HN Theater @HNTheaterMonth

Great article. It is necessary to be reminded of this some time. I always like to remind myself of Steve Jobs' famous speech where he says something like:

"As with all matters of the heart, you know when things are right". Which implies you damn well know when things are not right too. (source: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UF8uR6Z6KLc&ab_channel=Stanf...)

Not sure if Steve Jobs is a devil according to this guy.

I watched this speech some 10 years ago and that quote has stuck with me. And particularly the subsequent sentence: "It (death) clears out the old, to make way for the new."

This is from Steve Jobs' Stanford 2005 commencement address - https://youtu.be/UF8uR6Z6KLc (at 12:03)

This was from the commencement speech he gave at Sanford (starts at about 9:10). Not originally his quite, he was paraphrasing something he heard. Great speech, very worth watching for those who haven’t seen it.

https://youtu.be/UF8uR6Z6KLc

Instantly reminded of Steve Jobs’ commencement speech <https://youtu.be/UF8uR6Z6KLc>

1. Not enough blue light in winter - Seasonal Affective Disorder (SAD)? Un/der-managed depression? Medication was the only thing that brought me out of the funk as I had severe depression in college, combined with undiagnosed/unmanaged ADHD-PI, it was the 10-year-plan to sheepskin.

2. If it's existential: Watch Steve Jobs' Stanford commencement about the realization of the certainty death as a motivator. [i] What would you do if this were your last day? Last week? Last month? etc. What do you really need vs. want out of life?

3. "If you had a million dollars, what would you be doing right now?"

4. Map your Maslow's hierarchy of needs (inputs, contributors, stressors, and goals). Is there anything big missing?

5. Experiment and try new things. Volunteer. Read a new genre of literature. Make something. Explore the nearest library or museum. Get a telescope and look at the planets and the stars. Take up powered paragliding (PPG). :) Or learn how to longboard.

6. Exercise.

7. Healthy distractions. Keep yourself busy on anything else, even if it's chores.

---

i. https://youtu.be/UF8uR6Z6KLc

Steve Jobs' 2005 Stanford Commencement Address

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UF8uR6Z6KLc

10 years. Still I remember his speech at Stanford 2005 [1]

"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."

[1] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UF8uR6Z6KLc

Or how Steve Jobs put it:

"Again, you can’t connect the dots looking forward; you can only connect them looking backward. 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."

Text: https://news.stanford.edu/2005/06/14/jobs-061505/

Video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UF8uR6Z6KLc

Just looking at the title and having known about the initial years of Apple is enough to know what this article may be about. Taking a quote that would be relevant here — Steve Jobs said in his famous Stanford commencement address of 2005 [1]:

“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.”

Looks like the trust wasn't there at that time. Without a time machine, such regrets are unproductive.

[1]: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UF8uR6Z6KLc

Came here to post this Larry Smith link :)

Even though Jobs gets some hate on HN, these interviews/speeches have never failed to inspire me.

If you don't ask, you don't get -https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zkTf0LmDqKI

On a very formulaic life - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0Ydp6bR5HXw (I couldn't find one without the bad bg music)

Stay hungry, stay foolish - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UF8uR6Z6KLc

I do realise, on some levels, he was not a good person, or atleast came off as an ass, but listening to these interviews and speeches, I feel I can relate to him and his struggles.

This reminds me of the Steve Jobs' commencement speech at Stanford.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UF8uR6Z6KLc

"The Last Lecture", by Randy Pausch. While it's by a well-known CS professor (who was dying of cancer at the time), it's not a technical talk, but about life and work, and how to make the most of it. One of the most inspiring things I've ever seen.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ji5_MqicxSo

Another fantastic one is Steve Jobs' 2005 commencement address at Stanford:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UF8uR6Z6KLc

⬐ hans

o u said steve jobs: really his announcement of the ipod was an incredible speech .. it ties together tech+art+music+apple and his vision appears pretty fresh.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kN0SVBCJqLs

⬐ oliv__

Apple seemed so grounded and feature oriented back then.

