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the #1 book in America
What would you do if you were told that you had only a few months to live? How would you get your affairs in order?
Randy Pausch, a computer science professor at Carnegie Mellon University in Pittsburgh, found out that he had pancreatic cancer in September 2006. In August 2007, Pausch received terrible news: his cancer had spread.
Pausch decided to give his last lecture. He wanted his young children to have this speech so they might know him when they could understand. He delivered his lecture at Carnegie Mellon last September. He called it “Really Achieving Your Childhood Dreams.” Millions of viewers have seen it on YouTube.
Six months later Pausch, 47 years old, is still very much alive. He has published a book, “The Last Lecture,” to serve as a companion piece to his speech. In the book, Pausch looks back at his life. He dispenses nuggets of wisdom. There is no bitterness here, no feeling sorry for himself. His children are so young that they still don’t know that their dad is dying. The tenderness that he feels for his family glows with the fire of a celestial beacon.
He had wonderful parents who nurtured his dreams of becoming a scientist. A total nerd, he was a confirmed bachelor when he met Jai, the woman who was destined to become his wife and the mother of their children. He was crazy in love.
And he describes the moment when they learned that he was dying. On Aug. 15, 2007, they went to see his oncologist for his quarterly check-in. Randy and Jai were waiting for the doctor. “The examining room had a computer in it, and I noticed that the nurse hadn’t logged out; my medical records were still up on the screen.”
He clicked through a few screens and quickly comprehended his blood-work report. “It’s over,” I said to Jai. “My goose is cooked.” Perhaps his scientific perspective allowed him to observe somewhat dispassionately the circumstances that would cause his premature death.
The final section of “The Last Lecture” is a rapid-fire culmination and distillation of advice, humor and wisdom. He calls it “It’s About How You Live Your Life.” It is a series of pithy essays with some titles that hint at the jewels of knowledge contained in Pausch’s treasure box: “Dream Big.” “Don’t Complain, Just Work Harder.” “Don’t Obsess Over What People Think,” “Look for the Best in Everybody” and “Show Gratitude.”
He knows how to get his audience to pay attention. “When I taught a ‘user interface’ class at the University of Virginia, I’d bring in a working VCR on the first day. I would put it on a desk in the front of the room. I would pull out a sledgehammer. I would destroy the VCR.”
Pausch gently smashes our resistance to living deeper, richer lives. “The Last Lecture” contains a simple but powerful message: live today.
You can watch Pauch’s last lecture at the lastlecture.com
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By victor mickunas
April 23, 2008 9:53 AM | Link to this
This book is still #1 at Amazon.com.