University of Otago senior academic Prof Richie Poulton has urged Otago graduates to make their own luck and become ''expert'' listeners, learning from the ''wise people'' around them.
Prof Poulton was addressing more than 370 people who had just graduated from the university in a wide range of disciplines at the Dunedin Town Hall on Saturday.
In a wide-ranging and thought-provoking address, Prof Poulton alerted graduates to an educational paradox. Never before had such a high proportion of people in New Zealand and some other OECD countries gained tertiary bachelor's degrees.
This figure was 39% among students in the OECD, and New Zealand was among the top four countries by graduation rate, with more than 50% of entrants gaining a bachelor's degree.
But the growing store of knowledge was actually making some people feel less certain about knowledge they had acquired earlier.
''We are, as a society, in great danger of having learnt so much that we become less certain of more than we ever knew in the first place. This could result in everybody knowing less than nothing and then where would we be and how would we find our way back in the face of our own ignorance?''
But the overall situation was ''not quite that dire'' because of human curiosity, said Prof Poulton, director of the Dunedin Multidisciplinary Health and Development Unit, which is conducting a long-term study of more than 1000 people born in Dunedin during 1972-73.
''We are curious, we analyse, we ask questions and we all have the ability, to varying degrees, to make our own luck.''
Persistent hard work was also important.
People also needed to listen ''very carefully'' to detect ''the message and the subtext'', and things that were ''not said'', as well as listening to the ''context of the conversation''.
''You will be amazed both personally and professionally what opportunities present themselves to an expert listener, one who listens to and learns from the experience of wise people around them.''
Showing ''a little humility'' also helped in building key relationships and networks.