The fringe benefits of failure

Possibly the best short read of the week. In any case, surely the best speech for a class of university graduates I've ever happened onto. J.K. Rowling, the benefits of failure and, more than anything, the importance of imagination (You can also watch the video of the speech- if not loading, it is also on YouTube already, in several copies...).

(HT to Greg Mankiw).

And here's an advice from the the lecture above that my younger (and older...) friends would do well to retain (there are plenty others, so read the whole speech linked above very carefully); we'll have this one as quote of the week:

There is an expiry date on blaming your parents for steering you in the wrong direction; the moment you are old enough to take the wheel, responsibility lies with you.

And I'll even add a second-best this week (though, ultimately, very likely my personal favourite from Rowling's speech)

Your qualifications, your CV, are not your life, though you will meet many people of my age and older who confuse the two.