud that led to the second largest bankruptcy in American history. Why four-and-a-half years? Because apparently it’s harder to bring Ken Lay to trial than it is to invade two countries.” – Jon Stewart

“Above all, we must realize that no arsenal, or no weapon in the arsenals of the world, is so formidable as the will and moral courage of free men and women. It is a weapon our adversaries in today’s world do not have.”

“All great change in America begins at the dinner table.”

“Coersion, after all, merely captures man. Freedom captivates him.”

“Don’t be afraid to see what you see.”

“Entrepreneurs and their small enterprises are responsible for almost all the economic growth in the United States.”

“Freedom is never more than one generation away from extinction. We didn’t pass it to our children in the bloodstream. It must be fought for, protected, and handed on for them to do the same, or one day we will spend our sunset years telling our children and our children’s children what it was once like in the United States where men were free.”

“Thomas Jefferson once said, ‘We should never judge a president by his age, only by his works.’ And ever since he told me that, I stopped worrying.”

Freedom is one of the deepest and noblest aspirations of the human spirit.”

“How do you tell a communist? Well, it’s someone who reads Marx and Lenin. And how do you tell an anti-Communist? It’s someone who understands Marx and Lenin.”

“I call upon the scientific community in our country, those who gave us nuclear weapons, to turn their great talents now to the cause of mankind and world peace: to give us the means of rendering these nuclear weapons impotent and obsolete.”

“I don’t believe in a government that protects us from ourselves.”

“I have left orders to be awakened at any time in case of national emergency, even if I’m in a cabinet meeting.”

“I know in my heart that man is good.
That what is right will always eventually triumph.
And there’s purpose and worth to each and every life.”

“If you’re afraid of the future, then get out of the way, stand aside. The people of this country are ready to move again.”

“People don’t start wars, governments do.”

“Politics is not a bad profession. If you succeed there are many rewards, if you disgrace yourself you can always write a book.”

“Politics is supposed to be the second oldest profession. I have come to realize that it bears a very close resemblance to the first.”

“The best minds are not in government. If any were, business would hire them away.”

“The government’s view of the economy could be summed up in a few short phrases: If it moves, tax it. If it keeps moving, regulate it. And if it stops moving, subsidize it.”

“The nine most terrifying words in the English language are, ‘I’m from the government and I’m here to help.’

“The ultimate determinant in the struggle now going on for the world will not be bombs and rockets but a test of wills and ideas-a trial of spiritual resolve: the values we hold, the beliefs we cherish and the ideals to which we are dedicated.”

“There are no great limits to growth because there are no limits of human intelligence, imagination, and wonder.”

“To sit back hoping that someday, someway, someone will make things right is to go on feeding the crocodile, hoping he will eat you last–but eat you he will.”

“You and I have a rendezvous with destiny. We will preserve for our children this, the last best hope of man on earth, or we will sentence them to take the first step into a thousand years of darkness. If we fail, at least let our children and our children’s children say of us we justified our brief moment here. We did all that could be done.”

“Abortion is advocated only by persons who have themselves been born.”

“History teaches that wars begin when governments believe the price of aggression is cheap.”

“Welfare’s purpose should be to eliminate, as far as possible, the need for its own existence.”

“It is not my intention to do away with government. It is rather to make it work — work with us, not over us; stand by our side, not ride on our back. Government can and must provide opportunity, not smother it; foster productivity, not stifle it.”

“We who live in free market societies believe that growth, prosperity and ultimately human fulfillment, are created from the bottom up, not the government down. Only when the human spirit is allowed to invent and create, only when individuals are given a personal stake in deciding economic policies and benefitting from their success — only then can societies remain economically alive, dynamic, progressive, and free. Trust the people. This is the one irrefutable lesson of the entire postwar period contradicting the notion that rigid government controls are essential to economic development.”

“The size of the federal budget is not an appropriate barometer of social conscience or charitable concern.”

“We don’t have a trillion-dollar debt because we haven’t taxed enough; we have a trillion-dollar debt because we spend too much.”

“We will always remember. We will always be proud. We will always be prepared, so we may always be free.”

“The men of Normandy had faith that what they were doing was right, faith that they fought for all humanity, faith that a just God would grant them mercy on this beachhead or the next. It was the deep knowledge — and pray God we have not lost it — that there is a profound moral difference between the use of force for liberation and the use of force for conquest.”

“How do you tell a Communist? Well, it’s someone who reads Marx and Lenin. And how do you tell an anti-Communist? It’s someone who understands Marx and Lenin.”

