On September 18th, 2007 Randy Pausch delivered a unique lecture. For years Carnegie Mellon had a series of lectures titled "The Last Lecture" where professors spoke as if it were their last lecture about their personal and professional journeys. In the case of Randy it was indeed his last lecture. Diagnosed the previous summer with pancreatic cancer he had just a few months ahead to live. Instead of lamenting and feeling defeated he dedicated his last months to enjoy life and his family. The father of three small children (Dylan 6, Logan 3, and Chloe 18 months) and married to Jai for eight years, his lecture and book are statement for them and we, as audience, have the privilege to learn from it.
Professionally, Randy Pausch was a computer scientist from Brown University, PhD and Professor from Carnegie Mellon, pioneer in virtual reality and Walt Disney Imagineer, above all an educator.
His lecture "Achieving Your Childhood Dreams" became an instant hit (as of today more than 18 million views in YouTube). After this lecture Pausch wrote the book with more details about his story. The Last Lecture is an autobiography full of inspiring lessons.
Preparing the lecture Randy struggle with what made him unique. After playing with ideas and memories he conclude that he achieved all his childhood dreams, therefore the title.
The book is broadly divided in three sections. First he shares his childhood dreams and how they were achieved. The lessons are of passion, perseverance, faith and hard work. The second part is a series of anecdotes that give the reader an idea of who Randy Pausch was; an optimist, hard working nerd, passionate about whatever he was involved in (learning, teaching, working, in his marriage, parenting, etc). The last part relates to his values and beliefs. Randy appreciated the community and helping others to achieve their own dreams, family, generosity in general, hard work, frugality, team work, truthfulness, industriousness, and more.
Randy passed away just 10 months after his "Last Lecture" but his inspiration will remain for many years later.
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| From USA Today Obituary |
Randy Pausch (Oct. 23, 1960 - July 25, 2008)
My rating 4 stars.
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