“There are these two young fish swimming along and they happen to meet an older fish swimming the other way, who nods at them and says “Morning, boys. How’s the water?” And the two young fish swim on for a bit, and then eventually one of them looks over at the other and goes “What the hell is water?”
“The real value of an education has almost nothing to do with knowledge, and everything to do with simple awareness; awareness of what is so real and essential, so hidden in plain sight all around us, all the time, that we have to keep reminding ourselves over and over:
“This is water.”
--- David Foster Wallace in his commencement speech to Kenyon College, This is Water. I highly recommend reading the whole thing.
I read this quote as saying that we don’t get educations in order to do things, but rather to have an awareness of things. I personally don’t do that, with most things. I think this quote smacks of ivory-towerism.
“There are these two young fish swimming along and they happen to meet an older fish swimming the other way, who nods at them and says “Morning, boys. How’s the water?” And the two young fish swim on for a bit, and then eventually one of them looks over at the other and goes “What the hell is water?”
“The real value of an education has almost nothing to do with knowledge, and everything to do with simple awareness; awareness of what is so real and essential, so hidden in plain sight all around us, all the time, that we have to keep reminding ourselves over and over:
“This is water.”
--- David Foster Wallace in his commencement speech to Kenyon College, This is Water. I highly recommend reading the whole thing.
Duplicate.
My mistake, I searched but didn’t see it.
I read this quote as saying that we don’t get educations in order to do things, but rather to have an awareness of things. I personally don’t do that, with most things. I think this quote smacks of ivory-towerism.