Ohanian reframed the entire graduation experience with this observation: students have spent their whole lives optimizing for not failing — getting good grades, meeting deadlines, passing exams. But the real world doesn't have GPAs. There will be setbacks and failures, and that's not just acceptable — it's necessary. As someone who co-founded Reddit, a company that went through its own failures and pivots before becoming one of the most visited websites in the world, Ohanian spoke from experience about the productive role of failure.