It's hard to believe that the iPhone's battery still only lasts a day or so after seeing this video.

⬐ rkuykendall-com

> so grounded and feature oriented back then

No wireless. Less space than a nomad. Lame.

⬐ qznc

The talks are awesome. I still downvoted this, because I consider it off topic. Sorry.

⬐ Cyph0n

https://www.destroyallsoftware.com/talks/wat

⬐ sjnair96

And I upvoted you for explaining why you downvoted it. No point downvoting you. Comparing the end results of both, we only have a higher chance of a net benefit by upvoting you, regardless of whether I agree with you or not. I hope the rest of the HN community also takes this approach before voting.

⬐ will_pseudonym

Randy Pausch's Time Management lecture is also great.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3tim1sjY7q8

⬐ acangiano

Actual lecture: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oTugjssqOT0

⬐ lza

wow!!! So glad I watched it. Thanks for sharing it.

You're smart, healthy, and 24 years old? There are a lot of older "successful people" that would trade everything they have to be you.

Motivation is based on momentum. You're at a standstill now, so you'll have to build up that momentum. Start off with small challenges (sleep, exercise, diet, or whatever) and then take on your big goals once you've got some speed.

You may also find Steve Jobs' speech helpful, as a reminder that even people like him were just as confused at times.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UF8uR6Z6KLc

Steve Jobs on the cost of his college: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UF8uR6Z6KLc&t=2m17s

Mostly not blog posts, but for the last years I tend to revisit the same resources over and over again for inspiration:

- "You and your research" by Hamming, and his video lectures which expand on topics in the original talk:

http://www.cs.virginia.edu/~robins/YouAndYourResearch.html

http://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL2FF649D0C4407B30

- "On teaching mathematics" by V. I. Arnold:

http://pauli.uni-muenster.de/~munsteg/arnold.html

- "Undergraduation" by Paul Graham

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

- "Learn and relearn your field", and many others in the same category, by Terrence Tao

http://terrytao.wordpress.com/career-advice/learn-and-relear...

- Steve Jobs Stanford commencement address:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UF8uR6Z6KLc

- All articles on programming by Peter Norvig:

http://www.norvig.com/

⬐ mproenza

I second this choice. Magnificent and deep article

⬐ caisah

I just wanted to say "You and your research" by Hamming. Awesome!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a1zDuOPkMSw

Steve Job's Stanford Commencement Speech http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UF8uR6Z6KLc

If you've got 15 minutes I recommend watching the commencement address Steve Jobs gave at Standford in 2005.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UF8uR6Z6KLc

I was in a similar position you are in and it really resonated with me.

"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."

I prefer commencement speeches with more of a personal touch to them, namely Steve Jobs' commencement speech at Stanford in 2005 [1]. This article definitely gives good advice but at the end of the day, it's pretty superficial. Steve Jobs tells 3 stories which beautifully take students through his life, but also give life long lessons that actually carry substance.

[1] http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UF8uR6Z6KLc

I almost feel as though it was a kind of Steve Jobs's "Connect The Dots" thing for me. [1]

Let's see, I can say that the earliest I was ever exposed to programming was when I was 12 years old. The online game Neopets was huge between a few friends and I, and I wanted more Neopoints (currency) than them. So, through tooling around on the internet I found a message board with a small user-base that wrote programs to take advantage of Neopets and the way their HTTP handling was done (that's how the game worked back then, this is circa 2002/2003). But, by just joining and registering you weren't given full access to some of the best programs, specifically one known as an autobuyer. This autobuyer would refresh the marketplace shops and, through a text file of known high-value objects, refresh and buy those items that you could resell for up to 10,000x markup. But the only programs I had access to were low-hanging fruit ones - ones that let you play some of the games without opening your browser. The only way to access the coveted autobuyer was through contributing to the community, both through posts and your own programs. So I downloaded Visual Basic and wrote a program that went to several pages within Neopets, that just by going and submitting an HTTP request returned Neopoints, sometimes netting in randomly high amounts. I called it "Dailies." By doing this I was granted access to the holy grail of Neopets cheating. Needless to say I abused the autobuyer, and a few months later my accounts were banned, I started to hit puberty, and stopped caring.

