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canopic jug [soylentnews.org] writes:

The Steve Jobs Archive, Wired, and MacRumors [macrumors.com] are covering the 20^th anniversary of an iconic commencement address to Standford University which Steve Jobs delivered in June, 2005. In it he quoted the Whole Earth Catalog by encouraging the graduates to "stay hungry, stay foolish".

At that point in time, YouTube was only months old, Twitter didn’t exist, and Facebook didn’t even have its news feed. The national media hadn’t covered the speech. Apple sent out no press releases. But Stanford published the transcript on its primitive website, and people began discovering it. I recently checked my inbox for June 2005 and found multiple copies sent to me from different mailing lists. As the weeks and months went by, more and more people found the speech. Berlin describes it as going “slow-motion viral.”

— Wired [wired.com]

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It’s not an obvious candidate for a classic. A commencement address by a college dropout. A talk aimed at 22-year-olds that warns “You will gradually become the old and be cleared away.” A text as shadowed by reality as soaring with inspiration: “Your time is limited, so don’t waste it living someone else’s life.”

It is a speech by a tech founder who scarcely mentions technology. A few years earlier, Steve told an interviewer, “People sometimes forget that they are very unique and that they have very unique feelings and perspectives. The whole computer industry wants to forget about the humanist side.” Steve had not forgotten. At Stanford, under the guise of great simplicity—“Today I want to tell you three stories from my life”—Steve touches on fundamental truths that make us human: love, death, fear, authenticity, hope.

— The Steve Jobs Archive [stevejobsarchive.com]

The video, as published at The Steve Jobs Archive, has been recently enhanced from SD to HD.

For those that have attended commencement events, either their own or other people's, are there any memorable speakers who stand out?

Original Submission