“It was leadership here at home that gave us strong American influence abroad, and the collapse of imperial Communism. Great nations have responsibilities to lead, and we should always be cautious of those who would lower our profile, because they might just wind up lowering our flag.”

“My fellow Americans, I am pleased to tell you I just signed legislation which outlaws Russia forever. The bombing begins in five minutes.”

“Surround yourself with the best people you can find, delegate authority, and don’t interfere.”

[T]he ancients knew something which we seem to have forgotten. All means prove but a blunt instrument, if they have not behind them a living spirit. But if the longing for the achievement of the goal is powerfully alive within us, then shall we not lack the strength to find the means for reaching the goal and for translating it into deeds.

– Albert Einstein

(Full text found here.)

Read through it and see whether your government is violating any of these principles. You might be surprised (especially if you live in the U.S. and have been keeping tabs on the entire “use of torture” debates).

Stumbling around the Internet, I found this and thought it worth reprinting here. It’s the United Nation’s Universal Declaration of Human Rights, one of the cornerstone documents of the United Nations.

Read through it and see whether your government is violating any of these principles. You might be surprised (especially if you live in the U.S. and have been keeping tabs on the entire “use of torture” debates).

Universal Declaration of Human Rights

Preamble

Whereas recognition of the inherent dignity and of the equal and inalienable rights of all members of the human family is the foundation of freedom, justice and peace in the world,

Whereas disregard and contempt for human rights have resulted in barbarous acts which have outraged the conscience of mankind, and the advent of a world in which human beings shall enjoy freedom of speech and belief and freedom from fear and want has been proclaimed as the highest aspiration of the common people,

Whereas it is essential, if man is not to be compelled to have recourse, as a last resort, to rebellion against tyranny and oppression, that human rights should be protected by the rule of law,

Whereas it is essential to promote the development of friendly relations between nations,

Whereas the peoples of the United Nations have in the Charter reaffirmed their faith in fundamental human rights, in the dignity and worth of the human person and in the equal rights of men and women and have determined to promote social progress and better standards of life in larger freedom,

Whereas Member States have pledged themselves to achieve, in cooperation with the United Nations, the promotion of universal respect for and observance of human rights and fundamental freedoms,

Whereas a common understanding of these rights and freedoms is of the greatest importance for the full realization of this pledge,

Now, therefore, The General Assembly Proclaims this Universal Declaration of Human Rights as a common standard of achievement for all peoples and all nations, to the end that every individual and every organ of society, keeping this Declaration constantly in mind, shall strive by teaching and education to promote respect for these rights and freedoms and by progressive measures, national and international, to secure their universal and effective recognition and observance, both among the peoples of Member States themselves and among the peoples of territories under their jurisdiction.

Article 1

All human beings are born free and equal in dignity and rights. They are endowed with reason and conscience and should act towards one another in a spirit of brotherhood.

Article 2

Everyone is entitled to all the rights and freedoms set forth in this Declaration, without distinction of any kind, such as race, colour, sex, language, religion, political or other opinion, national or social origin, property, birth or other status.

Furthermore, no distinction shall be made on the basis of the political, jurisdictional or international status of the country or territory to which a person belongs, whether it be independent, trust, non-self-governing or under any other limitation of sovereignty.

Article 3

Everyone has the right to life, liberty and security of person.

Article 4

No one shall be held in slavery or servitude; slavery and the slave trade shall be prohibited in all their forms.

Article 5

No one shall be subjected to torture or to cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment.

Article 6

Everyone has the right to recognition everywhere as a person before the law.

Article 7

All are equal before the law and are entitled without any discrimination to equal protection of the law. All are entitled to equal protection against any discrimination in violation of this Declaration and against any incitement to such discrimination.

Article 8

Everyone has the right to an effective remedy by the competent national tribunals for acts violating the fundamental rights granted him by the constitution or by law.

Article 9

No one shall be subjected to arbitrary arrest, detention or exile.

Article 10

Everyone is entitled in full equality to a fair and public hearing by an independent and impartial tribunal, in the determination of his rights and obligations and of any criminal charge against him.

Article 11

1. Everyone charged with a penal offence has the right to be presumed innocent until proved guilty according to law in a public trial at which he has had all the guarantees necessary for his defence.
2. No one shall be held guilty of any penal offence on account of any act or omission which did not constitute a penal offence, under national or international law, at the time when it was committed. Nor shall a heavier penalty be imposed than the one that was applicable at the time the penal offence was committed.

Article 12

No one shall be subjected to arbitrary interference with his privacy, family, home or correspondence, nor to attacks upon his honour and reputation. Everyone has the right to the protection of the law against such interference or attacks.

