The beloved science fiction author — who never attended college because he couldn't afford it — delivered a freewheeling, deeply personal speech at Caltech. He told the graduates that when he was nine years old, he collected Buck Rogers comic strips and was mocked by his classmates. He listened to the critics, tore up his comics, and wept for days — then realized he had torn up his own future. He went back to collecting and never listened to naysayers again. This advice was the distillation of that lifelong principle.