Graduation Speeches

E245 Susegad Cycle 35 - Playing the long game

• Reflections: Graduation season is a moment when many of us pause to celebrate milestones and achievements - and reflect again on our long view and our purpose.

• Let’s review the editions published in cycle 35. The unifying themes in this cycle were adding friction back and understanding how Heirloom skills anchor us in our 21st-century world.

What inspires the Susegad editions?

Susegad is a Goan lifestyle philosophy of intentional living, slowing down to appreciate, reflect and care for others and our planet. Because it incorporates an unhurried, balanced ease while playing the long game, it is the perfect name for this 7th edition in each of our publishing cycles. It advocates for active recovery, turning knowledge into wisdom and guarding against burnout as we raise our future-ready leaders.

Best read on Substack, as the footnotes may make this edition appear long.

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Rest Susegad theme 35: Graduations

In this series, we typically talk about ideas that encourage us to pause. [Here is a full directory of the 35 rest ideas to date, also available on my navigation bar.] In the past, these have spanned topics from the value of sleep to the value of community time as “rest” elements.

Why choose “Graduations” as a theme? It leans into the intentional living theme. Many commencement speeches discuss our purpose and remind each of us to play the long game. We live life as a marathon rather than an unsustainable single sprint, so pacing, self-care, rest and relationships are important.

Photo by Bunly Hort on Unsplash

Here are excerpts from some of my favourite commencement speeches, with insights I find myself returning to and quoting:

Steve Jobs, Stanford, 2005¹ : You can only connect the dots looking backwards

It was impossible to connect the dots looking forward when I was in college. But it was very, very clear looking backwards, ten years later.

Again, you can’t connect the dots looking forward. You can only connect them looking backwards, so you have to trust that the dots will somehow connect in your future.

You have to trust in something: your gut, destiny, life, karma, whatever. Because believing that the dots will connect down the road will give you the confidence to follow your heart, even when it leads you off the well-worn path. And that will make all the difference.

Roger Federer, Dartmouth, 2024² : Lessons from Tennis “You learn not to dwell on every shot”

In tennis, perfection is impossible. In the 1,526 singles matches I played in my career, I won almost 80% of those matches. What percentage of points do you think I won in those matches? Only 54%. In other words, even top-ranked tennis players win barely more than half of the points they play. When you lose every second point on average, you learn not to dwell on every shot. … it’s just a point … When you are playing a point, it has to be the most important thing in the world, and it is. But when it’s behind you, it’s behind you. This mindset is really crucial because it frees you to commit to the next point and the next point after that.

And one of my absolute favourites. Not a commencement speech, but a blessing from a Baccalaureate Service that brought me to tears because it speaks to heirloom and legacy and being a hinge connecting our past with the future - some core pillars of my philosophy and work at Tilt the Future:

Rev. Matthew Ichihashi Potts, Baccalaureate Service, Harvard 2023 ³ : “Generations of your past rejoice at you!”

This gathering of so many pasts and so many futures, all together, in one place, all in one moment, all on this one ground, a gathering like this is holy. It is sacred.

And so we have consecrated it here today with ancient words and solemn rights, with reverend hymns and earnest hopes, and also with our gratitude.

We are so thankful for you, Class of 2023, for all that you have done and for all that you will do.

And so as you leave this place, this moment, this ground, receive a final benediction:

Harvard class of 2023, generations of your past rejoice at you!
They sing your thanksgiving through the ages and their song comes true with you.
Feel their courage in your limbs and carry your ancestors with you as you go.

Harvard class of 2023, generations of your futures depend upon you.
They wait to sing your celebrations, the ones that will ring out in your honor.
Feel their hope in your hearts and follow the call of their longing.

Harvard class of 2023, go in peace with all of our blessings, and fulfill the best wishes of your pasts and our future.

Amen.

A few more have joined the list this year:

Tong Shijun, NYU Shanghai, 2026 ⁴ : On the value of universities at this moment of history

Every generation is born into a world already underway, and our personal experience is always limited. That’s why we need what we call “education,” which does not only mean “learning,” but also mean “organized learning.”

In my view, the university will always be an essential human institution. Even when AI gives us ever more access to more sides of the universe, it is only in universities that one can experience the highest level of organized learning processes —learning processes that are guided, disciplined, inspired, and shared.

