I Gave the MIT Commencement Speech for 2023

Speaker: Mark Rober

This is the kind of view you only get if you engineer your graduation cap with the ability to fly.

I had the honor to give the MIT commencement address, but here's the thing. I really don't like public speaking because I feel like it makes me more nervous than the average speaker.

But since the main theme of my speech is about putting yourself out there to try new things in order to improve and eventually conquer them, consider my nervous stumbles just a meta-object lesson.

So without further due, I give you - me.

Good afternoon, esteemed faculty, distinguished guests, relieved parents, bored siblings, confused pets, and of course, the 2023 graduating class of MIT.

It is indeed a warm welcome. It's hot and you know what I love to do on a beautiful, sunny, 95-degree summer day? Wear a big black blanket.

At least I'm up here in the shade. You'd think the best engineering school on the planet could design a bigger awning for everyone?

It's for next year.

Standing here before you is weird. I feel this pressure to give some timeless advice that will endure. Despite our world changing at an unprecedented pace, the world is so different even from four years ago.

For example, for the undergrads, you are the first graduating class to have persevered through a global pandemic. Just as this is the first commencement speech written entirely by chatGPT.

The tech is still very new. So if I make any grammatical errors or threaten to end all human life, that did not come for me. That's the robot.

At this point, I should probably tell your parents who I am. I'm Mark Rober, a former Apple and NASA mechanical engineer who became a YouTuber. And yes, I know to some of you, it sounds like I just said I quit the NBA to work at Foot Locker. Or I traded a Picasso for an NFT of a stoned monkey, but I wouldn't have it any other way.

I sort of feel at home here because Buzz Aldrin went to MIT. And just like me, Buzz was a NASA engineer. Only Buzz stuck with it and became one of the first humans to set foot on the moon. Whereas I quit to become the first human to sprinkle porch pirates with glitter and fart spray. It's on YouTube. Your kids will explain it at dinner.

But whether it's seeking karmic justice for package thieves or building an obstacle course for squirrels in my backyard, I plan my monthly YouTube videos really far out in advance. In fact, I've already decided what my June 2053 video will be. It's going to be a collab with all of you.

It's going to be a retrospective look at all the amazing things this MIT graduating class of 2023 has accomplished. In fact, this right now is the video intro. So if you've ever wanted to be in one of my videos, this is your chance.

Now, will YouTube still be around in 30 years? Hopefully... Unless Elon buys it... But here's the thing. The degree to which you positively impact the world is the degree to which you'll be featured in the video.

So in order to increase your chances of making the cut, I want to give you three pieces of advice based off my life experience. The first bit is to embrace naive optimism. What do I mean by naive optimism?

Naive optimism means it's easier to be optimistic about your future when you're sort of naive about what lies ahead, when you don't know what you don't know. As an example, think back on the first week at MIT, how naive you were about the number of all-nighters and cans of Red Bull that would be required to be sitting where you are right now.