Speech delivered at
commencement of class 2016, at MIT, by Matt Damon-
**Matthew Paige "Matt" Damon (born October
8, 1970)[2] is an American
actor, film producer and screenwriter. He is ranked among Forbes magazine's most bankable stars[3] and is one of the highest-grossing actors of all time.[4][nb 1] Damon has received several accolades, including an Academy Award from four nominations, two Golden Globe Awards, and has been nominated for
two British Academy Film
Awardsand five Emmy Awards.
______________________________________________________________
Thank you.
Thank you,
President Reif — and thank you, Class of 2016!
It’s an honor to
be part of this day — an honor to be here with you, with your friends, your
professors, and your parents. But let’s be honest — It’s an honor I didn’t earn.
Let’s just put
that out there. I mean, I’ve seen the list of previous commencement speakers:
Nobel Prize winners. The UN Secretary General. President of the World Bank.
President of the United States.
And who did you
get? The guy who did the voice for a cartoon horse.
If you’re
wondering which cartoon horse: that’s “Spirit: Stallion of the Cimarron.”
Definitely one of
my best performances … as a cartoon horse.
Look, I don’t
even have a college degree. As you might have heard, I went to Harvard. I just didn’t
graduate from Harvard. I got pretty close, but I started to get movie roles
and didn’t finish all my courses. I put on a cap and gown and walked with my
class; my Mom and Dad were there and everything; I just never got an actual
degree.
You could say I
kind of fake graduated.
So you can imagine
how excited I was when President Reif called to invite me to speak at the MIT
commencement. Then you can imagine how sorry I was to learn that the MIT
commencement speaker does not get to go home
with a degree.
So yes, today, for
the second time in my life, I am fake graduating from a college in my hometown.
My Mom and Dad are
here again…
And this time I
brought my wife and four kids. Welcome, kids, to Dad’s fake graduation. You
must be so proud.
So as I said, my
Mom is here. She’s a professor, so she knows the value of an MIT degree.
She also knows
that I couldn’t have gotten in here.
I mean, Harvard,
yes. Or a safety school — like Yale.
Look, I’m not
running for any kind of office. I can say … pretty much whatever I want.
No, I couldn’t
have gotten in here, but I did grow up here. Grew up in the
neighborhood, in the shadow of this imposing place. My brother Kyle and I, and
my friend Ben Affleck—brilliant guy, good guy, never really amounted to much —
we all grew up here, in Central Square, children of this sometimes rocky
marriage between this city and its great institutions.w
To us, MIT was
kind of The Man … This big, impressive, impersonal force … That was our
provincial, knee-jerk, teenage reaction, anyway.
Then Ben and I
shot a movie here.
One of the scenes
in Good Will Hunting was based on something that actually happened to my
brother. Kyle was visiting a physicist we knew at MIT, and he was walking down
the Infinite Corridor. He saw those blackboards that line the halls. So my
brother, who’s an artist, picked up some chalk and wrote an incredibly
elaborate, totally fake, version of an equation.
It was so cool and
so completely insane that no one erased it for months. This is true.
Anyway, Kyle came
back and he said, you guys, listen to this … They’ve got blackboards running
down the hall! Because these kids are so smart they just need to, you know,
drop everything and solve problems!
It was then we
knew for sure we could never have gotten in.
But like I said,
we later made a movie here. Which did not go unnoticed on campus. In fact, I’d
like to read you some actual lines, some selected passages, from the review of
Good Will Hunting in the MIT school paper.
Oh, and if you
haven’t seen it, Will was me, and Sean was played by the late Robin Williams, a
man I miss a hell of a lot.
So I’m quoting
here: “Good Will Hunting is very entertaining; but then again, any movie
partially set at MIT has to be.”
There’s more. “In
the end…,” the reviewer writes, “the actual character development flies out the
window. Will and Sean talk, bond, solve each other’s problems, and then cry and
hug each other. After said crying and hugging, the movie ends… Such feel-good
pretentiousness is definitely not my mug of eggnog.”
Well, this kind of
hurts my feelings.
But don’t worry: I
now know better than to
cry at MIT.
But look, I’m
happy to be here anyway. I might still be a knee-jerk teenager in key
respects, but I know an amazing school when I see it. We’re lucky to have MIT
in Boston. And we’re lucky it draws the people it does, people like you, from
around the world.
I mean, you’re
working on some crazy stuff in these buildings. Stuff that would freak me out
if I actually understood it. Theories, models, paradigm shifts.
I’ll tell you one
that’s been on my mind: Simulation Theory.
Maybe you’ve heard
of it. Maybe you took a class with Max Tegmark.
Well, for the
uninitiated, there’s a philosopher named Nick Bostrom at Oxford, and he’s
postulated that if there’s a truly advanced form of intelligence out there in
the universe, then it’s probably advanced enough to run simulations of entire
worlds — maybe trillions of them — maybe even our own.
The basic idea, as
I understand it, is that we could be living in a massive simulation run by a
far smarter civilization, a giant computer game, and we don’t even know it.
And here’s the
thing: a lot of physicists, cosmologists, won’t rule it out. I watched a
discussion that was moderated by Neil deGrasse Tyson, of the Hayden
Planetarium, and by and large, the panel couldn’t give a definitive answer.
Tyson himself put the odds at 50-50.
I’m not sure how
scientific that is, but it had numbers in it, so I was impressed.
Well, it got me to
thinking: What if this—all of this—is a simulation? I mean, it’s a crazy idea,
but what if it is?
And if there are
multiple simulations, how come we’re in the one where Donald Trump becomes
the Republican nominee?
Can we, like,
transfer to a different one?
Professor Tegmark
has an excellent take on all this. “My advice,” he said recently, “is to go out
and do really interesting things… so the simulators don’t shut you down.”
But then again:
what if it isn’t a simulation? Well, either way, my answer is the same.
Either way, what
we do matters. What we do affects the outcome.
So either way,
MIT, you’ve got to go out and do really interesting things. Important things.
Inventive things. Because this world … real or imagined … this world has some
problems we need you to drop everything and solve.
Go ahead: take
your pick from the world’s worst buffet.
Economic
inequality, there’s a problem … Or how about the refugee crisis, massive global
insecurity … climate change and pandemics … institutional racism … a pull to
nativism, fear-driven brains working overtime … here in America and in places
like Austria, where a far-right candidate nearly won the presidential election
for the first time since World War II.
Or Brexit, for
God’s sakes, that insane idea that the best path for Britain is to cut loose
from Europe and drift out to sea. Add to that an American political system
that’s failing… we’ve got congressmen on a two-year election cycle who are only
incentivized to think short term, and simply do not engage with long-term
problems.
Add to that a
media that thrives on scandal and people with their pants down … Anything to
get you to tune in so they can hawk your products that you don’t need.
And add to that a
banking system that steals people’s money.
Like I said, I’m
never running for office!
But while I’m on
this, let me say this to the bankers who brought you the biggest heist in
history: It was theft and you knew it. It was fraud and you knew it.
And you know what
else? We know that you knew it.
And yeah, OK, you
sort of got away with it. You got that house in the Hamptons that other people
paid for … as their own mortgages went underwater.
Well, you might have their money, but you
don’t have our respect.
Just so you know,
when we pass you on the street and look you in the eye … that’s what we’re
thinking.
I don’t know if
justice is coming for you in this life or the next. But if justice does come
for you in this life … her name is Elizabeth Warren.(Note: an American academic and politician, the senior U.S. Senator from Massachusetts.)
OK, so before my
banking digression, I rattled off a bunch of big problems.
And a natural
response is to tune out, turn away.
But before you
step out into our big, troubled world, I want to pass along a piece of advice
that Bill Clinton offered me a little over a decade ago. Well, actually, when
he said it, it felt less like advice and more like a direct order.
What he said was “turn
toward the problems you see.”(面向困難，解決困難)
It seemed kind of
simple at the time, but the older I get, the more wisdom I see in this.
And that’s what I
want to urge you to do today: turn toward the problems you see.
And don’t just
turn toward them. Engage with them. Walk right up to them, look them in the eye
… then look yourself in the eye and decide what you’re going to do about them.
In my experience,
there’s just no substitute for actually going and seeing things.
I owe this
insight, like many others, to my Mom. When I was a teenager, Mom thought it was
important for us to see the world outside of Boston. And I don’t mean
Framingham. She took us to places like Guatemala, where we saw extreme poverty
up close. It changed my whole frame of reference.
I think it was
that same impulse that took my brother and me to Zambia in 2006, as part of the
ONE Campaign — the organization that Bono founded to fight desperate, stupid
poverty and preventable disease in the developing world. On that trip, in a
small community, I met a girl and walked with her to a nearby bore well where
she could get clean water.
She had just come
from school. And I knew the reason that she was able to go to school at all:
clean water. Namely, the fact that clean water was available nearby, so she
didn’t have to walk miles back and forth all day to get water for her family,
as so many girls and women do.
I asked her if she
wanted to stay in her village when she grew up. She said, “No! I want to go to
Lusaka and become a nurse!”
Clean water — something
as basic as that — had given this child the chance to dream.
As I learned more
about water and sanitation, I was floored by the extent to which it undergirds
all these problems of extreme poverty. The fate of entire communities,
economies, countries is caught up in that glass of water, something the rest of
us get to take for granted.
People at ONE told
me that water is the least sexy aspect of the effort to fight extreme poverty.
And water goes hand-in-hand with sanitation. If you think water isn’t sexy,
you should try to get into the shit business.
But I was already
hooked. The enormity of it, and the complexity of the issue, had already hooked
me. And getting out in the world and meeting people like this little girl is
what put me on the path to starting Water.org, with a brilliant civil engineer
named Gary White.
For Gary and me
both, seeing the world … its problems, its possibilities … heightened our
disbelief that so many people, millions, in fact, can’t get a safe, clean drink
of water or a safe, clean, private place to go to the bathroom. And it
heightened our determination to do something about it.
You see some tough
things out there. But you also see life- changing joy. And it all changes you.
There was a
refugee crisis back in ’09 that I read about in an amazing article in the New
York Times. People were streaming across the border of Zimbabwe to a little
town in northern South Africa called Messina. I was working in South Africa, so
I went up to Messina to see for myself what was going on.
I spent a day
speaking with women who had made this perilous journey across the Limpopo
River, dodging bandits on one side, crocodiles in the river, and bandits on the
other. Every woman I spoke to that day had been raped. Every single one. On one
side of the river or both.
At the end of my
time there I met a woman who was so positive, so joyful. She had just been
given her papers and had been given political asylum in South Africa. And in
the midst of this joyful conversation, I mustered up the courage and said,
“Ma’am, do you mind my asking: were you assaulted on your journey to South
Africa?”
And she replied,
still smiling, “Oh, yes, I was raped. But I have my papers now. And those
bastards didn’t get my dignity.”
Human beings will
take your breath away. They will teach you a lot… but you have to engage.
I only had that
experience because I went there myself. It was horrible in many ways, it was
hard to get to … but of course that’s the point.
There’s a lot of
trouble out there, MIT. But there’s a lot of beauty, too. I hope you see both.
But again, the
point is not to become some kind of well- rounded, high-minded voyeur.
The point is to
try to eliminate your blind spots — the things that keep us from grasping the
bigger picture. And look, even though I grew up in this neighborhood — in this
incredible, multicultural neighborhood that was a little rough at that time — I
find myself here before you as an American, white, male movie star. I don’t
have a clue where my blind spots begin and end.
But looking at the
world as it is, and engaging with it, is the first step toward finding our
blind spots. And that’s when we can really start to understand ourselves better
… and begin to solve some problems.
With that as your
goal, there’s a few more things I hope you’ll keep in mind.
First, you’re
going to fail sometimes, and that’s a good thing.
For all the
amazing successes I’ve been lucky to share in, few things have shaped me more
than the auditions that Ben and I used to do as young actors — where we would
get on a bus, show up in New York, wait for our turn, cry our hearts out for a
scene, and then be told, “OK, thanks.” Meaning: game over.
We used to call it
“being OK thanksed.”
Those experiences
became our armor.
So now you’re
thinking, that’s great, Matt. Failure is good. Thanks a ton. Tell me something
I didn’t hear at my high school graduation.
To which I say:
OK, I will!
You know the real
danger for MIT graduates? It’s not getting “OK thanksed.” The real danger is
all that smoke that’s been blown up your … graduation gowns about how freaking
smart you are.
Well, you are that
freaking smart! But don’t believe the hype that’s thrown at you. You don’t have
all the answers. And you shouldn’t. And that’s fine.
You’re going to
have your share of bad ideas.
For me, one was
playing a character named “Edgar Pudwhacker.”
I wish I could
tell you I’m making that up.
But as the great
philosopher, Benjamin Affleck, once said: “Judge me by how good my good ideas
are, not by how bad my bad ideas are.” You’ve got to suit up in your armor,
and get ready to sound like a total fool.
Not having an
answer isn’t embarrassing. It’s an opportunity. Don’t be afraid to ask
questions.
I know so much
less the second time I’m fake graduating than the first time.
The second thing I
want to leave you with is that you’ve got to keep listening.
The world wants to
hear your ideas — good and bad. But today’s not the day you switch from
“receive” to “transmit.” Once you do that, your education is over. And your
education should never be over. Even outside your work, there are ways to keep
challenging yourself. Listen to online lectures. I just retook a philosophy
course online that I took at Harvard when I was nineteen. Or use MIT
OpenCourseWare. Go to Wait But Why … or TED.com.
