What would you say in your last lecture?

Randy Pausch begins he lecture with the fact that he was estimated to have 5 months to live. He was diagnosed with liver cancer. This doesn't bring him down, he actually says that he is not depressed. He's happy and in the best shape of his life. His frame of mind is that we cannot change the cards we are dealt. In his last lecture he talks about achieve your dreams and enabling the dreams of others.

He starts his talk about his happy childhood. As a child we think anything is possible. Pausch said this was easy for him because he grew up during the 1960s, when Man first walked on the moon. He encourages us to chase specific dreams while bringing something to the table. "Experience is what you get when you didn't get what you wanted." Sometimes you learn from not reaching your childhood goals. We learn most of what we learn indirectly, or from experience. Something else he said,that stood out in his lecture is,

"Brick walls are there for a reason:they let us prove how badly we want things."

They are there to motivate those who want it bad enough, and to hinder those that will let it.

How do you enable the childhood of others? As a computer science professor at the University of Virgina, he helped others build their childhood dreams by creating a virtual world class in cross subject areas. He was blown away by there work after 2 weeks and told them that they could do better work. He says child-like wonder is what drives us, and never to loose it. Having fun is the best way to achieve your dreams.

I like his refreshing outlook on life. Encouraging others to reach their goals, and help others as well. I like also that he said that if someone makes you mad, you just haven't given them enough time to impress you. One of his professor/bosses told him that he was such a good salesman that he should be a professor, selling education.

Apparently, Randy Pausch has written a book, does anyone know the name of it?