Steve Jobs' Stanford Commencement Speech

I’d never seen or read Steve’s address to Stanford graduates in 2005, although I had heard of it.

Today, this grievous mistake is fixed. I really should have seen it back in June when I had so much trouble finding what to do next, and foolishly thought about the worst.

Update: Stanford’s website has the full transcript of Steve’s speech. Here’s a fragment of it:

About a year ago I was diagnosed with cancer. (…) My doctor advised me to go home and get my affairs in order, which is doctor’s code for prepare to die. It means to try to tell your kids everything you thought you’d have the next 10 years to tell them in just a few months. It means to make sure everything is buttoned up so that it will be as easy as possible for your family. It means to say your goodbyes.

(…) It turned out to be a very rare form of pancreatic cancer that is curable with surgery. I had the surgery and I’m fine now.

This was the closest I’ve been to facing death, and I hope it’s the closest I get for a few more decades. Having lived through it, I can now say this to you with a bit more certainty than when death was a useful but purely intellectual concept:

No one wants to die. (…) And yet death is the destination we all share. No one has ever escaped it.

He himself hasn’t escaped it, even though he thought he had been cured.

Steve’s approach to death is very similar to Derek K. Miller’s, with an addendum though: believe in your ability to change the world.

“Stay hungry, stay foolish.”