David Foster Wallace’s speech, in a nutshell, is about listening to others. One of his main points deals with the idea of virtues and how they don’t always wire in with listening. It has to do with the idea of self. Wallace says “It’s a matter of my choosing to do the work of somehow altering or getting free of my natural, hard-wired default setting which is to be deeply and literally self-centered and to see and interpret everything through this lens of self”(paragraph 8). His idea of self focuses on being more grounded in order to communicate/listen to others. Another main point plays with the idea of learning to think. His anecdote on grocery shopping helps the reader (and audience) learn about his message. He adds, “The point is that petty, frustrating crap like this is exactly where the work of choosing is gonna come in”(paragraph 16). His story helps with the idea that learning to think creates a world where we can provide the mundane world we live in with thoughts of our own to make decisions better. His final main point, in my opinion, is to be well-adjusted. He weaves in (throughout his speech) this idea of being well-adjusted in the world. He states, “It is unimaginably hard to do this, to stay conscious and alive in the adult world day in and day out. Which means yet another grand cliché turns out to be true: your education really IS the job of a lifetime. And it commences: now”(paragraph 36). He reminds us that the world will try to drown you in mundaneness. By being well-adjusted, you are better equipped to go forth and be conscious and great. I agree with his main arguments. Life isn’t going to be easy. We will all have struggles to face at some point or another. With these skills, those issues will be easier to face. I think DFW might be hinting at empathy a little bit, but is more focused on the idea of being conscious while facing everyday life. One quote really resonated with me; “It is about the real value of a real education, which has almost nothing to do with knowledge, and everything to do with simple awareness”(paragraph 33). This statement made me really think about what education truly is. I support this idea of simply being aware of what is happening around you rather than being on survival mode all your life.