- Authors:
- Randy Pausch,
- Jeffrey Zaslow
"We cannot change the cards we are dealt, just how we play the hand." --Randy Pausch A lot of professors give talks titled "The Last Lecture." Professors are asked to consider their demise and to ruminate on what matters most to them. And while they speak, audiences can't help but mull the same question: What wisdom would we impart to the world if we knew it was our last chance? If we had to vanish tomorrow, what would we want as our legacy? When Randy Pausch, a computer science professor at Carnegie Mellon, was asked to give such a lecture, he didn't have to imagine it as his last, since he had recently been diagnosed with terminal cancer. But the lecture he gave--"Really Achieving Your Childhood Dreams"--wasn't about dying. It was about the importance of overcoming obstacles, of enabling the dreams of others, of seizing every moment (because "time is all you have...and you may find one day that you have less than you think"). It was a summation of everything Randy had come to believe. It was about living. In this book, Randy Pausch has combined the humor, inspiration and intelligence that made his lecture such a phenomenon and given it an indelible form. It is a book that will be shared for generations to come. Questions for Randy Pausch We were shy about barging in on Randy Pausch's valuable time to ask him a few questions about his expansion of his famous Last Lecture into the book by the same name, but he was gracious enough to take a moment to answer. (See Randy to the right with his kids, Dylan, Logan, and Chloe.) As anyone who has watched the lecture or read the book will understand, the really crucial question is the last one, and we weren't surprised to learn that the "secret" to winning giant stuffed animals on the midway, like most anything else, is sheer persistence. Amazon.com: I apologize for asking a question you must get far more often than you'd like, but how are you feeling? Pausch: The tumors are not yet large enough to affect my health, so all the problems are related to the chemotherapy. I have neuropathy (numbness in fingers and toes), and varying degrees of GI discomfort, mild nausea, and fatigue. Occasionally I have an unusually bad reaction to a chemo infusion (last week, I spiked a 103 fever), but all of this is a small price to pay for walkin' around. Amazon.com: Your lecture at Carnegie Mellon has reached millions of people, but even with the short time you apparently have, you wanted to write a book. What did you want to say in a book that you weren't able to say in the lecture? Pausch: Well, the lecture was written quickly--in under a week. And it was time-limited. I had a great six-hour lecture I could give, but I suspect it would have been less popular at that length ;-). A book allows me to cover many, many more stories from my life and the attendant lessons I hope my kids can take from them. Also, much of my lecture at Carnegie Mellon focused on the professional side of my life--my students, colleagues and career. The book is a far more personal look at my childhood dreams and all the lessons I've learned. Putting words on paper, I've found, was a better way for me to share all the yearnings I have regarding my wife, children and other loved ones. I knew I couldn't have gone into those subjects on stage without getting emotional. Amazon.com: You talk about the importance--and the possibility!--of following your childhood dreams, and of keeping that childlike sense of wonder. But are there things you didn't learn until you were a grownup that helped you do that? Pausch: That's a great question. I think the most important thing I learned as I grew older was that you can't get anywhere without help. That means people have to want to help you, and that begs the question: What kind of person do other people seem to want to help? That strikes me as a pretty good operational answer to the existential question: "What kind of person should you try to be?" Amazon.com: One of the things that struck me most about your talk was how many other people you talked about. You made me want to meet them and work with them--and believe me, I wouldn't make much of a computer scientist. Do you think the people you've brought together will be your legacy as well? Pausch: Like any teacher, my students are my biggest professional legacy. I'd like to think that the people I've crossed paths with have learned something from me, and I know I learned a great deal from them, for which I am very grateful. Certainly, I've dedicated a lot of my teaching to helping young folks realize how they need to be able to work with other people--especially other people who are very different from themselves. Amazon.com: And last, the most important question: What's the secret for knocking down those milk bottles on the midway? Pausch: Two-part answer: 1) long arms 2) discretionary income / persistence Actually, I was never good at the milk bottles. I'm more of a ring toss and softball-in-milk-can guy, myself. More seriously, though, most people try these games once, don't win immediately, and then give up. I've won *lots* of midway stuffed animals, but I don't ever recall winning one on the very first try. Nor did I expect to. That's why I think midway games are a great metaphor for life.
