Conan O’Brien’s commencement address at Dartmouth College this year is a thing of beauty. Not only is it laugh-out-loud hilarious, but it also contains meaningful lessons from Conan’s (relatively) recent late night wars. Many of the topics that Conan discusses resonated with me deeply, such as the value of trying new things, ignoring the fear of failure, and understanding that even if our dreams change, they aren’t worse for it.
Highly recommended (via Sara):
Graduates, faculty, parents, relatives, undergraduates, and old people that just come to these things: Good morning and congratulations to the Dartmouth Class of 2011. Today, you have achieved something special, something only 92 percent of Americans your age will ever know: a college diploma. That’s right, with your college diploma you now have a crushing advantage over 8 percent of the workforce. I’m talking about dropout losers like Bill Gates, Steve Jobs, and Mark Zuckerberg. Incidentally, speaking of Mr. Zuckerberg, only at Harvard would someone have to invent a massive social network just to talk with someone in the next room.