Commencement speakers made news this year mostly by their absence. Protesters on the left assailed speakers who had been invited by colleges and universities, and in some cases, they got their wish, driving away the intended guests.
今年的毕业典礼演讲嘉宾大多是因为缺席而成为新闻人物的。左翼抗议者大肆抨击学院和大学邀请的演讲人，在一些大学，他们如愿以偿，赶走了预约的嘉宾。
Brandeis University rescinded its invitation to Ayaan Hirsi Ali, the Somali-born activist. Others withdrew in the face protests: Condoleezza Rice, the former secretary of state, from Rutgers University; Christine Lagarde, head of the International Monetary Fund, from Smith College; and Robert J. Birgeneau, former chancellor of the University of California, Berkeley, from Haverford College.
布兰代斯大学(Brandeis University)撤销了对索马里出生的活动家阿亚安·希尔西·阿里(Ayaan Hirsi Ali)的邀请。如潮的抗议也让其他演讲人打了退党鼓：前国务卿康多莉扎·赖斯(Condoleezza Rice)、国际货币基金组织(IMF)总裁克里斯蒂娜·拉加德(Christine Lagarde)、加州大学伯克利分校(University of California, Berkeley)前校长罗伯特·柏吉诺(Robert J. Birgeneau)分别谢绝了罗格斯大学(Rutgers University)、史密斯学院(Smith College)和哈弗福德学院(Haverford College)的盛情邀请。
This topic of scuttled speakers was on the minds of many of those who did speak, including some who addressed colleges where the protests succeeded. Some approached the issue humorously and others seriously, some obliquely and others head-on.
他们被迫退出的遭遇，萦绕在许多演讲人的心头，其中包括一些在抗议获得成功的高校发表演讲的嘉宾。谈及这一话题时，一些演讲人开起了玩笑，其他人则显得非常严肃；一些人转弯抹角，也有人针锋相对。
Mostly, they expressed disapproval, warning against political orthodoxy, and insisting that the principle of airing opposing views should have trumped whatever objections there were to the speakers. (Ms. Hirsi Ali was opposed for her denigration of Islam, Ms. Rice for her role in the Iraq war, Ms. Lagarde for the I.M.F.'s treatment of poor nations, and Mr. Birgeneau for Berkeley’s rough treatment of Occupy protesters.)
他们大多表示反对，针对政治观念正统思维发出警告，并坚称，无论学生对这些演讲人持有何种异议，它们都无法逾越其他人宣扬反面观点的基本权利。（反对希尔西·阿里是因为她诋毁伊斯兰教；反对赖斯是因为她在伊拉克战争中扮演的角色；反对拉加德是因为国际货币基金组织对待穷国的态度，反对柏吉诺是因为加州大学伯克利分校曾经粗暴对待“占领运动”示威者。）
Some of the favored graduation themes of recent years have faded — the failings of the financial system, the moral dimensions of a muscular American stance in the world — while others have flourished.
近几年备受青睐的某些毕业演讲主题已经消退，比如金融体系的失效，美国在世界上的强势地位引发的道德困境。另一些主题则逐渐流行开来。
Speakers exhorted young people to take risks, court failure, and embrace uncertainty and change. They noted the growing importance of high-tech fields that have long embraced those values, and the growing influence of that culture on non-tech careers.
演讲人劝告年轻人要敢于冒险，追求失败，拥抱不确定性和变化。他们指出，长期以来信奉这些价值观的高新技术领域已经变得越来越重要，这种文化对非科技职业生涯的影响力也与日俱增。
And many speakers sought to shake graduates out of any complacency — deflating their egos a bit, reminding them how fortunate they are, lamenting persistent economic inequality, and urging them to work hard and pursue higher causes.
许多演讲人试图打消毕业生可能出现的自满情绪——轻微打击一下他们的自尊心，提醒他们拥有多么好的运气，哀叹持续不断的经济不平等，并勉励他们努力工作，追求远大理想。
HARVARD COLLEGE
哈佛学院(Harvard College)
Michael R. Bloomberg, former New York City mayor and majority owner of Bloomberg L.P.
迈克尔·布隆伯格(Michael R. Bloomberg)，前纽约市市长，彭博通讯社(Bloomberg L.P.)控股股东
“Intolerance of ideas, whether liberal or conservative, is antithetical to individual rights and free societies, and it is no less antithetical to great universities and first-rate scholarship. There is an idea floating around college campuses, including here at Harvard, that scholars should be funded only if their work conforms to a particular view of justice. There’s a word for that idea: censorship. And it is just a modern-day form of McCarthyism. Think about the irony: In the 1950s, the right wing was attempting to repress left-wing ideas. Today, on many college campuses, it is liberals trying to repress conservative ideas, even as conservative faculty members are at risk of becoming an endangered species. And perhaps nowhere is that more true than here in the Ivy League. ...
“对观念的不宽容，无论是自由派还是保守派的观念，不仅有悖于个人权利和自由社会，同时也是好大学和一流学术的对立面。一些大学校园，包括哈佛在内，目前涌动着这样一种思潮：只有当学术研究符合特定的正义观时，学者才应该获得资助。用审查一词来形容这种观点再恰当不过。它绝对是一种现代版的麦卡锡主义。想想这有多么讽刺：在20世纪50年代，是右翼在试图压制左翼的思想。今天，在许多大学校园，自由主义者正在不遗余力地压制保守主义思想，即使保守派教师眼看就要沦为濒危物种。最能体现这股潜流的地方，也许莫过于常青藤盟校(Ivy League)。……
“Requiring scholars — and commencement speakers, for that matter — to conform to certain political standards undermines the whole purpose of a university.”
“要求学者——同样也包括毕业典礼演讲人——符合特定的政治标准，破坏了大学存在的全部意义。”
SMITH COLLEGE
史密斯学院
Ruth Simmons, former president of Smith College and Brown University
露丝·西蒙斯(Ruth Simmons)，前史密斯学院和布朗大学(Brown University)校长
“I felt it important to answer the request to stand in for the announced speaker, Madame Christine Lagarde. ...
“我感觉有必要接受请求，代替克里斯蒂娜·拉加德夫人来这里发表演讲。……
“One’s voice grows stronger in encounters with opposing views. My first year after leaving Smith, I had to insist that Brown permit a speaker whose every assertion was dangerous and deeply offensive to me on a personal level. Indeed, he maintained that blacks were better off having been enslaved. Attending his talk and hearing his perspective was personally challenging, but not in the least challenging to my convictions about the absolute necessity of permitting others to hear him say these heinous things. I could have avoided the talk, as his ideas were known to me, but to have done so would have been to choose personal comfort over a freedom whose value is so great that hearing his unwelcome message could hardly be assessed as too great a cost. Universities have a special obligation to protect free speech, open discourse and the value of protest. The collision of views and ideologies is in the DNA of the academic enterprise.”
“通过与对立观点的碰撞，一个人的声音会越来越强大。在离开史密斯学院后的第一年里，我不得不坚持要求布朗大学同意邀请这样一个讲者，虽然这个人的每一个主张都是危险的，让我个人感到是一种极大的侵犯。事实上他至今仍认为黑人继续被奴役下去处境会更好。出席他的演讲会并聆听他的观点，对我个人而言是一件很有挑战性的事情，但它丝毫不会动摇我怀抱的一个信念——容许他人听到他阐述的这些令人发指的观点，是绝对必要的。我本可以避免这场演讲，因为我早就知道他的观点，但这样做无异于把个人的舒适感凌驾于一种自由之上，而这自由的价值是如此之大，以至于聆听他那些不受欢迎的讯息，算不上是多么大的牺牲。保护言论自由、公开演说和抗议的价值是大学的一项特殊职责。观点和意识形态的碰撞乃学术机构天性使然。”
HAVERFORD COLLEGE
哈弗福德学院
William G. Bowen, former president of Princeton University and the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation
威廉·鲍文(William G. Bowen)，前普林斯顿大学(Princeton University)校长，前安德鲁·梅隆基金会(Andrew W. Mellon)总裁
“I want to suggest, with all due respect for the venerable right to protest — which I would defend to the end — that it is a serious mistake for a leader of the protest against Birgeneau’s proposed honorary degree to claim that Birgeneau’s decision not to come represents a ‘small victory.’ It represents nothing of the kind. In keeping with the views of many others in higher education, I regard this outcome as a defeat, pure and simple, for Haverford — no victory for anyone who believes, as I think most of us do, in both openness to many points of view and mutual respect.”
“我无意冒犯庄严的抗议权——那是我愿毕生去捍卫的，但我还是想说，那位反对授予柏吉诺名誉学位的抗议领袖犯了一个严重错误——他说，柏吉诺决定不出席这场毕业典礼代表着一场‘小胜’。它所代表的绝不是那么一回事。就像许多从事高等教育的人士一样，我也认为对于哈弗福德学院来说，这样的结果是不折不扣的失败。任何一个认为有必要聆听多种观点并相互尊重的人——我想我们大多是这样的人，都不会觉得这是场胜利。”
THE UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA, BERKELEY
加州大学伯克利分校
Steven L. Isenberg, writer, professor and former publisher
史蒂芬·伊森伯格(Steven L. Isenberg)，作家，教授，前出版人
“Some of you and your parents may have in mind a question as to the world of work and English majors: ‘Do they need us?’ I was reading again, recently, the autobiography of one of my favorite novelists, Graham Greene, and was struck by this sentence: ‘Perhaps, until one starts at the age of 70 to live on borrowed time, no year will seem again quite so ominous as the one when formal education ends and the moment arrives to find employment and bear personal responsibility for the whole future.’ I remembered when I graduated feeling a certain sense of loss at having to leave the coherence and happiness I had built up in undergraduate life. I was unsettled by not knowing what I would do next. The first in my family to go to college, I had small knowledge of the world’s possibilities and only impulses of interests, rather than a settled direction. But I did know how to read and loved to do so, and I liked to write, however much work I knew my writing needed, so I banked on those two elements for confidence, feeling they must be a foundation for whatever was to be ahead.”
“一些学生和家长或许心存一个跟职场和英语专业有关的疑问：‘他们需要我们吗？’我最近正在再次拜读格雷厄姆·格林(Graham Greene)的自传，他是我最喜欢的小说家之一，其中有一句话让我深感震撼：‘也许在一个人活到70岁，随时等待上帝召唤之前，没有哪一年会像正规教育结束，开始找工作并对整个未来肩负起个人责任的那一年那么不吉利。’我记得，当我大学毕业，不得不离开我在本科生涯构建的连贯性和幸福感的时候，我感受到一种难言的失落感。我当时六神无主，不知道接下来该做什么。作为我们家的第一个大学生，我对世界的诸多可能性所知不多，只是任由兴趣的指引，缺乏一个确定的方向。但我的确知道怎样读书，也热爱读书，我喜欢写东西，不管我的写作需要我付出多大努力。于是，我就依靠这两个要素树立起信心，我觉得，它们肯定会成为我未来工作的基石。”
ALBRIGHT COLLEGE
阿尔布莱特学院(Albright College)
Bob Garfield, journalist
鲍勃·加菲尔德(Bob Garfield)，记者
“I just can’t tell you how disappointed I am with you. It was three months ago that Albright announced me as your guest, and not a peep from you.”
“我简直无法表达我对你们有多么失望。早在三个月前，阿尔布莱特学院就宣布我将成为你们的毕业典礼嘉宾，但直到今天，也没见你们抗议一下。”
At other colleges, “students mounted furious protests, signed petitions, dispatched lists of demands to prospective speakers, in letters boiling with moral outrage. And what do I get? Directions from the turnpike. Come on, did nobody Google me? Have I said or written nothing in 37 years as a journalist to offend your sensibilities and provoke righteous indignation? Oh, man. Do you have any idea — any idea — what a disinvitation would have done for my profile?”
在其他大学，“学生们都在举行愤怒的抗议活动，签署请愿书，向可能的演讲人发送要求清单，道义谴责此起彼伏。我得到了什么？收费公路的路线指引。真是的，难道就没有人在谷歌(Google)上搜索一下我的信息？我当了37年的记者，难道就没有说过或写过什么冒犯你的感情，挑起义愤的东西？不可能没有吧。哎，你知道取消邀请将对我的履历起到多大的作用吗？”
HARVEY MUDD COLLEGE
哈维玛德学院(Harvey Mudd College)
Beth Shapiro, evolutionary biologist
贝丝·夏皮罗(Beth Shapiro)，进化生物学家
“Your unique education has prepared you for careers at the cutting edge of innovation. This is both good news and bad news. It’s good news because you’re probably going to find a job, it will pay well, and it will be intellectually fulfilling. It’s bad news because whatever you thought you were training for when you started this exercise might not actually exist anymore. Five years ago, when you guys were deciding where to go to college, there were very few mobile-app developers or big-data architects, and there certainly weren’t any chief listening officers for social media outlets. It’s hard to imagine where the next five years will go, but it’s kind of fun to do so. Will there be a Borg-esque integration of biology and technology, or self-driving cars that get rid of traffic congestion? Who knows, but you guys are going to be among the people that are actually making it happen. And it’ll be awesome, as long as you’re willing to take some risks and step outside of your comfort zone. When an opportunity arises, take it.”
“你接受的独特教育已经为你迈向创新前沿做好了准备。这既是一个好消息，也是坏消息。说它是好消息是因为，你很可能会找到一份待遇优厚，能够让你获得智力满足感的工作。说它是坏消息是因为，你从一开始想好的，为之努力训练的东西或许已经不复存在。五年前，当你们正在斟酌应该上哪所大学的时候，还几乎没有移动应用程序开发商或大数据架构师这种工作，当然也没有专注于社交媒体的首席聆听官。很难想象未来五年将变成什么样子，但展望未来是一件很有趣的事情。生物学和技术是否将出现博格式整合？无人驾驶轿车是否会解决交通堵塞问题？谁知道呢，但你们将推动这一切变为现实。这将是一段非凡的旅程，只要你愿意承担一定风险，并走出你的舒适区。机会来临时，一定要抓住它。”
THE UNIVERSITY OF NORTH CAROLINA AT CHAPEL HILL
北卡罗莱纳大学教堂山分校(The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill)
Atul Gawande, doctor and writer
阿图尔·葛文德(Atul Gawande), 医生，作家
“Ultimately, it turns out we all have an intrinsic need to pursue purposes larger than ourselves, purposes worth making sacrifices for. People often say, ‘Find your passion.’ But there’s more to it than that. Not all passions are enough. Just existing for your desires feels empty and insufficient, because our desires are fleeting and insatiable. You need a loyalty. The only way life is not meaningless is to see yourself as part of something greater: a family, a community, a society. And that is the best part of what college has allowed you to do. College made it easy. It gave you an automatic place in the world where you could feel part of something greater. The supposedly ‘real world’ you are joining does not. ...
“说到底，我们都有一种内在的需要去追求比我们自身更重要的目的，值得为之牺牲的目的。人们常说，‘寻找你的激情。’但人生并非如此简单。光靠满腔激情是不够的。仅仅为欲望而存在会让你感到空虚，没有充实感，因为我们的欲望转瞬即逝，而且无法满足。你需要一种归属感。让人生不再缺乏意义的唯一方式，就是把你自己视为某个更大事物的组成部分，比如家庭、社区或社会。这是通过大学教育你能够做的最好的事情。大学让这样做变得容易。它让你自动在这个世界获得一个让你体验归属感的位置。你即将加入的所谓‘现实世界’做不到这一点。”
“One thing I came to realize after college was that the search for purpose is really a search for a place, not an idea. It is a search for a location in the world where you want to be part of making things better for others in your own small way. It could be a classroom where you teach, a business where you work, a neighborhood where you live. The key is, if you find yourself in a place where you stop caring — where your greatest concern becomes only you — get out of there.”
“我在大学毕业后逐渐意识到，追寻人生意义其实是在世界上追寻一个位置，而不是一种理念。在这个位置上，你可以为某个改善其他人境遇的事业贡献一份微薄之力。它或许是一间你从教的教室，一家你工作的企业，一个你居住的社区。最重要的是，如果你发现你停留在一个你不再关心的地方，一个你只关心自己的地方，那就赶紧离开吧。”
CORNELL UNIVERSITY
康奈尔大学(Cornell University)
Ed Helms, actor and comedian
埃德·赫尔姆斯(Ed Helms)，演员，笑星
“I’m a guy whose primary connection to this venerable institution is having portrayed a rather hard-to-like Cornell alum on the NBC television show ‘The Office.’ It’s interesting, Condoleezza Rice backed out of speaking at Rutgers this year because students protested over her controversial role in the Iraq war. Meanwhile, I directly embarrassed this school for eight years on national television, and no protests. When I got the invitation to speak, I was scared to open the email because I thought it might be a lawsuit. ...
“我跟这所备受推崇的学术机构的主要联系是，我曾经在NBC剧集《办公室》(The Office)中扮演一个很不招人喜欢的康奈尔大学毕业生。这很有趣，今年，康多莉扎·赖斯谢绝了罗格斯大学的演讲邀请，因为学生们抗议她在伊拉克战争中扮演的争议性角色。与此同时，我让这所学校在全国电视观众面前承受了长达八年的羞辱，没人抗议。当我接收演讲邀请函的时候，我战战兢兢地打开电子邮件，因为我想我可能惹上了官司。”
“Please, remember to be a fool. Sounds crazy — a fool is by definition a person who lacks good sense or judgment. But I’m here to tell you that good sense and judgment are highly overrated. Wisdom is too often just a fancy word for cynicism. And foolishness is a condescending word for joy, wonder and curiosity. George Bernard Shaw said, ‘A man learns to skate by staggering about and making a fool of himself. Indeed, he progresses in all things by resolutely making a fool of himself.’ I couldn’t agree more. Turns out, the world provides us with virtually infinite opportunities to be a fool.”
“请大家记住，要当一个傻瓜。听起来很疯狂——所谓傻瓜，是说一个人缺乏良好的判断力。但我想告诉你们，良好的判断力被过度高估了。智慧往往是冷嘲热讽这个词的一种华丽表达，而愚蠢则是喜悦，惊讶和好奇等词的一种谦卑说法。萧伯纳(George Bernard Shaw)说，‘一个人是通过摇摇晃晃，让自己出丑而学会滑冰的。事实上，在所有事情上，一个人都是通过坚定不移地让自己出洋相而获得进步的。’我完全同意。事实证明，这个世界给我们提供了几乎无穷无尽的当傻瓜的机会。”
COLUMBIA UNIVERSITY
哥伦比亚大学(Columbia University)
Dan Futterman, actor and writer
丹·法特曼(Dan Futterman)，演员、作家
“I am a lucky person. Of the roughly 100 million babies born worldwide in 1967, I was lucky enough to be born into the wealthiest country. Born to educated, healthy parents. To parents who had not only gone to two of the great colleges in the world, but who intended, or at least hoped, for their children to do the same. To parents who had books in their home. There’s a very good chance that many of you come from similar backgrounds. You drew a lucky card in life. That’s not to embarrass you or to diminish how hard you’ve worked or how much you’ve learned these past four years. That’s simply to state a fact. Many of us — most of us — come from an exclusive club. That doesn’t mean we’re more worthy. It means we’re more lucky. This exclusive club is only becoming more exclusive as incomes and opportunity at the top of our society expand, and incomes and opportunity at the bottom contract. For those of you who didn’t come from privileged backgrounds ... let me tell you how much I admire you. You have bested long odds to be here today, long odds which I never faced. But you, too, have now entered an exclusive club, graduates of one of the great universities of the world. And with that privilege, you have responsibility, all of you do. Do not shut the door behind you. Each of you has a responsibility to turn around, give someone else a hand up, up the stairs and through the door.”
“我是一个幸运儿。在1967年全世界诞生的大约1亿名婴儿中，我很幸运地出生在了最富有的国度，有一对受过良好教育、身体健康的父母。我的父母不仅自己上过两所世界上最好的大学，而且也打算（至少希望）他们的孩子也这样做。此外，我的家里还摆放着许多书籍。你们中的许多人很可能拥有类似的家庭背景。你们的人生抽到了一张幸运牌。这样说并不是想让你们难堪，也无意贬损你们在过去四年的不懈努力和学业成就。我只是想陈述一个事实。我们许多人，甚至可以说大多数人，都来自一个尊享俱乐部。这并不意味着我们更值得拥有这种出身。它意味着我们更幸运。随着收入和机会在社会顶层不断扩展，在社会底层不断收缩，这个尊享俱乐部只会变得更加排外。请允许我向那些家庭出身并不优越的同学表达我由衷的钦佩之情。你们已经抓住了从这里顺利毕业的渺茫机会，那是我从来没有面对过的困境。但是，此刻你们也已经进入一个尊享俱乐部，从这个世界上最伟大的一间大学毕业。与这种特权相伴的是责任，你们所有人都肩负着一种责任。不要把你背后的门关上。你们每个人都有责任转过身去，拉其他人一把，帮助他们走上楼梯，穿过那扇门。”
EMORY UNIVERSITY
埃默里大学(Emory University)
John Lewis, congressman and civil rights leader
约翰·刘易斯(John Lewis)，国会议员、民权领袖
“I saw those signs that said ‘white men,’ ‘colored men,’ ‘white women,’ ‘colored women,’ ‘white waiting,’ ‘colored waiting.’ I would come home and ask my mother, my father, my grandparents, my great-grandparents, ‘Why?’ They would say: ‘That’s the way it is. Don’t get in the way. Don’t get in trouble.’ ...
“我见过那些标牌，上面写着‘白人男性’，‘有色男性’，‘白人女性’，‘有色女性’，‘白人等候区’和‘有色人等候区’。回家后，我问我的母亲、父亲、祖父母和曾祖父母，‘为什么要这样区分？’他们总是说：‘事情就是这样。不要碍事。不要惹麻烦。’……
“In 1957, I met Rosa Parks at the age of 17. In 1958, at the age of 18, I met Martin Luther King Jr., and these two individuals inspired me to get in the way, to get in trouble. So I come here to say to you this morning, on this beautiful campus, with your great education, you must find a way to get in the way. You must find a way to get in trouble — good trouble, necessary trouble.”
“1957年，17岁的我遇到了罗莎·帕克斯(Rosa Parks)。18岁那年，我遇到了马丁·路德·金(Martin Luther King Jr.)，这两个人鼓励我要敢于碍事，敢于惹麻烦。所以，我今天早上来到这里，是想对你们说，你们已经在这个美丽的校园接受了一流教育，你们肯定找到了一种碍事的方式，一种惹麻烦的方式——好的、有必要的麻烦。”
NEW YORK UNIVERSITY
纽约大学(New York University)
Janet L. Yellen, Federal Reserve chairwoman
珍妮特·耶伦(Janet L. Yellen)，美联储主席
“There is an unfortunate myth that success is mainly determined by something called ‘ability.’ But research indicates that our best measures of these qualities are unreliable predictors of performance in academics or employment. Psychologist Angela Lee Duckworth says that what really matters is a quality she calls ‘grit’ — an abiding commitment to work hard toward long-range goals and to persevere through the setbacks that come along the way. One aspect of grit that I think is particularly important is the willingness to take a stand when circumstances demand it. Such circumstances may not be all that frequent, but in every life, there will be crucial moments when having the courage to stand up for what you believe will be immensely important.”
“有一个可悲的谬论，说成功主要是由一种被称为‘能力’的东西决定的。但研究表明，即使这些素质获得最精确的衡量，它们也无法可靠地预测一个人的学业或就业表现。心理学家安吉拉·李·达克沃斯(Angela Lee Duckworth)认为，真正重要的是一种她称之为‘刚毅’的品质——始终不渝地致力于一项长期目标，哪怕遇到再大的挫折也毫不气馁。我认为这种品质尤为重要的一个特征是，情势所迫时愿意表明立场。这种情势或许不会来得那么频繁，但每个人在日常生活中总会遇到一些至关重要的时刻，在这个时候，你务必要有勇气站出来，捍卫你自身的信念。”
BRYANT UNIVERSITY
布莱恩特大学(Bryant University)
Richard W. Fisher, president and chief executive officer of the Federal Reserve Bank of Dallas
理查德·W·费舍尔(Richard W. Fisher)，达拉斯联邦储备银行(Federal Reserve Bank of Dallas)主席兼首席执行官
“Our mother would say, ‘Never let your brains go to your head.’ The pun is horrific, but the message is profound: To achieve success, you will need to keep your superb education and your considerable talent in perspective. Brains and the gift of talent are necessary, but they are insufficient for success in life. Time and again, in business and universities and government, we see instances in which women and men of towering intellect get far at first, but ultimately snatch defeat from the jaws of victory. They do so because they have forgotten to develop their emotional quotient with the same devotion they applied to developing their intelligence quotient. My heartfelt advice to you is to work as hard on expanding your E.Q. as you have on harnessing your I.Q.”
“我们的母亲会说，‘永远不要让你的大脑冲昏你的头脑。’这句双关语听起来很可怕，但它传达了一个非常深刻的讯息：为了获得成功，你需要正确看待你获得的一流教育和你拥有的骄人天赋。智力和天赋是必要的，但仅凭它们还不足以确保人生的成功。在企业、大学和政府机构，我们一次又一次看到这样的例子：智力超群的男男女女起初踌躇满志，一往无前，但最终却与成功失之交臂。个中原因是，他们已经忘记了像开发智商那样专注地开发自己的情商。我衷心建议你们要像驾驭你们的智商那样，努力地扩展你的情商。”
CARTHAGE COLLEGE
迦太基学院(Carthage College)
Alexis Ohanian, co-founder of Reddit
亚历克西斯·奥海宁(Alexis Ohanian)，社交化新闻网站Reddit联合创始人
“It’s O.K. to not really know what you’re doing, and just trust your gut. Make the best judgment you can. There’s not going to be a syllabus assigned to you. It’s going to be using whatever knowledge you’ve gained, whatever resources you have, to just figure it out, to just hack it. I mean, most of the time, I still don’t know what I’m doing. ...
“如果你不知道自己正在做什么，那没有什么大不了的，只要相信自己的直觉，尽力做出最佳判断就好。上天不会给你分配一个进度表。你需要使用你掌握的知识，你拥有的资源，去搞清楚这个问题，去破解它。我的意思是，在大部分时间里，我仍然不知道我在做什么。”……
“You are going to figure it out, and failure is going to be part of the process. You’re all here because you’re good at not failing, right? This is the culmination of doing a great job at not failing. There are no G.P.A.s after this. There’s going to be lots of setbacks. There’s going to be lots of failures. No one introduces me as the founder of My Mobile Menu, also known as Mmm, because that was our first company. Before we started Reddit, Steve and I started that, and for a year and a half worked on something that went nowhere. But that’s O.K. Failure is an option.”
“你要弄清楚这个问题，而失败将成为这一进程的组成部分。你们今天能够坐在这里，是因为你们擅长在考试里不去失败，不是吗？这是你擅于不失败的人生之旅的顶峰。这场毕业典礼后，再无平均绩点(GPA)可供参照，只会有数不胜数的挫折，罄竹难书的失败。当大家介绍我时，没有人说我是‘我的手机菜单（My Mobile Menu，又称Mmm）’的创始人，因为那是我们创立的第一家公司。在创办Reddit前大约一年半的时间里，史蒂夫和我整天鼓捣一个最终无疾而终的创意。但那没关系。失败也是一个选项。”