Steve Jobs' Stanford Commencement Address

Written By Ethan Maurice

By Ethan Maurice | December 16, 2015

Steve Jobs on trusting the dots will connect in your future, finding your passion, and using death as a tool to make the big choices in life:

"Remembering that I'll be dead soon is the most important tool I've ever encountered to help me make the big choices in life. Because almost everything — all external expectations, all pride, all fear of embarrassment or failure — these things just fall away in the face of death, leaving only what is truly important. Remembering that you are going to die is the best way I know to avoid the trap of thinking you have something to lose. You are already naked. There is no reason not to follow your heart."

- Steve Jobs

Featured
Out Now! 17 Ideas That Changed My Life
Out Now! 17 Ideas That Changed My Life

Holy moly, am I happy to make the introduction: 17 Ideas That Changed My Life is out, live, and available printed for purchase (and free to download).

A sort of “philosophical coffee table book,” it’s a photo-heavy homage and collection of the most useful and profound ideas I’ve found and integrated into my lens on life over a decade of exploring ideas (traveling, reading hundreds of books, deep soaks in diverse cultures etc.).

Read more →
What is a Mystic (And How to Be One)?
What is a Mystic (And How to Be One)?

To be a mystic one need not add anything to their experience, but subtract. A mystic simply sticks with and perceives the basics of reality, because the basic of reality are wildly miraculous.

A few examples:

  • We live on a tiny planet floating in the endless void of space.

  • Time is an illusion made by measuring spins of the earth and laps around the sun. The past is a memory, the future a dream, and both are mental projections from the present. All is one ever-changing, eternal present moment.

Read more →
Follow Your Curiosity and Cultivate Interest
Follow Your Curiosity and Cultivate Interest

Would you like to live a captivating life? To feel alive and engaged in the ways you spend your days? Interest is the unsung key.

I’ve been doing a lot of thinking about interest the past year and believe it to be the missing vital value and navigational compass for the modern day. Interest is the fountain of youth we don’t know we’re after, not in the sense of everlasting life, but of life ever-engaging. When rooted in your interests, you don’t need all the tips and tricks to be present, happy, and engaged — living in alignment with the delights and drives of your deeper self, you simply need a lot less soothing.

While the effort to discover your deepest interests is far from straightforward, the process is remarkably simple. So simple, in fact, it can be written out in the most standardized and trite form in the world: a three-step formula.

Read more →
Ethan Maurice https://ethanmaurice.com
Previous

How to Use the Thought of Death to Your Advantage
Next

Should We Set Goals, and If So, How?