If you read the speech without being told whose it is, you could be forgiven for thinking that it's probably some stereotypical leftist-activist 'jholawala' crusader. And yet it was the very man who epitomizes American capitalism exhorting the students of an institution that is the very essence of America, to dedicate their lives to reducing inequality. I can imagine a mild uproar being created on the lines of his recent speech to India Inc. had our Prime Minister made similar requests to the graduating class of say the Indian School of Business. Just goes to show that no particular ideology has a monopoly over the right to be concerned about the world's greatest problems.
It was a very different speech from the one that his personality-cult rival Steve Jobs gave to the graduating class of Harvard's great west coast rival two years ago. Steve Jobs' address to Stanford's graduating class of 2005 was in the very mould of the speaker - magical! It was personal, touching and inspiring. I remember forwarding it to a cousin of mine who was desperately confused about his future after his 12th standard. I wish I'd read the speech when I was in college.. It would have been re-assuring to be told that all the dots would join themselves in the future.
As a techie I can't help but resist to try and correlate the contrasting styles of Gates' and Jobs' speeches to their approaches to technology! The MS founder was focussed, passionate and analytical about the sheer scale of the daunting problem albeit a bit grim. The Apple creator was comical, emotional, romantic and personal about his experience. Bill Gates was talking about something far larger and more important - just like his massive market share, while Jobs was talking about something small but deeply personal - like the 3 per cent computer users who use Macs but fanatically swear by them.
The most famous graduation speech by a college dropout though would have to be Oracle founder Larry Ellison's address to Yale students in which he poked fun at them for being 'losers' who would never make it as big as dropouts like him, Gates, Jobs, Dell etc. According to widely circulated emails on the internet, he was dragged off stage by security. Unfortunately though, none of this happened. The entire speech was a spoof that first appeared on the parody site Satire Wire and after being forwarded in massive email chains began to be accepted as fact! So in another irony, some graduation speeches by techie dropouts are after all, pure internet fiction.
(Cross-posted at the Evening Edition blog) About the AuthorAbhimanyu Radhakrishnan Abhimanyu Radhakrishnan is Editor-at-Large, www.tech2.com and can be contacted at abhimanyu(AT)tech2(DOT)com...Read Morefirst published:June 15, 2007, 00:41 ISTlast updated:June 15, 2007, 00:41 IST
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Aah! The sweet irony of a college dropout delivering a graduation speech! Even sweeter if it's the richest man in the world coming back to take his degree and address students of arguably the most famous college in the world. When William H Gates delivered the commencement address to Harvard's Class of 2007 a few days ago, life had come full circle for the founder of Microsoft. He joked that he was leaving his job next year and a college degree would help on the CV. For those who don't follow Microsoft, Bill Gates is relinquishing all responsibilities at MS and will focus on his foundation full-time.
If you read the speech without being told whose it is, you could be forgiven for thinking that it's probably some stereotypical leftist-activist 'jholawala' crusader. And yet it was the very man who epitomizes American capitalism exhorting the students of an institution that is the very essence of America, to dedicate their lives to reducing inequality. I can imagine a mild uproar being created on the lines of his recent speech to India Inc. had our Prime Minister made similar requests to the graduating class of say the Indian School of Business. Just goes to show that no particular ideology has a monopoly over the right to be concerned about the world's greatest problems.
It was a very different speech from the one that his personality-cult rival Steve Jobs gave to the graduating class of Harvard's great west coast rival two years ago. Steve Jobs' address to Stanford's graduating class of 2005 was in the very mould of the speaker - magical! It was personal, touching and inspiring. I remember forwarding it to a cousin of mine who was desperately confused about his future after his 12th standard. I wish I'd read the speech when I was in college.. It would have been re-assuring to be told that all the dots would join themselves in the future.
As a techie I can't help but resist to try and correlate the contrasting styles of Gates' and Jobs' speeches to their approaches to technology! The MS founder was focussed, passionate and analytical about the sheer scale of the daunting problem albeit a bit grim. The Apple creator was comical, emotional, romantic and personal about his experience. Bill Gates was talking about something far larger and more important - just like his massive market share, while Jobs was talking about something small but deeply personal - like the 3 per cent computer users who use Macs but fanatically swear by them.
The most famous graduation speech by a college dropout though would have to be Oracle founder Larry Ellison's address to Yale students in which he poked fun at them for being 'losers' who would never make it as big as dropouts like him, Gates, Jobs, Dell etc. According to widely circulated emails on the internet, he was dragged off stage by security. Unfortunately though, none of this happened. The entire speech was a spoof that first appeared on the parody site Satire Wire and after being forwarded in massive email chains began to be accepted as fact! So in another irony, some graduation speeches by techie dropouts are after all, pure internet fiction.
(Cross-posted at the Evening Edition blog)
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