Jacob Collier, Berklee College of Music ⁵ : “When we learn music, we learn all there is to know”

Somebody told me something when I was young that really stayed with me, which is that when we learn music, we learn all there is to know. … Because music is powered by so many of the things that make life possible and make life worth living. These foundational pillars at the heart of it - trust, empathy, courage, tenacity, irreverence, reverence, mathematics and physics, syntax and spelling, language - and at the heart of it, this process of listening that drives all of us to fall in love with sound.

Eric Church, UNC Chapel Hill ⁶ : “The six strings of a life well tended”

… if you’ll indulge me, I want to start with a sound. You know this sound? It’s a guitar that’s out of tune. Something that almost gets there, that tries but doesn’t. And some ancient, honest part of your brain knows it immediately. You don’t need training to hear it. You just know that sound is the sound of something beautiful that has not been has not been tended to.

Six strings. When all six are in tune, the chords they make can stop a conversation cold. carry a broken person through the worst night of their life or make a room full of strangers feel for three minutes like they’ve known each other forever. But if even one is off, the whole cord unravels. Not gradually, not politely. The moment you strike it.

I believe your life runs on this principle. And I’m going to break it down for you right now and tell you about your strings …

It is a most delicious listen as he details the strength and place of each string in your life:

• Low E is the thickest - your faith and beliefs

• A - your family

• D - the heart of a cord, and your partner in life

• G - ambition and resilience

• B - community

• E - the highest note, the one only you can make

Now, your turn “}…{`

Share your favourite commencement speech, explaining what it whispers to your soul:

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Recap: Digest of issues 239 - 244

Reviewing my last six editions, I am my own human version of AI! I survey the topics, watch the OWBR⁷ … and most enjoyably pull up with a warm tea and settle in to reread the comments. It is the best part of my seven-week publishing cycle.

What did my readers read between the lines? What should I have written? What are the central themes? Was there a little divergence? Or did they converge around a few themes? This is what AI could do well. But this feels more reflective, more personal.

This is what I picked out:

• I’m pushing against an all AI-world and choosing to insert more friction into the right layers of my life so that I can engage with the better parts of ‘living human’. Whether it is connecting through voice notes as Linart Seprioto and I did this morning, learning (and teaching) baseball from scratch, or resisting the urge to quit writing, I see difficulty and challenge as the throughline in this series that provides meaning and relationship.

• Analog over Digital: Handwritten letters make my mother and grandfather enter my room in a way that WhatsApp messages still aspire to.

• Parenting is a long game. And the tension between “protecting and propelling” is the toughest call we make day after day after day.

Did you make a different connection? Please share what you read “between the lines.”

Whose comments invited you to read the essay from a different perspective?

TL;DR

• 21st-CENTURY AND HEIRLOOM SKILLS: Keep some analog in the system.

• RAISING FUTURE-READY LEADERS and FUTURE OF WORK: Allow nextGen the space to explore possible futures.

What did you see as the common thread in our recent conversations?

@ozolinsjanis gifted me this remake of my logo … tilting towards the future

HIGHLIGHTING WHAT OTHERS MAY HAVE NOTICED IN THESE ESSAYS …
Do you ever find the comments section of an essay to be as thought-provoking as the essay? I love the essays that create a continuing conversation:

Clearly, the most thought-provoking edition in this cohort:

Denis Trottier’s recommendation to create a baseline mental health position when you are in good health, so that you discover how to navigate your systems led to a very expansive and healthy discussion. The concussion baseline metaphor resonated with many of you. And it provoked Chao to make a great suggestion for baseline Alzheimer’s studies.

I met Akiko Mega (writes Afterimage) for dinner in Japan recently. She was joining the Board of TELL and offered some sage stats and advice : … over 11,000 contacts on the Lifeline suicide prevention hotline last year. A large proportion, [are] young people.

For anyone in a country where mental health care is stigmatized or access is low, I recommend connecting to the international community in your local area for resources and support.

Mental health practitioners in these settings function not only as a lighthouse and safe harbor for people in distress- they may also serve as a bridge for the gap between how mental health is perceived locally, and the care on offer in geographies where, in the words of the WHO: “there is no health without mental health.”

