Advice from the late David Newsome

Wise advice to my MIT students and others from David Newsome, a diplomat in the US foreign service, as found in his obituary written by David Stout in the New York Times this weekend:

In a 2002 appearance at the University of California, he was asked what advice he would give young people.

“Set aside some time to read about and understand the world beyond our shores,” he replied in part. “We are an insular people, and we have a tendency to dismiss foreign societies as strange and difficult to comprehend.”