Article 13

1. Everyone has the right to freedom of movement and residence within the borders of each State.
2. Everyone has the right to leave any country, including his own, and to return to his country.

Article 14

1. Everyone has the right to seek and to enjoy in other countries asylum from persecution.
2. This right may not be invoked in the case of prosecutions genuinely arising from non-political crimes or from acts contrary to the purposes and principles of the United Nations.

Article 15

1. Everyone has the right to a nationality.
2. No one shall be arbitrarily deprived of his nationality nor denied the right to change his nationality.

Article 16

1. Men and women of full age, without any limitation due to race, nationality or religion, have the right to marry and to found a family. They are entitled to equal rights as to marriage, during marriage and at its dissolution.
2. Marriage shall be entered into only with the free and full consent of the intending spouses.
3. The family is the natural and fundamental group unit of society and is entitled to protection by society and the State.

Article 17

1. Everyone has the right to own property alone as well as in association with others.
2. No one shall be arbitrarily deprived of his property.

Article 18

Everyone has the right to freedom of thought, conscience and religion; this right includes freedom to change his religion or belief, and freedom, either alone or in community with others and in public or private, to manifest his religion or belief in teaching, practice, worship and observance.

Article 19

Everyone has the right to freedom of opinion and expression; this right includes freedom to hold opinions without interference and to seek, receive and impart information and ideas through any media and regardless of frontiers.

Article 20

1. Everyone has the right to freedom of peaceful assembly and association.
2. No one may be compelled to belong to an association.

Article 21

1. Everyone has the right to take part in the government of his country, directly or through freely chosen representatives.
2. Everyone has the right to equal access to public service in his country.
3. The will of the people shall be the basis of the authority of government; this will shall be expressed in periodic and genuine elections which shall be by universal and equal suffrage and shall be held by secret vote or by equivalent free voting procedures.

Article 22

Everyone, as a member of society, has the right to social security and is entitled to realization, through national effort and international co-operation and in accordance with the organization and resources of each State, of the economic, social and cultural rights indispensable for his dignity and the free development of his personality.

Article 23

1. Everyone has the right to work, to free choice of employment, to just and favourable conditions of work and to protection against unemployment.
2. Everyone, without any discrimination, has the right to equal pay for equal work.
3. Everyone who works has the right to just and favourable remuneration ensuring for himself and his family an existence worthy of human dignity, and supplemented, if necessary, by other means of social protection.
4. Everyone has the right to form and to join trade unions for the protection of his interests.

Article 24

Everyone has the right to rest and leisure, including reasonable limitation of working hours and periodic holidays with pay.

Article 25

1. Everyone has the right to a standard of living adequate for the health and well-being of himself and of his family, including food, clothing, housing and medical care and necessary social services, and the right to security in the event of unemployment, sickness, disability, widowhood, old age or other lack of livelihood in circumstances beyond his control.
2. Motherhood and childhood are entitled to special care and assistance. All children, whether born in or out of wedlock, shall enjoy the same social protection.

Article 26

1. Everyone has the right to education. Education shall be free, at least in the elementary and fundamental stages. Elementary education shall be compulsory. Technical and professional education shall be made generally available and higher education shall be equally accessible to all on the basis of merit.
2. Education shall be directed to the full development of the human personality and to the strengthening of respect for human rights and fundamental freedoms. It shall promote understanding, tolerance and friendship among all nations, racial or religious groups, and shall further the activities of the United Nations for the maintenance of peace.
3. Parents have a prior right to choose the kind of education that shall be given to their children.

Article 27

1. Everyone has the right freely to participate in the cultural life of the community, to enjoy the arts and to share in scientific advancement and its benefits.
2. Everyone has the right to the protection of the moral and material interests resulting from any scientific, literary or artistic production of which he is the author.

Article 28

Everyone is entitled to a social and international order in which the rights and freedoms set forth in this Declaration can be fully realized.

Article 29

1. Everyone has duties to the community in which alone the free and full development of his personality is possible.
2. In the exercise of his rights and freedoms, everyone shall be subject only to such limitations as are determined by law solely for the purpose of securing due recognition and respect for the rights and freedoms of others and of meeting the just requirements of morality, public order and the general welfare in a democratic society.
3. These rights and freedoms may in no case be exercised contrary to the purposes and principles of the United Nations.

Article 30
Nothing in this Declaration may be interpreted as implying for any State, group or person any right to engage in any activity or to perform any act aimed at the destruction of any of the rights and freedoms set forth herein.

