A Commencement Address Too Honest to Deliver in
Person
David Brooks:
“First, here’s what I can’t say to you in front of
your parents.
Your parents are proud of you, and a little surprised
that you’ve made it to graduation. They are eager for you to launch yourself
off into a successful life. Screw that. The next few years are going to be a
terrible time to start a career. So don’t do it. Put off launching your career
until 2023.
You happened to have graduated into a global emergency
that has interrupted everything. That whole career-track thing you’ve been
worrying about? Fundamentally interrupted. Don’t see this as a void; see it as
a permission slip.
See it as a permission slip to think differently about
time. Usually, time flows continually, like a river, and one thing leads to
another. But sometimes time comes in a discrete box. The next two years are
going to be a discrete box. Think only about this unusual two-year box right
now. You’ll probably have 60 more years after this box is over and they’ll
probably be more normal. You can worry about them later”.