Matt Damon's Commencement Address at MIT

http://news.mit.edu/2016/matt-damon-commencement-address-0603

by Gabriel-Lewis • 10 years ago

50 53 10 years ago

news.mit.edu

hoodoof5• 10 years ago

Have you noticed that our society holds actors in the highest esteem above all categories of occupation?

pcurve• 10 years ago

What makes you say that? Some people certainly hold 'certain' actors to high esteem, but those are usually ones with admirable characters.

People love celebrities, but I'm not sure if 'high esteem' is apt description.

hoodoof5• 10 years ago

I think that actors are revered in an almost god-like way, sports people next.

discardorama• 10 years ago

Yep, like the Kardashian clan.

H0n3sty• 10 years ago

Yes, it's as if our society wants to believe they really are the larger than life characters they play on screen. To his credit, he opened with...

It’s an honor to be part of this day.... But let’s be honest — It’s an honor I didn’t earn.

CptJamesCook2• 10 years ago

I don't know many people who hold any actors above Elon Musk or Barack Obama.

dustin• 10 years ago

Republicans?

hoodoof5• 10 years ago

Perhaps in the HN community and nerdy computer world that might be true but I would suggest that ordinary people have never heard of Elon Musk.

rawTruthHurts• 10 years ago

I can't tell if this is sarcastic or not.

I choose yes it is.

cenal• 10 years ago

Celebrities of all kinds are nothing more than brands. People are fans of brands. People go crazy for Apple products in the same way they go crazy for sneakers that Kanye puts out.

rayiner2• 10 years ago

Kind of a weird criticism to level at Matt Damon. Whether you agree with his politics or not, he's clearly extremely smart. He dropped out of Harvard and wrote an Oscar-winning movie script. He talks about theories with professors and hangs out with the President.

hoodoof5• 10 years ago

Maybe it's a weird criticism because it isn't. How do you read my observation as criticism?

scintill762• 10 years ago

He talks about theories with professors and hangs out with the President.

These sound so superficially-smart that I'm almost wondering if you're joking. Every college student "talks about theories with professors", so does Matt Damon actually teach them something or show greater-than-average understanding? And the President is basically just another celebrity in this context, unless you tell us something meaningful Mr. Damon did with the President other than "hang out".

I'll grant you Damon is more articulate than many celebrities, but I've decided that by listening to what he says, not noting that professors and the President have occasionally been in his presence.

(P.S. Perhaps this is a disproportionate fixation on the closing sentence to some other points I agree with.)

jdale27• 10 years ago

No more so than athletes or musical performers (I wouldn't go so far as to say "musicians" -- thinking of people like Britney and Justin Bieber). Or doctors, for that matter, in the more non-celebrity world. In fact I wonder if doctors are held in the highest esteem of any occupation, due to being perhaps the only one where making a lot of money and being considered morally and ethically upstanding can seem to coincide. Or maybe actors are in that category too, except that the ones who make money are fewer, and the ones who are morally bankrupt are more (though partially because the media profits from amplifying those cases).

hammock• 10 years ago

Music artist is the preferred term. It better fits Britney Spears and Justin Bieber in the sense that it encompasses their performances as well (a form of art).

yanilkr2• 10 years ago

Actors put in an enormous amount of effort and discipline to get where they are and need more personal character to stay relevant. I don't think Matt Dameon's opinions are any better but I think they should not be dismissed. May be we should build them a hacker news for celebrities.

michaelbuddy2• 10 years ago

No more effort and discipline than your above average working person. They are favored because of charisma, but their value is questionable if you get over the starry eyed gullibility.

tvural• 10 years ago

This isn't an accident. Celebrities get really famous by appearing to have whatever qualities the average person wants. Nobody could actually be like the characters Audrey Hepburn played in movies. But the fact that she was so popular tells you a little bit about what the average female used to wish they were like. It would be nice if people looked up to Einstein more than Matt Damon. But people respect Einstein a lot more than they want to be him.

