The Daily DeseretBYU President Reese: Embrace the Awkward and Appreciate Friction
This page is our own summary. The original belongs to BYU Speeches; please read it there.
At the start of fall semester, BYU's president argues that awkward moments and human friction help us grow, and urges students to put down their phones and talk to people.
C. Shane Reese, president of Brigham Young University, spoke at the university's devotional on September 8, 2026, the start of the fall semester. This summary is based on the transcript at BYU Speeches, and the full address is embedded below.
A welcome and a milestone
Reese opens with humor about BYU traditions and welcomes new students to what he calls the first semester of the second half of BYU's second century, after the university's 150th year. He says the campus will give special attention to temple worship in anticipation of the newly dedicated Salt Lake Temple. He also shares that as a freshman he considered going home, and that stepping out of his comfort zone to speak to a professor helped him stay.
Embrace the awkward
His main advice, which he says a stake president once gave to a young missionary, is to embrace the awkward. Reese argues that clumsy moments, such as a child's first steps or halting speech while learning a language, are signs of growth, and that people should not be embarrassed by stumbles. He tells several self-deprecating stories, including a classified-stamp prank from his time at Los Alamos National Laboratory.
The risks of frictionlessness
The talk then turns serious. Citing Elder Gerrit W. Gong's recent remarks about artificial intelligence, Reese says one concern is a "frictionless" culture that treats effort as a flaw. He quotes a magazine writer's line that friction is where discernment lives and where thinking starts. He warns against "cognitive offloading," meaning letting algorithms do our thinking, and offers two practical suggestions: take out your earbuds on campus, and bury your phone deep in your backpack. He says that in his view having AI write and think for you will not build your intellect, character or social skills.
Stories of connection
To illustrate the point, he tells of alumni Mike and Carol, whose conversation in an add/drop line led to Mike joining the Church and to their marriage, and of Brother Sean Dixon, who found his future wife while waiting for a parking pass.
Turning to Christ
Reese closes by pointing to Jesus Christ as the model for noticing people one by one. He mentions Zacchaeus, the woman at the well and the sick and children among the Nephites, and urges students to listen to God more and their earbuds less.
Summary only. Please see the BYU Speeches page for the complete transcript and endnotes.
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