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On June 10 2012 12:37 Half wrote:
Why do we need to make specialness so fucking egalitarian? Everyone is special or nobody is special? How about the valedictorians, star athletes, and other students who have accomplished something are special and everyone else isn't?
Because people felt anal when they were told they aren't special like some people here.
I wouldn't comment on if that speech is appropriate or not, but you know he did it to for the good of the graduates, not other way round. You can just take it with a grain of salt, but if you think his speech ruined your day, then that speech is probably aiming at person like you.
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On June 10 2012 12:37 Half wrote:
Why do we need to make specialness so fucking egalitarian? Everyone is special or nobody is special? How about the valedictorians, star athletes, and other students who have accomplished something are special and everyone else isn't?
#3. For everyone in the world who thinks they are a great athelete, student, or enginner, someone in the world that has greater prowess than them. He states that you strive to do what you enjoy and dont bother competing with everybody else.
Straight out of the OP
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What about "It doesn't matter whether you're going to be considered "special" or "the best at something" or not, we won't love you more or less for any of that" as an attitude for parents?
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Very good speech. I think most people missed the point. The "you're not special" point was only a small part of it. The larger message is that you shouldn't be doing things for rewards and accolades and to show that you're better than others, because you're not special and there are millions of other people with those same achievements, instead you should do things that you're passionate about and that you truly want to do.
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thought this was going to be about fight club... and im not watching some db teacher trying to get attention. what a jerkoff. gotta give kids hope and stuff.
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Someone forgot to give this speech to Flash
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i dont' think what he did was wrong. you don't have to deify the kids during graduation, you make them think and inspire them.
however, i think that thinking highly of yourself is a necessary tool for survival. often people take it too far, but if you have just a touch of arrogance/high self confidence i believe it's much better for you than low self esteem.
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It's quite ironic how he can say that we're not special after he mentions these three points.
1) "successful people do not wait around for opportunity to approach them but create opportunity for themselves through hard work, experience, and education"
2) "that you strive to do what you enjoy and dont bother competing with everybody else"
3) "stay active in the community and busy with learning new skills. Success will follow."
(I took the liberty to copy and paste these, thanks to the OP.)
It's hard to say that we're not special when we can in fact do all these. I have to say, this speech is very..domestic. It kind of reminds me of first world problems in a speech-like form.
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On June 10 2012 15:24 johanes wrote:
Someone forgot to give this speech to Flash
haha my thoughts exactly
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On June 10 2012 14:16 Chargelot wrote:Show nested quote +On June 10 2012 12:37 Half wrote:
Why do we need to make specialness so fucking egalitarian? Everyone is special or nobody is special? How about the valedictorians, star athletes, and other students who have accomplished something are special and everyone else isn't? #3. For everyone in the world who thinks they are a great athelete, student, or enginner, someone in the world that has greater prowess than them. He states that you strive to do what you enjoy and dont bother competing with everybody else. Straight out of the OP
? I don't get it... the pressure of competition brings out so much in people. Without any competition, all the BW progamers probably wont be practising 10+ hours a day perfecting BW (or SC2 for that matter). Without any competition, Ray Allen won't be practising his ass off to be better than everybody else. I know that I've experience the positive effects of competition in making myself better.
You're making the mistake of quoting the OP as if it were a universal law or the Bible or something. What Half is doing is exactly the contrary - refuting it.
I'd reword it as such:
#3 For every idiot who thinks they are great at something, there's someone who has actually put in the effort and is actually great at it/ better than them. Strive to do what you enjoy or want to be good at, work hard and don't ever be complacent thinking you're better than everyone else because that's when you lose out.
Something along those lines feels much more accurate to me. Only a few have the discipline and drive to do that, that's why only few are truly special - in their field. The rest are just normal people, until and unless they do something about it.
On June 10 2012 15:47 billy5000 wrote:
It's hard to say that we're not special when we can in fact do all these. I have to say, this speech is very..domestic. It kind of reminds me of first world problems in a speech-like form.
Wow.. exactly
On June 10 2012 05:31 plated.rawr wrote:
This guy's obviously never met me.
Seriousness aside, I agree with his message. [...]
OH you! hahahaha
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On June 10 2012 15:47 billy5000 wrote:
It's quite ironic how he can say that we're not special after he mentions these three points.
1) "successful people do not wait around for opportunity to approach them but create opportunity for themselves through hard work, experience, and education"
2) "that you strive to do what you enjoy and dont bother competing with everybody else"
3) "stay active in the community and busy with learning new skills. Success will follow."
(I took the liberty to copy and paste these, thanks to the OP.)
It's hard to say that we're not special when we can in fact do all these. I have to say, this speech is very..domestic. It kind of reminds me of first world problems in a speech-like form.
You're not special because millions of people on this planet can do these same things too, and almost surely do it better than you.
Successful people are not special, there are successful people everywhere.
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I sense damaged egos in some of the replies to this video...rofl.
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Korea (South)1897 Posts
On June 10 2012 07:08 travis wrote:
i think a lot of people don't get his overall message, which is "everyone is special - but you have to actually do something with it"
or at least i like to imagine that is his message
it is, he ends off , 'you're not special, everyone is' something to that end. It was a nice speech, something that he put his heart into, worth a thread? Probably not, he really was trying to give them a good send off.
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On June 10 2012 16:35 paralleluniverse wrote:Show nested quote +On June 10 2012 15:47 billy5000 wrote:
It's quite ironic how he can say that we're not special after he mentions these three points.
1) "successful people do not wait around for opportunity to approach them but create opportunity for themselves through hard work, experience, and education"
2) "that you strive to do what you enjoy and dont bother competing with everybody else"
3) "stay active in the community and busy with learning new skills. Success will follow."
(I took the liberty to copy and paste these, thanks to the OP.)
It's hard to say that we're not special when we can in fact do all these. I have to say, this speech is very..domestic. It kind of reminds me of first world problems in a speech-like form. You're not special because millions of people on this planet can do these same things too, and almost surely do it better than you. Successful people are not special, there are successful people everywhere.
My point was to point out to the people who don't have the freedom to do what we can do in our society which we take for granted. While I agree with his points, I think he could have said it better in a different way. "Special" is a relative word, and to think that we're not even slightly special and better off than others is a bit apathetic.
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I personally think this is the wrong attitude, common thought would expect this to work, but if one is was to read daniel pink or watch his RSA video, he states that though some of this is correct, its the idea of being indivual based and creative based that makes people do best, the thought of being just a number scares people into failing, when too much pressure is applied for a too high goal, people fail. I think that for the majority of U.S. citizens, who tend to be pretty well educated compared to the wholes of other populations, since we have mandatory primary and secondary education, its best to apply interest to things, yes boredom is the devil's playground, but malcontentness is suicide
here is Pink's statement on the RSA.
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without competition, how would you even know how good you are
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Honestly,
The sooner you learn that you're not special and life is unfair the sooner you figure out what you actually want out of life, what really makes you happy, and develop a plan or strategy to work towards it.
It's something that 99% of people have to come to terms with -- that your dream will never happen. What's important is that you find something to do with your life that makes you happy, so even if your wildest fantasies of fame and fortune don't come to fruition, you'll feel fulfilled.
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I don't know if I agree completely. Whole my life I was telling myself things like "it is not important you graduated, look how many people did it the same time. It is not important that you are Master of Law, look how many people are."
Now I am doctoral student in the field of Legal Informatics and I present the same attitude.
My parents where always supportive, but for some reason I always felt they expect more and more.
Thinking "You are not special" has to have some limitations. Trust me. I can feel that, I have experience 
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Hmmmm... at first I completely agreed with this guy, and I still think it's a really great and meaningful speech. But after reading some of these posts in the thread, there are some great points made against it as well. You really should compete with people because that's what really motivates you to do your best. You shouldn't get caught up in competition either... but with some things it really pushes you forward.
Though some things aren't about competition either. If you're trying to cure cancer or some such thing for example, it's not about competing with anyone else to be the best in your field. It should be about solving the problem so everyone in the world can enjoy the benefits, which is what at least part of this speech was talking about.
And I think that's really great to talk about.
On another note, he also said something about not wasting your time watching parrots on roller skates or some such thing... sorry, it's been several hours since I actually watched the video... but the point is, it's really important to relax sometimes too, or you'll never be able to give it your all.
In any case, great speech, not everything is some sort of absolute law that he said, so just take from it what you really believe in, but try to see past the surface so you can really form a meaningful opinion. The posters in this thread helped me do that, so thanks for that, guys. And thanks to David McCullough Jr. as well for also helping me to think of something meaningful during my day for once.
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EPT
