{"id":2757,"date":"2014-11-26T15:36:04","date_gmt":"2014-11-26T05:36:04","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/181.224.157.134\/~sommerme\/blog\/?p=2757"},"modified":"2017-04-04T17:53:56","modified_gmt":"2017-04-04T07:53:56","slug":"video-tim-minchin-university-occasional-address","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sommermelse.com\/blog\/video-tim-minchin-university-occasional-address\/","title":{"rendered":"WHO: Tim Minchin University &#8220;Occasional Address&#8221;"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Some words and speeches are worth listening to more than once&#8230;.this may be of them. It&#8217;s a mix of irony, truth and dry humour from Tim Minchin at an address he gave to the graduating class of the University of WA.<\/p>\n<p>I think you&#8217;ll like it.<\/p>\n<p>(p.s if you wait till the end you&#8217;ll hear the part about all the things Tim has done&#8230;it&#8217;s pretty impressive. He&#8217;s even one-half the brains behind Matilda The Musical based on the story by Roald Dahl!)<\/p>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" width=\"640\" height=\"360\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/yoEezZD71sc?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>And in case you can&#8217;t watch the video, here is the transcript:<\/p>\n<p><em>\u201cIn darker days, I did a corporate gig at a conference for this big company who made and sold accounting software. In a bid, I presume, to inspire their salespeople to greater heights, they\u2019d forked out 12 grand for an Inspirational Speaker who was this extreme sports dude who had had a couple of his limbs frozen off when he got stuck on a ledge on some mountain. It was weird. Software salespeople need to hear from someone who has had a long, successful and happy career in software sales, not from an overly-optimistic, ex-mountaineer. Some poor guy who arrived in the morning hoping to learn about better sales technique ended up going home worried about the blood flow to his extremities. It\u2019s not inspirational \u2013 it\u2019s confusing&#8230;.<\/em><\/p>\n<p><!--more--><\/p>\n<p>And if the mountain was meant to be a symbol of life\u2019s challenges, and the loss of limbs a metaphor for sacrifice, the software guy\u2019s not going to get it, is he? Cos he didn\u2019t do an arts degree, did he? He should have. Arts degrees are awesome. And they help you find meaning where there is none. And let me assure you, there is none. Don\u2019t go looking for it. Searching for meaning is like searching for a rhyme scheme in a cookbook: you won\u2019t find it and you\u2019ll bugger up your souffl\u00e9.<br \/>\n<span id=\"more-13359\"><\/span><br \/>\nPoint being, I\u2019m not an inspirational speaker. I\u2019ve never lost a limb on a mountainside, metaphorically or otherwise. And I\u2019m certainly not here to give career advice, cos\u2026 well I\u2019ve never really had what most would call a proper job.<\/p>\n<p>However, I have had large groups of people listening to what I say for quite a few years now, and it\u2019s given me an inflated sense of self-importance. So I will now \u2013 at the ripe old age of 38 \u2013 bestow upon you nine life lessons. To echo, of course, the 9 lessons and carols of the traditional Christmas service. Which are also a bit obscure.<\/p>\n<p>You might find some of this stuff inspiring, you will find some of it boring, and you will definitely forget all of it within a week. And be warned, there will be lots of hokey similes, and obscure aphorisms which start well but end up not making sense.<\/p>\n<p>So listen up, or you\u2019ll get lost, like a blind man clapping in a pharmacy trying to echo-locate the contact lens fluid.<\/p>\n<p>Here we go:<\/p>\n<p><strong>1. You Don\u2019t Have To Have A Dream.\u00a0<\/strong><br \/>\nAmericans on talent shows always talk about their dreams. Fine, if you have something that you\u2019ve always dreamed of, like, in your heart, go for it! After all, it\u2019s something to do with your time\u2026 chasing a dream. And if it\u2019s a big enough one, it\u2019ll take you most of your life to achieve, so by the time you get to it and are staring into the abyss of the meaninglessness of your achievement, you\u2019ll be almost dead so it won\u2019t matter.<\/p>\n<p>I never really had one of these big dreams. And so I advocate passionate dedication to the pursuit of short-term goals. Be micro-ambitious. Put your head down and work with pride on whatever is in front of you\u2026 you never know where you might end up. Just be aware that the next worthy pursuit will probably appear in your periphery. Which is why you should be careful of long-term dreams. If you focus too far in front of you, you won\u2019t see the shiny thing out the corner of your eye. Right? Good. Advice. Metaphor. Look at me go.<\/p>\n<p><strong>2. Don\u2019t Seek Happiness<\/strong><br \/>\nHappiness is like an orgasm: if you think about it too much, it goes away. Keep busy and aim to make someone else happy, and you might find you get some as a side effect. We didn\u2019t evolve to be constantly content. Contented Australophithecus Afarensis got eaten before passing on their genes.