Adam Savage, Commencement Keynote Address to Class of 2012 at Sarah Lawrence College

hot off the press our speaker on the cover of Wired and it says how to be a deep dad Sarah Lawrence doesn't always select an alumni speaker at commencement for example last year speaker Arianna Huffington wasn't one although alums julianna margulies and rahm emanuel where our commencement speakers for two years prior this year's commencement speaker renowned TV host of MIT's Mythbusters Adam Savage it's not an alumnus either but I think of him that way as John Hill said Adams career seemed soaked too closely parallel the careers of so many Sarah Lawrence graduates in their invention and reinvention mastery of disparate crafts and skills and cognitive flexibility I suppose one could argue that many of our lungs also qualify as Mythbusters in their own way - the similarities between our speakers life and the lives of so many SLC grads I know are so striking in fact that when I read his bio I asked her Alumni Relations Office to double-check and make sure he did not count them so soon but no they told me Adams spent six months at NYU's Tisch School of the Arts and then decided to leave I said that I'm on the floor that I was pretty certain had he instead chose and Sarah Lawrence we now have a be a hanging on as well in any event while we can't give Adam official alumni status I'm here by granting him by executive decree unofficial alumni says and Adam that means you're invited to reunion next month and allowed to make big gifts for the few of you unfamiliar with Mythbusters and therefore our speakers background Adam Whitney Savage was born in New York in 1967 grew up close by in the westchester county village of Sleepy Hollow it appears his creator Street was formed right in the cradle as his father was a painter film maker an animator known for his work on Sesame Street and his mother was a psychotherapist certainly a creative calling in its own right Adams sister is also an artist so it's truly a family affair as a child and teen actor Adam voiced animated characters in Sesame Street and appeared as mr. Whipple stop boy in a Charmin commercial and as a grounding Madame state by a lifeguard in Billy Joel's 1985 music video you're only human but the joys of acting were soon surpassed by though most of hands-on envisioning creating and doing with gigs ranging from being in special effects at George Lucas's Industrial Light & Magic to graphic design animation carpentering welding electronics teaching in the industrial design department at San Francisco's Academy of Art University set design fine art painting and sculpted robot building toy design costume making film and stage special effects and model making throw upward of 150 TV commercials and film productions by the time he was asked by Jamie Hyneman now his co-host to participate in a casting video for Mythbusters pilot in 2003 Adam had clearly already had multiple careers none of which though would provide the worldwide recognition and regard and gender budget Buster's now in its ninth season this Discovery Channel show is seen by over 10 million viewers worldwide each week Adam has guest edited and appeared on the cover of popular science and wire has been named an honorary member of Sigma Chi the Scientific Research Society and received an outstanding Lifetime Achievement Award and cultural humanism from the Harvard secular society with its tradition tradition to have a carafe of water for our speaker today we have to offer something more appropriate for Adams so should you get thirsty please enjoy a liter of coke faculty staff students and friends it gives me great pleasure to introduce today's commencement speaker the gifted Prieto's and Sarah Lawrence Ian in spirit polymath Thank You president Lawrence chairman Hill board of trustees faculty and staff of Sarah Lawrence College I am humbled and honored that you would have me here to participate in this August and amazing occasion to the graduating in class of 2012 I say congratulations to your friends and family brothers and sisters and most importantly your parents I also offer my heartfelt congratulations welcome everyone you must be very proud my mom is right over there she's very proud of me and I'm old and I didn't print this big enough so I have to admit I found the process of writing this commencement address a bit daunting I was hoping to string together a few thoughts about what awaits you in the wider world when the real amount of saleable truth is that no one knows anything and real advice is what you paid for it well clearly you paid for this advice for someone but then I came across a rhetorical flourish that I really like I thought I would Jeff suppose the moment in time when you guys were all coming into the world with the time that I was being formed by it so I excitedly began looking up in researching movies and books that came out about this time that we're really important to me and the culture around me movies like that shaped my own mind like Blade Runner raising lost our Empire Strikes Back writers like Stephen King Harlan Ellison Kurt Vonnegut and then I realized and I was thinking about the Year 1980 when I was 13 and growing up a few miles away where Tarrytown and it dawned on me that none of you were born until 1990 then I felt old I couldn't write anything for a few days it started to imagine what a college dropout might have to say to a large gathering them precisely the opposite why I was invited to be here I don't even know what I want to be when I grow up this is the first rule question right that adults ask children what do you want to be when you grow up it's a lot of pressure to specialize so early and of course we're at Sarah Lawrence famous as a liberal arts college both in name and politics I heard you have a Republican here congratulations I'd suggest another term for the educational philosophy here a foundational education the foundation a broad base a platform from which to launch an idea of building a movement a way of thinking a generational shift as a generalist and a jack-of-all-trades I agree