I’m told there’s
even a Trump University. I have no earthly idea what they teach
there. But whatever you do, just keep listening. Even to people you don’t agree
with at all.
I love what
President Obama said at Howard University’s commencement last month: he said,
“Democracy requires compromise, even when you are 100 percent right.”
I heard that and I
thought: here is a man who has been happily married for a long time.
Not that the First
Lady has ever been wrong about anything.
Just like my wife.
Never wrong. Not even when she decided last month that in a family with four
kids, what was missing in our lives was a third rescue dog.
That was an
outstanding decision, honey. And I love you.
The third and last
thought I want to leave you with is that not every problem has a
high-tech solution. I guess this is obvious. But: it is really?
If anybody has a
right to think we can pretty much tech support the world’s problems into
submission, it’s you. Think of the innovations that got their start at MIT or
by MIT alums: the World Wide Web. Nuclear fission. Condensed soup. (This is
true! You should be proud.)
But the truth is,
we can’t science the shit out of every problem.
There is not
always a freaking app for that.
Take water again
as an example. People are always looking for some scientific quick fix for the
problem of dirty and disease-ridden water. A “pill you put in the glass,” a
filter, or something like that. But there’s no magic bullet. The problem’s too
complex.
Yes, there is
definitely, absolutely a role for science. There’s incredible advances being
made in clean water technology. Companies and universities are getting in on
the game. I’m glad to know that professors like Susan Mercott at D-Lab are
focusing on water and sanitation.
But as I’m sure
she’d agree, science alone can’t solve this problem. We need to be just
as innovative in public policy, just as innovative in our financial models.
That’s the idea behind an approach we have at Water.org called WaterCredit.
WaterCredit is
based on Gary White’s insight that poor people were already paying for their
water and they, no less than the rest of us, want to participate in their own
solutions. So WaterCredit helps connect the poor with microfinance
organizations, which enables them to build water connections and toilets in
their homes and communities. The approach is working — helping 4 million people
so far — and this is only the start.
Our loans are
paying back at over 99 percent. Which is a hell of a better deal than those
bankers I was talking about earlier.
I agree it’s still
not sexy… but it is without a doubt the coolest thing I’ve ever been a part of.
So, graduates, let
me ask you this in closing: What do you want to be a part of? What’s the
problem you’ll try to solve? Whatever your answer, it’s not going to be easy.
Sometimes your work will hit a dead-end. Sometimes your work will be measured
in half-steps.
And sometimes your
work will make you wear a white sequined military uniform and make love to
Michael Douglas.
Well, maybe that’s
just my work.
But for all of you
here, your work starts today.
And seriously, how
lucky are you?
I mean, what are
the odds that you’re the ones who are here today?
In the Earth’s 4.5
billion year run, with 100 billion people who have lived and died, and with 7
billion of us here now … Here you are. Yes, here you are … alive at a time of
potential extinction-level events … a time when fewer and fewer people can
cause more and more damage … a time when science and technology may not hold
all the answers, but are indispensable to any solution.
What are the odds
that you get to be you, right now, The MIT class of 2016, with so much on the
line?
There are
potentially trillions of human beings who will someday exist whose fate, in
large part, depends on the choices you make … on your ideas … on your grit and
persistence and willingness to engage.
If this were a
movie I were trying to pitch I’d be laughed out of every office in Hollywood.
Joseph Campbell
himself(an American mythologist, writer and lecturer, best known for his work in comparative
mythology and comparative
religion.) — he of the “monomyth,” the ultimate
hero’s journey — even he wouldn’t even go this far. Campbell would tell me to
throttle this down … lower the stakes.
But I can’t.
Because this is fact, not fiction. This improbable thing is actually happening.
There’s more at stake today than in any story ever told. And how lucky you are
— and how lucky we are — that you’re here, and you’re you.
So I hope you’ll
turn toward the problem of your choosing … Because you must.
I hope you’ll drop
everything … Because you must And I hope you’ll solve it. Because you must.
What are the odds
that you get to be you, right now, The MIT class of 2016, with so much on the
line?
There are
potentially trillions of human beings who will someday exist whose fate, in
large part, depends on the choices you make … on your ideas … on your grit and
persistence and willingness to engage.
This is your life,
Class of 2016. This is your moment, and it’s all down to you.
Ready player one.
Your game begins: now. Congratulations and thanks very much!
June,
2016
June,
2016
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