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English Corner

'You've got to find what you love,' Jobs says.

This is a prepared text of the Commencement address delivered by Steve Jobs, on June 12, 2005.

I am honored to be with you today at your commencement from one of the finest universities in the world. I never graduated from college. Truth be told, this is the closest I've ever gotten to a college graduation. Today I want to tell you three stories from my life. That's it. No big deal. Just three stories.

The first story is about connecting the dots.

I dropped out of Reed College after the first 6 months, but then stayed around as a drop-in for another 18 months or so before I really quit. So why did I drop out?

It started before I was born. My biological mother was a young, unwed college graduate student, and she decided to put me up for adoption. She felt very strongly that I should be adopted by college graduates, so everything was all set for me to be adopted at birth by a lawyer and his wife. Except that when I popped out they decided at the last minute that they really wanted a girl. So my parents, who were on a waiting list, got a call in the middle of the night asking: "We have an unexpected baby boy; do you want him?" They said: "Of course." My biological mother later found out that my mother had never graduated from college and that my father had never graduated from high school. She refused to sign the final adoption papers. She only relented a few months later when my parents promised that I would someday go to college.

And 17 years later I did go to college. But I naively chose a college that was almost as expensive as Stanford, and all of my working-class parents' savings were being spent on my college tuition. After six months, I couldn't see the value in it. I had no idea what I wanted to do with my life and no idea how college was going to help me figure it out. And here I was spending all of the money my parents had saved their entire life. So I decided to drop out and trust that it would all work out OK. It was pretty scary at the time, but looking back it was one of the best decisions I ever made. The minute I dropped out I could stop taking the required classes that didn't interest me, and begin dropping in on the ones that looked interesting.

It wasn't all romantic. I didn't have a dorm room, so I slept on the floor in friends' rooms, I returned coke bottles for the 5¢ deposits to buy food with, and I would walk the 7 miles across town every Sunday night to get one good meal a week at the Hare Krishna temple. I loved it. And much of what I stumbled into by following my curiosity and intuition turned out to be priceless later on. Let me give you one example:

Reed College at that time offered perhaps the best calligraphy instruction in the country. Throughout the campus every poster, every label on every drawer, was beautifully hand calligraphed. Because I had dropped out and didn't have to take the normal classes, I decided to take a calligraphy class to learn how to do this. I learned about serif and san serif typefaces, about varying the amount of space between different letter combinations, about what makes great typography great. It was beautiful, historical, artistically subtle in a way that science can't capture, and I found it fascinating.

None of this had even a hope of any practical application in my life. But ten years later, when we were designing the first Macintosh computer, it all came back to me. And we designed it all into the Mac. It was the first computer with beautiful typography. If I had never dropped in on that single course in college, the Mac would have never had multiple typefaces or proportionally spaced fonts. And since Windows just copied the Mac, it's likely that no personal computer would have them. If I had never dropped out, I would have never dropped in on this calligraphy class, and personal computers might not have the wonderful typography that they do. Of course it was impossible to connect the dots looking forward when I was in college. But it was very, very clear looking backwards ten years later.

Again, you can't connect the dots looking forward; you can only connect them looking backwards. So you have to trust that the dots will somehow connect in your future. You have to trust in something — your gut, destiny, life, karma, whatever. This approach has never let me down, and it has made all the difference in my life.

My second story is about love and loss.

I was lucky — I found what I loved to do early in life. Woz and I started Apple in my parents garage when I was 20. We worked hard, and in 10 years Apple had grown from just the two of us in a garage into a $2 billion company with over 4000 employees. We had just released our finest creation — the Macintosh — a year earlier, and I had just turned 30. And then I got fired. How can you get fired from a company you started? Well, as Apple grew we hired someone who I thought was very talented to run the company with me, and for the first year or so things went well. But then our visions of the future began to diverge and eventually we had a falling out. When we did, our Board of Directors sided with him. So at 30 I was out. And very publicly out. What had been the focus of my entire adult life was gone, and it was devastating.

I really didn't know what to do for a few months. I felt that I had let the previous generation of entrepreneurs down - that I had dropped the baton as it was being passed to me. I met with David Packard and Bob Noyce and tried to apologize for screwing up so badly. I was a very public failure, and I even thought about running away from the valley. But something slowly began to dawn on me — I still loved what I did. The turn of events at Apple had not changed that one bit. I had been rejected, but I was still in love. And so I decided to start over.

I didn't see it then, but it turned out that getting fired from Apple was the best thing that could have ever happened to me. The heaviness of being successful was replaced by the lightness of being a beginner again, less sure about everything. It freed me to enter one of the most creative periods of my life.

During the next five years, I started a company named NeXT, another company named Pixar, and fell in love with an amazing woman who would become my wife. Pixar went on to create the worlds first computer animated feature film, Toy Story, and is now the most successful animation studio in the world. In a remarkable turn of events, Apple bought NeXT, I returned to Apple, and the technology we developed at NeXT is at the heart of Apple's current renaissance. And Laurene and I have a wonderful family together.

