“Apple CEO Steve Jobs gave a somber and intensely personal commencement speech at Stanford on Sunday,” Tanya Schevitz reports for The San Francisco Chronicle.
“Death is very likely the single best invention of life,” he said. “It’s life’s change agent, it clears out the old to make way for the new. “Right now, the new is you. But someday, not too long from now, you will gradually become the old and be cleared away,” he warned the 5,000 graduating students. “Your time is limited, so don’t waste it living someone else’s life.”
“The speech, in which Jobs also talked about falsely learning he had three to six months to live before his pancreatic cancer killed him, was at first too morbid even for electrical engineering graduate Vishal Dhandhia, who wore a huge skull mask topped with a mortarboard during the ceremony,” Schevitz reports. “‘At Stanford, we are used to humor,’ said Dhandhia, 21. ‘So to listen to a dry speech like that wasn’t so fun. But the messages were good.'”
Full article here.
To the New Grads-
Life ain’t MTV and Beer ads.
Welcome to the real world.
Hope you listened.
It says in the article that Pixar made the “top-grossing ‘Finding Nemo’ and ‘Madagascar’ movies.”
Uhmm. Wasn’t Madagascar Dreamworks? I hate it when the press spouts off stuff without looking it up.
Dot on. It is the fact that life is limited that gives it value.
Contrary to the article, “Madagascar” was released by Pixar’s rival, Dreamworks.
MDN Magic Word: anything – as in “Can’t they fact check anything???”
I think Steve needs to write his own biography before he dies. He seems to have a lot of wisdom.
OK, this is going to sound a little wacky to those not involved in leading edge biosciences, but don’t assume that the current human lifespan will stay unchanged over the next 30-40 years. Over the course of that span, it is quite possible or even likely that we will see major breakthroughs that extend human life substantially. They are likely to make the incremental lifespan increases of the last 30-40 years look like nothing.
SJ’s observations are still excellent, though, since there will still be SOME limits.
“And that was when he founded Pixar Studios, which created the first-ever computer animated feature film, “Toy Story,” in 1995, and more recently released the top-grossing “Finding Nemo” and “Madagascar” movies.”
Uhm Madagascar – someone missed that in editing.
Oops – those other posts weren’t there yet – sorry for the dup comments – great minds and all of that I guess….or more like an obvious blunder
It must be great for Steve to have a company that produces such top-notch stuff (Pixar) that people automatically assume that “if it’s good, it had to come from Pixar”
Steve sure didn’t regret those strippers from Thailand he saw about 10 years ago.
Extending lifespan is another one of those “we could, but should we” things. If there’s no improvement in quality of life, why live another twenty years? We’ve made great strides in keeping people alive, but we haven’t figured out how to keep them living.
Bio,
Interested to hear what area of biosciences you are in. While technology is truly making remarkable inroads into the causes of death, you must admit that it’s a case of “if one thing does not kill us, another will”. As an example, my wife is a cancer researcher. Her previous company came out with a drug that has remarkable effects on lung cancer. Let’s say that her company saves all the lung cancer patients from dying of lung cancer. There are still many other cancers out there. Contrary to popular belief, every cancer is different and there will be no one cure-all for cancer. So, we’d have to have a cure for every cancer to dramatically increase life by getting rid of that obstacle.
Now, look at all of the other life issues such as heart disease, dementia, neurological diseases, etc. Even if you can help people to live to be 150 years old, the quality of life may not be there. I don’t want to be 150 and have no organs, not be able to walk, have no memory, etc. Quality of life is more important than quantity of life.
You also have to take into account the fact that smokers and drinkers will continue to exist and to damage their bodies. As you know, smoking raises the chance of every cancer, as well as heart disease and organ degeneration. Drinking has nearly as many issues. These vices will continue to exist. Then you have to take into account the general laziness of the human population. This means minimal exercise, which also contributes to bodily degeneration.
I’m not disagreeing with you that life spans will be extended over the course of the next century and beyond. I just don’t believe that, during my lifetime, we’ll see the average human lifespan increased to 100 years or anything.
My 2 cents. What was the story about again?…
No hardware announcements??
Dear Bio Sciencist,
we can read in the Psalm (VIII century b.C.): “septuaginta anni est vita hominis super terram, aut in valentibus octoginta, et maior pars eorum labor et dolor” (Man lives seventy years, perhaps eighty…). Can you please repeat how things will be in 2035 or 2045?
Jimbo and Bio,
we should all move this to another forum, but, Bio is probably right in that we will find ways to make the body last longer. Jimbo is definetely right, I see people daily whose bodies keep ticking who don’t know what day it is.
but our lifestyles are the biggest problem. there is no longer a disease called “adult onset diabetes” becuase so many children have it. we are obese. we eat poorly, we don’t exercise. when we need to lose weight we look to atkins and south beach because it’s fast and quick, when calorie restriction and exercise is what is needed.
our body systems were designed for a hard life. and we live in an easy world. food is plentiful.
my two cents.
Professor,
My grandfather lived to be 92 years old. My neighbor is over 100. What does your Psalm say about that?
Jimbo,
Actually, Bio Scientist may be correct. I completely agree with you that people tend to lump (wow! innapropriate phraseology!) the many different kinds of cancer under one catchall term, but with the ongoing knowledge explosion in the life sciences, no one can predict what will be possible even ten years from now.
I thank you for your insightful and important comment: the quality of life is infinitely more important than its span, but it is entirely possible that with new knowledge, tools, and therapies, we may see life extension in our lifetimes. And not just long lives (perhaps longer by orders of magnitude), but healthy, disease-free lives. This of course opens entire new areas of ethical discussion. For instance, who will benefit from advances in life extension? Only the rich and influential? Then there is the argument of whether the possible is desirable. Interesting questions, and for the last ten years I’ve felt that they will loom vastly more important as the possibility dawns.
Jimbo von jinben,
my brother died when hi was two years old, and one of my friends when she was fourteen. Then… But I agree with you, the essential thing is the software, stupid!
” … he founded Pixar …”
Actually, I believe Pixar was created by George Lucas and was sold to Steve Jobs for $10 million. Probably the biggest steal in corporate history.
dburney wrote- “Extending lifespan is another one of those “we could, but should we” things. If there’s no improvement in quality of life, why live another twenty years? We’ve made great strides in keeping people alive, but we haven’t figured out how to keep them living.”
Spoken truly like someone who is under forty, probably under thirty. Let’s hear you say those same things when you are 80. Don’t get me wrong, I am not giving you guff. I used to not really believe in my own death too. That changes and so does your attitude- at least as long as you are still getting around ok.
We are seeing longer average lifespans because we are optimizing the safety and nourishment provided by the environments we live in. We are also finding ways to repair incidental damages or conditions that interfere with normal function. But we haven’t really had any effects on the aging process. The organism has a built-in lifespan, and external forces (short of selective breeding) are unlikely to extend that (for the forseeable technological future, anyways). And besides, by allowing generally non-beneficial traits to survive and breed through modern medicine will only weaken the gene pool by removing the effects of natural selection. So ultimately we may begin to see a decline in the average life-span.
But really, it won’t matter. Average life span doesn’t mean anyone in particular will live that long (you, me, or anyone reading this), only that somebody will. You never know when the bullet, car, cancer, tsunami, or germ will get you first. So live like its important to do it right each day.
MW “under”, as in six feet
“Actually, I believe Pixar was created by George Lucas and was sold to Steve Jobs for $10 million. Probably the biggest steal in corporate history.”
Correct. Pixar apparently was intended to be a software company (selling Renderman), and their early short films were made to demonstrate the software. Lucas needed cash for a divorce settlement, so he sold his birthright for a mess of pottage, and the rest is cinematic history. Who could have imagined that this redheaded stepchild would one day be powerful enough to give Disney the finger?
Steve Did found Pixar! The Animation unit Lucas sold was
named Wife’s Alimony payment!
The “we could, but should we” question is a good one. If we suddenly double the lifespan of an individual, it opens up a whole can of worms:
– Can the individual continue working, or are they on Social Security?
– What will the retirement age be boosted to?
– Are there enough Wal-Mart greeter jobs available for older folks?
– Will they build more Furrs Cafeteria locations?
In all seriousness, imagine the population continuing to grow due to this phenomenon. Will the Pope continue to preach against birth control? Will some religions continue to preach that their congregation needs to have big families? Water, food and land will become even more scarce and costly. More cars means more polution, which in turn means a more toxic environment which in turn means more ways to have an early death!
Man, this is much more fun than talking about processors!!!
‘Dont waste time’. What the hell does that mean. What a dumbass remark. Jobs has started the crazy phase in his life.