'You can’t play it safe and win’
Don’t be afraid to take chances and even risk failure, Ray Stata urged MIT’s Class of 2010 at the Institute’s 144th Commencement Exercises on Friday, June 4. “People don’t learn by doing things right,” said Stata ’57, SM ’58, this year’s Commencement speaker. “They learn by making mistakes and then reflecting on what went wrong.”Under sunny skies in the spacious but jam-packed Killian Court, Stata, MIT President Susan Hockfield, and two student leaders all reminded the newly minted MIT degree-holders of the privileged education they have received, and of the importance of using their skills to solve global problems and to make the world a better place. But Stata challenged them to keep in mind that the sometimes-serendipitous path to success is not a straightforward one.Stata, the chairman and co-founder of Analog Devices Inc. and a life member emeritus of the MIT Corporation, described himself to the graduating class as...