Matt Damon's full commencement address at MIT — Transcript

Full transcript

1. 0:01[Applause]
2. 0:06all
3. 0:09right thank
4. 0:13you thank you so
5. 0:16much thank you president
6. 0:18R uh thank you class of
7. 0:231966 that
8. 0:27was that was alarming walking along and
9. 0:30seeing 66 and then somebody's saying oh
10. 0:32it's their 50th I just I almost had a
11. 0:34heart
12. 0:35attack time time
13. 0:38flies and mostly thank you to the class
14. 0:41of
15. 0:46[Applause]
16. 0:472016 it is such an honor to be part of
17. 0:50your day it's an honor to be here with
18. 0:52you with your friends your professors
19. 0:55and your parents but let's be honest
20. 0:57this is an honor I didn't really earn
21. 1:00I'm just going to put that out there I
22. 1:01mean I've seen the list of previous
23. 1:04commencement speakers Nobel Prize
24. 1:06winners the UN Secretary General
25. 1:09president of the World Bank president of
26. 1:11the United States and who did you
27. 1:15get the guy who did the voice for a
28. 1:17cartoon
29. 1:20horse if you're wondering which cartoon
30. 1:22horse that's spirit stallion of the
31. 1:24simmeron a movie some of you might have
32. 1:26grown up
33. 1:27watching it's definitely one of my best
34. 1:30performances as a cartoon
35. 1:33horse well look I don't even have a
36. 1:35college degree as you uh might have
37. 1:37heard I went to Harvard I just didn't
38. 1:39graduate from Harvard uh I got pretty
39. 1:41close but I started to get movie roles
40. 1:43and I didn't finish all my courses but I
41. 1:45put on a cap and gown and I walked with
42. 1:47my class um my mom and dad and brother
43. 1:49were there and everything I just never
44. 1:51got an actual
45. 1:53degree you could say I kind of fake
46. 1:56graduated so you can imagine how excited
47. 1:58I was when President R called to invite
48. 2:00me to speak at the MIT commencement and
49. 2:02then you can imagine how sorry I was to
50. 2:04learn that the MIT commencement speaker
51. 2:07does not get to go home with a
52. 2:09degree so yes for the second time in my
53. 2:13life I am fake graduating from a college
54. 2:15in my
55. 2:20hometown and my mom and my dad and my
56. 2:22brother are here
57. 2:23again and this time I brought my wife
58. 2:26and my four kids so welcome kids to your
59. 2:29dad second fake
60. 2:32graduation you must be so
61. 2:37proud so as I said my mom is here she's
62. 2:40a professor so she knows the value of an
63. 2:42MIT degree she also knows that I
64. 2:45couldn't have gotten in
65. 2:46here I mean Harvard you know barely um
66. 2:50or a safety school like
67. 2:54Yale look I'm not running for any kind
68. 2:56of office I can say pretty much whatever
69. 2:58I want up here
70. 3:02no I couldn't have gotten in here but I
71. 3:03did grow up here I grew up in the
72. 3:05neighborhood in the shadow of this
73. 3:06imposing place my brother Kyle and I and
74. 3:09my friend Ben Affleck brilliant guy good
75. 3:12guy never really amounted to
76. 3:14much we all grew up right here in
77. 3:16Central Square children of this
78. 3:18sometimes Rocky marriage between this
79. 3:20city and its great
80. 3:21institutions to us MIT was kind of like
81. 3:24the man this big impressive impersonal
82. 3:28Force at least that was our provincial
83. 3:30knee-jerk teenage reaction anyway and
84. 3:33then Ben and I shot a movie here and one
85. 3:36of the scenes in Goodwill Hunting was
86. 3:37based on something that actually
87. 3:38happened to my brother Kyle he was
88. 3:40visiting a physicist that we knew at MIT
89. 3:42and he was walking down the infinite
90. 3:44Corridor he saw those blackboards that
91. 3:46line the halls and so my brother who's
92. 3:48an artist picked up some chalk and wrote
93. 3:51an incredibly elaborate totally fake
94. 3:53version of an
95. 3:54equation and it was so cool and
96. 3:56completely insane that no one erased it
97. 3:58for months
98. 4:00this is a true story anyway Kyle came
99. 4:03back and he said you guys listen to this
100. 4:05they've got blackboards running down the
101. 4:07hall because these kids are so smart
102. 4:10they just need to you know drop
103. 4:11everything and solve
104. 4:14problems it was then we knew for sure we
105. 4:17could never have gotten
