I don't quite understand his point. Is it that awareness is an important product of a liberal arts education that shouldn't be undervalued?<p>"This is Water" speaks to that idea, but it seems disingenuous to claim that a liberal arts education is a particularly effective way of raising awareness. It often seems to take the automatic thoughts that he projects on the audience and replace them with other automatic thoughts, rather than providing tools for people to break that cycle in themselves and other people.<p>But, if I'm misunderstanding his point, please make me aware. David Foster Wallace is someone that other people I respect show respect to (Jason Wilkes in Burn Math Class), but this speech left me puzzled.