Fast forward a few years, and I'm making websites for myself and friends. These weren't great, I just used Macromedia Fireworks in the same vain that people use Adobe Photoshop today for the graphics (that's right, Fireworks wasn't an Adobe product back then), slicing up pages and "coding" them up using HTML. This led to making some phpBB forums for people/myself so I naturally learned about graphic assets and the modularity of them as it applied to the web. Then I stopped creating them, and started posting through various bulletin boards around the web. No more coding again.

Let's jump again (a short hop really) to high school. In my Junior year, I took a C programming class, and I don't really remember liking it too much. It was mostly int, string, ++ and x+=2 syntax, and a the beginning of loops. It was fairly boring then, so after I got a B in the class - I stopped again.

Now, fast forward to a year and a half ago - my second senior year of college. A couple friends and I enjoy going out to get drinks, and wonder why there's no app that tells the best specials in our area, let alone any specials. We decided to make it, and I started really LEARNING programming. I started from the basics again - I knew what if,else was and what the most basic types were. I had to google the type that took decimal numbers. 3 months later, I coded the app up and we had it in the App store. This was what really got me into programming. My work. My creation. It was in the hands of thousands of college students at my University.

From there, I haven't stopped programming. I have 6 apps on the app store, 6 more in various level of completion. Some won't see the light of day - and hopefully some will blow the doors down on other similar apps in their market. I have a full-time job developing iOS apps at a research group through the College of Engineering at my University - and the only person with a BA in Art hired there. I like to think my idle creations are more extensions of my art than anything else - explorations through curiosity.

Pardon the long story, but that's how I became a programmer. And that's where I am today.

-------

[1] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UF8uR6Z6KLc

My sister is currently in college. The other day she was complaining about having to take classes outside her major to graduate. I made her watch the video of that speech and her opinion changed completely.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UF8uR6Z6KLc

mandatory reference to stanford commencement address by Steve Jobs, for that one person who hasn't seen it yet. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UF8uR6Z6KLc

There is two links to steve jobs' talks [1][2] that are not rendered because of some kind of typo. the opening tag of which i believe is intended to be an anchor tag is "nota" instead of "a".

[1] http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UF8uR6Z6KLc [2] http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vmG9jzCHtSQ

⬐ Jakob

This also breaks the Safari Reader (similar to Readability).

Generally it's not a good idea to say things like that to large audiences, due to exactly what you're pointing out here -- it will misunderstood, and taken literally.

For the correct individual, all of those statements drive home the importance breaking of mental constructs -- literally. That's the root point.

Again, everything GK was talking about, SJ tries to explain the root of it here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UF8uR6Z6KLc&t=12m33s

I think davidw was referring to Steve Jobs, who was registered for just one semester at Reed in the 70s and then hung around for a few more semesters sitting in on whatever classes interested him (including a course on typefaces, which came back into his life when he was working on the Macintosh). He talks about it in the Stanford 2005 graduation address:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UF8uR6Z6KLc

Also, your comment Can't say the same for Yale graduates I've met, most who contribute little to society and are for the most part ignorant seems unnecessarily harsh.

⬐ droithomme

I'll presume that Mr. Jobs is well educated.

The point is I only know a limited number of people from any particular university, as does anyone. From what I have read of Mr. Spolsky, a Yale graduate, he is well educated, but I haven't met him so can't speak too much to that.

It seems it is of intrinsically questionable validity to make sweeping generalizations about whether graduates, attendees, and those merely accepted by any given university are well educated.