106. 4:19in but like I said we later made a movie
107. 4:21here which did not go unnoticed on
108. 4:23campus in fact I'd like to read you some
109. 4:26actual lines some selected passages from
110. 4:28the review of Goodwill Hunting in the
111. 4:30MIT School
112. 4:32paper if you haven't seen it will was me
113. 4:35and Sean is played by the late Robin
114. 4:37Williams a man I miss a hell of a lot so
115. 4:39I'm quoting here Goodwill Hunting is
116. 4:42very entertaining but then again any
117. 4:45movie partially said at MIT has to
118. 4:48be there's
119. 4:50more in the end the reviewer writes the
120. 4:53actual character development flies out
121. 4:55the window will and Shawn talk Bond
122. 4:59solve each other's problems and then cry
123. 5:01and hug each other after said crying and
124. 5:04hugging the movie
125. 5:06ends such feel good pretentiousness is
126. 5:08definitely not my mug of
127. 5:12eggnog well that kind of
128. 5:15hurts but don't worry I know now better
129. 5:18than to cry at
130. 5:20MIT but look I'm happy to be here anyway
131. 5:23uh I might still be a knee-jerk teenager
132. 5:25in key respects but I know an amazing
133. 5:27school when I see it we're lucky to have
134. 5:29him it in Boston and we're lucky it
135. 5:31draws the people that it does people
136. 5:33like you from around the world I mean
137. 5:35you're working on some crazy stuff in
138. 5:37these buildings stuff that would freak
139. 5:38me out if I actually understood it
140. 5:41theories models Paradigm shifts I'm
141. 5:44going to tell you about one that's been
142. 5:45on my mind simulation
143. 5:48Theory most of you have probably heard
144. 5:50of this maybe you even took a class with
145. 5:51Max tegmark but for the uninitiated
146. 5:54there's a philosopher named Nick Bostrom
147. 5:56at Oxford and he's postulated if there's
148. 5:58a truly advanced form of int
149. 5:59intelligence out there in the universe
150. 6:01it's probably advanced enough to run
151. 6:02simulations of entire worlds maybe
152. 6:05trillions of them maybe even our own so
153. 6:08the basic idea as I understand it is
154. 6:10that we could be living in a massive
155. 6:12simulation run by a far smarter CI
156. 6:14civilization like that giant computer
157. 6:16game and we don't even know
158. 6:18it and here's the thing a lot of
159. 6:21physicists a lot of cosmologists they
160. 6:23won't rule it out I just watched a
161. 6:25discussion online a few weeks back it
162. 6:26was moderated by Neil degrass Tyson of
163. 6:28the Hayden planet him and by and large
164. 6:30the panel couldn't and wouldn't give a
165. 6:32definitive answer Tyson himself put the
166. 6:34odds at 50/50 now I'm not sure how
167. 6:37scientific that was but it had numbers
168. 6:38in it so I was
169. 6:40impressed but it it got me to thinking
170. 6:43what if this all of this is a simulation
171. 6:48I mean it's a crazy idea but what if it
172. 6:50is and if there are multiple
173. 6:53simulations how come we have to be in
174. 6:55the one where Donald Trump becomes the
175. 6:57Republican nominee for president
176. 7:01[Applause]
177. 7:08can we like transfer to a different
178. 7:11one well Professor tegmark has an
179. 7:14excellent take on all of this my advice
180. 7:16he said recently is to go out and do
181. 7:18really interesting things so the
182. 7:20simulators don't shut you
183. 7:22down now then again what if it isn't a
184. 7:25simulation either way my answer is the
185. 7:28same either way what we do matters what
186. 7:33we do affects the outcome so either way
187. 7:36MIT you've got to go out and do really
188. 7:38interesting things important things
189. 7:40inventive things because this world real
190. 7:43or imagined this world has some problems
191. 7:46that we need you to drop everything and
192. 7:48solve so go ahead I'm take your pick
193. 7:51from the world's worst Buffet economic
194. 7:54inequality that's a problem how about
195. 7:56the refugee crisis massive Global
196. 7:58insecurity climate change pandemics
197. 8:01institutional racism a pull to nativism
198. 8:03fear-driven brains working overtime here
199. 8:06in America and in places like Austria
200. 8:08where a far-right candidate nearly won
201. 8:10the president presidential election for