sotojuan2• 10 years ago

Matt Damon is in the news or the front cover of a magazine several times a year. Einstein, were he alive today, would not be just like the recent Nobel laureates aren't. Damon's career depends on public appearances and extroversions, while most scientists don't care for or need them. That's why it seems people "look up to actors" more. They see more of them, and as you said people see what they like from them.

michaelbuddy2• 10 years ago

Anyone leaning left will get invitations to these campuses for honorary degrees. Unfortunately as good as Matt Damon is, now the reputation of these campuses just strikes as favortism towards leftist ideas. I like Matt Damon, but it's just a fact that these degrees are meaningless. A 15 minute speech, some leftist ideas, tell the students they've "accomplished so much" when most of them haven't really accomplshed anything other than spending money they don't have.

Sad really. I don't have any interest in these speeches anymore for value. Especially during a political season.

maneshd• 10 years ago

For what it's worth, he didn't receive an honorary degree (but he was given an MIT pirate's license certificate)

InclinedPlane• 10 years ago

Of course. Humans are basically apes, and familiarity and likability go a long way, they make it feel like you have a connection with the famous person.

jrcii• 10 years ago

People spend countless hours forming lingering one-way emotional relationships with actors as a byproduct of suspension of disbelief. This creates a false sense of familiarity and therefore trust in the actor as a person. Actors in turn tend to acquire a Shoe Button Complex as a result of this misplaced trust which compounds the problem.

My interest in the thoughts of those I don't know personally is restricted to the specific domains in which they've demonstrated competency.

a_small_island• 10 years ago

Shoe Button Complex

"...named for the condition of a family friend who spoke in an oracular style on all subjects after becoming dominant in the shoe button business."

I had to look this up, but it gave me a chuckle.

jcheng• 10 years ago

If you're going by MIT commencement addresses, more like (successful) CEOs and founders.

https://commencement.mit.edu/archive/speakers

danso• 10 years ago

Interesting choice...I thought maybe he had gone to MIT but apparently he dropped out from Harvard. I wonder what led to him being chosen (and I say that as a fan of his)?

glial• 10 years ago

Probably Good Will Hunting.

brians• 10 years ago

More likely connections between the water.org people and the MIT Corporation board. The MIT D-Lab has goals and approaches closely related to water.org's.

See https://d-lab.mit.edu for more.

dskhatri• 10 years ago

Perhaps a combination of factors? He was born in Cambridge, MA. MIT celebrated 100 years in the city. And Good Will Hunting.

vonklaus• 10 years ago

But again, the point is not to become some kind of well- rounded, high-minded voyeur. The point is to try to eliminate your blind spots — the things that keep us from grasping the bigger picture.[...] And that’s when we can really start to understand ourselves better ... and begin to solve some problems.

While it seems rather intuitive on its face, I liked this comment. Too many people move forward discounting new informtion while reinforcing their beliefs. I took the living on display to mean following a path you think others find highest leverge and not neccessarily the individual.

This is as much a defect in personality as it is in scientific thinking, which he seems to touch on later. He says along the lines of `really smart people make really big mistakes`, this is because people make mistakes. Honestly, it had the stay hungry stay foolish vibe. I found it interesting, was worth the read.

edit: After some contemplation, I think the meta point that I found interesting is that (as examined downthread) the contrast between Kim Kardashian and Elon Musk, for example, seems to speak to one of the core themes of this address. I would be forced to admit that if Elon Musk gave this speech, I would certainly consider the information more valubale than if Kim Kardashian did. However, the point I believe Damon makes is that, the information itself is also important.

RawData• 10 years ago

It was really a surprisingly powerful ending...

partiallypro• 10 years ago

Why has every commencement address turned into a political speech? Politics is like a disease that has slowly taken over ever facet of life.

enraged_camel3• 10 years ago

>Not every problem has a high-tech solution.

Something the HN crowd should be reminded of regularly.

timonoko• 10 years ago

Fat-heads Rule: http://www15.uta.fi/koskivoimaa/henkilot/kuvat/29a9a37.jpg

Finnish General Arno Pajari possibly not related to Matt "John Pajari" Damon. Accused of war-crimes by Russians in 1944.

Matt Damon's Commencement Address at MIT

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