I am honored to be with you today at your commencement from one of the finest universities in the world. I never graduated from college. Truth be told, this is the closest I’ve ever gotten to a college graduation. Today I want to tell you three stories from my life. That’s it. No big deal. Just three stories.

The first story is about connecting the dots.

I dropped out of Reed College after the first 6 months, but then stayed around as a drop-in for another 18 months or so before I really quit. So why did I drop out?

It started before I was born. My biological mother was a young, unwed college graduate student, and she decided to put me up for adoption. She felt very strongly that I should be adopted by college graduates, so everything was all set for me to be adopted at birth by a lawyer and his wife. Except that when I popped out they decided at the last minute that they really wanted a girl. So my parents, who were on a waiting list, got a call in the middle of the night asking: “We have an unexpected baby boy; do you want him?” They said: “Of course.” My biological mother later found out that my mother had never graduated from college and that my father had never graduated from high school. She refused to sign the final adoption papers. She only relented a few months later when my parents promised that I would someday go to college.

And 17 years later I did go to college. But I naively chose a college that was almost as expensive as Stanford, and all of my working-class parents’ savings were being spent on my college tuition. After six months, I couldn’t see the value in it. I had no idea what I wanted to do with my life and no idea how college was going to help me figure it out. And here I was spending all of the money my parents had saved their entire life. So I decided to drop out and trust that it would all work out OK. It was pretty scary at the time, but looking back it was one of the best decisions I ever made. The minute I dropped out I could stop taking the required classes that didn’t interest me, and begin dropping in on the ones that looked interesting.

It wasn’t all romantic. I didn’t have a dorm room, so I slept on the floor in friends’ rooms, I returned coke bottles for the 5¢ deposits to buy food with, and I would walk the 7 miles across town every Sunday night to get one good meal a week at the Hare Krishna temple. I loved it. And much of what I stumbled into by following my curiosity and intuition turned out to be priceless later on. Let me give you one example:

Reed College at that time offered perhaps the best calligraphy instruction in the country. Throughout the campus every poster, every label on every drawer, was beautifully hand calligraphed. Because I had dropped out and didn’t have to take the normal classes, I decided to take a calligraphy class to learn how to do this. I learned about serif and san serif typefaces, about varying the amount of space between different letter combinations, about what makes great typography great. It was beautiful, historical, artistically subtle in a way that science can’t capture, and I found it fascinating.

None of this had even a hope of any practical application in my life. But ten years later, when we were designing the first Macintosh computer, it all came back to me. And we designed it all into the Mac. It was the first computer with beautiful typography. If I had never dropped in on that single course in college, the Mac would have never had multiple typefaces or proportionally spaced fonts. And since Windows just copied the Mac, its likely that no personal computer would have them. If I had never dropped out, I would have never dropped in on this calligraphy class, and personal computers might not have the wonderful typography that they do. Of course it was impossible to connect the dots looking forward when I was in college. But it was very, very clear looking backwards ten years later.

Again, you can’t connect the dots looking forward; you can only connect them looking backwards. So you have to trust that the dots will somehow connect in your future. You have to trust in something — your gut, destiny, life, karma, whatever. This approach has never let me down, and it has made all the difference in my life.

My second story is about love and loss.

I was lucky — I found what I loved to do early in life. Woz and I started Apple in my parents garage when I was 20. We worked hard, and in 10 years Apple had grown from just the two of us in a garage into a $2 billion company with over 4000 employees. We had just released our finest creation — the Macintosh — a year earlier, and I had just turned 30. And then I got fired. How can you get fired from a company you started? Well, as Apple grew we hired someone who I thought was very talented to run the company with me, and for the first year or so things went well. But then our visions of the future began to diverge and eventually we had a falling out. When we did, our Board of Directors sided with him. So at 30 I was out. And very publicly out. What had been the focus of my entire adult life was gone, and it was devastating.

I really didn’t know what to do for a few months. I felt that I had let the previous generation of entrepreneurs down – that I had dropped the baton as it was being passed to me. I met with David Packard and Bob Noyce and tried to apologize for screwing up so badly. I was a very public failure, and I even thought about running away from the valley. But something slowly began to dawn on me — I still loved what I did. The turn of events at Apple had not changed that one bit. I had been rejected, but I was still in love. And so I decided to start over.

I didn’t see it then, but it turned out that getting fired from Apple was the best thing that could have ever happened to me. The heaviness of being successful was replaced by the lightness of being a beginner again, less sure about everything. It freed me to enter one of the most creative periods of my life.

