Addressing the university's faculty and staff, Slaughter pushed back against the culture of constant busyness that high-achieving students bring from the college admissions arms race. She argued that filling every minute of every day with courses and extracurricular activities was not preparation for life — it was a recipe for burnout. She cited both historical examples and neuroscience: Richard Feynman did his Nobel Prize-winning work while watching students spin plates in a cafeteria. The mind needs downtime to make its deepest connections. 'Often you must slow down for your mind to speed up,' she told the audience — a message particularly resonant for graduates of elite institutions where overwork is worn as a badge of honor.