Randy Pausch: Last Lecture

Last week for my EDM 310 class we were asked to do an assignment where we listened to podcasts done by students from last semester’s class. One of the podcasts that I chose was on the last lecture done by Randy Pausch. When I heard the students talking about him he sounded like a fascinating man. Automatically I knew that I was intrigued by his techniques and would love to learn from him. This week we were asked to listen to his last lecture which excited me because since hearing bits and pieces about him I had really wanted to see what his last lecture was really all bout.

Before watching the video I did a little research on Pausch to try and learn more about exactly who was delivering this lecture and listen to his story. Randy Pausch was known as being an extraordinary professor who touched the lives of many students not only through his words but his efforts to help them become all he knew they could be. He worked at four Universities in his time: Brown University, Harvard University, Carnegie Mellon and MIT. In September of 2006 he was diagnosed with Pancreatic Cancer. He had 10 tumors on his liver. Only 20% of victims of Pancreatic Cancer are able to have surgery to try and remove the tumors. Pausch was lucky enough to fall in that 20% range. He had surgery in late September. He was in rehab for months trying to get well. He was a strong man and hung on for a long while. Some days were better than others but eventually the cancer won and Randy Pausch past away in July of 2008. I really should not say the cancer won because really it didn’t. Pausch lived his life to the fullest until the end.

After learning so much about this amazing man I could not wait to listen to his last lecture. I was sure he would have something grand to say. At the start of the lecture Randy Pausch asked the question, “If you had to deliver one lecture before you died what would it be?” Well Pausch was about to deliver his last lecture so he would answer that question for himself. He starts by introducing himself and telling about his cancer. He states “We cannot change the cards that we are dealt just how we play the hand.” First he introduces the topics he wont talk about and number one is family because he says he is too weak to not cry. He then introduces the topics in which he will talk about. They are as follows: His childhood dreams, enabling the dreams of others, lessons learned and how we can achieve our dreams and enable others to do so. He begins by stating his childhood dreams such as being in zero gravity, playing in the NFL and being a Disney Imagineer. Pausch states that children should all have specific dreams, for instance instead of dreaming to be an astronaut he dreamed to be in zero gravity. He touched on each briefly. In some way or another Pausch achieved all his childhood dreams. He eventually got to ride in the vomit commit with his students where he experienced zero gravity. He did not play in the NFL but, football is something Pausch said changed his life. He spoke of one of his coaches named Jim Graham. Graham was a mentor for Randy. One thing he taught Randy was that you could learn how to play football even without a football because it is all about the fundamentals. This can be used in many aspects of life. Randy was taught never to give up and all about the head fake. If your wondering what the head fake is, it is a simple theory of Pauschs that we teach our children when they are young to learn indirectly. Another childhood dream of Randy’s was to become Captain Kirk. Well the closet he got was meeting him. This goes in the same sense with another childhood dream of becoming a Disney Imagineer. He tried several times and they did not want him. He decided that brick walls are in everyone’s way, not to stop us but to show us we can achieve anything. Randy learned that some brick walls more made of flesh. He forced his way into being connected to Disney. He became good friends with Jon Snoody and spent 80 hours working with the imagineers. He soon became part of the Aladdin VR project that was a big success.

He moves on by stating that he is so glad to be a professor. He first saw that he could enable the dreams of others when he met a student named Tommy Burnette. Tommy wanted to be apart of all the Star Wars movies. He worked very closely with Randy who put faith in him and he soon worked on all three movies as an undergrad student. Pausch soon made a class at Carnegie Melon called Building Virtual Worlds. Only 50 students were drawn to take this class. It became a big hit which is why they started ETC, which stands for Entertainment Technical Center. This is a 2 year program in which you could earn your professional degree. One thing worked on during this time was Alice. Alice is virtual software that is a novel way to teach kids how to make computer games. He stresses that the best way to teach someone something is to have them think they are learning something else. Pausch claims that Alice is his professional legacy. My favorite quote used by Pausch was to talk about Alice. He says, “I like Moses get to see the promise land but I won’t get to set foot in it, but that’s okay because I can see it and the vision is clear.”

Pausch starts talking about lessons learned. He thanks his parents for giving him such a special childhood. He says that others such as mentors, students and colleagues have a huge part of our lives. He feels as if he learned as much from his students as they learned from him. One last thing he says is we have ways to get people to help us. First believe in karma, tell the truth, apologize when you screw up and focus on others. He ends the lecture by letting everyone know that this talk was not for the audience but instead for his kids.

Wow! This man is amazing! I admire him just from a video. Pausch was a true educator. He believed in his students and took them places. I feel as if everyone could learn a little something from Randy Pausch because I know I did. Before I end my post I would like to point out one more fascinating thing about Pausch. He had a quote for everything. I would like to end by repeating a few of those in memory of Randy Pausch. “Don’t complain, just work harder!” “When people give you feedback, cherish and use it!” “When you do right good things will have a way of happening.” “When it comes to men that are romantically interested in you, simply ignore all they say and only pay attention to the things they do.” “Loyalty is a two way street!” “When you have held the most precious thing in the world in your hands its tough to hand it over, but hand it over to better hands than yours.” “Get someone to be self reflective!” “If you wait long enough people will surprise and impress you and when you are angry with them you have not given them enough time.” “Be good at something it makes you valuable!” People will show you their good side, because no one is all evil!” “Experience is what you get when you didn’t get what you wanted!” This is just one way to show you how intellectual Randy Pausch.