On October 12, 1994, I was one of 150 freshmen sitting in the lecture hall listening to Umberto Eco deliver the inaugural lecture for the Communication Sciences degree program at the University of Bologna.
Three of his phrases in particular have resonated in my mind since that day, more or less like this:
- “If they ask you what job you’ll do when you grow up, answer that your job doesn’t exist yet. You’ll invent it, and come back here to explain it to us.”
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“Culture is not knowing all the answers by heart, but knowing how to go look for them.”
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“The good student isn’t the one who always gets top marks. It’s the one who gets a B+ because they dedicate time to living Bologna — the libraries, the cinemas, the taverns.”
Bonus track: from his voice that day I heard for the first time a mysterious and fascinating word, “internet.”
Last Saturday, a good number of us gathered in Bologna to celebrate the thirtieth anniversary, complete with a cardboard cutout of our Professor. Each with our own lived-in life tucked in our pocket, all with his words still alive in our heads.
