"Another young woman finds herself confronted by an opportunity she never thought of in a job category she never imagined. This wasn’t in her plans, but this is where she can make her contribution, ..."

Obviously Schwarzenegger's housekeeper took this to heart while DSK's chambermaid did not.

You made me wonder if David Brooks had ever given a commencemnt address.  Yes, several.   Do not have time to read it just now but thought to pass on this year's anyway.

David Brooks’ commencement speech at Rice University in Houston, Texas May 14, 2011 (PDF)

His tone reminds me of an old cartoon where Ziggy encounters crossroads signs that read:  Retreat, Retrench, Lower Expections.

Hi, Destor: I hold no brief for Brooks. He strikes me as a superficial writer--a lazy one, really--who sort of rummages around in his brain for something to fill up the day's column with.

So I come here not to defend Brooks in anyway--but I do think you're missing some of his points. Whether they're valid or not is another matter.

One of the problems with the article is that as soon as you start to think about the various things he's saying, they don't seem to hold together as one thesis. They're more a grab bag of aperçus strung together by means of syntax rather than thought.

One idea seems to be that an overly supervised and guided generation is being thrust into a world that is completely formless. Thus, they are ill-prepared.

Upon reaching 18, they are suddenly told by their boomer parents to seek their bliss while heretofore, their every movement and thought has been micro-managed by their parents.

Happiness comes from achievement, particularly in the face of difficult odds. Throwing yourself into a challenge or something "bigger than you." It doesn't come from navel gazing about what might make you happy in isolation from the world outside.

(I think he has a point here, but the truth is, people come to happiness in all kinds of ways. He doesn't recognize the complexity and variableness of "the" journey toward happiness.)

The point I thought he was making after reading your blog--he sort of makes it--is that life has a way of sending you down paths you would never, and could never, have imagined. So it's important to stay open to these serendipitous events and not hold too rigidly to your "plan" when life sends you other things to think about and try. You have to stay loose.

(Of course, how these young'uns are going to stay loose when they've spent their entire lives up to now being micro-managed is a point he doesn't cover. This is what I mean by lazy writing.)

It is discouraging when a lazy and undisciplined writer like Brooks is given such a prominent platform with a fat paycheck and then phones it in. Jim Sleeper, for a while, was turning critiquing Brooks into a cottage industry.

David Brooks can suck it. I had some of those "fit into where society needs you jobs" and they all sucked. I had anxiety and insomnia and migraines. I comforted myself with Ben and Jerry's to an unhealthy extent, all the while feeling trapped and unhappy. Then, I decided to do something about it. Now, I rarely have a migraine, I've dropped 40 lbs, I'm not sure I'd recognize stress if it walked up and hit me on the nose, and I face every single day with a sense of joy and wonder. 

I know life has ups and downs and I'm sure suffer through more hards times. But I have found satisfaction and overall piece that comes from doing a job that I love. 

Like Genghis, I went to a liberal arts college. I don't agree that they should have included some practical career training. I think nothing can really prepare you for what it's like to go to work every day except doing just that. But I would have liked to have more help figuring out the best way for my career to go. I feel like I wasted twenty years trying to find a good fit! 

I think you might be reading too much into Brooks' column.  He seems to be saying that our advice to new grads is incomplete, at best, and should probably have included some professional preparation prior to commencement.  If I had to pick a place where Brooks' thesis falls apart, it would be the lack of cause and effect as the main critique of the current system. 

Liberal arts education plays a huge role part in preparing one's intellect for the dog-eat-dog world of commercial fiefdom (even if you own the business, someone still owns your ass....) though there is a case to be made that juniors and seniors aren't as prepared as they could be for actually turning thought into action.

Eventual success will be guided as much by luck as skill and intellect, so it is a key point to make that we should take advantage of whatever opportunities are initially presented as our primary motivator no matter how lofty or  "out-of-reach" our ultimate goals.  I have never been accused of thinking small, yet at the same time I can fit myself into many different roles to make a living.