“Stay Hungry, Stay Foolish”
Posted by: rocknroli on: June 11, 2009
This is a widely circulated video and speech – Steve Jobs speaking at Stanford commencement in 2005. I recently saw it again. Just thought I’ll share with any visitors who might not have seen it. It’s one of the most inspirational speeches I have heard. Stay hungry, stay foolish.
3 Responses to "“Stay Hungry, Stay Foolish”"
June 16, 2009 at 12:23 pm
Looking at your comment – “It’s one of the most inspirational speeches I have heard.” – I expected the speech to be really great but frankly speaking by the end of the speech I could not quite embrace it. I liked the message which he delivered “Connect the dots”, “Live as if you will die today”, “Stay hungry, Stay foolish” but I feel the examples which he chose were not appropriate for the occasion as each one of them had a negative tone to it.
His first example about telling the fresh graduates that “dropping out of the college was his best decision” would make at least some of the graduates think that they just wasted few years of their life. His second example conveyed the message that he got fired for the job he loved. This kind of message conveys the wrong the message to fresh graduates that it’s ok to not get along with people, to get fired, to have attitude. What I feel is – If you love the job, the job will love you – if the job loves you, you will not get fired. In third example, he mentioned about his close encounter with death. ‘Death’ is a very sensitive topic and can really start the thought process in another direction and forget all about their achievements, success and joy of graduation. The topic would be really tough on students who lost their near and dear ones recently especially because of pancreatic cancer. Finally, there was no need of mentioning ‘Windows’ in his first story. In work ethics, one should learn to respect their opponents and not throw “random” comments in public. I call it “random” because it was one liner comment and no details. If he did not have time to cover the full story then he should not have used it in his story.
Enjoy,
Smitao
June 16, 2009 at 8:16 pm
Hey O,
Good to see a point of view from a bit north of the bay area 
.
Actually, I was also a bit surprised to see Steve Jobs being invited for a commencement speech….
Surprisingly, I do see some of the examples differently than you do – I don’t believe “fresh graduates” need to be sheltered….these are 22+ year old folks (including PhDs, MBAs and bunch of other grads too) with voting rights. Mincing words to take care of everyone’s sensitivities often dilutes the message. In fact I thought “follow your heart” message was very timely for graduates who often have various pressures accepting that first job offer.
About the “job” comment – I have seen and known very good people fired, and it had nothing to do with their performance. At the end of the day companies are run by people – and people are influenced by soft issues. Not getting along with key people in the company (happens in start-ups all the time), change in the business strategy, restructuring – are all common reasons to getting rid of (even good) people.
The “random” comment was a bit below the belt 
– and that’s why I said it’s refreshing to hear from someone from Washington.
-Roli
June 16, 2009 at 10:54 am
Milind and I attended the 2005 commencement to see Bapna and Tulika graduate. As soon as we got back home, I sent the transcript to family and friends
I’ve heard this speech a few times since then.. absolutely fantastic!