Stay Hungry, Stay Foolish
“Stay hungry, stay foolish. I never quite got it, until I see you now.”
— my dear sister
The phrase is best known from Steve Jobs’s 2005 Stanford commencement address. There, he quoted the final message of the Whole Earth Catalog: “Stay Hungry. Stay Foolish.”
When I was younger, I took it to mean embracing the brashness of youth: never being satiated or satisfied.
Now that I am older, I think it is gentler and more nuanced than that.
One of the most important mentors in my life has lived a life one can only call legendary. I met him through my best friend, who had once been his most memorable student.
During our first meeting, as he recounted parts of his life, I couldn't help but blurt out, “Your story is so fascinating. You must have suffered through a lot.”
He seemed taken aback. After a brief pause, he cracked a smile and said, “You’re right. It really was a lot.”
Until then, I had not thought much about it: someone’s life can sound extraordinary when told as a story. But living through it meant carrying the weight of everything they had to survive.
“For in much wisdom is much grief: and he that increaseth knowledge increaseth sorrow.”
— Ecclesiastes 1:18
My best friend is a legendary figure in her own right, with no end to her stories. I know too well what those stories have demanded of her.
In Chinese, there is a proverb: 初生牛犊不怕虎 — “a newborn calf is not afraid of a tiger.” It describes the boldness of someone too young or inexperienced to understand the danger ahead.
And so, I have come to think that hunger is the ability to remain moved by the world, even after becoming familiar with its great heaviness.
Foolishness, perhaps, is knowing the weight and choosing to carry some of it with you anyway.
Watch the full speech: Steve Jobs’s 2005 Stanford commencement address.