
Matt Damon's Commencement Address at MIT - Gabriel-Lewis
http://news.mit.edu/2016/matt-damon-commencement-address-0603
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hoodoof
Have you noticed that our society holds actors in the highest esteem above all
categories of occupation?

~~~
rayiner
Kind 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
Maybe it's a weird criticism because it isn't. How do you read my observation
as criticism?

~~~
enraged_camel
It definitely reads as veiled criticism, yes.

~~~
hoodoof
OK 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".

~~~
ScottBurson
As an MIT alumnus, I think this is an excellent commencement speech.

Broadly, though, you're right -- we Americans do love our screen stars.

~~~
pen2l
It's also worth noting that he most likely didn't quite right the speech. He
had helpers write the speech. Everyone gets helpers to write/help write
speeches.

My favorite example is Steve Jobs calling a lot of people to get help on
writing the commencement speech from folks like Aaron Sorkin and others (yes,
the same Sorkin that made the Steve Jobs movie which framed him not an
entirely positive light).

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vonklaus
> 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.

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enraged_camel
>>Not every problem has a high-tech solution.

Something the HN crowd should be reminded of regularly.

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timonoko
Fat-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.

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danso
Interesting 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)?

~~~
glial
Probably Good Will Hunting.

~~~
brians
More 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.

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partiallypro
Why has every commencement address turned into a political speech? Politics is
like a disease that has slowly taken over ever facet of life.

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RawData
It was really a surprisingly powerful ending...

