3blue1brown patreon

Harvey Mudd Commencement Speech 2024

🕑 Added 2024-05-18 14:55:44 +0000 UTC

Comments

TA U SIF

I grew up watching your videos.... always loved them still I do.

Nick Seidenman

Youtube disallows adblocers. They've nnow disabled the player on browsers that use adblockers. Since I can no longer watch your videos on youtube, there's no point in supporting you on patreon. I hope you and the other patreon creators I support will make youtube understand this is a really, really bad move on their part. If they don't reverse that policy, I'll be cancelling all of my patreon subscriptions. Sad to do this. I hope you can make them change.

Hitoshi Yamauchi

Thanks!

3blue1brown

Wise words, and you're very right. The comedian example is great.

3blue1brown

I guess their process for selection is very student-led, which is neat. It reflects a lot of respect between the faculty and undergrads.

3blue1brown

She's a true delight

3blue1brown

I'm glad it resonated. I saw a shift in a lot of my peers regarding how they thought about their jobs 1 year out from graduation (wanting to work on "interesting" problems) compared to a decade out (more appreciation for the primacy of adding value to others), so the hope was to help speed up that transition a bit.

Hitoshi Yamauchi

I found this speech great. These days, I think my career is driven by value (what kind of world you want to see.) In your case, it seems like "sharing the beauty of math with the world, and people are excited about that". It sounds like you are always on this path. Just the methods are different. For me, your force vector is always constant. Regarding career, I will never ask children "What do you want to be?", but I ask "What do you want to do?". For example, one of my friends wants to be a stand-up comedian. But that is quite hard. Someone asked him, "What really do you want to do?" He answered, "I want to make people laugh and happy." Then he realized, that a comedian is a method. His value (his wanting to see the world) is to make people laugh and that makes him happy. Suddenly, so many possibilities emerge. He can write a comedy book, he can have a funny YouTube channel, he can be a teacher and make the students laugh... So, what you want to be is just a method, it can change in ten years. But, what you want to do, is your compass, that is your force vector or the goal. That is timeless. I used to want to have a job. When I failed to get it, I lost. But, a job is neither a compass nor a goal. If I want to go to New York (that is the goal). But the method can be any, walk, bike, car, train, airplane... If you want to know what kind of world you want to live in, methods are secondary and interchangeable. I kind of envy that you have your compass so clear in the early of your life since I found it late. I wish I could hear your speech (and Steve Jobs's commencement) when I was a graduate student. Thanks a lot!

Robert Berkowitz

I'm yet another Mudd alum (class of '81) who has renewed faith in my school because they had the sense to invite you to give the commencement address! Bravo!

Brian Kimball

Hah! I ITR'd from Mudd in 96. Great school. I definitely wasn't expecting to see it in my inbox today!

Nate Pinsky

As a Mudd alum, this is so cool in so many ways! Great advice, and love the love for Prof. Williams! She's amazing

Owen Cromly

Wait this is actually really good advice. The adding value thing is so real. I'm realizing this reaching halfway through undergrad. So tempting to focus on learning something as thoroughly as possible, when those around me who are most successful are those focused on actual useful output

Owen Cromly

I'm jealous! Better come to my school's commencement in 2026

Sai Nishanth

Some how, am addicted to your voice and I imagine all those visualisations just listening to it 😂

Dan Sherman

Wise words - Thanks for sharing!

Ekaterina Korneeva

Did I just spot Prof. Barzilay in the crowd? 15:15-15:25

Michael Kokosenski

Thanks for sharing, loved the quirky mathematical angle of the speech (and so did the crowd!). All good points for the class, and it was fun to learn more about your personal journey to where you are today. One thought -- I believe the rank of my hippocampus' vector space is probably 3 dimensional ;)