What the hell is water?

a beautiful sight, tiktaalik in flight

May 24, 2026

When I was still a minor, my mother texted me a famous commencement speech by David Foster Wallace, called “This is Water”. He starts off with this parable:

There are these two young fish swimming along and they happen to meet an older fish swimming the other way, who nods at them and says “Morning, boys. How’s the water?” And the two young fish swim on for a bit, and then eventually one of them looks over at the other and goes “What the hell is water?”

Now, Wallace’s point is that there are things that we take for granted to the point we don’t even realize they’re there (and, uh, he’s also trying to convert you to his personal brand of spirituality, of course). I don’t really remember what moral my mother (who I’ve never really gotten an impression of as someone who cares much about authorial intent) was trying to convey—possibly that I should show more gratitude for how my parents raised me, instead of complaining. But let’s talk about that story.

I’ve always felt kind of skeptical about the fish story, on the literal interpretation side of things. Does a fish really not notice water? They take advantage of water currents, so clearly they, at the very least, feel its movement. As Sasha Putilin points out, you wouldn’t talk about a bird not noticing air, or a mole not noticing earth.

But, of course, there’s the metaphorical side of things. The fish story tells us that there are things we depend upon in the world and in society that we might, in our naivete, not even realize we need. It cautions us against being too dismissive of the water.

There’s this young fish swimming along in the swamp, when he happens to meet an older fish swimming the other way, who nods and says, “Morning! How’s the water?”

“Terrible! I mean, we came all this way to avoid predators and get food, but there’s so little air in this water. I can hardly think!”

The older fish thinks for a moment, then asks, “Air? What the hell is that?”

“You know, the stuff dissolved in the water. What do you think your gills are for? You need oxygen to live, so everyone’s competing for it. But there’s not a lot of motion in here, so there’s less air coming from above….”

The younger fish pauses, then turns and starts swimming away. The older fish chases after him. “Hey! Where are you going?”

“Out! Of the water! It’s terrible!”

“Now, now. You might take it for granted, but the water is very important! Be careful!”

But it was too late.