Stephen Colbert on Saying Yes (2006) | Hacker News Reader

Stephen Colbert on Saying Yes (2006)

edbatista.com

27 pointsyamrzou12 comments

The art of me and my team not burning out at work is "yes, but [logical consequence]". It's nicer than saying no.

I was there! He was definitely riding Obama’s coattails!

The joke here is the year after this speech, Bill Clinton was Knox’s commencement speaker. So on the Colbert Report, he says Bill was riding his coattails. But then he acknowledges that the year before he spoke (my graduating class) was Barack Obama. Well no, he didn’t “steal his thunder,” he claims, he rightfully returned it right back to him. (Sure thing Stephen…)

My current hierarchy of "yes" when judging opportunities:

  - Hell yeah: can't find a reason to say no
  - Yes: opportunity is OK (with some small risks), or there are skills I want to learn
  - Yes, but: seems fine, but I need to mitigate my risks
  - No: by default. I believe in saying no when the road to reach a yes seems too complicated. Also, I feel it's important to clarify: that is not a hard/definitive "NO" but a "too bad we couldn't make it; let's keep in touch if things change".

great line: "cynicism masquerades as wisdom"

It's much better with context:

> Remember, you cannot be both young and wise. Young people who pretend to be wise to the ways of the world are mostly just cynics. Cynicism masquerades as wisdom, but it is the farthest thing from it. Because cynics don't learn anything. Because cynicism is a self-imposed blindness, a rejection of the world because we are afraid it will hurt us or disappoint us. Cynics always say no.

So there are no wise young people? Are we saying we can't learn from young people when they say something is bad because we'll "it's just their cynicism"? I can see this argument being used to basically shut down any ideas older people don't agree with.

I think the question is how young and how wise.

I don’t think it’s age so much as the amount of lived experience you have to map your knowledge to. There’s a limit to how much you can experience in a short time — but it’s also true that people can live a long time without experiencing much.

One thing I do notice is very young people who seem wise tend to have unearned wisdom. They can tell you something that sounds right (they trade in book knowledge) but they don’t truly know it because they’ve neither experienced it nor understood the variations and nuances around it. I tend to be skeptical of unearned wisdom and I think these folks need more self awareness and more cognizance of the limitations of their true knowledge.

On the other you can sense it when you’re with young people who grew up with opportunities to have a wide range of experiences. They’ve seen and processed the world more deeply.

I think there should also be room for unearned but taught wisdom. A young person who is taught well by wisdom from people who've had those experiences is still able to be wise. Not every mistake needs to be made to learn from it.

Good point. I agree.

> So there are no wise young people?

Well, if you read it.

> are mostly just cynics.

> I can see this argument being used to basically shut down any ideas older people don't agree with.

Lots of arguments can be used to do lots of bad things. That's on the arguer not the argument.

I think the more important part is the commentary about cynicism, regardless of the age.

> "Now, there's this about cynicism, Sergeant. It's the universe's most supine moral position. Real comfortable. If nothing can be done, then you're not some kind of shit for not doing it, and you can lie there and stink to yourself in perfect peace."

-- Border of Infinity, by Lois McMaster Bujold

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