Blog Post #7

Randy Pausch's Last Lecture
This lecture by Dr. Pausch was by far my favorite. I laughed and cried throughout the video. I put it off all week because I didn't want to watch a lecture that was over an hour long. However, I am so glad I got to watch this video.

Dr. Pausch was a professor at Carnegie Mellon University when he gave this last lecture on September 18, 2007. He had tumors on his liver and was not given much more time to live but his attitude was absolutely stunning. He was so positive about his situation and he told his audience not to feel sorry for him because his health was just as good as theirs if not better!

In his speech he talked about three things: his childhood dreams, enabling dreams of others, and lessons learned. Dr. Pausch had six childhood dreams and they were -

1. Zero Gravity

2. Play in the NFL

3. Authoring an article in the Encyclopedia

4. Be Captain Kirk

5. Win the big stuffed animals

6. Be a Disney Imagineer


Of these six childhood dreams he accomplished all of them except playing in the NFL. Even though he didn't get to play in the NFL he learned some of his greatest lessons from his football coach when he was a child. When talking about his football experiences he said "Experience is what you get when you didn't get what you wanted." I love this quote because it looks at the positive side of a situation and it means you may not have what you wanted but you got experience from it and you know what to do next time. Dr. Pausch got to experience Zero Gravity by becoming a "web journalist" almost overnight because teachers were not allowed to attend with the students but a media journalist could. It was pretty funny to hear him tell the story about that. He was also asked to write an article about Virtual Reality and it was published in the encyclopedia. Even though he didn't get to be Captain Kirk, he got to meet him and he was interested in what Dr. Pausch was doing in his own lab. He was really excited about that and he considered his dream accomplished. He won several stuffed animals at theme parks and such and he had them brought out on stage during his speech. Finally, his last dream was accomplished but it took a lot of hard work to get there. To become a Disney Imagineer, he had to try several times and get the help of more than one person. After he was in, they wanted him to stay but he didn't. From this experience he learned that brick walls are there to stop people who don't want it badly enough.

The next thing he talked about was Enabling Dreams of Others. Throughout his years of teaching, Dr. Pausch had the chance to help many of his students accomplish their goals and dreams. One student he talked about was Tommy, who wanted to work on the next Star Wars movie. He worked under Randy for many years and Tommy ended up working on all three of the Star Wars movies. Another way he helped others enable their dreams was by starting this class called "Building Virtual Worlds." He took 50 students each semester and all they did was create these different projects using the virtual world. The class become an instant success and most of the students were given jobs and internships before they even took the class just because they were going to take it.

The last thing he talked about was His Lessons Learned. He talked first about his parents being very important in his life and also his teachers, friends, mentors and colleagues. One person he really focused on was Andy van Dan who was one of his mentors. With his help, Randy got really far in his career. Some important things to take from Dr. Pausch's last lecture are: brick walls let us show our dedication, the best gold is at the bottom of the barrels of crap, get a feedback loop and listen to them, show gratitude, don't complain, just work harder, be good at something and you will be valuable, find the best in everybody, and be prepared luck is where preparation meets opportunity.

Dr. Pausch tells us his two "headfakes" at the end of his lecture and they are:

1. It's not about how to achieve dreams, it's how you lead your life.

2. This talk was not for us, it was for his kids.


Less than a year after giving his last lecture, Randy Pausch passed away from his liver problems. Even though is he not here he obviously has made a huge impact throughout his life and his teaching career. We can learn a lot from his video and I am so glad I got to watch it!