[jarrold]

I was really lucky to be there to hear this in person. Listening to it again still blows me away. I'm from Singapore and I think one of the problems of my generation is that too few of us follow our hearts. Some might blame the education system, some might even blame the government.

I'm just extremely fortunate to experience life in the Valley and it opened up my mind. When doing a startup, its like a roller coaster ride with many ups and downs. Success is not overnight and probably might not even get there on the first attempt. But its speeches like this that kept the fire burning.

[philwelch]

Whenever I want to feel good about the world, I look at things from the perspective of the entire history of the human race.

Thousands of years ago, most of our ancestors were more likely than not subsistence farming or, if they were doing anything historically interesting at all, laboring on gigantic walls or pyramids or other largely useless monuments for various kings and tyrants. There was no choice as to what one did with one's life, it was dictated by the circumstances of birth.

Even having dreams, much less the ability to follow them, is a rare thing for humans. We're each blessed to have this ability.

[Zev]

..one of the problems of my generation is that too few of us follow our hearts.

Is this really specific to our generation?

For that matter, I don't know what generation you're from. I assume the same one that I'm considered to be, if you're talking about a recent graduation. But, you could be older -- attending someone else's graduation.