202. 8:11the first time since World War II or the
203. 8:14brexit for God's sakes that insane idea
204. 8:17that the best path for Britain is to cut
205. 8:19loose from Europe and drift out to sea I
206. 8:22mean what is Europe even going to look
207. 8:23like in 25 years and add to that an
208. 8:25American political system that's failing
209. 8:27we've got congressmen on a 2-year ction
210. 8:29cycle who are incentivized to think
211. 8:31shortterm and simply do not engage with
212. 8:33long-term problems and add to that a
213. 8:35media that thrives on Scandal and people
214. 8:37with their pants down anything to get
215. 8:39you to tune in so they can Hawk you
216. 8:40products that you don't need and add to
217. 8:42that a banking system that steals
218. 8:45people's
219. 8:48money it's all right I'm not running for
220. 8:53office but by the way while I'm on this
221. 8:55let me just say to this to the bankers
222. 8:57specifically the ones who brought you
223. 8:58the biggest in
224. 9:00history it was theft and you knew it it
225. 9:04was fraud and you knew it and you know
226. 9:07what else we know that you knew
227. 9:10it so yeah you sort of got away with it
228. 9:13you got that house in the Hamptons that
229. 9:15other people paid for as their own
230. 9:16mortgages went underwater and you might
231. 9:18have their money but you don't have our
232. 9:20respect and just so you know when we
233. 9:21pass you on the street and look you in
234. 9:23the eye that's what we're thinking
235. 9:32and I don't know if Justice is coming
236. 9:33for you in this life or the next but if
237. 9:35Justice does come for you in this life
238. 9:38her name will be Elizabeth
239. 9:42Warren all right so before my little
240. 9:45banking digression I rattled off a bunch
241. 9:47of big problems and a natural response
242. 9:50is to tune out and turn away but before
243. 9:53you step out into our big troubled world
244. 9:56I want to pass along a piece of advice
245. 9:57that Bill Clinton offered me a little
246. 9:59over a decade ago actually when he said
247. 10:01it it felt less like advice and more
248. 10:03like a direct
249. 10:04order what he said
250. 10:07was turn toward the problems you
251. 10:10see you have to engage and turn towards
252. 10:14the problems that you
253. 10:16see except it sounded like turn towards
254. 10:19the problems that you see but when he
255. 10:23said this to me he literally turned his
256. 10:24body for emphasis towards me and no
257. 10:29listen it seemed kind of simple at the
258. 10:31time but the older I get the more wisdom
259. 10:32I see in this that is what I want to
260. 10:35urge you to do today to turn towards the
261. 10:37problems that you see and engage with
262. 10:39them walk right up to them look them in
263. 10:41the eye and then look yourself in the
264. 10:43eye and decide what you're going to do
265. 10:45about them now in my experience there is
266. 10:48just no substitute for actually going
267. 10:50and seeing these things I owe this
268. 10:52Insight like many others to my mom when
269. 10:55I was a teenager mom thought it was
270. 10:56important for us to see the world
271. 10:58outside of Boston and I don't just mean
272. 11:01Framingham she took us to places like
273. 11:04Guatemala where we saw extreme poverty
274. 11:06up close and it changed my whole frame
275. 11:08of
276. 11:09reference and I think it was that same
277. 11:10impulse that took my brother and me to
278. 11:12Zambia in 2006 as part of the one
279. 11:15campaign the organization that Bono
280. 11:17founded to fight desperate what he calls
281. 11:19stupid poverty and preventable disease
282. 11:22in the developing world and on that trip
283. 11:24in a small community I met this girl and
284. 11:27I walked with her to a nearby bwell
285. 11:29where she could get clean water she'd
286. 11:31just come home from school and I knew
287. 11:33the reason that she was able to go go to
288. 11:34school at all was clean water namely the
289. 11:37fact that it was available nearby so she
290. 11:39didn't have to walk miles back and forth
291. 11:41all day to get water for her family like
292. 11:43so many girls and women do around the
293. 11:45world so I asked her if she wanted to