The BASELINE conversation inspired Chao Lam (writes Next Small Things) to share a similar baseline link for Alzheimer's, which I recommend https://www.aptwebstudy.org/

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I almost gave up at edition E242. And it was the vocies of others - Emma Dorge , David Perell through his podcast w Anne Lamott, Sarah Ennett - Seeking Ikigai and Michelle Varghese who talked me back to my keyboard (whether they knew it or not!)

Michelle Varghese (super great writing coach): I for one appreciate that you are a consistent staple in my life 💕 never any pressure to keep up a streak, but your momentum and dedication to sharing your world every week is inspiring

and surprises that lurk, like the audio earworm for the song “I miss you” that Sarah Ennett - Seeking Ikigai offered in response which was totally on point with lyrics “you can always find me”!:

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This was a two-fer. The first poem was purposely short and light with a specific CTA: “Call your Mum”, mainly because this day belongs to my children and my celebration with them.

Interestingly, it triggered an equal number of email responses as the ones you see on screen.

Then, a comment back from Lisa Kostova on a restack Note got me thinking, and inspired a follow-up essay on leaning back into leaning back into the “hard work” at the right moments in our lives [I think Michelle Varghese would be proud that I am returning to writing essay!]

Lisa Kostova (writes Unexpired): My late mom would organize her whole day around our weekly calls - we had а 10 hour time difference ♥️

What came out was a plea to make the meaningful things more memorable. Do not make them easier by streamlining! Introduce friction so that you can remember the relationships and events.

My wise long-time friend Dan McGuire (who really should be writing his own Substack!!) wrote: This is simply beautiful. Yes! The treasures contained in old letters…To pore over and try to imagine the room they were written in. How was it received and what detail made it special enough to keep? There was something there - I like to think about these things.

We lost Mom in 2024. A year earlier I recorded her telling the story of the night she met Dad. I kept the little 12-minute recording on my iPhone. This year for Mother’s Day I shared it with my sisters. It was better than flowers. I have more which I am saving for future occasions.

Little gifts.

I am getting more and more passionate about written artifacts! I have to give Terri Lonier a high five for her timely essay on signatures and the unintended consequence it has had on my attention to script.

And I am noticing where I allow the friction to creep back in, intentionally. How about you?

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One of the lessons I recalled from this IRL experience of watching a ballgame, was that it is easier to learn a new technology if you apply it to something tangible. For me, that was fantasy baseball.

Brandon Lee Weaver : It still surprises me, no matter how many preach the demise of baseball, how avid a following it creates. There is a level of detail and depth in the sport that I believe surpasses that of other North American sports.

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The Artemis II mission really tugged at every 50+somethings heartstrings … all of us who have grown up on a steady diet of space missions and science fiction! But the more powerful message was our that, as parents, we can offer our children not protection alone, but the space to dream, imagine and believe that anything is possible.

One of my favourite comments (because it seems so improbable, but I assure you it is real) is from

Cassandra Davis : I was a space-obsessed kid who grew up to raise a Martian! As you know, my youngest son was one of the first teenage cadre of researchers at the Mars Desert Research Station. I try to capture a little bit of my childhood glee and my son's curiosity in my writing.

Did you know that there is a Mars Desert Research station that tested teenager-only crews for two years? The logic is that teens will be the optimal age to be sent on the long journey to Mars.

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Chat?

I’m finally settling into a routine back home. Call me. Let’s catch up!

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Do you like the concept that every 7th edition is a Rest edition? These digests make a great issue to share with others as you invite them to join our Tribe of difference-makers.

Our small and supportive community in Tribe Tilt believes in the best of humanity - connecting people, sharing ideas, and exploring thoughts respectfully. We believe we can make a difference to the people and places that are precious to us. The best idea can come from anyone, anywhere, at any time.

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See you next week! Stay healthy. From there, all else becomes possible.
Karena

Photo credit: Photo by Bunly Hort on Unsplash

1. Steve Jobs, Stanford, 2005

2. Roger Federer, Dartmouth, 2024

3. Rev. Matthew Ichihashi Potts, Baccalaureate Service, Harvard, 2023, the blessing at minute 56

4. Tong Shijun, NYU Shanghai, 2026 Transcript https://shanghai.nyu.edu/news/chancellor-tong-shijun-commencement-2026

5. Jacob Collier, Berklee College of Music, 2026

6. Eric Church, UNC Chapel Hill, 2026

7. OWBR: Open to Write Back Rate. Credit Ann Handley https://annhandley.com/the-one-email-metric-to-track/