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: 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 didnt 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, wasnt 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 humour, 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.
On September 18, computer science professor Randy Pausch stepped in front of an audience of 400 people at Carnegie Mellon University to deliver a last lecture called 'Really Achieving Your Childhood Dreams'. With slides of his CT scans beaming out to the audience, Randy told his audience about the cancer that is devouring his pancreas and that will claim his life in a matter of months. On the stage that day, Randy was youthful, energetic, handsome, often cheerfully, darkly funny. He rejected all pity, especially self-pity. He seemed invincible. But this was a brief moment, as he himself acknowledged.
In THE LAST LECTURE Randy will use his instantly beloved talk, and his life in that context, to share in more detail than the lecture could allow how he came to each of the applicable lessons he is working so hard to leave for his young children, to help them make their way in the world.
THE LAST LECTURE will inspire readers for years to come to choose to live each day of their lives with purpose and joy. His book will allow readers to commune with Randy's words and experience. It will be a permanent reminder of this rare thing he has done for his kids and his wife, and in the process, all the rest of us.
Incredibly moving