294. 11:47stay in her Village when she grew up and
295. 11:50she smiled and said no no I want to go
296. 11:51to luaka and become a
297. 11:53nurse so clean water something as basic
298. 11:56as that had given this child a chance to
299. 11:58dream
300. 12:00and as I learned more about water and
301. 12:01sanitation I was floored by the extent
302. 12:04to which it undergirds all these
303. 12:05problems of extreme poverty the fate of
304. 12:08entire communities economies countries
305. 12:10is caught up in that glass of water
306. 12:13something the rest of us get to take for
307. 12:14granted people at one told me that water
308. 12:17is the least sexy and cool aspect of the
309. 12:20effort to uh fight extreme poverty and
310. 12:23water goes hand inand with sanitation so
311. 12:25if you think water isn't sexy you should
312. 12:26try to get into the business
313. 12:29but I was hooked already I the enormity
314. 12:32of it the complexity of the issue it
315. 12:34just it just hooked me and getting out
316. 12:36in the world and and meeting people like
317. 12:38this little girl is what put me on the
318. 12:39path to starting water.org with a
319. 12:41brilliant civil engineer named Gary
320. 12:44White and for Gary and me seeing the
321. 12:46world and its problems its possibilities
322. 12:49heightened our disbelief that so many
323. 12:52people Millions 660 million in fact
324. 12:55can't get a safe clean drink of water or
325. 12:57a clean private place to to go to the
326. 12:59bathroom there are more people with a
327. 13:01cell phone than access to a toilet on
328. 13:03our planet and this heightened our
329. 13:05determination to do something about it
330. 13:08now you see some tough things out there
331. 13:10but you also see life-changing joy and
332. 13:13it all changes you there was a refugee
333. 13:15crisis back in 09 that I read about in
334. 13:17this amazing article in the New York
335. 13:19Times people were streaming across the
336. 13:20border of Zimbabwe to a little uh little
337. 13:23town in northern South Africa called MSA
338. 13:26well I was working in South Africa at
339. 13:28the time so I went up to mesina to see
340. 13:30for myself what was going
341. 13:32on I spent a day speaking with women who
342. 13:35had made this perilous journey across
343. 13:36the Limpopo River dodging Bandits on one
344. 13:39side crocodiles in the River Bandits on
345. 13:41the other every woman that I spoke to
346. 13:44that day had been raped every single one
347. 13:48on one side of the river or both and at
348. 13:50the end of my time there I met a woman
349. 13:52who was so positive she was so joyful
350. 13:55she had just been given her papers so
351. 13:57she'd been granted political Asylum in
352. 13:59South Africa and in the midst of this
353. 14:02joyful conversation I mustered up my
354. 14:04courage and I said ma'am do you mind my
355. 14:07asking were you assaulted on your
356. 14:10journey to South Africa and she replied
357. 14:13still smiling oh yes I was raped but I
358. 14:16have my papers now and those bastards
359. 14:18didn't get my
360. 14:27dignity human beings will take your
361. 14:29breath away they will teach you so much
362. 14:32but you have to engage I only had that
363. 14:36experience because I went there myself
364. 14:38it was difficult in many ways but of
365. 14:41course that's the point there is a lot
366. 14:43of trouble out there MIT but there's a
367. 14:45lot of beauty too and I hope you see
368. 14:48both but again the point is not to
369. 14:50become some kind of well-rounded
370. 14:51high-minded Voyer the point is to
371. 14:53eliminate your blind spots the things
372. 14:55that keep us from grasping the bigger
373. 14:57picture and look even though though I
374. 14:59grew up in this neighborhood in this
375. 15:00incredible Multicultural neighborhood
376. 15:02that was a little rough at that time I
377. 15:04find myself here before you as a
378. 15:06middle-aged American white male movie
379. 15:08star I don't have a clue where my blind
380. 15:11spots begin and end but looking at the
381. 15:13world as it is and engaging with it is
382. 15:15the first step towards identifying our
383. 15:18blind spots and that's when we can
384. 15:19really start to understand ourselves