<\/p>\n<p><strong>3. Remember, It\u2019s All Luck\u00a0<\/strong><br \/>\nYou are lucky to be here. You were incalculably lucky to be born, and incredibly lucky to be brought up by a nice family that helped you get educated and encouraged you to go to Uni. Or if you were born into a horrible family, that\u2019s unlucky and you have my sympathy\u2026 but you were still lucky: lucky that you happened to be made of the sort of DNA that made the sort of brain which \u2013 when placed in a horrible childhood environment \u2013 would make decisions that meant you ended up, eventually, graduating Uni. Well done you, for dragging yourself up by the shoelaces, but you were lucky. You didn\u2019t create the bit of you that dragged you up. They\u2019re not even your shoelaces.<\/p>\n<p>I suppose I worked hard to achieve whatever dubious achievements I\u2019ve achieved \u2026 but I didn\u2019t make the bit of me that works hard, any more than I made the bit of me that ate too many burgers instead of going to lectures while I was here at UWA.<\/p>\n<p>Understanding that you can\u2019t truly take credit for your successes, nor truly blame others for their failures will humble you and make you more compassionate.<\/p>\n<p>Empathy is intuitive, but is also something you can work on, intellectually.<\/p>\n<p><strong>4. Exercise<\/strong><br \/>\nI\u2019m sorry, you pasty, pale, smoking philosophy grads, arching your eyebrows into a Cartesian curve as you watch the Human Movement mob winding their way through the miniature traffic cones of their existence: you are wrong and they are right. Well, you\u2019re half right \u2013 you think, therefore you are\u2026 but also: you jog, therefore you sleep well, therefore you\u2019re not overwhelmed by existential angst. You can\u2019t be Kant, and you don\u2019t want to be.<\/p>\n<p>Play a sport, do yoga, pump iron, run\u2026 whatever\u2026 but take care of your body. You\u2019re going to need it. Most of you mob are going to live to nearly a hundred, and even the poorest of you will achieve a level of wealth that most humans throughout history could not have dreamed of. And this long, luxurious life ahead of you is going to make you depressed!<\/p>\n<p>But don\u2019t despair! There is an inverse correlation between depression and exercise. Do it. Run, my beautiful intellectuals, run. And don\u2019t smoke. Natch.<\/p>\n<p><strong>5. Be Hard On Your Opinions\u00a0<\/strong><br \/>\nA famous bon mot asserts that opinions are like arse-holes, in that everyone has one. There is great wisdom in this\u2026 but I would add that opinions differ significantly from arse-holes, in that yours should be constantly and thoroughly examined.<\/p>\n<p>We must think critically, and not just about the ideas of others. Be hard on your beliefs. Take them out onto the verandah and beat them with a cricket bat.<br \/>\nBe intellectually rigorous. Identify your biases, your prejudices, your privilege.<\/p>\n<p>Most of society\u2019s arguments are kept alive by a failure to acknowledge nuance. We tend to generate false dichotomies, then try to argue one point using two entirely different sets of assumptions, like two tennis players trying to win a match by hitting beautifully executed shots from either end of separate tennis courts.<\/p>\n<p>By the way, while I have science and arts grads in front of me: please don\u2019t make the mistake of thinking the arts and sciences are at odds with one another. That is a recent, stupid, and damaging idea. You don\u2019t have to be unscientific to make beautiful art, to write beautiful things.<\/p>\n<p>If you need proof: Twain, Adams, Vonnegut, McEwen, Sagan, Shakespeare, Dickens. For a start.<\/p>\n<p>You don\u2019t need to be superstitious to be a poet. You don\u2019t need to hate GM technology to care about the beauty of the planet. You don\u2019t have to claim a soul to promote compassion.<\/p>\n<p>Science is not a body of knowledge nor a system of belief; it is just a term which describes humankind\u2019s incremental acquisition of understanding through observation. Science is awesome.<\/p>\n<p>The arts and sciences need to work together to improve how knowledge is communicated. The idea that many Australians \u2013 including our new PM and my distant cousin Nick \u2013 believe that the science of anthropogenic global warming is controversial, is a powerful indicator of the extent of our failure to communicate. The fact that 30% of this room just bristled is further evidence still. The fact that that bristling is more to do with politics than science is even more despairing.<\/p>\n<p><strong>6. Be a teacher.<\/strong><br \/>\nPlease? Please be a teacher. Teachers are the most admirable and important people in the world. You don\u2019t have to do it forever, but if you\u2019re in doubt about what to do, be an amazing teacher. Just for your twenties. Be a primary school teacher. Especially if you\u2019re a bloke \u2013 we need male primary school teachers. Even if you\u2019re not a Teacher, be a teacher. Share your ideas. Don\u2019t take for granted your education. Rejoice in what you learn, and spray it.