Although Steve Jobs has been dead for more than a decade, he is still held in high regard for his technical accomplishments and business acumen. He is a legend among technophiles and a folk hero among entrepreneur wannabes. His quotes appear all over the internet, and a commencement address that he gave in 2005 at Stanford University has been published as a Kindle book and included in other collections of his speeches and quotes. I was not aware of his speech until one of the readers of turn-stone sent me a video of an excerpt of it in response to my post, “Death riding shotgun,” which is at this link: https://turn-stone.com/death-riding-shotgun/
Jobs’ remarks are inspiring, particularly for young people just graduating from college. Here is the link to Jobs’ address: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jiHZqamCD8c&t=521s
What he said reflects the principal theme of “Death riding shotgun,” that an awareness of death is a useful guide for how to live. His words, however, ignore the challenge most young people face of navigating a world that is far, far removed from that of a high-tech business executive and of a Stanford graduating class.
Here are some excerpts from the address that get at my point:
“When I was 17, I read a quote that went something like, “If you live each day as if it was your last, someday you’ll most certainly be right.” It made an impression on me. And since then, for the past 33 years, I have looked in the mirror every morning and asked myself, “If today were the last day of my life, would I wanna 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 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….
Your time is limited, so don’t waste it living someone else’s life. Don’t be trapped by dogma, which is living with the results of other people’s thinking. Don’t let the noise of others’ opinions drown out your own inner voice. And most important, have the courage to follow your heart and intuition. They somehow already know what you truly want to become. Everything else is secondary….”
While those are stirring words, they are from a billionaire who was quite successful due to his intelligence and ability—and luck. Moreover, he was speaking to graduates from one of the most elite universities in the world, graduates whose diploma would open doors that are locked to most people. It is easy to be entranced with the idea of following your heart if the path ahead is paved, the weather is benign, and the wind is at your back.
Few people are in that position, however. Idealistic advice in a commencement speech might give graduates a sense of possibility, but it doesn’t address the obstacles and pitfalls most young people face, some of which are insurmountable. For example, many lack the money, educational prerequisites, social awareness, or family encouragement to go to college in the first place. Others graduate deeply in debt, so that the idea of following one’s heart runs headlong into the sobering reality of student loan payments. And then there is the issue of finding satisfying work which also offers fair pay, a search that too often is degrading and unsuccessful. For a young person who is not a Stanford grad or even a college graduate at all, or has kids or parents to care for, or who worries about making the rent because of an unexpected problem with the car, or who has marital problems, or who is facing one of the many other challenges Fate deals out, Jobs’ rousing speech doesn’t fit. If your bank account is overdrawn, you have a pile of clothes the size of an SUV to wash and fold, and your baby has an ear infection, Jobs’ words are just so much idealistic bullshit.
The famous photographer Robert Adams offers a practical counterpoint to Jobs’ advice to new graduats about following your heart: “We all have to eat, and how we connect that need with the needs of the spirit is a matter none of us can afford to be especially self-righteous about.” Adams is a realist and exactly right. While advice like Jobs’ may be encouraging it is scant help in facing the challenge of making one’s way through life. There is a difference in being aware of death and flouting its reality.
I don’t envy young people just starting out. I had it much easier when I finished college and was about to embark on my journey into the world of work. Through summer jobs, work-study, and scholarships, I was able to pay my own way through school, graduating without debt. Because my degrees were in engineering, I found a position with little problem, one that paid more than twice as much money as my father was making. I was innocent, though, and knew little of what lay ahead—about the uncertainties of jobs, about bosses, about stress, about living in a consumer society, about expectations of family and acquaintances, and about how my own views of myself and the world would change with time.
In addition to trying to find satisfying work, young people face other challenges, some of which seem intractable. For example, rapidly changing technologies not only make obsolescence of one’s skills and credentials a chronic peril, they are also affecting society in unpredictable ways that threaten not just how we work but how we live. Further, due to increasing economic stratification and rising prices especially for housing, the middle class existence I have enjoyed has turned into a fantasy for many just starting out. Then there are truly frightening issues like artificial intelligence, climate change, and pathological political polarization.
If I were invited to give a commencement speech—a damned unlikely possibility—I don’t know what I would say. I would be at a disadvantage because I realize that if I were just graduating, I would have no clue about what path to take. I have regrets about my own decisions regarding college and work. I cut myself slack, however, when I realize that I made the best choices I could based on what I knew at the time. I realize also that other choices I could have made would have brought their own disappointments. With that understanding, when it comes to giving advice, I keep in mind that since I have made so many mistakes with my own life, there is little reason to I trust my judgment regarding other people’s life.
I recognize that cynicism is common to people my age who have been bruised by life, whose youthful optimism has been ground down by the reality of job and family, and whose dreams have dissipated with time. I have certainly lost my innocence. Maybe the natural adaptability of youth and a sense of possibility will guide them through the inevitable pitfalls that lie ahead. I hope so.