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Why Are Commencement Speeches So Bad?

No Fun

They’re either boring or snarky, and the motivation behind them usually has less to do with motivating graduates than with getting good PR for the school.

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Mike Segar/Reuters

The college commencement season is at last over, and to nobody’s surprise, it has left a trail of pieties in its wake. A sampling of commencement addresses makes that clear:

“The sidelines are not where you want to live your life,” Tim Cook, Apple’s CEO, at George Washington University.

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