JK Rowling's Commencement speech at Harvard

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

by ashwinl • 18 years ago

70 29 18 years ago

ashwinl• 18 years ago

"Rock bottom became the solid foundation on which I rebuilt my life. You might never fail on the same scale I did, but some failure in life is inevitable. It is impossible to live without failing at something, unless you live so cautiously that you might as well have not lived at all. In which case, you failed by default."

culley• 18 years ago

wow. I wrote that same passage down, and this one: "There is an expiration date for blaming your parents for steering you in the wrong direction."

boredguy8• 18 years ago

The best aphorism was cleverly hidden amidst a joke: "Achievable goals: the first step towards personal improvement." Remember her point: the 'crucial importance of imagination' is not quixotic. Too many people I know like to 'dream the impossible dream', and that's just how far they get.

Another I liked: "Your qualifications, your CV, are not your life, though you will meet many people of my age and older who confuse the two."

A very well done speech, and a quite decent speaker.

nsrivast• 18 years ago

Proud that two articles on the front page are about Harvard's commencement, I might suggest president Drew Faust's address:

http://www.president.harvard.edu/speeches/faust/080605_comms...

It's long, but argues a controversial point well.

astine• 18 years ago

Well said. I'm impressed.

thinkcomp• 18 years ago

As a recent Harvard graduate who was disappointed in his University President (Larry Summers) and his commencement speaker (Tim Russert), I can say I was really thrilled to hear both Faust's and Rowling's speech. Both were truly excellent, but Rowling's was particularly relevant to her audience given the tendencies of Harvard seniors to view life as a race to the top of Goldman Sachs. Harry Potter aside, Rowling continues to impress me as an amazing person and a model for entrepreneurs. For example, want to know who gets good contract terms? Look at J.K. Rowling. Want to see someone who knows how to control the media? J.K. Rowling once more. She's very understated, hasn't destroyed anyone's livelihood, and yet she's immensely successful (and still down-to-earth). I hope to be like her one day.

huhtenberg2• 18 years ago

If only she would've not turned poor Albus gay ..

(edit) What I mean is that she should've not gone into elaborating on this subject at all. It would've been equally damaging if she would've called him a "ladies man" or a "sex bomb". It's a type of a character detail that I think is better not to be discussed explicitly. Not for this particular character.

I don't know about other people, but this comment of hers did spoil the reading of the last book for me.

ken• 18 years ago

"It's like her stupid, self-serving claim that Dumbledore was gay. She wants credit for being very up-to-date and politically correct - but she didn't have the guts to put that supposed "fact" into the actual novels, knowing that it might hurt sales. What a pretentious, puffed-up coward. When I have a gay character in my fiction, I say so right in the book. I don't wait until after it has had all its initial sales to mention it."

-- Orson Scott Card, <http://www.linearpublishing.com/RhinoStory.html>;

nostrademons2• 18 years ago

What, you couldn't tell Albus was gay from the first 6 books?

It's not canon anyway, so you can go on pretending he's straight or asexual or caprasexual. Hell, I pretend the epilogue doesn't exist, and that is canon.

seiji• 18 years ago

NPR story about some students not being pleased with the choice of speaker: http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=9123254...

dill_day• 18 years ago

"They'll grow up," says 1983 graduate David Epstein. "They'll have a broader worldview and they'll understand that there are many, many ways to contribute. You know what they say — the freshman bring so much, and the seniors take away so little."

raju• 18 years ago

A great message. Most of us invariably get caught in the rat race, every action merely one to make out CV's better, and the number on the monthly check higher. Though what makes us humans, and good people is not the ability to buy a bigger house, or have our names in the headlines of the week, but the capacity to reach out - reach out to those who need us, and to make the world a better place for all of us.

Thank you, JK Rowling. And thank you, ashwinl.

mamama• 18 years ago

Not as good as "Larry Ellison's speech" at Yale:

http://www.snopes.com/quotes/ellison.asp

mhartl• 18 years ago

Your conception of failure might not be too far removed from the average person's idea of success.

She hit that nail on the head. And it goes not just for the Harvard graduates in the audience; a lot of people at Hacker News could 'settle' for a life most people would envy. It's nice to be reminded of that from time to time.

ericb• 18 years ago

Has anyone else noticed with each passing year JK Rowling looks younger? It's amazing what a billion dollars buys!

babul• 18 years ago

I like the message, similar to the pg essay regarding education, that your education and CV is not everything.

In a culture geared towards materialism and success defined by job status and the like, I often feel this is lost.

JK Rowling's Commencement speech at Harvard

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