Again we end up asking what it means to be educated in the first place. Different people may have different opinions of this as well. Clearly there will be some who believe it has to do with whether one has been to the same class of university as themselves, regardless of what they gained from it. This seems like specious reasoning though.

Here's the full video:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UF8uR6Z6KLc

"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."

June 12th 2005 Stanford commencement speech

Text: http://news.stanford.edu/news/2005/june15/jobs-061505.html

Video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UF8uR6Z6KLc

⬐ Casc

I knew after he stepped down it wouldn't be long. Guys like that don't stay still, they're too busy making a dent in the universe.

Not sure about anyone else, but the quote above does a lot for me, no matter how many times I've reread it.

⬐ daveungerer

Now I realise why this news is so sad to me. You see, I watched that speech at a time when I didn't know what to do with my life and career. He's the one who inspired me to finally quit my job and do the "foolish" thing. It's not about the products he created, it's the person he was.

⬐ jayfuerstenberg

I just re-watched that speech and it was enough to make me realize I'm not foolish enough. Jobs lived more than many people who reach age 70 because of this foolishness.

⬐ nordsieck

"Quem Metui Moritura"

AEneid, iv. 604.

What need have I to fear--so soon to die? Let me work on, not watch and wait in dread: What will it matter, when that I am dead That they bore hate or love that near me lie? 'Tis but a lifetime, and the end is nigh At best or worst. Let me lift up my head And firmly, as with inner courage, tread Mine own appointed way on mandates high. Pain could but bring from all its evil store, The close of pain: hate's venom could but kill; Repulse, defeat, desertion, could no more, Let me have lived my life, not cowered until The unhindered and unchastened hour was here. So soon--what is there now for me to fear?

-- Edward Rowland Sill

⬐ None

None

⬐ abrimo

I love that speech, back in the early 80s he spoke to the Academy of Achievement which was also great to listen too: http://www.achievement.org/autodoc/pagegen/brochure/p3.html (search for steve jobs)

⬐ cies

i wanted to link to that speech as well.

while the tech scene will miss him a lot, my thoughts go to his family who'll miss him most.

⬐ chugger

Steve's Most Enduring Legacy: inspiring generations of entrepreneurs, artists, etc. to "think different".

Right now, theres someone working on his own startup in their garage because he was inspired by Steve Jobs.

⬐ veyron

Me, although it's my parents basement and not a garage. And I have the Gandhi poster framed, which I snagged when my school considered disposing those posters ...

⬐ nirvana

Me. Right this moment, I'm in my parents house, where our little startup has moved (temporarily!) to create our MVP.

When I was a kid, my mother went back to college to finish the degree she'd abandoned when she got married. She decided to study computer science. This was my first exposure to boolean algebra, and made me want a computer. The Apple II was relatively new and visicalc was driving sales of it, and I wanted an Apple II so bad that I vowed that, if we couldn't afford one, by golly I was going to make one! I started learning electronics, I started learning circuit design, I followed a series of articles in Byte Magazine by Steve Ciarcia titled "build your own computer". I built my own computer. I laid out the PCB, and manufactured it, I stocked it, I designed a video card (using discrete chips, not one of the "video cards in a chip" choices that came out later.)

But pretty quickly, I realized that I needed to learn how to program it. I needed to learn assembly and to build an operating system, and so I put the computer hardware project on hold and started learning software.

When I went to college, I wanted to study EE (still in the hardware mode) but pretty soon ended up getting a job as a programmer for a small company. I liked the small company atmosphere, and that got me hooked on startups. So, I started my career (dropped out of college, like Steve) and worked for a bunch of startups so that I'd know what I needed to know before starting my own.

Along the way, I started dozens of small businesses. I read everything Guy Kawasaki published. I followed Apple news religiously, even in the days prior to the internet. I eventually was able to afford a Macintosh and have been using them for about 20 years now. I decided that design was important because I came to understand the Mac UI was designed. I read every crappy, money-grubbing, two-bit biography of Steve Jobs I could get my hands on.

I've never considered him to be a religious figure. I'm not a cultist. I don't worship him. In fact, as was recently revealed by Wozniak, Jobs was an admirer of Atlas Shrugged, as am I. Worship is the rejection of rationality, and rationality is what we both strived for.

As I work to build a brand new company now, having just filed the incorporation papers, I am conscious of the lessons Steve Jobs taught me.

They are not that you should make things pretty, or that marketing is more important than substance... quite the opposite.

Steve Jobs was a man of integrity. In this day and age, that is so very rare.

Apple is a company that has always done its best to do right by its customers, even when its customers didn't know what the right thing was. (Eg: nobody needed a GUI, a laser printer, built in networking, 72dpi, or 300+ dpi displays, the iPad, or a touch interface, or any of hundreds of other things that didn't exit on the market before Apple invented them.)

Steve Jobs has often been characterized as mean tempered, but I think that he is a kind person. All of the direct experiences I've had with him, he was vey kind. What other thing can it be than kindness that would drive someone to sacrifice nearly everything else in order to make a better experience for customers? The "missing" features on Apple products, especially in the 1.0 versions, are legion.

I think I'm feeling great pain right now, not because I'm an acolyte in the cult of mac, but because one of the few legitimate heroes of our age has died.

Steve Jobs was an unapologetic capitalist. He recognized that by making great products, he'd improve people's lives, and as a result, he'd improve his own.

He was diagnosed with pancreatic cancer in 2003. The prognosis is not good there, and so he knew he had limited time left. At that point he was a multi-millionaire if not already a billionaire.

How did he spend the last 8 years of his life? Enjoying himself? No. He drove himself and Apple to build the next generation of the personal computer. The iPad is as significant as the Apple II.

When he was a kid, Steve Jobs gave us the personal computer. When he was dying, he gave us the next generation of computing.

I can think of nothing more heroic, than the positive impact on billions of people that will have...

... and what more could someone who is starting a company aspire to?

⬐ rquantz

>> How did he spend the last 8 years of his life? Enjoying himself? No. He drove himself and Apple to build the next generation of the personal computer.

Make no mistake: he loved every minute of it.

⬐ mturmon

I believe it was in his commencement address that he said something to the effect of, there will be days when you look in the mirror and have to say, I don't want to work today. But you do anyway. But if there are enough of these days in a row, you know you need to make a change.

⬐ equalarrow

So true.

I've left two very well paying positions (one at a very reputable design company that designed some of the early Apple & NeXT products) in the past year because I did look in the mirror and realized they were not right for me.

You have to follow your passion, back it up with action, and everything else will fall into place.

⬐ palish

Careful though; this is the reason I'm currently left with $300 total.

⬐ keeptrying

Me too.

When I heard that commencement speech he gave, I just got the idea that he sincerely meant everything that he said. In a way that someone would when they were talking to you one on one. He had lived everything that he talked about.

And that speech is a big reason that I have made the leap into doing something on my own.

RIP Steve.

⬐ tyroneschiff

My absolute favorite line of that entire speech is the very last, "Stay hungry. Stay foolish." I live by it and will continue to do so. What an iconic brilliant genius the world has lost.

⬐ checker

He definitely loved what he did. He stuck with it until the end. RIP Steve.

⬐ marcalc

To the very end. That's incredible and sad. I don't know him personally, but knowing his biography, the kind of person he was and the impact he has on my daily life, man... i feel like having lost a close relative. Sad... :( May he rest in peace, for he have inspired us.

⬐ TomOfTTB

This is terribly tragic and don't take anything I say after this as meaning anything other than that.

But the more I think about this the more I think this is somehow the way things were meant to be. I mean, as much as we wish it wasn't true people do get diminished by age. The dashing young actor loses a little when you see him as a 60 year old. Your memory of him gets altered in the smallest of ways.

