The Last Lecture
After those two books, it was “The Last Lecture” by Randy Pausch. My father had finished the book during his journey back from Mysore to Bangalore which is about 3 hours and he had liked it and so suggested me to read it. Thanks to him. It’s a wonderful read. Simple, sensible and a straight forward book. Randy Pausch delivered his last lecture at Carnegie Mellon University on September 18, 2007, and the lecture was called “Achieving Your Childhood Dreams.” At the Carnegie Mellon University every retiring professor is requested or in a way given a last chance to lecture to a larger student audience about what ever they would want to talk about(does anything like this happen in any of our Indian universities? Let me know if you know).But in Randy’s case, it was actually a Last Lecture as he was by then diagnosed with terminal cancer.
There isn’t any point, during the read, a chance for the reader to get bored because Randy has been very humorous and also very serious at the same time. He starts with telling about the “Elephant in the room”, cancer. Without getting into too much details about it, he quickly moves on to what his childhood dreams were and how he made it come true. Oh no, not all of his dreams came true, his dream of getting into the National Football League (NFL) never happened. But his try and preparation for it made him learn lessons he wouldn’t forget all his life. It is at this point where he talks about head fake (which is a term familiar to the American football fans) and goes on and tells us all what it is. Randy dint just achieve his dreams or most of his dreams but he also helped others achieve their dreams. His start and upbringing of the Carnegie Mellon University’s Entertainment Technology Center is something very inspiring to read about. The creative opportunities created by him for many students at CMU is something that really needs, not only, to be noticed and applauded but to be implemented in all universities.
The book actually came out quite later after his actual lecture at CMU and goes a little beyond what you see in the video. Its for this reason that I suggest you all to read the book first and then watch the lecture video which is available on youtube and CMU websites as well. I also suggest that its better not finish this book in one sitting, which is quite possible, as it might be felt a bit overwhelming if done so.
Much is there to be learnt from this guys simple lecture. Clarity, Hope and Optimism lingers on with you after you finish reading it. Do not miss reading this book and do watch the video.
Cheers to Randy !
Vinay
Grt book vinay…I believe you are the one who told me about this book…it was great. I also saw the video..inspiring one. Good post.
Thanks Jay. Glad that you liked the book.
Just my observation vinay.. not to be mistaken.. The line ‘The creative opportunities created by him for many students at CMU is something really’ has few more words i guess.. it must have got erased.. if u could add those then it would help me to understand better the kind of work Mr. Randy Pausch did in CMU.
The work is great:)
Hi Smitha, thanks for letting me know about those missing lines. Wonder how that happened. Nice to be seeing you put up your comments, they are definitely encouraging.
Sweet…I have already done a couple of courses on HCI involving his text books. Those are just great. I will definitely check out this book. Luckily its available in my University.
Hey Preetham, thanks for making time to read my blog and also put up your comments. I would like to know more about those books that you have mentioned here authored by Randy. Cheers..