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The background story seems interesting. Why was this speech not given? In any case, I'm pretty sure that at 18, I wouldn't have "gotten" it.

by jorgem 18y ago

tokenadult 18y ago
I'm pretty sure that at 18, I wouldn't have "gotten" it. I'm encouraging my sixteen-year-old to read it often enough to wrap his mind around it.
neilk 18y ago
Yeah, I do wonder about that. It seems to me that wanting to do significant work is either inborn or a sort of acquired taste. But that's a self-fulfilling prophecy -- if you don't expect kids to do significant work, you won't give them opportunities to do so. So maybe we should try it the other way for a while.
Dobbs 18y ago
Hi I'm 18. I read this article like two months ago. It struck me as important but I moved on. I was thinking about the phrase that stuck with me "Do something hard" and came back and have reread it 3-4 times over the last month. I also recently watched a Disney movie called "Meet the Robinsons". It has a great moral and at the end there is an amazing quote: "Around Here, however, we don't look backwards for very long. We keep moving forward, opening new doors, and doing new things, because we're curious and curiosity keeps leading us down new paths." -Walt Disney I was so struck by this quote that I printed it out and it now hangs above my desk. I don't think I've fully internalized these two quotes, this one idea. I'm working at it and its greatly affected already how I do work at work. How I view where my life is going and how I view the activity that I'm currently working on (speaking of which I need to stop reading HN and get back to work). Even if this article doesn't fully sink in I think it can start the cogs running in the minds of our youth. I strongly encourage all of us to push high schoolers to read this article. There is a chance it could make a difference.
jackowayed 18y ago
I read from him somewhere recently (but I can't find it!) that basically, since he wasn't from a company or anything, he wasn't accountable. There was no one to fire him if he told them all to drop out.
helveticaman 18y ago
I read it at 18...
- quizbiz 18y ago
  Reading it now. :P
erlanger 18y ago
At 18, you're a grown man. At 15, you're pretty close. You probably shouldn't short-change yourself by saying you wouldn't have "gotten" it just because our college-bound society tells you that you're a baby if you're under 25.

The background story seems interesting. Why was this speech not given? In any case, I'm pretty sure that at 18, I wouldn't have "gotten" it.

by jorgem 18y ago

The background story seems interesting. Why was this speech not given? In any case, I'm pretty sure that at 18, I wouldn't have "gotten" it.

tokenadult 18y ago

I'm pretty sure that at 18, I wouldn't have "gotten" it. I'm encouraging my sixteen-year-old to read it often enough to wrap his mind around it.

neilk 18y ago

Yeah, I do wonder about that. It seems to me that wanting to do significant work is either inborn or a sort of acquired taste. But that's a self-fulfilling prophecy -- if you don't expect kids to do significant work, you won't give them opportunities to do so. So maybe we should try it the other way for a while.

Dobbs 18y ago

Hi I'm 18. I read this article like two months ago. It struck me as important but I moved on. I was thinking about the phrase that stuck with me "Do something hard" and came back and have reread it 3-4 times over the last month. I also recently watched a Disney movie called "Meet the Robinsons". It has a great moral and at the end there is an amazing quote: "Around Here, however, we don't look backwards for very long. We keep moving forward, opening new doors, and doing new things, because we're curious and curiosity keeps leading us down new paths." -Walt Disney I was so struck by this quote that I printed it out and it now hangs above my desk. I don't think I've fully internalized these two quotes, this one idea. I'm working at it and its greatly affected already how I do work at work. How I view where my life is going and how I view the activity that I'm currently working on (speaking of which I need to stop reading HN and get back to work). Even if this article doesn't fully sink in I think it can start the cogs running in the minds of our youth. I strongly encourage all of us to push high schoolers to read this article. There is a chance it could make a difference.

jackowayed 18y ago

I read from him somewhere recently (but I can't find it!) that basically, since he wasn't from a company or anything, he wasn't accountable. There was no one to fire him if he told them all to drop out.

helveticaman 18y ago

I read it at 18...

quizbiz 18y ago
Reading it now. :P

erlanger 18y ago

At 18, you're a grown man. At 15, you're pretty close. You probably shouldn't short-change yourself by saying you wouldn't have "gotten" it just because our college-bound society tells you that you're a baby if you're under 25.