Text of Steve Jobs' Commencement Address at Stanford (June 12, 2005)

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

by abstractwater • 16 years ago

44 15 16 years ago

news.stanford.edu

dstein• 16 years ago

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

It is an extraordinarily well-crafted speech.

napierzaza• 16 years ago

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

omfut• 16 years ago

Its such a wonderful speech. One of the best speech i have ever heard. I have seen this video so many times and never get bored seeing it again and again. It just brings the energy in me back.

_corbett• 16 years ago

Jobs at his best.

vjk2005• 16 years ago

Every time I see this video I get conflicting emotions - on the one hand I get depressed as it keeps reminding me that there's only one Steve Jobs and a mortal one at that, makes me wish we made more of him. But then on the other hand I realize a Steve Jobs born in this day and age would have cleaned out every last smidgen of privacy we enjoy, the business model of today, in typical Jobsian fashion - careful, calculated, precise and unstoppable. Then I'm just glad we aren't making more of him.

hernan7• 16 years ago

The "heaviness" speech, an oldie but a goodie.

For some reason it reminds me of that quote from Annie Hall. Woody Allen trying to cop some hippie jargon... "Did it achieve total heaviosity?"

jarrold• 16 years ago

I was really lucky to be there to hear this in person. Listening to it again still blows me away. I'm from Singapore and I think one of the problems of my generation is that too few of us follow our hearts. Some might blame the education system, some might even blame the government.

I'm just extremely fortunate to experience life in the Valley and it opened up my mind. When doing a startup, its like a roller coaster ride with many ups and downs. Success is not overnight and probably might not even get there on the first attempt. But its speeches like this that kept the fire burning.

Zev• 16 years ago

..one of the problems of my generation is that too few of us follow our hearts.

Is this really specific to our generation?

For that matter, I don't know what generation you're from. I assume the same one that I'm considered to be, if you're talking about a recent graduation. But, you could be older -- attending someone else's graduation.

philwelch• 16 years ago

Whenever I want to feel good about the world, I look at things from the perspective of the entire history of the human race.

Thousands of years ago, most of our ancestors were more likely than not subsistence farming or, if they were doing anything historically interesting at all, laboring on gigantic walls or pyramids or other largely useless monuments for various kings and tyrants. There was no choice as to what one did with one's life, it was dictated by the circumstances of birth.

Even having dreams, much less the ability to follow them, is a rare thing for humans. We're each blessed to have this ability.

ulf• 16 years ago

"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."

Kinda sad, when you think about how many of the people in the audience would go on to become investment bankers...

zatara• 16 years ago

What I like the most is: "You can only connect the dots looking backwards". It is a very good perspective when things don't make much sense in the present, and also gives an insight about the Jobs-Woz relationship. Woz was definitely the hacker, and Jobs, after his two years at Reeds College (and the calligraphy stuff), sedimented his experience as a designer (the "pony-tail guy").

Looking at the role that design plays in Apple nowadays, I wouldn't be surprised at all to see Jonathan Ive filling Jobs's shoes in the future, and that would be an excellent choice IMHO.

Of course, I also wonder how the young Steve Jobs would evaluate some of the current Apple's policies...

danielsiders2• 16 years ago

I was really moved the first time I heard him talk about his and Apple's commitment to beautiful typography, it was really evident in early projects. But lately (with the exception of Retina display) Apple has ignored great typography and made lots of n00b errors that aren't even sen on other mobile platforms. If Steve isn't keeping an eye on that sort of thing, who will after he's gone? In a company with such a strong focus on minimalist design, screwing around with something as essential as text has a very big effect on the visual bottom line.

mitjak• 16 years ago

Don't bring up marker felt don't bring up marker felt.

danielsiders2• 16 years ago

One of these days the Apple.com homepage will be in Comic Sans and the transformation will be complete.

sleepingbot• 16 years ago

How many times did you post this. It must be a joke at this point. HN getting... Well...

Text of Steve Jobs' Commencement Address at Stanford (June 12, 2005)

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