I'm pretty sure none of this would have happened if I hadn't been fired from Apple. It was awful tasting medicine, but I guess the patient needed it. Sometimes life hits you in the head with a brick. Don't lose faith. I'm convinced that the only thing that kept me going was that I loved what I did. You've got to find what you love. And that is as true for your work as it is for your lovers. Your work is going to fill a large part of your life, and the only way to be truly satisfied is to do what you believe is great work. And the only way to do great work is to love what you do. If you haven't found it yet, keep looking. Don't settle. As with all matters of the heart, you'll know when you find it. And, like any great relationship, it just gets better and better as the years roll on. So keep looking until you find it. Don't settle.

My third story is about death.

When I was 17, I read a quote that went something like: "If you live each day as if it was your last, someday you'll most certainly be right." It made an impression on me, and since then, for the past 33 years, I have looked in the mirror every morning and asked myself: "If today were the last day of my life, would I want to do what I am about to do today?" And whenever the answer has been "No" for too many days in a row, I know I need to change something.

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.

About a year ago I was diagnosed with cancer. I had a scan at 7:30 in the morning, and it clearly showed a tumor on my pancreas. I didn't even know what a pancreas was. The doctors told me this was almost certainly a type of cancer that is incurable, and that I should expect to live no longer than three to six months. My doctor advised me to go home and get my affairs in order, which is doctor's code for prepare to die. It means to try to tell your kids everything you thought you'd have the next 10 years to tell them in just a few months. It means to make sure everything is buttoned up so that it will be as easy as possible for your family. It means to say your goodbyes.

I lived with that diagnosis all day. Later that evening I had a biopsy, where they stuck an endoscope down my throat, through my stomach and into my intestines, put a needle into my pancreas and got a few cells from the tumor. I was sedated, but my wife, who was there, told me that when they viewed the cells under a microscope the doctors started crying because it turned out to be a very rare form of pancreatic cancer that is curable with surgery. I had the surgery and I'm fine now.

This was the closest I've been to facing death, and I hope it's the closest I get for a few more decades. Having lived through it, I can now say this to you with a bit more certainty than when death was a useful but purely intellectual concept:

No one wants to die. Even people who want to go to heaven don't want to die to get there. And yet death is the destination we all share. No one has ever escaped it. And that is as it should be, because Death is very likely the single best invention of Life. It is Life's change agent. It clears out the old to make way for the new. Right now the new is you, but someday not too long from now, you will gradually become the old and be cleared away. Sorry to be so dramatic, but it is quite true.

Your time is limited, so don't waste it living someone else's life. Don't be trapped by dogma — which is living with the results of other people's thinking. Don't let the noise of others' opinions drown out your own inner voice. And most important, have the courage to follow your heart and intuition. They somehow already know what you truly want to become. Everything else is secondary.

When I was young, there was an amazing publication called The Whole Earth Catalog, which was one of the bibles of my generation. It was created by a fellow named Stewart Brand not far from here in Menlo Park, and he brought it to life with his poetic touch. This was in the late 1960's, before personal computers and desktop publishing, so it was all made with typewriters, scissors, and polaroid cameras. It was sort of like Google in paperback form, 35 years before Google came along: it was idealistic, and overflowing with neat tools and great notions.

Stewart and his team put out several issues of The Whole Earth Catalog, and then when it had run its course, they put out a final issue. It was the mid-1970s, and I was your age. On the back cover of their final issue was a photograph of an early morning country road, the kind you might find yourself hitchhiking on if you were so adventurous. Beneath it were the words: "Stay Hungry. Stay Foolish." It was their farewell message as they signed off. Stay Hungry. Stay Foolish. And I have always wished that for myself. And now, as you graduate to begin anew, I wish that for you.

Stay Hungry. Stay Foolish.

Thank you all very much".

Steve Jobs 2005 at Stanford University

[Source e.g. http://web.mac.com/gregwolfe/main/Steve_Jobs.html KG]

Mitschnitt Stanford University
mit spanischen Untertiteln (sorry) aber guter Akustik
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DCsxANtBoIs

Konterfei
http://www.adn.es/clipping/ADNIMA20111006_2378/5.jpg



"Albert what is your background?

After leaving school in June 1986 I started working in the Sierra Leone Public Archives in January 1987 as an Assistant Archivist in-Training. From September 1989 to June 1993 I embarked on a Bachelor of Arts Degree at Fourah Bay College, University of Sierra Leone, majoring in History and Political Science. My dissertation topics were:

(1) The Role of Archives in National Development: Sierra Leone Public Archives a Case Study, (Department of Modern History, F.B.C., June 1993).

(2) Boundary Disputes: a Case Study on Sierra Leone – Liberian Relations, (Department of Political Science, F.B.C., June 1993).

How did you involve yourself in Archives and Records Management?

Whilst glancing through the pages of a newspaper in September 1986, I came across an advertisement for the post of Assistant Archivist-in-Training. I applied and I was successful and started working on the 2nd January, 1987.

