Neil deGrasse Tyson: Be Yourself

Neil deGrasse Tyson says "the greatest of people that have ever been in society, they were never versions of someone else. They were themselves."

Transcript--
I've had several people come up to me and say, "What can I do to be you?" And the only aspect of me that's really doable is I can tell you what my academic pedigree is and what I did as a kid and what things interested me, but what I do day-to-day is not the fulfillment of some preexisting job description. It's just things that I took interest in on my own that the general public happened to also appreciate or like or want access to. And so within my job description as Director of the Hayden Planetarium and as an educator, as an astrophysicist, I kept accreting other things that I did that people responded to, positively responded to. So, I can tell you about the academic pedigree. The rest, you have to create what it is that you do best that layers onto the formal training that may be behind it.

I think the greatest of people that have ever been in society, they were never versions of someone else. They were themselves. You don't think about Michael Jordan the basketball player and say, "Oh, he was just like this other player." No, you don't even say, "He was like this player plus that player divided by two plus this." No. He's Michael Jordan. I think the greatest of people in society carved niches that represented the unique expression of their combinations of talents, and if everyone had the luxury of expressing the unique combinations of talents in this world, our society would be transformed overnight. It's the great tragedy -- people employed in ways that don't fully tap everything they do best in life.

I am privileged and I don't take a day for granted on the job about the fact that what I do, what people most warmly receive about what I do, are some of the things that I do best in life. I'm honored and flattered by that combination of facts as they apply to me. So, your task is to find the combination of facts that apply to you. Then people will beat a path to your door.

Directed / Produced by Jonathan Fowler & Elizabeth Rodd

Originally recordeed February 2012.

• Category

  Education

[Gustavo Serrate]

In a free society I cut my own hair

[rexiimmortalis]

Neil deGrasse Tyson is a grown up Kid President!

[jw2113]

I already cut my own hair

[OfficialVilla]

Well some of these applied intelligent people would surely invent robots to go about and do these types of jobs for everyday people and even if that took a couple of decades their would still be teens looking for jobs to make spare cash.

[ITIsFunnyDamnIT]

What if you can never figure out what it is you're good at? What if you are good at absolutely nothing?

[Statusinator]

In our inception we didn't have assembly-line workers. We grew to what we are today.

Following that logic, we wouldn't need any assembly-line workers to grow into something else.

[Adam Cross]

we'll have robots for all of that by the time people get what Neil is saying, so there's nothing to worry about ;)

[pdidi1]

Gotta love Neil, he says Sir Isaac Newton was connected to the universe in hi's own way, I say Neil deGrasse Tyson is also connected, and it would be great if we all connect too, just listen to this man, there is a lot to be learned.

[MygunsJammedify]

Lol yeah I was just joking, I'm not crazy. The only thing that bothers me about this video is that Neil makes it sound so simple....

[HouseFireFlames]

Middle schooler's loophole. You know exactly what the point he is making is. We're saying get the career you want, not have a society with no rules.

[MygunsJammedify]

So if my greatest desire was to kill someone I'd be able to do it? Your society sounds awesome! Yes my vengeance is so close now! Ahahahahaha!

[schmiigle]

wait what?