Listening to my son’s high school graduation ceremony last night, I was struck by how completely implausible were many speaker claims, such as: Never let anyone tell you there is something you can’t do.
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.
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?
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.
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.
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.
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.
because you can often make someone feel ''good'' by telling them a harmless lie even when they recognize they are being lied to. the positive emotional reaction will occur even as they consciously identify the falsity. restricting yourself to utterances that are true often eliminates the most efficacious mood-boosting comments.
since ''making others feel good'' is a higher priority for most people than ''informing others of things that are likely true'', there's a lot of lying out there.
people prefer to tell literal lies at commencement speeches because even though most listeners realize that they are being fed lies they still experience the short-term benefits of emotional uplift, inspiration, and group ''bonding''. the translations vijay offers do not connote anything that is likely to be associated in the minds of listeners with emotionally evocative memories, aspirations, or ideas. they are therefore unlikely to respond as positively as they do to the feel-good nonsense of literal lies.
commencements arent about imparting wisdom and discussing what is definitely true about the past and future. they're about creating a pleasant experience and memorable evening. literal lies serve those purposes admirably.
They're not though. Inasmuch as they can be construed as statements about "what a rational person should do" or "what should be done in order to increase one's chances of being successful," they are declarative. What they're really saying is something like: 1) In order to be successful in life, never treat someone telling you that you can't do x as evidence that you can't do x; and 2) If you want to be successful, never treat your failure in doing x as evidence that you may be incompetent with respect to doing x.
As such, they're blatant falsehoods because most of the time they will not generate success but a gross mismatch between ambitions and outcomes.
Perhaps emptiness is the point.
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.
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?
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.
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.
Mark, Bryan, JB, all great examples of good speeches, which most speakers could probably get away with copying.
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.
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?
http://www.paulgraham.com/h...
That's my favorite commencement speech. It's a pity that Paul Graham didn't get a chance to deliver it.
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.
Are they lies, or are they bullshit?
Here's my favorite graduation speech.
because you can often make someone feel ''good'' by telling them a harmless lie even when they recognize they are being lied to. the positive emotional reaction will occur even as they consciously identify the falsity. restricting yourself to utterances that are true often eliminates the most efficacious mood-boosting comments.
since ''making others feel good'' is a higher priority for most people than ''informing others of things that are likely true'', there's a lot of lying out there.
people prefer to tell literal lies at commencement speeches because even though most listeners realize that they are being fed lies they still experience the short-term benefits of emotional uplift, inspiration, and group ''bonding''. the translations vijay offers do not connote anything that is likely to be associated in the minds of listeners with emotionally evocative memories, aspirations, or ideas. they are therefore unlikely to respond as positively as they do to the feel-good nonsense of literal lies.
commencements arent about imparting wisdom and discussing what is definitely true about the past and future. they're about creating a pleasant experience and memorable evening. literal lies serve those purposes admirably.
It's not nice to tell people they're fat, but it's not helpful to tell fat people they aren't.
If you can't say anything good without lying, why say anything at all?
They're not though. Inasmuch as they can be construed as statements about "what a rational person should do" or "what should be done in order to increase one's chances of being successful," they are declarative. What they're really saying is something like: 1) In order to be successful in life, never treat someone telling you that you can't do x as evidence that you can't do x; and 2) If you want to be successful, never treat your failure in doing x as evidence that you may be incompetent with respect to doing x.
As such, they're blatant falsehoods because most of the time they will not generate success but a gross mismatch between ambitions and outcomes.