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Matt Damon's Commencement Address at MIT
- hoodoof 10y agoHave you noticed that our society holds actors in the highest esteem above all categories of occupation?
- pcurve 10y agoWhat makes you say that? Some people certainly hold 'certain' actors to high esteem, but those are usually ones with admirable characters. People love celebrities, but I'm not sure if 'high esteem' is apt description.
- hoodoof 10y agoI think that actors are revered in an almost god-like way, sports people next.
- sho_hn 10y agoNo. Actors are entertaining, because that's their primary skill set. Actors are on average simply better equipped to, say, deliver a speech well, because of long practice. There is less friction in watching them. Taking a guess where you're coming from: Rather than resent that, engineers should work on improving their communication skill, and not discriminate against communication-savvy peers. Healthy respect for other fields and their challenges doesn't diminish ours.
- sotojuan 10y agoThe original comment reminds of when people say "I hate that Steve Jobs is famous and [insert genius hacker/programmer] is not!!!". Of course they aren't. Steve Jobs, like famous actors, are public people and either like being in public or have to. Scientists, programmers, etc. usually don't (but the ones that do, like Neil deGrasse Tyson, are well liked) or don't really care about it and thus people just don't know about them. It's really not complicated.
- discardorama 10y agoYep, like the Kardashian clan. /s
- H0n3sty 10y agoYes, it's as if our society wants to believe they really are the larger than life characters they play on screen. To his credit, he opened with... It’s an honor to be part of this day.... But let’s be honest — It’s an honor I didn’t earn.
- CptJamesCook 10y agoI don't know many people who hold any actors above Elon Musk or Barack Obama.
- dustin 10y agoRepublicans?
- RobAtticus 10y agoConsidering that most out-spoken celebs hold more liberal views, I doubt it.
- arachnids 10y agoThat was probably a Ronald Reagan joke
- hoodoof 10y agoPerhaps in the HN community and nerdy computer world that might be true but I would suggest that ordinary people have never heard of Elon Musk.
- rawTruthHurts 10y agoI can't tell if this is sarcastic or not. I choose yes it is.
- CptJamesCook 10y agoIt was not sarcastic. Maybe I am living in a bubble.
- cenal 10y agoCelebrities of all kinds are nothing more than brands. People are fans of brands. People go crazy for Apple products in the same way they go crazy for sneakers that Kanye puts out.
- deleted 10y ago[deleted]
- rayiner 10y agoKind of a weird criticism to level at Matt Damon. Whether you agree with his politics or not, he's clearly extremely smart. He dropped out of Harvard and wrote an Oscar-winning movie script. He talks about theories with professors and hangs out with the President.
- hoodoof 10y agoMaybe it's a weird criticism because it isn't. How do you read my observation as criticism?
- enraged_camel 10y agoIt definitely reads as veiled criticism, yes.
- hoodoof 10y agoOK well give your responses and time to think about it, yes I suppose in the back of my head I am thinking "what the?". If I was at MIT I would want the speech to be from someone respected for their achievement in the world of intellectual endeavor. It feels like it cheapens the institution to bring in an actor. Now I will say I like Matt Damon's acting, and as far as Hollywood stars go, he comes across to me as if not the smartest, then one of the smartest, and that is certainly something to offset the cheapening of the MIT address. My original observation remains the same though - actors are at the top of our society in terms of the amount of attention and adoration given by the community, sports stars a close second. And may I say "The Martian" ..... well no-one does onscreen intellect/science like Matt Damon. What a great movie. I think maybe somewhere deep down the thing that bothers me about this is that MIT is saying in an indirect way "if you can act really smart then you are on equal footing with people who are really smart". i.e. we value "the appearance of smart".
- enraged_camel 10y agoHe dropped out of Harvard and wrote an Oscar-winning movie script. I'd say that's quite an "intellectual" achievement.
- jdale27 10y agoNo more so than athletes or musical performers (I wouldn't go so far as to say "musicians" -- thinking of people like Britney and Justin Bieber). Or doctors, for that matter, in the more non-celebrity world. In fact I wonder if doctors are held in the highest esteem of any occupation, due to being perhaps the only one where making a lot of money and being considered morally and ethically upstanding can seem to coincide. Or maybe actors are in that category too, except that the ones who make money are fewer, and the ones who are morally bankrupt are more (though partially because the media profits from amplifying those cases).
- hammock 10y agoMusic artist is the preferred term. It better fits Britney Spears and Justin Bieber in the sense that it encompasses their performances as well (a form of art).
- yanilkr 10y agoActors put in an enormous amount of effort and discipline to get where they are and need more personal character to stay relevant. I don't think Matt Dameon's opinions are any better but I think they should not be dismissed. May be we should build them a hacker news for celebrities.
- michaelbuddy 10y agoNo more effort and discipline than your above average working person. They are favored because of charisma, but their value is questionable if you get over the starry eyed gullibility.
- vidoc 10y agoEspecially considering the fact that most actors are actually recruited based on how they look, in addition to other things of course, but it's undeniable that you don't get an actor gig if you are ugly
- yanilkr 10y agowe could say the same thing about software engineers. you were born smart.