385. 15:22better and begin to solve some problems
386. 15:24and with that as your goal there's a few
387. 15:26more things I hope you'll keep in mind
388. 15:29first you're going to fail sometimes and
389. 15:32that's a good thing for all the amazing
390. 15:35successes I've been lucky to share and
391. 15:36few things have shaped me more than the
392. 15:38auditions that Ben and I used to go on
393. 15:39as young actors where we'd get on a bus
394. 15:42we'd show up in New York we'd wait our
395. 15:44turn we'd cry our hearts out for a scene
396. 15:47and then be told okay thanks meaning
397. 15:51game over we used to call it being okay
398. 15:54thanks and those experiences became our
399. 15:57Armor All right now you're thinking
400. 15:59great thanks Matt failure is good thanks
401. 16:01a ton tell me something I didn't hear at
402. 16:03my high school
403. 16:04graduation to which I say okay I
404. 16:08will you know the real danger for MIT
405. 16:10graduates it's not getting okay thanks
406. 16:13the real danger is all that smoke that's
407. 16:15been blown up your graduation
408. 16:17gowns about how freaking smart you are
409. 16:21well you are that smart but don't
410. 16:24believe the hype that's thrown at you
411. 16:26you don't have all the answers and you
412. 16:28shouldn't and and that's fine you're
413. 16:30going to have your share of bad ideas
414. 16:33for one or for me one was playing a
415. 16:35character named Edgar
416. 16:37pudwhacker I wish I could tell you I'm
417. 16:39making that up that's but as the great
418. 16:42philosopher Benjamin Affleck once
419. 16:45said Judge Me by how good my good ideas
420. 16:48are not how bad my bad ideas are you've
421. 16:52got a suit up in your armor you've got
422. 16:54to get ready to sound like a total fool
423. 16:56not having an answer isn't embarrassing
424. 16:58it's opportunity don't be afraid to ask
425. 17:01questions I know so much less the second
426. 17:04time I'm fake graduating than the first
427. 17:07time the second thing I want to leave
428. 17:09you with is you got to keep listening
429. 17:12the world wants to hear your ideas good
430. 17:13and bad but today is not the day you
431. 17:15switch from receive to transmit once you
432. 17:18do that your education is over and your
433. 17:20education should never be over even
434. 17:23outside of your work there are always
435. 17:24ways to keep challenging yourself listen
436. 17:26to online lectures I just took a a
437. 17:28retook a philosophy course that I took
438. 17:30at Harvard when I was 19 you go to MIT
439. 17:33opencourseware go to wait but why.com go
440. 17:36to ted.com I'm told there's even a trump
441. 17:41University I have no earthly idea what
442. 17:44they teach
443. 17:45there but whatever you do just keep
444. 17:47listening even to people you don't agree
445. 17:49with at all I love what President Obama
446. 17:51said at Howard University's Commencement
447. 17:53last month he said democracy requires
448. 17:56compromise even when you are 100% right
449. 17:59right I heard that and thought here is a
450. 18:02man who has been happily married for a
451. 18:04long
452. 18:07time not that the first lady has ever
453. 18:10been wrong about
454. 18:12anything just like my wife never wrong
455. 18:16not even when she decided last month
456. 18:18that in a family with four kids what was
457. 18:19missing in our lives was a third rescue
458. 18:21dog that was an outstanding decision
459. 18:24honey and I love you
460. 18:35the third and last thought I want to
461. 18:36leave you with is that not every problem
462. 18:38has a high-tech solution now if anybody
463. 18:41has the right to think we can pretty
464. 18:42much tech support the world's problems
465. 18:44into submission it's you think of the
466. 18:46innovations that got there start at MIT
467. 18:48or by MIT alums the worldwide web
468. 18:51nuclear fision condensed soup that's
469. 18:54true you should be very proud of
470. 18:56that but the truth is we can't science
471. 18:59the you know what out of every problem
472. 19:02there is not always an app for that I
473. 19:04mean take water again as an example
474. 19:06people are always looking at some uh
475. 19:08scientific quick fix for the problem of
