ADES 5522 Christopher Ryan | Rhetorical Criticism | Final Draft | April 12, 2012 Stay Hungry. Stay Foolish. A rhetorical criticism of the 205
Steve Jobs Commencement Speech at Stanford University.
The 2005 Stanford Commencement address by Steve Jobs has been
praised, glorified, vilified, quoted and critiqued by many. The words of
inspiration within have been studied by many and the speech itself is
widely regarded as “classic” and one that has had an impact on a much
larger audience than just that graduating class of Stanford. This rhetorical
criticism takes a deep look at the speech itself, using a cluster criticism
approach to attempt to discern why this speech has resonated with so
many others.
When many think of the iPod or iPhone, the image of Steve Jobs, cofounder of Apple Computer, Inc. and PIxar Animation Studios,
immediately comes to mind. His signature black turtleneck and jeans
have become an iconic part of his persona. As the co-founder of the
company, he eventually left in 1985 only to return again in the late 1990s
with a plan to return his former company to profitability. Since then, with
his personal attentive touch, he has become closely associated with Apple.
Steve Jobs is Apple as much as Apple is Steve Jobs.
After Jobs return to Apple, he rarely made appearances outside of official
corporate keynotes and special events. In 2005, he made a rare exception
by giving the commencement address at Stanford University. While
Stanford wasn’t Jobs’ alma mater, he shared a very close connection with
the university. It’s proximity to Apple’s headquarters and strong
engineering programs meant Stanford was often the source of many of
Apple’s talented engineers.
As mentioned earlier, this criticism uses a cluster approach to make
meaning from Jobs’ words. After creating a word cloud of the speech
(attached) and removing the most commonly used English words, a
pattern emerged based on the frequency of keywords used in the speech.
In particular, this criticism looks at the words “college,” “life,” “apple,”
and “looking” as foundations for understanding Jobs’ own life and the
connections we can, and some have already attempted, to draw from it.
College
There is a bit of irony in Steve Jobs giving a commencement address to a
budding young group of college graduates, being that he was a college
dropout himself. In fact, Steve Jobs is part of a larger cohort of “tech
visionaries” like Bill Gates or Michael Dell who have experienced their
own proverbial rags to riches stories of success. Given today’s somewhat
shaky economy, these stories are not unique to an previous era of
prosperity. Mark Zuckerberg, founder of Facebook, was a Harvard
dropout himself.
Beyond this irony, Jobs’ own college experience, which he alludes to in his
speech, is quite the opposite of the Stanford audience, yet it still seems to
strike inspiration. The crux of his college story was about how he learned
1 ADES 5522 Christopher Ryan | Rhetorical Criticism | Final Draft | April 12, 2012 to not only challenge himself, but also to take interest in activities that
were a passion for him. While many have attempted to turn their own
passions into a “rags to riches” story, few have succeeded and even fewer
have achieved the notability of individuals like Steve Jobs, Bill Gates or
Mark Zuckerberg. Yet, the idea still remains strong. When one examines
where these stories have met success, many often do not align with the
major fields of study that one pursued in college. This is an interesting
insight and seems to be the strongest connection for graduating students
to take to heart. It seems that success is completely within reach, even if
the area doesn’t match your field of study from college... or even if you
didn’t complete college.
Life
Jobs’ own life is another area of interest. Given his propensity to keep his
history to himself, his speech is, second only to his biography that was
released after his death in 2010, one of the most revealing stories of his
life. His own outlook on life was rather simple. As someone who followed
Buddhism, Jobs tried to embody the Buddhist ideals in his own life,
including the three major tenants of virtue, concentration/meditation and
wisdom/enlightenment. Much like the Ghandi’s connections to Buddhism
and Hinduism, Jobs let his religious beliefs guide his life in a very private,
yet inspirational manner. When he was diagnosed with a rare form of
pancreatic cancer in 2003, his Buddhist beliefs guided his response to the
deadly disease. While his initial response was to seek non-traditional and
more medicinal approaches, it proved to be a dangerous choice as the
surgery that prolonged his life could have potentially prolonged it even
longer had he opted for it much earlier than he did.
Still, the lessons of his life have impacted others. His embodiment of
Buddhist principles, whether people agree or disagree with them, have
inspired others to find their own system of beliefs and to let them serve as
a guide. The most famous quote of the speech, “Stay hungry. Stay foolish,”
while not even a direct quote from Jobs himself, embodies this idea of
continually seeking personal enlightenment and allowing it to serve as a
guiding path.
Apple
Apple is a unique aspect of Jobs’ life and according to some, something
that had a bit of a transformational effect on him. Since Jobs co-founded
Apple and left in 1985, only to return in 1997 and help return the
company to profitability, many have regarded these two “eras” of Jobs as
being very different — both for Apple and for Steve Jobs himself. Surely as
time passed, he became a more mature individual, but his return to Apple
started a symbiotic relationship that is seemingly missing from many
other modern companies.
Many attribute the success of Apple in the late 90s and the 2000s as a
direct result of Jobs’ return. While that comparison is beyond the subject
of this criticism, the distinct contrast of perception of Apple during Steve
2 ADES 5522 Christopher Ryan | Rhetorical Criticism | Final Draft | April 12, 2012 Jobs 1.0 and Steve Jobs 2.0 is notable. In the speech, Jobs refers to this
idea as “connecting the dots looking backwards” and how different life
events, many of which have been touched upon in this critique, have
focused and enlightened his own life and vision and as a result, have had a
positive impact on Apple since his return.
According to Jobs, his passion with Apple has always been not about just
making boxes, but by making “insanely great” products that help people
change the world. While that seems like a bit of a cliché, the reign of
“Steve Jobs 2.0” has led some to characterize his leadership style at Apple
as having a “fine attention to detail” and a strong “aptitude for taste.”
While his own leadership has led Apple to deliver some products that
were considered flops, the successes of products like the iPod and iPhone
have inspired others to realize that the tiniest of details can have all the
impact on the perception of a product. For the first time, many who have
used Apple’s products have realized the value of an attention to detail and
how it can make all the difference in whether a product is successful or a
failure, or desirable or repulsive.
Looking
The idea of “looking” is the perfect summation of this critique. Again, as
Steve Jobs had mentioned, “it’s often easier to connect the dots looking
backwards than looking forwards.” While I dare say this with a degree of
certainty, nobody really knows what their future may entail. But whatever
one’s goals may be, the process of finding one’s focus or passion is easier
with a conscious attempt to be aware of oneself, interests and passion.
Perhaps that is the most insightful aspect of Jobs’ entire commencement
speech. As many speakers seem to use these speeches to inspire others,
the end result seemingly becomes a piece of imparted advice, although
perhaps with more credibility given the background of the speaker.
As mentioned earlier, while one’s own personal thoughts toward Steve
Jobs, or other ideas he is associated with, such as Pixar and Apple, can
have a direct effect on one’s reception of the speech, the words of this
speech will continue to live on beyond Steve Jobs. Regardless of the effect
of Jobs’ speech on this reader, or the value or feelings evoked by the
interpretations given above, this criticism sums up with the most quoted
line of his speech — Stay hungry. Stay foolish.
3 ADES 5522 Christopher Ryan | Rhetorical Criticism | Final Draft | April 12, 2012 Bibliography Isaacson, Walter. Steve Jobs. New York: Simon & Schuster, 2011. Print. "'You've Got to Find What You Love,' Jobs Says." Text of Steve Jobs' Commencement Address (2005). 12 June 2005. Web. 16 Apr. 2012. <http://news.stanford.edu/news/2005/june15/jobs-­‐
061505.html>. 4