What is the specific context in your country which makes your job a special one?

The specific context in my country which makes my job a special one is that record keeping and management has gradually been recognised as a strategic resource that will contribute to enhancing good governance in the Country. With regards to the Archival aspect soon the Freedom of Information Law will be enacted. Therefore the archival duties of supervising and co-ordinating the selection for preservation of public records; maintaining these records in the Public Archive and making them available for public inspection are very crucial for the application of the Freedom of Information Law.

In the area of Records Management our input has helped the government in enhancing the accountability and integrity of the civil service and teachers’ payroll.

Tell us about your recent achievements and your projects.

In recent years the National Archives staff have worked with the International Records Management Trust on pilot records work in the civil service. A Record Management Improvement programme supported by DFID and the EU rebuilt and funded records keeping systems in four ministries. A particular focus has been on civil service payroll and personnel records. The project has introduced a new methodology for rebuilding paper-based personnel records system and linking them to the Human Capital Accountability Module of the Integrated Financial Management Information System (IFMIS). A civil service payroll verification exercise was conducted between July and November, 2008. The verified data on each civil servant provide an accurate and reliable basis for conducting right-sizing. Scanning of key documents of civil servants was also undertaken.

Currently in support of payroll verification and more effective and accountable management of human resources, staff of the National Archives working with IRMT, Human resource Management Office (HRMO) and Ministry of Education are creating a file for each teacher on the teacher’s payroll (over 35,000) developing as complete a file as possible for each teacher on the payroll and set up good practice systems and procedures. The backlog of inactive teacher record cards will be listed and accessioned in the National Archives.

In 2009 at the National Archives Repository, the United States Embassy in Sierra Leone assisted us to preserve selected historical materials bearing on Sierra Leone – American Relations. The digitization was done to enable a wider audience to access them, ensuring their continued usefulness and vibrancy.

In 2010 staff of the National Archives supported some international researchers from Canada and UK in a pilot project under the Endangered Archives Programme. A survey of vulnerable archival material was undertaken and sample copies made.

You are working with partners from other countries? What does this experience bring to you?

Indeed, I am working with partners from other countries. This experience has widened my ability to discharge my duties in confident and professional manner. Most of these partners are experienced professionals with over 30 to 35 years in the profession. Their varied background and work experience had been strong pillar of support in training and moulding the Records Management Team of which I am the leader.

What future do you imagine for archives in your country?

I am very much looking forward to the passing into Law of a proposed National Records and Archives Act to establish a separate Department for the management of records and archives. The Sierra Leone Public Archives Act No. 44 of 1965 is outdated and has far outlived its usefulness.

I am also looking forward to the implementation of the proposed Scheme of Service for Records Management Cadre. Furthermore, I am looking forward to our national archives having its own building to house a National Archives and Records Centre.

Moreover, I look forward for the actualization of our government’s desire for an improved Records Management as a core component of its new Public Sector Reform Programme, 2009-2013.

From your point of view, what is a good professional in your region? Do you think there is a difference with professionals in other parts of the world?

I think a good professional is one who continues with his profession in good or bad times. I don’t think there is much difference with professionals in other parts of the world.

Amongst the few difference – professionals in the developed countries for example with be better paid or well-equipped with relevant tools than professionals in my region.

What would be your message to new and young professionals in your country?

My message to new and young professionals in my country is that “patience is a bitter tree, but it will eventually yield sweet fruits”. Also my advice is that the Records and Archives profession is a very noble profession with “dignity and Service to all” are pivotal. Further, the need to uphold the confidentiality of our client should be paramount."

ICA, A colleague

tumblr_archivalia_en_100

http://archivalia.tumblr.com

By Brandon Butler

http://publications.arl.org/rli276/21

http://archivalpendium.blogspot.com/2011/07/is-digitization-answer-for-preserving.html

Digitization for preservation is a good weapon in the fight to preserve, but just like microfilm has not completely negated preserving the original paper-based materials, so too will digitization not—nor should it—replace the hard copies of the printed word.

Archivalia ac Digitalia - a twitter-like blog with stuff from Archivalia's English corner and content in the English language plus additional stuff from elsewhere

http://archivalia.tumblr.com/

tumblr_archivaliaq_archivseite Archive page

The Secrets of the Archives from Jilisa Rawding on Vimeo.

This was a project that features the Emerson College Archives. I produced this and also operated the camera.

Archives-L is actually discussing on bizarre archives findings.

"A worker cataloging materials from the Clinton governorship was in the middle of going through nearly 2,000 boxes of archived documents when he stumbled upon the priceless artifact. "He didn't know what it was until he opened the box, because the catalog for the box listed the contents as a plaque. But it made no mention of the moon rock,"

http://lightyears.blogs.cnn.com/2011/09/22/moon-rock-found-among-bill-clintons-stuff/


http://newsamnews.ioe.ac.uk/?p=1864

An introduction.

http://pandainthearchives.wordpress.com/


 

twoday.net AGB

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