18 Miles

Today we had another beautiful Newton morning in the upper 60's... and I had another wonderful 18 mile ride with Guy Sapirstein on the Needham/Dover South Street loop. This time our moving average was 15 mph, although with rest stops and chain events (bike chains), our ride took about 90 minutes.

On an unrelated topic, Bill Gates was the guest speaker at Harvard's commencement (graduation ceremonies) this year. Gates was a Harvard undergrad when he dropped out to start Microsoft. He finally has a Harvard degree (honorary), but his speech is really worth reading. The soundbite quote is

I want to exhort each of the graduates here to take on an issue – a complex problem, a deep inequity, and become a specialist on it. If you make it the focus of your career, that would be phenomenal. But you don’t have to do that to make an impact. For a few hours every week, you can use the growing power of the Internet to get informed, find others with the same interests, see the barriers, and find ways to cut through them.
Don’t let complexity stop you. Be activists. Take on the big inequities. It will be one of the great experiences of your lives.

What a great challenge to us all.