476. 19:10dirty and disease ridden water a pill
477. 19:12you put in a glass a filter Etc but
478. 19:14there's no magic bullet the problem's
479. 19:16just too complex yes there is definitely
480. 19:19absolutely a role for science there's
481. 19:21incredible advances being made in clean
482. 19:23water technology companies and
483. 19:25universities are getting in on the game
484. 19:27and I'm glad to know that professors
485. 19:28like Susan mkot at daab are focusing on
486. 19:30water and sanitation but as I'm sure
487. 19:32she'd agree science alone can't solve
488. 19:35this problem we need to be just as
489. 19:37Innovative in public policy just as
490. 19:39Innovative in our financial models and
491. 19:41that's the idea behind approach an
492. 19:42approach we have at Water credit uh at
493. 19:44water.org called water credit it's based
494. 19:47on Gary's Insight that poor people were
495. 19:50already paying for their water and they
496. 19:52no less than the rest of us want to
497. 19:54participate in their own Solutions so
498. 19:56water credit helps connect the poor with
499. 19:58micro Finance organizations which
500. 20:00enables them to build water connections
501. 20:02and toilets in their homes and
502. 20:03communities and this approach is really
503. 20:05working helping 4 million people so far
504. 20:08and it's only the start our loans are
505. 20:10paying back at 99% and above which is a
506. 20:12hell of a better deal than those Bankers
507. 20:13I was talking about earlier gave anybody
508. 20:16and I agree it is still not sexy but it
509. 20:18is without a doubt the coolest thing I
510. 20:20have ever been a part of
511. 20:23so
512. 20:27thanks so let me ask you this in closing
513. 20:29what are what are you going to be a part
514. 20:31of what is the problem that you will try
515. 20:33to solve whatever your answer it is not
516. 20:36going to be easy sometimes your work
517. 20:38will hit a dead end sometimes your work
518. 20:40will be measured in half
519. 20:42steps sometimes your work will make you
520. 20:44wear a white sequined military uniform
521. 20:46and make love to Michael
522. 20:49Douglas all right maybe that's just my
523. 20:52work but for all of you here your work
524. 20:55starts
525. 20:56today and seriously
526. 20:59how lucky are
527. 21:01you I mean what are the odds that you
528. 21:04are the ones who are here today in the
529. 21:08earth's 4.5 billion year run with a 100
530. 21:12billion people who have lived and died
531. 21:14and the 7 billion of us here now here
532. 21:17you
533. 21:18are yes here you are alive at a time of
534. 21:24potential extinction level events a time
535. 21:26when fewer and fewer people can cause
536. 21:29more and more
537. 21:30damage a time when Science and
538. 21:32Technology may not hold all the answers
539. 21:35but are indispensable to any
540. 21:37solution what are the odds that you get
541. 21:39to be you right now the MIT class of
542. 21:432016 with so much on the line there are
543. 21:47potentially trillions of human beings
544. 21:50who will someday exist or not whose fate
545. 21:53in large part depends on the choices you
546. 21:56make on your ideas is on your grit and
547. 21:59persistence and willingness to engage If
548. 22:02This Were A Movie I was trying to pitch
549. 22:04I'd be laughed out of every office in
550. 22:06Hollywood Joseph Campbell himself would
551. 22:08tell me to Throttle Down and lower the
552. 22:10stakes but I can't because this is a
553. 22:13fact this is not fiction this improbable
554. 22:16thing is actually happening there is
555. 22:19more at stake today than in any Story
556. 22:22Ever Told and how lucky you are that
557. 22:25you're here and you're you and and how
558. 22:28lucky we are that you're here and you
559. 22:31are
560. 22:33you so I hope you'll turn toward the
561. 22:35problem of your
562. 22:44choosing I hope you'll turn toward the
563. 22:47problem of your choosing I hope you'll
564. 22:49drop everything and I hope you'll solve
565. 22:52it this is your life class of
566. 22:562016 this is your moment and it is all
567. 22:59down to
568. 23:00you ready player one your game begins
569. 23:05now thank you congratulations
570. 23:09[Applause]
571. 23:10[Music]
572. 23:11[Applause]