Steve Jobs 2005 Stanford Commencement Address

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

Who is he: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Steve_Jobs

In his words: “Believing that the dots will connect down the road will give you the confidence to follow your heart even when it leads you off the well-worn path.”

In my words:
Fortune says Steve Jobs is “one of Silicon Valley’s leading egomaniacs.” Newsweek says he’s a “petulant narcissist.” But perhaps his petulant egomania is warranted. Maybe this is Steve Jobs’ world, and we’re just living in it. Philosophers spend a lifetime trying to distill the meaning of life. And whether or not you agree with him, Steve Jobs comes pretty close to laying out a cohesive worldview in 15 minutes. Let’s see Bill Gates one-up that.

Jobs delivered this talk like a butcher. It wasn’t necessarily pretty to see, but in short time, he reduced the complexities of life to their core components. His delivery is awkward. It’s painfully clear that he’s reading his remarks, and he stumbles over them several times. However, his messages are so direct and powerful that a nuanced or polished delivery is not required.

He conveys these ideas using simple – maddeningly simple – stories to illustrate his ideas. Following the development of Macintosh fonts from Jobs’ days as a drop-in is in no way sexy. Its moral is, however, unmistakable. The story’s simplicity practically begs the viewer to look to their own lives for examples of connecting the dots.

Key quotes:
“It was impossible to connect the dots looking forward when I was in college, but it was very, very clear looking back ten years later… so you have to trust that the dots will somehow connect in your future.”

“The heaviness of being successful was replaced by the lightness of being a beginner again.”

“I have looked in the mirror every morning and asked myself ‘If today were the last day of my life, would I want to do what I am about to do today,’ and whenever the answer has been no for too many days in a row, I know I need to change something. 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.”

“Death is very likely the single best invention of life. It’s life’s change agent to clear out the old and make room for the new.”

“Your time is limited, so don’t waste it living someone else’s life.”

Noodle scratcher:
How have you connected the dots in your life?

Jill Tarter: Why the search for alien intelligence matters

Link: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EszGIvRdgTE

Who is she? http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jill_Tarter

In her words: “We are the products of a billion-year lineage of wandering stardust. We – all of us – are what happens when a primordial mixture of hydrogen and helium evolves for so long that it begins to ask where it came from.”

In my words:

Little is more difficult to truly understand than outer space. If black holes don’t make your head spin, dark matter certainly should. Their complexity, and the sheer magnitude of the forces that drive them make it difficult to achieve a meaningful understanding let alone a meaningful conversation.

That’s the challenge Jill Tarter faces, and that’s the challenge Jill Tarter handles handily. She makes space relevant, and she makes space understandable. She does this by presenting the exploration of space as a part of our evolution. Humanity, she says, is a story of ideas, of which the search for extraterrestrial intelligence is a natural next step.

She uses a series of rhetorical devices to convey the realities of outer space. Perhaps the most touching of these is her presentation of her perspective on Earth’s place among the galaxies (at 1:10). “Every poem, ever laugh, every tear, they’ve all happened here, here, here, here. Perspective can be a very powerful thing, perspectives can change, perspectives can be altered.” The quote on its own does little justice to the simplicity and power of her words. Watch the video to really understand what she’s saying.

She states that, given the mind-bending number of stars in the universe, 10^22 to be specific, that it is probable that there is life somewhere else. Any other scientists may have considered 10^22 an adequate representation of the quantity of stars. Tarter illustrates this unimaginably high number of stars. She asks the audience to imagine that a stack of 10 trillion stars would reach 20 feet in the air. She then tells the audience that a stack of all stars would reach three times as far away as the moon. There are a few more examples of her ability to distill a complex issue to a couple of sentences in the key quotes.

And it doesn’t hurt that Tarter has some majestic phrasing thrown in (Earth is a “fragile island of life in a universe of possibilities”). Her wording brings a spirituality to the cold reaches of space. This kind of speaking requires careful writing and even some serious soul searching. This talk shows what happens when you identify the limitations of your subject matter, and address those head on.

Key Quotes:

“We are not the pinnacle of evolution. We are not the determined product of billions of years of evolutionary plotting and planning. We are one outcome of a continuing adaptational process. We are residents of one small planet in the corner of the milky way galaxy.”

“All of the concerted SETI efforts over the last 40 some years are equivalent to scooping a single glass of water from the oceans, and no one would decide that the ocean is without fish on the basis of one glass of water.”

Laura Trice: The power of saying thank you

Link: http://www.ted.com/index.php/talks/laura_trice_suggests_we_all_say_thank_you.html

Who is she?: http://www.ted.com/index.php/speakers/laura_trice.html

In her words: “Why can I say I take my steak medium rare, I need size six shoes, but I won’t say ‘would you praise me this way?’”

In my words:

This sushi-style talk is compact and satisfying. Though Trice is a little on the awkward side, her point comes across crystal clear. Instead of getting sidetracked with the psychological implications of going through life without getting praised, she remains focused on getting her audience to say “thank you.” Every sentence relates back to that central idea. She’s able to maintain this focus with a series of anecdotes, analogies and directives. Each of these is bite-size, and directly relates back to the notion of “Thank You.”

She underemphasizes the importance of specificity when thanking someone. Though she addresses it, a listener may walk away from the talk thinking that saying “thank you” for a door held open, or for your sandwich at Subway. Though these are good things, they are not in the spirit of Trice’s “thank you” initiative.

This is another perspective altering talk, and one with serious upside in a viewer’s life.

Key Quotes:

“Now, get to your wheel truing.”

“Why can I say I take my steak medium rare, I need size six shoes, but I won’t say ‘would you praise me this way? And it’s because I’m giving you critical data about me, I’m telling you where I’m insecure, I’m telling you where I need your help.”

Noodle scratchers:

What do you want to be thanked for? How could she have emphasized the importance of specificity?