Steve Jobs is now enshrined in the world's collective memory as the magic man in a black shirt and jeans. He'll always be that now. I'd certainly trade his legend for a few more years of his life but at the same time the world needs legendary figures.

Would it have been better if Abraham Lincoln had been around for two terms? Yes. But would he have inspired generations of Americans if he'd gotten mired down in the politics of reconstruction and been forced to act like "just another politician"? I doubt it.

So it's horribly sad that Steve Jobs died but the fact that he was amazing to the very end is what will make him a legend going forward.

⬐ hugh3

There's something to be said for retiring at the right time, but no, I don't think Steve Jobs' legacy would have been robbed of anything if he'd lived to enjoy thirty years of comfortable retirement.

Even dashing young actors aren't diminished by age. If Sean Connery had died young he would have robbed us of some great roles. And if Paul Newman had died young he would have robbed us of some tasty salad dressing.

⬐ runn1ng

Love what you do. Do what you love.

The dots will connect one day. Even if others don't believe you, because you will die one day anyway.

It's inspirational and great.

⬐ pullo

Steve and his team have changed the way we live. Making us all introspect on our lives work..is probably his second monumental contribution...

⬐ treenyc

I don't normally post here. However, this speech is one of an inspiration for me to do the 'foolish' things in life.

⬐ pcj

Visionary, par excellence!

⬐ wyclif

"Just over two centuries ago, in 1805, it took news of the Battle of Trafalgar over a fortnight to reach London from the Mediterranean. The fact that, in 2011, the speed with which the news of Steve Jobs's death circled the globe and reached millions could be measured in seconds is a profound testimony to the connective power of the new world that he helped to create." ~ Alastair Roberts

⬐ narag

Trafalgar is not far from the Mediterranean, but it's in the Atlantic,

Following are some great technology and startups related resources that I have come across:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UF8uR6Z6KLc (Steve Jobs Speech. Watch it again and again and again...)

http://news.ycombinator.com/ (Latest News in the Tech/Startup Industry)

http://ycombinator.com/lib.html (YCombinator Startup Library)

http://www.sfu.ca/~mvolker/biz/ (Business Basics for Engineers)

http://cslibrary.stanford.edu/ (Stanford CS Library)

http://stackoverflow.com/ (Tech Q & A)

http://answers.onstartups.com (Startup Q & A)

http://www.paulgraham.com/articles.html (Paul Graham Essays)

http://ruby.railstutorial.org/ruby-on-rails-tutorial-book (Ruby on Rails Tutorial Book)

https://www.djangoproject.com/ (Python - Django Framework)

http://angel.co/ (Angel List)

http://webchat.freenode.net/ (Join any channel, for example, #rubyonrails, #css, #jquery, #ubuntu, etc. for quick Q & A and chat)

http://www.github.com (For open source code)

http://ecorner.stanford.edu/popularVideos.html (Stanford E-Corner Popular Videos)

I will keep the list updated. If you believe I am missing something, please mention it in the comments.

Sad day..I think I must have watched his stanford commencement speech at least a dozen times.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UF8uR6Z6KLc&feature=youtu...

⬐ dporan

This announcement only makes more poignant what he said in that speech:

"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."

⬐ CamperBob

"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..."

"... and go out right after launching a bunch of bullshit patent suits."

⬐ spking

Thank you for reminding me of this quote. Truly epic. http://spking.com/steve/

Most of you will know it already, but Steve Job's commencement speech at Stanford speaks in essence about finding the 'right' path as well: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UF8uR6Z6KLc

(for those who haven't seen it: it's a must...)

Meh, I preferred the old playboy interview with him in 1985, http://webcache.googleusercontent.com/search?q=cache:77cJqxW...

