"This is Water": A Message for New Graduates
 

David Foster Wallace was an award winning author who suffered from depression. He gave a commencement speech called "This is Water." This is a part of that speech. It's about first world problems graduates will encounter. This video runs about nine minutes, but is probably the best commencement address I've ever heard.

BTW: Wallace committed suicide by hanging himself three years later after giving this speech. He was 46 years old.

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I do my grocery shopping on sunday nights

im 2+ years into this life. I value my weekends a shit ton more now. Weeks go by super fast being on a 12 hour schedule every day during the week. I'm basically poorer now than I was before I had a ft job since I had little to no bills. Being an adult sucks.

things like this get me through my weeks though
http://picchore.com/wp-content/uploa...imated-gif.gif

The little shits have NO idea what they are in for

whatam I in for old man

Great speech.

Wow. Don't post this in DC some heads could explode.

Great find!

The sad part is I'm not that old.

Work at the same fulltime job for 5-10 years and report back though.

Its better to be ignorant my friend. The news will come soon enough.

Find a job you love. It doesn't have to pay the most money, just enough to get by.

I don't see his point.

This guy suffered from depression? :eek: No way.

Just listening to that makes me want to off myself. ;)

If I'm being completely honest, I have mundane, routine things I do in my life (we all do) every day and I never have viewed it like this. Yes a lot of those situations (boredom, routine & petty frustrations) as he mentioned happen but they're generally short lived and you get over it. Where's the example in his story where the guy comes home after the grocery store and gets the worlds biggest welcome from his kid who is so excited to see him?

I thought it was a little over dramatic.

Strange speech for a writer

I get by the mundane in a bit different way. I silently make fun of just about everyone I see. I'm in the line at the store with a grin because I'm thinking that the guy in front of me looks like Bozo the clown, etc. I don't do road rage. I fatface people. I simply look at them and make a "fat face". They usually go away. Especially if they are fat.

Life is too short to be stressed by things like traffic, lines, idiots, etc. I liked the speech. It is about choices.

great speech...too bad the audio mix was complete shit and I could only make out bits & pieces because the goddamn music track was drowning out the speaker's voice.

/first-world problems

My prediction..........PAAAIIN

No one thought you would.

Just a bunch of mumbo jumbo...

http://a2.ec-images.myspacecdn.com/i...b487ead7/l.jpg

Amazing speech.

I could only take about 3 minutes of his droning. What a shitty outlook on life. Not surprised he offed himself. We're supposed to take advice from this guy why?

That was beautiful.

Just have Dennis Leary come out and say "Life Sucks, Get A ****ing Helmet".
Speech over.

Thank God I have a great life.

DFW was one of my personal heroes until he offed himself. I don't look up to people who kill themselves, but in his defense, he suffered from extreme clinical depression, not garden variety "I'm sad." Guy was a freakinggenius though, but that's probably one of the reasons he could never escape his pain completely.

Why is this going viral now? The speech is years old. They even printed it in book form after he died.

It's graduation season.

Here's his obit in the NY Times. Sounds like the classic troubled genius. I've lost a couple friends to suicide from mental health issues. It's awful. It usually happens to very gifted people.

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/09/15/bo...lace.html?_r=0

wait people are considering advice on how to have a positive outlook from a guy who killed himself?

Did he not take his own advice, or is this the result of his "positive" outlook?

I always wait for traffic to die down before going grocery shopping, so I guess I dont relate that much to idea that you must shop during rush hour


Some things can certainly be mundane, but at the same time being a little bored at times and making money is better than being broke but not having to adhere to a certain schedule

I think it is safe to say this guy falls in the glass half-empty camp.

"Congratulations graduates. You should be out of debt by your 40's"

I'm guessing some of you didn't make it to the halfway point of the speech.

it's the least interesting thing he's ever said or written (but i still like it), which is why it can be set to Hallmark card music..

****, he wrote one of the best novels ever...and this is what 1,694,954 people know about him...

LMAO.... half the people saying "Boo this guy!", the other half say "Amazing speech! 5 stars!"

Don't ever change Chiefsplanet!

Probably the best writer born in the last half century.

When I think about the day-to-day grind, I think academia

It's worth the read:

http://people.virginia.edu/~jrw3k/me...r.Do.Again.pdf

Well, at least most were able to hang in there for nine whole minutes....

I think this all comes down to a question of work ethic vs. managing the grind. There's a million times I've drug my ass out of bed and gone to work, not feeling well, tired, depressed, pissed off, whatever. But I've shown up because, frankly, I'm a starter. People depend on me. Being dependable is important to your longevity in the workplace. I've been at it in the same profession for 27 years now. So I must be doing something right.

The music and visuals really supplemented the speech well.

I experienced the highs and lows of his lesson just today.

I don't think I'll ever be able to force myself to think different about people who abuse the express lane. A few weeks back I saw a lady cart $350 worth of groceries through, not the 20 items or less line, but the 12 items or less line. Today, there was a lady unloading a full to the brim cart in the same line. Didn't get her total, but me seeing all the long lines and having just 5 items to buy, it just burned me up.

OTOH, when I got my cart, I got stuck behind a man with a real bad leg [don't know if it was an injury or palsy or what], but he was moving at a glacial pace through the entrance doors, walking with aid of a cane. But rather than being put out, I was nearly moved to tears by his independence and determination. You could tell that every step was arduous, but he pressed on, and it was inspiring, despite how it slowed down the achievement of my personal objectives momentarily.

He was probably faking it to use the handicapped spaces.

That was good. Unfortunately I don't think I'll ever be able to not wish an aids antifreeze tree fire death on anyone who gets in my way.

So postmodern

MAN, If that guy had ever jerked off just ONE animal his whole outlook on life would be different !

Its going viral because someone just recently made it into a video.

Good stuff. Thanks for posting.

You can tell who actually finished the video and who watched a few minutes and then posted bitching about the negativity.

Surprise you missed the ****ing point. Oh wait, no surprise.

When a person is given a choice (or in this case, a person gives themself a choice), they have control of the situation.

My Educational Psychology teacher (by far the best teacher I have ever had) hammered this into our heads over and over. Give your kids and employees choices, but define the consequences. This technique worked flawlessly with my flight students and with my employees.

When someone is given choice, they have a personal investment.

In this case, he tells the kids that they can give themselves a choice. Although it's fundamentally basic it impowers them with choice in a seemingly hopeless situation.

Awesome stuff.

I'm glad he mentioned the non-knowledge-based advantages of a college education. So many people think it's just learning the coursework, and why would I go when I can just read the books, and so on, but it's things like this that you learn along with it. The idea of opening yourself up to see how other people see the world is priceless.

"Put yourself in their shoes"

It's amazing how very few can do this.

ROFL

I posted it earlier, but his essay about going on a cruise, "A Supposedly Fun Thing I'll Never Do Again" is just amazing. It's also the title of a wonderful collection of non fiction essays about topics ranging from lobster festivals to professional tennis to state fairs.

I probably wouldn't recommend his fiction unless you're into really weird, dense shit.

Here's the entirety of "Ticket to the Fair." I'll paste an excerpt below as well: