Techdirt. Stories filed under "speeches"

Techdirt. Stories filed under "speeches" Easily digestible tech news... http://www.techdirt.com/ en-us Techdirt. Stories filed under "speeches"http://www.techdirt.com/images/td-88x31.gifhttp://www.techdirt.com/ Wed, 22 May 2013 17:00:00 PDT DailyDirt: Graduation Advice To Remember Michael Ho http://www.techdirt.com/articles/20090516/0820434902/dailydirt-commencement-speeches.shtml http://www.techdirt.com/articles/20090516/0820434902/dailydirt-commencement-speeches.shtml saying anything along the lines of:

I don't want to sell anything, buy anything, or process anything as a career. I don't want to sell anything bought or processed, or buy anything sold or processed, or process anything sold, bought, or processed, or repair anything sold, bought, or processed. You know, as a career, I don't want to do that.

Here are just a few more pithy words for recent graduates. (PS. Congratulations!)

Bill Watterson, the creator of Calvin & Hobbes, spoke publicly at his alma mater for graduation. "The truth is, most of us discover where we are headed when we arrive. At that time, we turn around and say, yes, this is obviously where I was going all along. It's a good idea to try to enjoy the scenery on the detours, because you'll probably take a few." [url]
Everyone should pursue their passion, right? But what if you don't know what your passion is? Economist Tyler Cowen tried to respond to this question, but Cowen admitted he was stumped on how to pick a particular career path. [url]
The world's first commencement speech via Twitter was just 20 tweets long. If you thought that a 140 character limit might deliver more profound or sage advice, tweet #12 is "Never tweet pictures of yourself in underwear..." nuff said? [url]

If you'd like to read more awesome and interesting stuff, check out this unrelated (but not entirely random!) Techdirt post via StumbleUpon.

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]]> urls-we-dig-up http://www.techdirt.com/comment_rss.php?sid=20090516/0820434902 Thu, 10 May 2012 17:00:00 PDT DailyDirt: Graduation Advice Michael Ho http://www.techdirt.com/articles/20100526/1905599596/dailydirt-graduation-advice.shtml http://www.techdirt.com/articles/20100526/1905599596/dailydirt-graduation-advice.shtml

Paul Graham has an excellent blog post that goes beyond the usual "do what you love" advice and explains why it's so hard to actually follow through on finding enjoyable work. Graham boils it down to two paths: (1) organically finding what you love to do, or (2) working one job to support yourself while you develop other vocational interests. [url]

Conan O'Brien gave a commencement speech to Dartmouth College students in 2011. Towards the end of his talk, Conan refers back to a speech he gave to Harvard graduates in 2000 on failure. [url]

Commencement speeches aren't always written by successful people with years of experience. Here are ten pearls of wisdom that you won't hear on graduation day, and as with all advice, take it with a grain of salt. [url]

To discover more interesting education-related content, check out what's currently floating around the StumbleUpon universe. [url]

By the way, StumbleUpon can recommend some good Techdirt articles, too.

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]]> urls-we-dig-up http://www.techdirt.com/comment_rss.php?sid=20100526/1905599596 Mon, 1 Feb 2010 15:44:00 PST Court Says It's No Free Speech Violation To Kick People Out Of Presidential Speech Due To Their Bumper Stickers Mike Masnick http://www.techdirt.com/articles/20100201/1306267991.shtml http://www.techdirt.com/articles/20100201/1306267991.shtml no free speech violation in two individuals being removed from a George W. Bush speech (while he was still President), because of the bumper stickers on their cars (which were decidedly anti-Bush). While I'm a big supporter of free speech -- especially when it comes to criticizing the President or other elected officials -- I have to admit that I tend to agree with the court here. The President and his staff had every right to determine who attended the speech for whatever reason. Excluding anyone from hearing a speech isn't a violation of their free speech rights, because there is no guaranteed right to attend such a speech in person. That said, I think it's particularly lame that a President -- or anyone in authority -- would purposely keep out those who disagree with them, rather than being willing to respond to their criticisms. As we saw just last week when President Obama responded directly to Republican questions, responding to those who disagree with you can often be quite a lot more productive than ignoring them.