- noblethrasher 10y agoThis reminds me of something Joss Whedon said: I suspect that some actors get a head start thanks to genetics, but the successful ones still ran as hard as they could after the starting pistol.
- jmatthews 10y agoTo which i say, Danny Devito. 5 ft tall and a face only a mother can love. It may be about looks superficially. But not only traditionally attractive people are actors. Some of the best are not.
- marak830 10y ago
- tvural 10y agoThis isn't an accident. Celebrities get really famous by appearing to have whatever qualities the average person wants. Nobody could actually be like the characters Audrey Hepburn played in movies. But the fact that she was so popular tells you a little bit about what the average female used to wish they were like. It would be nice if people looked up to Einstein more than Matt Damon. But people respect Einstein a lot more than they want to be him.
- sotojuan 10y agoMatt Damon is in the news or the front cover of a magazine several times a year. Einstein, were he alive today, would not be just like the recent Nobel laureates aren't. Damon's career depends on public appearances and extroversions, while most scientists don't care for or need them. That's why it seems people "look up to actors" more. They see more of them, and as you said people see what they like from them.
- michaelbuddy 10y agoAnyone leaning left will get invitations to these campuses for honorary degrees. Unfortunately as good as Matt Damon is, now the reputation of these campuses just strikes as favortism towards leftist ideas. I like Matt Damon, but it's just a fact that these degrees are meaningless. A 15 minute speech, some leftist ideas, tell the students they've "accomplished so much" when most of them haven't really accomplshed anything other than spending money they don't have. Sad really. I don't have any interest in these speeches anymore for value. Especially during a political season.
- maneshd 10y agoFor what it's worth, he didn't receive an honorary degree (but he was given an MIT pirate's license certificate)
- InclinedPlane 10y agoOf course. Humans are basically apes, and familiarity and likability go a long way, they make it feel like you have a connection with the famous person.
- jrcii 10y agoPeople spend countless hours forming lingering one-way emotional relationships with actors as a byproduct of suspension of disbelief. This creates a false sense of familiarity and therefore trust in the actor as a person. Actors in turn tend to acquire a Shoe Button Complex as a result of this misplaced trust which compounds the problem. My interest in the thoughts of those I don't know personally is restricted to the specific domains in which they've demonstrated competency.
- a_small_island 10y ago>Shoe Button Complex "...named for the condition of a family friend who spoke in an oracular style on all subjects after becoming dominant in the shoe button business." I had to look this up, but it gave me a chuckle.
- jcheng 10y agoIf you're going by MIT commencement addresses, more like (successful) CEOs and founders. https://commencement.mit.edu/archive/speakers https://commencement.mit.edu/archive/speakers
- danso 10y agoInteresting choice...I thought maybe he had gone to MIT but apparently he dropped out from Harvard. I wonder what led to him being chosen (and I say that as a fan of his)?
- deleted 10y ago[deleted]
- glial 10y agoProbably Good Will Hunting.
- brians 10y agoMore likely connections between the water.org people and the MIT Corporation board. The MIT D-Lab has goals and approaches closely related to water.org's. See https://d-lab.mit.edu https://d-lab.mit.edu for more.
- dskhatri 10y agoPerhaps a combination of factors? He was born in Cambridge, MA. MIT celebrated 100 years in the city. And Good Will Hunting.
- vonklaus 10y ago> But again, the point is not to become some kind of well- rounded, high-minded voyeur. The point is to try to eliminate your blind spots — the things that keep us from grasping the bigger picture.[...] And that’s when we can really start to understand ourselves better ... and begin to solve some problems. While it seems rather intuitive on its face, I liked this comment. Too many people move forward discounting new informtion while reinforcing their beliefs. I took the living on display to mean following a path you think others find highest leverge and not neccessarily the individual. This is as much a defect in personality as it is in scientific thinking, which he seems to touch on later. He says along the lines of `really smart people make really big mistakes`, this is because people make mistakes. Honestly, it had the stay hungry stay foolish vibe. I found it interesting, was worth the read. edit: After some contemplation, I think the meta point that I found interesting is that (as examined downthread) the contrast between Kim Kardashian and Elon Musk, for example, seems to speak to one of the core themes of this address. I would be forced to admit that if Elon Musk gave this speech, I would certainly consider the information more valubale than if Kim Kardashian did. However, the point I believe Damon makes is that, the information itself is also important.
- RawData 10y agoIt was really a surprisingly powerful ending...
- partiallypro 10y agoWhy has every commencement address turned into a political speech? Politics is like a disease that has slowly taken over ever facet of life.
- seesomesense 10y agoWho is Matt Damon ? Is he a significant figure in science, mathematics, engineering or technology ?
- deleted 10y ago[deleted]
- enraged_camel 10y ago>>Not every problem has a high-tech solution. Something the HN crowd should be reminded of regularly.
- timonoko 10y agoFat-heads Rule: http://www15.uta.fi/koskivoimaa/henkilot/kuvat/29a9a37.jpg http://www15.uta.fi/koskivoimaa/henkilot/kuvat/29a9a37.jpg Finnish General Arno Pajari possibly not related to Matt "John Pajari" Damon. Accused of war-crimes by Russians in 1944.