"Turn off your computer & phone..."
Yup, he said it. Best thing I've heard in a while. Google CEO Eric Schmidt, in his University of Pennsylvania commencement address, said many memorable tidbits. I especially like ...
- "You need to live for the future, and for the things you really really care about" ... "so what are those things?" ... "in order know what those are, you are going to have to turn off your computer, turn off your phone, and discover all that is human around us... you'll find that curiosity, enthusiasm and passion are contagious"
- "Information is power... and is a tremendous equalizer"
- "Rewards will gravitate to those who make mistakes and learn from them"
- "A mind set in it's ways, is a life wasted - don't do it."
Speaking of Google: Briana posted about neat Google tools you can use in your job search ... I like this article via Willy @ One Day One Job about How to Use Google to Find a Job ... here’s a post about interviewing with Google … and recently I've learned about the "giving back" arm of Google.org and their neat Google.org BLOG.
Check out Eric Schmidt's 10 min speech, here:
Speaking of what people [I admire] have recently said ... Spike Lee, recently honored at the Seattle International Film Festival, said "I don't twitter, I don't do MySpace, Facebook," he said. "My children do. My daughter, she can be doing her homework, watching TV, have the iPod and the computer all at the same time." Seattle Times writer Jerry Large interviewed Lee, and mentioned in this article ... "And now, as a father, (his daughter is 15, his son 12) he worries about the effects of too much media on his kids." I sometimes worry about our media & information saturated world as well. I wonder ... what's Twitter's shelf life? When is enough-is-enough-already? Twitter & Facebook, in my opinion = too much information. There, I said it. I've been Facebook-free for months now, and loving it. This article pretty much captures my thoughts on Facebook and it's value. Don't get me wrong ... I think "connecting" is important. I just wonder how this growing online social networking phenomenon, has and will affect individual's ability & motivation to connect actually, in-person.
Speaking of graduation speeches ... check out Conan O'Brien's speech to Harvard, waaaaaay back in 2000. Did you notice his references to the 1st 'face book'? Weird. Yup, Facebook started @ Harvard.
Themes expressed in the commencement speeches mentioned above, remind me about the concepts of success and happiness. One post I made years ago on the success theme, one recent post by Emma, and themes expressed in our myStory project... all relate I believe to two quotes - one by a fictional character in a TV show, one expressed by a young person in their journal.
One of my most favorite characters ever, Chris Stevens, in one of my most favorite shows ever, Northern Exposure, said: "happiness is not having things, it's being a part of things".
And finally, Christopher McCandless, the charismatic young person who wrestled with the dynamics of identity, family, reality and human/spiritual connectedness, as expressed in the true-story film, Into The Wild, proclaimed as he neared death: "happiness [is] only real when shared". Excellent soundtrack by Mr. Ed Vedder, check it out!
So finally, I turn to you reading this post. What is happiness to you? How do you, or will you, define success? Can dreams change and shift as life "happens"? What mark on the world, or on your community, will you make? Am I missing something by not embracing Facebook & Twitter? Is Microsoft going to rival Google's search dominance? When a group of 5 individuals are hanging out [gasp!] in–person, yet only really playing with their iPhone & texting each other & updating Facebook pages … how “connected” do those individuals feel? I know I'm being random here. Thoughts?
