David Foster Wallace Kenyon Commencement Address (2005)

On May 21, 2005, novelist and essayist David Foster Wallace delivered the commencement address to the graduating class of Kenyon College in Gambier, Ohio. Popularly known as This Is Water, the address opened with a parable about two young fish unaware of the water around them. Wallace discussed the insidious power of the human default setting - an unconscious, automatic self-centeredness - and argued that the true value of education lies in learning how to exercise conscious control over how and what one thinks during the frustrating, mundane routines of adult life.

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