dropout (modern book)

8/13/2019 Dropout (Modern Book)

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DROPOUt


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OCTOBER 2011 J UNE 2005

S TEVE J OBSA LEX S KY

DROPOUtTHE EXPERIENCE P ROJECT STANFORD C OMMENCEMENT S PEECH


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Dropout

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So,

I go to community college. Trying to get my associate's degree. I

went right from high school intocollege (was going to take a breakbut because of peer pressureand some minor urging from the'rents I decided to go. Due tolack of planning, not choosing amajor, and wanting to knock out the basics without spending a tonof money, I selected the nearestcommunity college available. Personally, I never likedschool, and was burned out fromattending school for 12 years and transitioning straight into collegewith only a 3 months' break. That

was 2 years ago.

Dropout

S TEVE J OBS

ALEX S KY

I never graduated from college. I dropped out of

Reed College after the rst 6 months, but then stayedaround as a drop-in for another 18 months or so beforeI really quit. So why did I drop out?

It started before I was born. My biologicalmother was a young, unwed college graduate student,and she decided to put me up for adoption. She feltvery strongly that I should be adopted by collegegraduates, so everything was all set for me to beadopted at birth by a lawyer and his wife. Except thatwhen I popped out they decided at the last minutethat they really wanted a girl. So my parents, who wereon a waiting list, got a call in the middle of the nightasking: "We have an unexpected baby boy; do youwant him?" They said: "Of course.


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FROM the beginning, I did not do that well.I never invested much time or effort into my schoolwork or studying (actually, I

barely studied. I also want to take this time to say that high school is stupid and really doesnext to nothing to prepare students for college... what a joke...) I dropped about 1 class (out ofabout 4) per semester, or made mostly Ds and Cs, a few Bs, never an A.

I have no motivation. I hate being tested..always did. I can't study. I take notes but itbarely helps. Whatever i read doesn't stay in my brain. I only retain certain things (but blameit mostly on having no motivation.) I get distracted too easily. I have no personal space. I'mjust not happy going to school. I make no friends, no one to relate to, it's soul-sucking andruining my quality of life.

Dropout

My biological mother later found out that my motherhad never graduated from college and that my fatherhad never graduated from high school. She refused tosign the nal adoption papers. She only relented a fewmonths later when my parents promised that I wouldsomeday go to college.

And 17 years later I did go to college. But Inaively chose a college that was almost as expensiveas Stanford, and all of my working-class parents'savings were being spent on my college tuition. Aftersix months, I couldn't see the value in it. I had no ideawhat I wanted to do with my life and no idea howcollege was going to help me gure it out.


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But on the other hand, I feel like i'm a failure and lettingmy family and other people down if I can't do it. I feelstupid because I can't do it. It seems like it should bepossible... but it's just not. I have some sort of problem where I don't getmotivated to do anything until the last minute, and by then

there is not any time left.... and so I fail. I also have toseem some social/ anxiety problems.... I thought maybe taking online classes would help but i don't know if itwould make any difference. I thought i was interested in science, like biology,or even horticulture, but when we get deep into technicalknowledge i tend to lose interest.

Dropout

FAILURE

I decided to drop out and trust that it would all work out OK. It was pretty scary atthe time, but looking back it was one of the best decisions I ever made. The minuteI dropped out I could stop taking the required classes that didn't interest me, andbegin 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 oor infriends' rooms, I returned coke bottles for the 5 deposits to buy food with, and Iwould walk the 7 miles across town every Sunday night to get one good meal aweek at the Hare Krishna temple. I loved it.


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I am very much an artist, but art school is expensiveand i don't have enough specialized skills...there's

no way i could make a career out of it so that's a no-go. I like carpentry and the idea of making things outof wood, but even that is probably too much for me.I'm angry and disappointed in myself for not beingable to excel in science and really, at academics ingeneral. I really don't know what to do with mylife. I'm too stupid and unmotivated to go to college(even though i'm close to nishing this AS degree..)I've thought of just trying to go to trade school orsomething...but there's nothing out there i wouldwant to devote my life to.

Dropout

Much of what I stumbled into byfollowing my curiosity and intuitionturned out to be priceless later on.Let me give you one example: Reed College at thattime offered perhaps the best

calligraphy instruction in the country.Throughout the campus everyposter, every label on every drawer,was beautifully hand calligraphed.Because I had dropped out anddidn't have to take the normalclasses, I decided to take acalligraphy class to learn how to dothis. I learned about serif and sanserif typefaces, about varying theamount of space between differentletter combinations, about whatmakes great typography great. Itwas beautiful, historical, artisticallysubtle in a way that science can't

capture, and I found it fascinating.


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Anyone in the same boat as me? What should I do? Off myself?I feel like a waste of space and money. Everyone around me has it together...all my friends (whom i barely talk to anymore) and my bfare going to college; most know what they want to study, and theyare achieving their goals. No one I know understands.

Dropout

DESOLATION

None of this had even a hope of anypractical application in my life. But tenyears later, when we were designing

the rst Macintosh computer, it all cameback to me. And we designed it all intothe Mac. It was the rst computer withbeautiful typography.

If I had never dropped inon that single course in college, theMac would have never had multipletypefaces or proportionally spacedfonts. And since Windows just copiedthe Mac, it's likely that no personalcomputer would have them.


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I'm trying to get a job but have noexperience so no one hires me. Ineed to nd a way to just make aliving without having to possessany skills, since i'm too stupid. Like

picking fruit...or mowing lawns.Or maybe somehow i could start abusiness that sells plants... ( I likegardening...growing things from seedor rooting plants in my spare time forrecreation...) Help please......suggestionsplease... anything.... I feel somiserable and alone with this and Iwish there were other people like meout there.

Dropout

Of course it was impossible to connect the dots looking forward whenI was in college. But it was very, very clear looking backwards tenyears later. Again, you can't connect the dots looking forward; youcan only connect them looking backwards. So you have to trust thatthe dots will somehow connect in your future. You have to trust insomething your gut, destiny, life, karma, whatever. This approachhas never let me down, and it has made all the difference in my life. 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 Iloved what I did. You've got to nd what you love. And that is as truefor your work as it is for your lovers. Your work is going to ll a largepart of your life, and the only way to be truly satis ed is to do whatyou believe is great work. And the only way to do great work is to lovewhat you do. If you haven't found it yet, keep looking. Don't settle. Aswith all matters of the heart, you'll know when you nd it. And, like anygreat relationship , it just gets better and better as the years roll on. Sokeep looking until you nd it. Don't settle .


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A RTICLES FROM S TANFORD U NIVERSITY AND THE E XPERIENCE P ROJECT DESIGNED BY TEVIN B YRDDESIGNED IN A DOBE CS5 TYPEFACES USED WERE U NIVERS LT STD, HELVETICA,AND D EVIL B REEZEDESIGNED BY A DRIAN F RUTIGER IN 1957 FOR D EBERNY & P EIGNOT TYPE FOUNDRY (U NIVERS LT STD) BY M AX M IEDINGER IN 1957 FOR H AAS TYPE FOUNDRY (H ELVETICA) BY W ELSO IN 2010 FOR F ONTSPACE (D EVIL B REEZE)


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D R O P O U


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dropout (modern book)

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