Cited By
- Toyoshima J, Doi S, Ueda H and Tokiwa Y A Comprehensive Study on a Presentation Education Method Applicable to Higher Education and Industry 2020 IEEE Frontiers in Education Conference (FIE), (1-9)
- Cohen M, Nagayama Y and Ryskeldiev B Metering "black holes": networking stand-alone applications for distributed multimodal synchronization Proceedings of the 18th ACM International Conference on Multimodal Interaction, (396-397)
- Cohen M Smartphone rigging with GUI control emulation for freeware rapid prototyping of mixed virtuality scenes SIGGRAPH ASIA 2016 Mobile Graphics and Interactive Applications, (1-2)
- Andersen K The deliberate cargo cult Proceedings of the 2014 conference on Designing interactive systems, (627-636)
- Pieterse V, Thompson L, Marshall L and Venter D An intensive software engineering learning experience Proceedings of Second Computer Science Education Research Conference, (47-54)
- Kelleher C, Myers B, Siewiorek D, Cosgrove D, Pierce J, Conway M and Marinelli D Special session in honor of randy pausch CHI '08 Extended Abstracts on Human Factors in Computing Systems, (3997-4002)
Index Terms
- The Last Lecture
Reviews
Leonard Charles Silvern
Ordinarily, this review would be about a book on computer science. Instead, it is about the memoir of a computer scientist. Moreover, it deals with a philosophical observation made by Marshall McLuhan in 1964. In his text [1], McLuhan coined the phrase "the medium is the message," contending that in addition to the content carried by the medium, the medium itself affects society. This volume, and how it came to be published and became a national bestseller, exemplifies this McLuhan concept. However, before getting to the review, it is essential to connect a few dots. It began in September 2007 when the author, Randy Pausch, a professor at Carnegie Mellon University, presented his lecture, "Really Achieving Your Childhood Dreams," to a group of 400 attendees. There were no empty seats. Pausch presented an entertaining and detailed description of his life and personal aspirations, and announced he was dying of cancer and this was to be his "last lecture." At one point, as he began the lecture, the author quickly dropped to the auditorium floor and did a few one-handed push-ups, reminiscent of actor Jack Palance's performance to demonstrate his physical prowess at the 1992 Academy Awards show. The university videotaped the lecture and it quickly appeared on such international media outlets as YouTube, Google Video, ABC, and the Public Broadcasting System (PBS). Thus, the Pausch lecture became available immediately throughout the civilized world and was viewed by millions. McLuhan had, in fact, predicted 44 years before that the medium and the message would become intertwined. The lecture was quickly converted into print format, with the help of writer Jeffrey Zaslow, and was published in early 2008. The book is recommended reading for a general audience and is quite inspirational, but I prefer to focus on a deeper meaning to the sequence of events. Let's begin with Isaac Newton (1642-1727), the scientist who discovered the law of universal gravitation; developed Newtonian mechanics and laws of motion; and invented calculus, the reflecting telescope, and a few other things. Newton lived a very self-confined, solitary existence, with few personal relationships, and died alone as a controversial futurist who also dabbled in alchemy. There was no medium to proclaim these great contributions until long after his death. An international body later created the "newton" as a unit of force related to the joule. Fast-forward 150 years to Nikola Tesla (1856-1943). He was identified as the developer of alternating current, the induction motor, and the rotating magnetic field; as the "man who invented the 20th century"; and by the US Supreme Court in 1943 as the "inventor of radio," by upholding his 1900 patent #645,576 on the "System of Transmission of Electrical Energy." He lived a life filled with controversy and litigation, and died alone and destitute in room 3327 of the New Yorker hotel in New York City in 1943. There was no medium to proclaim these great contributions until long after his death. An international body later created the "tesla" as the unit of magnetic flux density. Fast-forward about 75 years to 2008. Traditionally, in Hollywood, a book is published first and, if it is a success, it can be followed by a screenplay and the film. But, as McLuhan inferred, since "the medium is the message," the video of Pausch's lecture came first, followed immediately by global exposure and a printed book. The message and the medium became so intertwined as to be inseparable. Professor Pausch passed away in late July 2008, and this review was written the following month. There has been wide critical acclaim for his book, with which I concur. It is an ordinary memoir, produced in an extraordinary way, that deals essentially with the humanistic aspect of a computer scientist's short but productive life. At the Museo Nacional de Antropología in Mexico City's Chapultepec Park, there is a mural at the portal that reads, in translation: Alone, therefore I go like the flowers which will perish; Nothing remains of my name, nothing of my fame here on earth; At least flowers; at least songs. The dots have been connected. Online Computing Reviews Service
Jennifer M. Nolan
In his last lecture, Randy Pausch-a professor of computer science, human-computer interaction, and design at Carnegie Mellon University-delivers a powerful, inspirational message. This phenomenal work captures his childhood dreams, how he realized most of those dreams, and what he learned from those he failed to realize. Pausch credits many individuals in his life for their strength, wisdom, and guidance. He continually validates every single person mentioned in his lecture. He discusses how he and his colleagues joined forces so that they could provide opportunities for others to realize their dreams. As the reader journeys through the life and times of the author, he distinguishes himself as one of those rare professors who truly cares about his students and genuinely inspires and pushes them toward greatness. Pausch delineates many of his personal and professional successes and triumphs. Throughout his lecture, Pausch richly credits others, rather than boasting selfishly about his own accomplishments. Pausch repeatedly discusses the projects in which he was involved that allowed artists and technologists to work together. Perhaps his favorite such project was working for Disney as an imagineer on the Aladdin project. It is clear that Pausch understands and accepts the fact that he will soon face death. However, he addresses this in the beginning of his lecture, and does not dwell on it after that. Perhaps the most poignant of all is how Pausch finishes his lecture. First, he makes his point about focusing on others by bringing out a birthday cake for his wife. Knowing that this is to be her last birthday with her husband alive was touching enough. The words she whispered in his ear as she walked off the stage were, "Please don't die." The lecture was delivered not with the intent of becoming a great work, but, rather, as a living legacy to the children he would leave behind. Throughout the lecture, Pausch talked about "the head fake." The last lines of his lecture asked the audience to identify the first and second head fakes. The first head fake was: "It's not about how to achieve your dreams. It's about how to lead your life. If you lead your life the right way, the karma will take care of itself. The dreams will come to you." The lecture could not have ended on a finer note, leaving a legacy for his family, when Pausch tells everyone the second head fake. His last words explain, "The talk wasn't just for those in the room. It was for my kids." Beyond his last lecture, Pausch has been celebrated with numerous awards for his contributions to computing, digital arts, and education. He was also a noted author of books and articles, and in 2008 was named as one of the world's most influential people by Time magazine. The last lecture is clearly Pausch's crowning achievement. This is a must-read book. The reader is left with the impression that Pausch must have been an extraordinarily remarkable man who was taken from this world way too soon. His family, friends, and children were lucky to have him in their lives, even though he was taken in the prime of his life. The book is a love letter to Pausch's children and wife. However, his words contain much wisdom, from which everyone can benefit. Online Computing Reviews Service
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