What "Follow Your Dreams" Misses | Harvey Mudd Commencement Speech 2024

last year Grant gave the math Department's Michael E Moody lecture on where math and physics Collide he explored unexpected connections between kinematics Optics and Quantum Computing our students loved his talk and the senior class voted overwhelmingly to ask him back as commencement speaker Grant has said that he seeks to educate and Inspire the world with Beauty and the power of mathematics he certainly has inspired many of us here at Harvey mud please join me in welcoming Grant Sanderson thank you president nard for that very warm introduction and for inviting me and thank you to the class of 2024 for including me in such a special day I had the joy of getting to know many of you last year on this visit and I distinctly remember coming away with the feeling that a future in your hands is a bright future indeed for those in the audience who don't know who I am I focus on making videos about mathematics with an emphasis on visualizations it's a weird job I do love it though and it's no exaggeration to describe it as a dream job and a common cliche is for someone who was lucky enough to land in a dream job to stand confidently in front of a group of fledgling graduates and to compel them to follow their dreams frankly on its own I don't think this is very good advice to be clear there is truth behind the cliche it is true that those who make the biggest ripples are the ones who are fueled by Passion it is true that the life that you live is much more enjoyable if you can find something doing what you love and it's also true that you shouldn't feel Shackled by societal constraints but for one thing not everyone has a pre-baked dream sitting there waiting to be followed that's completely okay and even if you are one of the lucky ones who has a passion that you want to roll in into a career I think there are a few pragmatic concerns that don't always fit very neatly into an inspirational speech that are required to make this actually work now I know I'm talking to a very nerdy audience so I'm tempted to describe my aims here a little bit more mathematically precisely where in the vector space of all possible advice ...