Title:  Learning how to exercise some control over how and what you think

Tags:   education

Author: David Foster Wallace

Date:   2005

Work Title: Commencement Address at Kenyon College - 2005

Date Added: 2019-01-29 10:17:11 -0800

Body:

As I'm sure you guys know by now, it is extremely difficult to stay alert and attentive, instead of getting hypnotised by the constant monologue inside your own head (may be happening right now). Twenty years after my own graduation, I have come gradually to understand that the liberal arts cliché about teaching you how to think is actually shorthand for a much deeper, more serious idea: learning how to think really means learning how to exercise some control over how and what you think. It means being conscious and aware enough to choose what you pay attention to and to choose how you construct meaning from experience. Because if you cannot exercise this kind of choice in adult life, you will be totally hosed.