During the next five years, I started a company named NeXT, another company named Pixar, and fell in love with an amazing woman who would become my wife. Pixar went on to create the worlds first computer animated feature film, Toy Story, and is now the most successful animation studio in the world. In a remarkable turn of events, Apple bought NeXT, I retuned to Apple, and the technology we developed at NeXT is at the heart of Apple’s current renaissance. And Laurene and I have a wonderful family together.

I’m pretty sure none of this would have happened if I hadn’t been fired from Apple. It was awful tasting medicine, but I guess the patient needed it. Sometimes life hits you in the head with a brick. Don’t lose faith. I’m convinced that the only thing that kept me going was that I loved what I did. You’ve got to find what you love. And that is as true for your work as it is for your lovers. Your work is going to fill a large part of your life, and the only way to be truly satisfied is to do what you believe is great work. And the only way to do great work is to love what you do. If you haven’t found it yet, keep looking. Don’t settle. As with all matters of the heart, you’ll know when you find it. And, like any great relationship, it just gets better and better as the years roll on. So keep looking until you find it. Don’t settle.

My third story is about death.

When I was 17, I read a quote that went something like: “If you live each day as if it was your last, someday you’ll most certainly be right.” It made an impression on me, and since then, for the past 33 years, I have looked in the mirror every morning and asked myself: “If today were the last day of my life, would I want to do what I am about to do today?” And whenever the answer has been “No” for too many days in a row, I know I need to change something.

Remembering that I’ll be dead soon is the most important tool I’ve ever encountered to help me make the big choices in life. Because almost everything — all external expectations, all pride, all fear of embarrassment or failure – these things just fall away in the face of death, leaving only what is truly important. Remembering that you are going to die is the best way I know to avoid the trap of thinking you have something to lose. You are already naked. There is no reason not to follow your heart.

About a year ago I was diagnosed with cancer. I had a scan at 7:30 in the morning, and it clearly showed a tumor on my pancreas. I didn’t even know what a pancreas was. The doctors told me this was almost certainly a type of cancer that is incurable, and that I should expect to live no longer than three to six months. My doctor advised me to go home and get my affairs in order, which is doctor’s code for prepare to die. It means to try to tell your kids everything you thought you’d have the next 10 years to tell them in just a few months. It means to make sure everything is buttoned up so that it will be as easy as possible for your family. It means to say your goodbyes.

I lived with that diagnosis all day. Later that evening I had a biopsy, where they stuck an endoscope down my throat, through my stomach and into my intestines, put a needle into my pancreas and got a few cells from the tumor. I was sedated, but my wife, who was there, told me that when they viewed the cells under a microscope the doctors started crying because it turned out to be a very rare form of pancreatic cancer that is curable with surgery. I had the surgery and I’m fine now.

This was the closest I’ve been to facing death, and I hope its the closest I get for a few more decades. Having lived through it, I can now say this to you with a bit more certainty than when death was a useful but purely intellectual concept:

No one wants to die. Even people who want to go to heaven don’t want to die to get there. And yet death is the destination we all share. No one has ever escaped it. And that is as it should be, because Death is very likely the single best invention of Life. It is Life’s change agent. It clears out the old to make way for the new. Right now the new is you, but someday not too long from now, you will gradually become the old and be cleared away. Sorry to be so dramatic, but it is quite true.

Your time is limited, so don’t waste it living someone else’s life. Don’t be trapped by dogma — which is living with the results of other people’s thinking. Don’t let the noise of others’ opinions drown out your own inner voice. And most important, have the courage to follow your heart and intuition. They somehow already know what you truly want to become. Everything else is secondary.

When I was young, there was an amazing publication called The Whole Earth Catalog, which was one of the bibles of my generation. It was created by a fellow named Stewart Brand not far from here in Menlo Park, and he brought it to life with his poetic touch. This was in the late 1960’s, before personal computers and desktop publishing, so it was all made with typewriters, scissors, and polaroid cameras. It was sort of like Google in paperback form, 35 years before Google came along: it was idealistic, and overflowing with neat tools and great notions.

Stewart and his team put out several issues of The Whole Earth Catalog, and then when it had run its course, they put out a final issue. It was the mid-1970s, and I was your age. On the back cover of their final issue was a photograph of an early morning country road, the kind you might find yourself hitchhiking on if you were so adventurous. Beneath it were the words: “Stay Hungry. Stay Foolish.” It was their farewell message as they signed off. Stay Hungry. Stay Foolish. And I have always wished that for myself. And now, as you graduate to begin anew, I wish that for you.

Stay Hungry. Stay Foolish.

Thank you all very much.

– Kristin D.

Dale Carnegie, How to Win Friends and Influence People