completely with this paradigm the broadness of my interests gives me an excellent perspective to do what I do and I would not have it any other way I spent an inordinate amount of my twenties thinking the opposite thinking that I was too unspecialized too old to make a splash as a young man to be an unfaltering i decried and derided all of the skills that I had certainly picked up billiards juggling unicycling none of this helped me meet girls acting in sculpture well Clinton I never got excellent with any one of them I got just good enough what a waste of time was the way I thought about it but I got over that two things happened one I learned that my incessant steal gatherer gave me a distinct and unexpected benefit the benefit of context when you're an expert in one thing your lens in the world is often limited to that of your field this is of course is illuminating in important ways but it can also be restricted when solving the problem as a generalist or to use a more arcane term a polymath I can compare the many fields that I've dabbled in the techniques their philosophies the ways in which they alter the lens through which I see things and I can gain a literal perspective on the problem that I'm solving this turns out to be the exact reason for my success in both film special effects and eventually in Mythbusters Steve Martin in his autobiography weren't standing up has a fantastic pro-v says he runs into someone at the beginning of his career and they tell him you will eventually use everything you've ever learned this is entirely true the other thing that happened to me is that I learned how to work hard like bust my ass worth there's a there are a few things that get you over your own crap than working it's not complicated all you have to do is listen listen to what you've been asked to do listen to what's going on around you learn how the piece of the project you're working on fits into the bigger picture learn how you fit in pay attention when you genuinely understand how the big picture works you start being able to anticipate changes adapt your behavior adapt your output you do this and you will simply do your job better and you'll make the job of everyone around you easier this is actually my one regret that I did not know how to work hard until my mid-20s and to truly bust my butt people who are smart and work hard are in fact so hard to find they stick out like sore thumbs what else can I tell you well I've got a few things you will at some point probably move back in with your parents I'm sorry it's true it's cool it's only temporary but go easy on them they don't know what to do with themselves now if you're gone but that doesn't mean they want you back forever try and save some money while you're there be kind be kind to everyone I can't stress this enough I say this every chance I get kindness will pay you back inestimable dividends don't believe me I don't wager at some point that you will have the opportunity to work for someone who used to be your assistant or hire someone who used to be your boss both have happened to me don't work for fools it's not worth it getting paid less to work for people you like and love and believe in is so much better for you and your career in the long run stay obsessed that thing you can't stop thinking about keep indulging it obsession is the better part of success you will be great at the things that you can't not do be willing to be wrong I've heard a bunch of this day so far don't fight for your idea just because you want the credit fight for your idea because it's the right one and if it's not let it go and put your muscle behind the right one trust your instincts take yourself with a grain of salt a really big grain of salt think about yourself at 17 5 some odd years ago think about what you thought college would be like but you expected yourself to be like now look at yourself I'm gonna hazard a guess if things didn't turn out like you thought in there this process will repeat itself ad nauseam throughout your entire the sooner you realize that the better will be for all of you and all of us we are never finished products we are always works in progress finally the friends around you now these people we're graduating with who saw you and fell in with you while you were still molten being forged in the crucible of emancipation these are some of the most intimate relationships you will ever have because nobody knows you like the people who know you right now I'm sorry to tell you that you will hurt people that love and that you will help people you detest this is called being a human and it happens to everyone whether you like it or not nobody escapes finally finally choice I was editing Berkeley not well enough on a red-eye only four hours ago finally remember that you have plenty of time s cup Fitzgerald the writer of The Great Gatsby one of our national treasures a true giant of literary world wrote one of the silliest things anyone ever repeats he wrote the inane quote that there are no second acts in American lives and this is insane if there's one thing that typifies the American experience it's that reinvention and rebirth are intrinsic to it there are not only second acts there are third apps fourth acts finales curtain calls Raymond Chandler did not write a single word of fiction until his forties Julia Child learned to cook it for me Clint Eastwood directed his first film at 41 don't be afraid to be a late bloomer repeatedly remember you have time to figure out what you want to do who you need to be and where you want to go you look time to fail you have plan to mess up you have time to try again and when we mess that up you still have fun just so long as you're willing to work hard so congratulations on successfully completing act one of your lives there will be a brief intermission in some party and you'll get started on act 2

Channel: SarahLawrenceCollege

Views: 71,163

Keywords: College, School, Student, Campus, Students, Graduation, Adam Savage, mythbusters, Education

Id: ld5heDbzOC8

Length: 16min 58sec (1018 seconds)

Published: Fri May 18 2012