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]]> but-does-it-make-sense http://www.techdirt.com/comment_rss.php?sid=20100201/1306267991 Tue, 18 Nov 2008 09:32:00 PST MLK Jr. Estate Threatening To Sue Vendors For Selling Products With Obama And King Mike Masnick http://www.techdirt.com/articles/20081117/0136362849.shtml http://www.techdirt.com/articles/20081117/0136362849.shtml legal fight with CBS for showing King's I Have A Dream speech. Who knew that dream was locked up thanks to intellectual property laws?

Now the family is apparently threatening to sue anyone selling any kind of merchandise that includes images of King and President-Elect Obama, claiming that if others are making money off of King's image, King's family should get a cut: "We do feel that if somebody's out there making a dollar, we should make a dime." So, now, apparently that dream is to keep making money off a speech that was delivered decades ago.

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]]> get-over-it http://www.techdirt.com/comment_rss.php?sid=20081117/0136362849 Wed, 26 Mar 2008 06:56:00 PDT Shouldn't Al Gore Know That Everyone Is A Journalist These Days? Mike Masnick http://www.techdirt.com/articles/20080325/192958651.shtml http://www.techdirt.com/articles/20080325/192958651.shtml is that no press are allowed (and no photographs or audio or video recording either). That may have made sense years ago, but in this day and age, where everyone is a "reporter" and everyone has an outlet, it seems rather ridiculous to even think that you can ban "press," let alone make it a clause in a speaking agreement. Last year, the same event drew 17,000 people. You have to figure that a decent number of them have blogs, social networking pages, Twitter accounts and whatnot -- and a very high percentage probably have mobile phones with cameras on them as well (and, of course, it doesn't hurt that CNET appears to be offering to give people a free fleece for taping the event). Sorry, Mr. Vice President, even if you ban them, the press will be attending your talk.

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]]> ban-everyone! http://www.techdirt.com/comment_rss.php?sid=20080325/192958651 Thu, 21 Feb 2008 07:15:00 PST Why We Should All Want Politicians Who Plagiarize Mike Masnick http://www.techdirt.com/articles/20080220/121622307.shtml http://www.techdirt.com/articles/20080220/121622307.shtml debate about plagiarism kicked off by charges from Hillary Clinton's campaign that Barack Obama has "plagiarized" some of his speeches. This isn't a political blog, and I won't get into the politics of this, but we do talk about plagiarism here, and it's a ridiculous claim. In the past, we've noted that it's time to rethink the concept of plagiarism, and even pointed to Jonathan Lethem's fantastic defense of plagiarism, which was entirely plagiarized itself. Many people wrongly confuse copyright and plagiarism -- even though they are two separate things. Copyright has nothing to do with making sure someone gets credit for their work. What some people want to call plagiarism, others are realizing is actually a form of collaboration. Ideas and words do not come to us uniquely as a burst of inspiration -- but are built on what we have all learned from others. When anyone speaks, they are "plagiarizing" others in some form or another. Name a political candidate who has only uttered his or her own words, not taking anything from anyone else and improving on it in their own way.

Thankfully, various speechwriters have come forward to ridicule the charges of plagiarism, noting that all political speeches pull from others, and when is the last time you heard a politician credit his or her own speechwriter for a speech he or she had just given? Copyright expert William Patry has blasted the charges as well. In fact, most of the commentary seems to be about what a lame tactic it is. Most amusing of all, perhaps, are the false claims by one news organization that it broke the story. Think about that for a second: a news organization is demanding undeserved credit for breaking a story on a politician who, by omission, failed to credit where his ideas came from. Which is worse? Claiming credit for something you did not do, or failing to credit a friend and advisor who provided you with an idea you built on?

But the key point here is that I want a politician who plagiarizes. I want a politician who takes the ideas of others, mixes them around and comes out with something better. I want a politician who doesn't think that all good ideas spring from his or her head alone, but knows that by listening to others, and by internalizing those ideas, remixing those ideas and building on top of those ideas something better, something more profound, something more meaningful can be produced. Any politician who chooses not to build on the ideas of others and who insists that only he or she creates the speeches and policies put forth is not a politician worth following.

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]]> it's-called-learning-from-others http://www.techdirt.com/comment_rss.php?sid=20080220/121622307