Here's the Standford 2005 talk the article mentions http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UF8uR6Z6KLc

Watch these videos

http://bit.ly/ehfTc3 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UF8uR6Z6KLc http://bit.ly/eNZPda

I do it whenever i lack motivation. It helps me a lot, I hope it will help you in same way.

And you if you really think you want to take a break, Come to Nepal, Its a nice place to be. However its landlocked so you wont find beaches.

Another talk I find highly inspirational is his 2005 Stanford university commencement address.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UF8uR6Z6KLc

The magnificent speech in question

http://youtu.be/UF8uR6Z6KLc

As far as one can tell, it looks like she turned out OK (the little I've read of her writing is hella good) ...

to be candid, if it was a short-term situation I don't think it would have been announced, based on previous Apple practice.

thoughts are with them, as was mentioned above, tech things are more interesting when Steve is doing them.

stay hungry, stay foolish... (Steve's commencement address 2005)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UF8uR6Z6KLc&feature=playe...

Hi,

I've been there. Almost droping out of school, missing classes, having few friends (most of my long time friends lived in other countries) and couldn't share it with my family because they wouldn't understand, and had their own problems.

How did I get out of it ? I tried and failed launching three startups. I wanted to focus the whole energy on achieving something .. and even if I failed to, this kept me "alive".

I think you should find something (or someone by luck:) ) you really love and focus everything on it.

As a conclusion, I would like to share with you two things :

- "To strive, to seek, to find, and not to yield" from Ulysses

- And this speech by Steve Jobs : http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UF8uR6Z6KLc

It's the "curse of the x0s"; people tend to take stock of their lives when they're near 20, 30, 40, 50 etc. and can be quite harsh with themselves during this period of time.

Have a look at Steve Jobs's Stanford commencement address on YouTube. The theme is "connect the dots".

  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UF8uR6Z6KLc

Are you still able to use the skills you picked up and make a decent living out of it? Why not develop that further?

Major in something practical.

Do something that will afford you plenty of lateral freedom (so you can take that calligraphy course a la http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UF8uR6Z6KLc#t=4m28s) but that will give you some skill you can make money with on the other side.

If grad school is your goal (you didn't indicate so I'm only guessing) then a purely theoretical degree is fine; you'll satisfy your intellectual curiosity while demonstrating that you have the chops for higher level thinking. Otherwise, please please get a degree in something more specific.

The business of designing your own degree makes me nervous. On the one hand you can use it to show you had the industry to do something off the beaten path. On the other hand it's this thing no one can easily relate to. If I tell you I have a degree in Economics you understand what that means (that I'm no economist is besides the point!). But it comes with certain expectations about the materials I studied and the manner in which I was trained to think/solve problems. That signaling goes a long way with employers and/or clients and you might pay a price if you get too creative.

Also you never, ever know where life circumstances will take you. Best not to get a chip on your shoulder. Not saying that you have, just saying that I've seen it happen; we entrepreneurs get it in our heads that "none of this matters... I'm starting my own company when I graduate." You might be 100% right, but best to find out when you get there.

One final thing: Don't take anything I've said too literally. A year in the Business major doldrums got me overly concerned with doing something more pragmatic (again, I think this is only natural of we entrepreneurs) so I added Economics to my CV and rushed my schooling to finish a year early. Looking back that was so foolish... I should have lightened my course load and finished on time with my buddies. That would have given me plenty of opportunity to explore more interesting classes (like softer stuff in communications and theater) while using the extra time to get my business off the ground. You know what they say about hindsight.

Good luck either way. You sound like you have a good head on your shoulders so I'm confident things will work out for you.

⬐ klbarry

Some great advice and life lessons in the post, thank you. I must say I'm not interested at all in grad school, so I might have some concern for that.

On the other hand, with the ignorance of youth, I'm not really worried at all. I've never really had any problems getting jobs when I've applied for them. Businesses are usually impressed with my biz experience for a young person. I imagine I would be immediately ruled out of a lot of hiring processes though.

The video is on Youtube: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UF8uR6Z6KLc

It is an extraordinarily well-crafted speech.

⬐ napierzaza

Why read the transcript of one of the world's greatest presenters?

Reminds me of the Stanford address where Jobs claims that computers may not have had typography if he'd not done a calligraphy course. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UF8uR6Z6KLc I'm sure the Parc guys that founded Adobe would beg to differ.

⬐ shalmanese

Wow, imagine if Jobs had taken a microbiology course. Apple computers would be able to cure cancer by now.

⬐ papersmith

[TeX](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/TeX) was released in 1978, though I'm not sure as to the time line of the other developments.

⬐ rimantas

  I'm sure the Parc guys that founded Adobe would beg to
  differ.

Maybe, but I am not sure how much. I'd say Apple played a major role in Adobe becoming Adobe. It was Jobs who persuaded them to change initial plan to build the whole package: computer + printer, and focus on software which Apple needed for LaserWriter.

  "Steve did a prepayment on royalties to make sure
  we had the resources to stay in business, and Apple
  also bought a little less than 20 percent of the
  company, which quintupled the value of the original
  investors' money. Steve wanted to make sure that we
  finish this product, because it was critical for him
  to have the LaserWriter"

  "Fortunately, there was a young marketing guy at Apple
  named John Scull, who aware of what was going on (as
  were we) at Aldus up in Seattle, because PageMaker come
  out at the same time as the LaserWriter did. He came up
  with the idea of getting the three companies—Apple, Aldus
  and Adobe—together to put together a marketing campaign called
  "desktop publishing".

Source: Interview with Charles Geschke, cofounder of Adobe Systems in "Founders at work".

⬐ None

None

Video of the address: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UF8uR6Z6KLc

I'm pretty sure Steve doesn't think of himself as superhuman; that's just how everyone else views him. His commencement address at Stanford seemed quite human to me.

Text: http://news-service.stanford.edu/news/2005/june15/jobs-06150...

Video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UF8uR6Z6KLc

"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."

I watch this speech of his every couple months. So damn good.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UF8uR6Z6KLc

I feel foolish but : Steve Jobs of course ! (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UF8uR6Z6KLc&fmt=18)

He's a great storyteller, that's why I guess his keynotes are so successful.

An oldie but a great speech (old HN discussion here: http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=211832). For anyone who's interested, here are some other extraordinary commencement speeches:

Steve Jobs: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UF8uR6Z6KLc

Bill Watterson: http://home3.inet.tele.dk/stadil/spe_kc.htm

David Foster Wallace: http://www.marginalia.org/dfw_kenyon_commencement.html

There is a lot of good advice and numerous great sound-bytes from all of these; but one of my personal favorites comes from Bill Watterson, who makes a point that I feel often gets overlooked at HN in our relentless pursuit of success:

Creating a life that reflects your values and satisfies your soul is a rare achievement. In a culture that relentlessly promotes avarice and excess as the good life, a person happy doing his own work is usually considered an eccentric, if not a subversive. Ambition is only understood if it's to rise to the top of some imaginary ladder of success. Someone who takes an undemanding job because it affords him the time to pursue other interests and activities is considered a flake. A person who abandons a career in order to stay home and raise children is considered not to be living up to his potential ― as if a job title and salary are the sole measure of human worth. You'll be told in a hundred ways, some subtle and some not, to keep climbing, and never be satisfied with where you are, who you are, and what you're doing. There are a million ways to sell yourself out, and I guarantee you'll hear about them.

To invent your own life's meaning is not easy, but it's still allowed, and I think you'll be happier for the trouble.

⬐ david927

That's an amazing quote. Thanks.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UF8uR6Z6KLc

Don't worry: it will not cost $400,000/yr. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UF8uR6Z6KLc

http://youtube.com/watch?v=UF8uR6Z6KLc

⬐ notdarkyet

Thanks