Blog Post 7

Randy Pausch’s Last Lecture

Randy Pausch’s Last Lecture dealt with three subjects. The first being his dreams, the second being about enabling others’ dreams, and the third being the lessons he has learned. Randy Pausch had six childhood dreams while growing up. They were experiencing zero gravity, playing football in the NFL, writing an article for the World Book Encyclopedia, be like Captain Kirk, win large stuffed animals, and work for Disney Imagineer. While he might not have achieved them all, he connected in some way with each of them. The bottom line is not to lose sight of your dreams because “anything is possible”. Even though you might meet up with a brick wall, it’s only for those who are not strong enough to get through it.

As a professor at Carnegie Mellon, he was able to help others achieve their lifelong dreams. He created courses like Building Virtual Walls and Dream Fulfillment Factory which encouraged students to work in a team and create projects in virtual reality. They were highly successful and many people tried to get into the classes. These courses emphasized the ability to become self reflective in their skills and in their ability to work with others. They also “tricked” students into having fun while at the same time learning computer programming.

The last part of Randy’s lecture dealt with the lessons he learned throughout his life. The first one he mentioned was about how much you can learn from your parents, mentors, teachers, friends, students, and colleagues. Some of these lessons might be about helping others, having fun, always having a childlike wonder, never giving up, that loyalty is a two way street. He showed a picture of Tigger and Eeyore and stated that obviously he was the Tigger. He also stated that on his father’s 80th birthday, he rode on a rollercoaster. He wanted to try something new. He emphasized to focus more on others so he brought out a huge birthday cake for his wife and had everyone sing happy birthday to her (I had tears in my eyes at this part).

Other lessons he mentioned was to always do the right thing because good things will happen, show gratitude, listen when you get feedback, don’t complain- just work harder, find something you’re good at, find the best in everybody, and be prepared. He was such an upbeat charismatic speaker and it made me think about how to plug them into my personal and professional life. This video kept my attention and I learned a great deal from it.