<\/p>\n<p><strong>7. Define Yourself By What You Love<\/strong><br \/>\nI\u2019ve found myself doing this thing a bit recently, where, if someone asks me what sort of music I like, I say \u201cwell I don\u2019t listen to the radio because pop lyrics annoy me\u201d. Or if someone asks me what food I like, I say \u201cI think truffle oil is overused and slightly obnoxious\u201d. And I see it all the time online, people whose idea of being part of a subculture is to hate Coldplay or football or feminists or the Liberal Party. We have tendency to define ourselves in opposition to stuff; as a comedian, I make a living out of it. But try to also express your passion for things you love. Be demonstrative and generous in your praise of those you admire. Send thank-you cards and give standing ovations. Be pro-stuff, not just anti-stuff.<\/p>\n<p><strong>8. Respect People With Less Power Than You.<\/strong><br \/>\nI have, in the past, made important decisions about people I work with \u2013 agents and producers \u2013 based largely on how they treat wait staff in restaurants. I don\u2019t care if you\u2019re the most powerful cat in the room, I will judge you on how you treat the least powerful. So there.<\/p>\n<p><strong>9. Don\u2019t Rush.<\/strong><br \/>\nYou don\u2019t need to already know what you\u2019re going to do with the rest of your life. I\u2019m not saying sit around smoking cones all day, but also, don\u2019t panic. Most people I know who were sure of their career path at 20 are having midlife crises now.<\/p>\n<p>I said at the beginning of this ramble that life is meaningless. It was not a flippant assertion. I think it\u2019s absurd: the idea of seeking \u201cmeaning\u201d in the set of circumstances that happens to exist after 13.8 billion years worth of unguided events. Leave it to humans to think the universe has a purpose for them. However, I am no nihilist. I am not even a cynic. I am, actually, rather romantic. And here\u2019s my idea of romance:<\/p>\n<h4>You will soon be dead. Life will sometimes seem long and tough and, god, it\u2019s tiring. And you will sometimes be happy and sometimes sad. And then you\u2019ll be<br \/>\nold. And then you\u2019ll be dead.<\/h4>\n<h4>There is only one sensible thing to do with this empty existence, and that is: fill it. Not fillet. Fill. It.<\/h4>\n<h4>And in my opinion (until I change it), life is best filled by learning as much as you can about as much as you can, taking pride in whatever you\u2019re doing, having compassion, sharing ideas, running(!), being enthusiastic. And then there\u2019s love, and travel, and wine, and sex, and art, and kids, and giving, and mountain climbing \u2026 but you know all that stuff already.<\/h4>\n<h4>It\u2019s an incredibly exciting thing, this one, meaningless life of yours.<\/h4>\n<h4>Good luck.<\/h4>\n<p><em>Thank you for indulging me.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>(for more of Mr Minchin you can find him over at his <a title=\"Tim Minchin Website\" href=\"http:\/\/www.timminchin.com\" target=\"_blank\">website<\/a>)<\/p>\n<p><\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Some words and speeches are worth listening to more than once&#8230;.this may be of them. It&#8217;s a mix of irony, truth and dry humour from Tim Minchin at an address he gave to the graduating class of the University of WA. I think you&#8217;ll like it. (p.s if you wait till the end you&#8217;ll hear [&hellip;]&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/sommermelse.com\/blog\/video-tim-minchin-university-occasional-address\/\" class=\"post-read-more\">Read more&#8230;<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":2723,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[1772],"tags":[1544,1543,1542,1766],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/sommermelse.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/09\/SLIDERS-WEDNESDAY-WISDOM.jpg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sommermelse.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2757"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sommermelse.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sommermelse.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sommermelse.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sommermelse.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2757"}],"version-history":[{"count":9,"href":"https:\/\/sommermelse.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2757\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4128,"href":"https:\/\/sommermelse.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2757\/revisions\/4128"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sommermelse.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2723"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sommermelse.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2757"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sommermelse.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2757"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sommermelse.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2757"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}