Comments on: Over The Top Commencement

By: TGGP

TGGP — Sun, 30 May 2010 07:22:22 +0000

By: Joseph Knecht

Joseph Knecht — Mon, 29 Jun 2009 01:17:23 +0000

One lie I haven’t seen mentioned but have heard at probably every graduation I’ve been to is the one about what a truly exceptional group of human beings the current graduating class is.

By: Adam

Adam — Wed, 24 Jun 2009 20:38:44 +0000

I think they’re told because the whole think has become largely a celebration of nothing. Is graduating high school really an accomplishment for most of the student body today?

By: Casey

Casey — Wed, 24 Jun 2009 03:32:48 +0000

I wish when I graduated college, someone would have said to me “Hey Casey, you’re not going to get a job handed to you. You’re going to have to fight. Everything that you’ll get out of life is a reflection of everything you put into it. Don’t wait for people to help you out. Do it yourself. You’re going to lose most of your friends from college because that’s how the universe works. You will meet more people, people that will change you… only if you’re receptive. Get out of college and go LEARN how to love and how to live. Learn to be authentic and true to yourself. Figure out what makes you come alive, and then do it passionately for the rest of your life. Live with conviction.”

That would have actually woken me up when the standard statements of “If I succeeded, you can too” and “You’re going to have setbacks…” just made me tune out.

By: Reid

Reid — Fri, 19 Jun 2009 22:48:02 +0000

Hm. 4 is obviously subjective and highly questionable. 5 truly is a despicable lie. I don’t know if you can call the first three “falsehoods” in that they are pieces of advice. And it’s bad advice if our goal is to “overcome bias” but perhaps useful advice if we are instead interested in adopting those biases which makes life most livable.

By: Robin Hanson

Robin Hanson — Fri, 19 Jun 2009 17:25:55 +0000

Mark, Bryan, JB, all great examples of good speeches, which most speakers could probably get away with copying.

By: Rob

Rob — Fri, 19 Jun 2009 05:58:23 +0000

I was told yesterday at a vigil for Iran (in Australia) that “this is something we can really make a big difference to”. I had to hold back my laughter but nobody else seemed surprised by this claim.

By: Eliezer Yudkowsky

Eliezer Yudkowsky — Thu, 18 Jun 2009 19:44:57 +0000

I didn’t realize we were talking about such a competitive market. Why didn’t you pick a different graduation ceremony to go to instead?

By: JB

JB — Thu, 18 Jun 2009 18:47:19 +0000

http://www.paulgraham.com/hs.html

That’s my favorite commencement speech. It’s a pity that Paul Graham didn’t get a chance to deliver it.

By: Timothy

Timothy — Thu, 18 Jun 2009 18:38:36 +0000

At my fee-paying private school, the standard line in these speeches was how fortunate we were to be attending Baptist Grammar School, (which was slightly true), how graduates of the School were a special breed who were recognised as such in University and beyond (which was total nonsense).

One function, deliberate or otherwise, of openly telling obvious lies is to divide the audience into those who can recognize the untruth of the speech and those who cannot. Thus the most intelligent and intellectually honest students gain a sense of superiority over their dimwitted classmates, which may give those clever students the mental strength and arrogance to survive the bullying and taunting to which obviously clever high school students are frequently subject.