Product Description

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 didn't have to imagine it as his last, since he had recently been diagnosed with terminal cancer. But the lecture he gaveReally Achieving Your Childhood Dreamswasnt 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.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #271503 in Books
• Published on: 2008-04-10
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Hardcover
• 224 pages

From the Author
A Q&A WITH RANDY PAUSCH
Q. I apologize for asking a question you must get far more often than you'd like, but how are you feeling?
A. 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.
Q. 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?
A. Well, the lecture was written quickly - in under a week. And it was time-limited. I had a great 6 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.
Q. 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?
A. 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?"
Q. 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?
A. 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.
Q. And last, the most important question: What's the secret for knocking down those milk bottles on the midway?
A. 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.

About the Author
Randy Pausch is a professor of Computer Science, Human Computer Interaction, and Design at Carnegie Mellon University. From 1988-1997, he taught at the University of Virginia. He is an award-winning teacher and researcher, and has worked with Adobe, Google, Electronic Arts (EA), and Walt Disney Imagineering, and pioneered the Alice project. He lives in Virginia with his wife and three children.

Excerpted from The Last Lecture by Randy Pausch, Jeffrey Zaslow. Copyright © 2008. Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved.
I have an engineering problem.
While for the most part I'm in terrific physical shape, I have ten tumors in my liver and I have only a few months left to live.
I am a father of three young children, and married to the woman of my dreams. While I could easily feel sorry for myself, that wouldn't do them, or me, any good.
So, how to spend my very limited time?
The obvious part is being with, and taking care of, my family. While I still can, I embrace every moment with them, and do the logistical things necessary to ease their path into a life without me.
The less obvious part is how to teach my children what I would have taught them over the next twenty years. They are too young now to have those conversations. All parents want to teach their children right from wrong, what we think is important, and how to deal with the challenges life will bring. We also want them to know some stories from our own lives, often as a way to teach them how to lead theirs. My desire to do that led me to give a "last lecture" at Carnegie Mellon University.
These lectures are routinely videotaped. I knew what I was doing that day. Under the ruse of giving an academic lecture, I was trying to put myself in a bottle that would one day wash up on the beach for my children. If I were a painter, I would have painted for them. If I were a musician, I would have composed music. But I am a lecturer. So I lectured.
I lectured about the joy of life, about how much I appreciated life, even with so little of my own left. I talked about honesty, integrity, gratitude, and other things I hold dear. And I tried very hard not to be boring.
This book is a way for me to continue what I began on stage. Because exercise is crucial to my health, I ride my bike around my neighborhood for an hour each day. This is time I can't be with my kids, anyway. As I rode, I talked on my cell-phone headset to Jeffrey Zaslow. The stories I told on those 53 long bike rides became the book that follows.
We knew right from the start: None of this is a replacement for a living parent. But engineering isn't about perfect solutions; it's about doing the best you can with limited resources. Both the lecture and this book are my attempts to do exactly that.

Customer Reviews

A true inspiration
Pausch spoke about "Really Achieving Your Childhood Dreams" living not only your dreams but enabling the dreams of others. This coming from a man who had just found out he was dying so he speaks of "seizing every moment" (because "time is all you have...and you may find one day that you have less than you think") he really knew what he was speaking about.

"The Last Lecture" is not a book about dying, it is a book about living. The book is filled with warmth, humor, and was truly inspiring. Another book I really enjoyed reading is Being Here: Modern Day Tales of Enlightenment by Ariel & Shya Kane, a book of short stories about living in the moment. Both of these books
touched my heart.

The book that has taken the US by storm
The Last Lecture has been top of the Amazon.com top 100 best sellers list for the last month. Quite rightly, as this is a must read book. Professor Randy Pausch, who is struggling with terminal cancer, writes inspiringly about the gift of life and making a difference. He wrote the book for his three very young children and luckily it has been published and so is available to us all. I recommend this book as the ultimate inspirational book - despite some of the chapters wrenching the heart strings.

My daughter of sixteen could not put the book down either and has recommended thoroughly to her friends too.

The Passion of Living!
I am so inspired by Randy Pausch's "The Last Lecture", and his insight on living life to the fullest. I am grateful that in his final months of living, he is sharing his jewels of wisdom that he has discovered in his lifetime. And jewels they are! I love how he has fulfilled his childhood dreams and at the same time, supports others to follow their dreams as well - including me. His passion reminds me that life is precious, and when I approach my life as if everything matters, and when I meet each day with integrity, life can be magical. Randy Pausch doesn't take one moment for granted, and his book is a testament to passionate living.

Other books that have inspired me to live my life to its fullest, are Ariel & Shya Kanes' Being Here: Modern Day Tales of Enlightenment, Working on Yourself Doesn't Work: The 3 Simple Ideas That Will Instantaneously Transform Your Life, and How to Create a Magical Relationship: The 3 Simple Ideas that Will Instantaneously Transform Your Love Life: The 3 Simple Ideas That Will Instantaneously Transform Your Love Life. By reading their books and listening to their internet radio show, "Being Here" on The 7th Wave Network channel on Voice America.com, I have discovered how to live my life in the moment - with consistency. The moment is where magic exists! It is so easy to develop this skill set. Easier than I had ever imagined. Thanks to the Kanes, the magic that Randy Pausch describes in his book is possible for everyone to access immediately.