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A Message to the Class of 2009

2009-05-26 · Hank · watch on YouTube · Internet & YouTube · advice recommendation

Hank parodies graduation speeches, then tells the class of 2009 not to trust predictions about their future: as the first generation born on the internet, their advantage is a new perception of the world, so they must become 'new Renaissance' generalists.

What is said

00:00:00 — Graduation-speech parody: piñata, graduated five times, clichés

  • ★ Hank says he has graduated five times (elementary through graduate school), so he is 'a bit of an expert' on graduation. (playful) — 00:00:07
  • ★ Hank recites graduation clichés (you're about to change the world, you have more learning to do, welcome to the real world) and says graduation speeches all sound like this. (parody) — 00:00:13

00:00:26 — Advice: don't trust predictions; first generation born on the internet; new Renaissance men and women

  • ★★★ Hank's main message: do not trust anyone who tells graduates how the world is going to be for them. (hedged) — 00:00:26
  • ★★ Hank says he graduated from college with a major in biochemistry and is now a 'professional internet moron'. (playful) — 00:00:33
  • ★★★ Hank says graduates' advantage is not what they just learned, which everyone has, but that a whole new world was just discovered and they grew up in it; people in their 20s don't understand it the same way. — 00:00:38
  • ★★★ Hank compares graduates to the first generation born in America: they are the first generation born on the internet. — 00:00:57 · United States
  • ★★ Hank says their real advantage is not knowing Facebook or 4chan, which is how to explain it to elders, but a completely different perception of how the world works. — 00:01:04 · Facebook
  • ★★★ Hank says the days of being satisfied as an expert in one field are over; graduates will have to be the men and women of the new Renaissance. (hedged) — 00:01:22
  • ★★ Hank urges graduates to be ready to do everything, and to do it for themselves when no one asks them to, and to enjoy where they are. — 00:01:33

Humor (significant)

  • Hank rattles off stock commencement lines about changing the world and the real world. — 00:00:13 > «Graduation speeches, they all sound like this!»
  • Hank cites his own degree as proof that nobody can predict your future. — 00:00:33 > «I graduated from college with a major in biochemistry, and now I'm professional internet moron.»

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