Last Lecture

Randy Pausch's Last Lecture

This video has been by far the best and most rewarding videos I've watched for this class so far. Dr. Randy Pausch is a professor at Carnegie Mellon University. He is dying of pancreatic cancer. (at the time of the video, 2008) He starts off the talk by saying he has about 3 to 6 months of good health left. He makes it known that he is not moping or spending his time crying about his current situation. He says he is in relatively good health considering what he is going through. He even does push ups on stage!

He talks about his childhood dreams, enabling the dreams of others, and lessons learned. He had some crazy childhood dreams, like being in zero gravity, and being like Captain Kirk. As crazy as those dreams sounded he accomplished almost all of them. He learned an important lesson while playing little league football. His coach said, " Your critics are the ones that are saying they still love you and care." How true that is. Dr. Pausch said that when people stop correcting your mistakes, it means they've given up. He begins to talk about "head fake" learning. This is teaching people something in a fun way, to where learning is fun and doesn't seem like work.

He also talks about brick walls and why they are essential. He says they are there to let us prove how badly we want things. Some times, people can be brick walls. If there was never anything in our way, we wouldn't have to work so hard to fulfill our dreams. He encountered many brick walls trying to become an Imagineer for Disney. Dr. Pausch taught a course on virtual reality that encompassed all of the departments. The students would create virtual worlds and demonstrate it for everyone. This class has become so huge, the program is being created in other universities. That class was his way of enabling the dreams of others.

Dr.Pausch is an inspiration. His entire talk wasn't about childhood dreams, it was about how to live your life. If you live your life for more than just yourself, good things will happen. He has given the world hope, even when he was in such dire need of hope himself. I cried and laughed so much while watching this video. I hope that it will be as much as an inspiration for all those who watch it, as it was for me.