cancer, gave his last lecture at the university Sept. 18, 2007, before a
packed McConomy Auditorium. In his moving talk, 'Really Achieving Your
Childhood Dreams,' Pausch talked about his lessons learned and gave advice
to students on how to achieve their own career and personal goals."
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ji5_MqicxSo
(it's about 1 hour and 15 minutes, and enormously engaging and moving)
Much more than the time management lecture, these notes are no substitute
for watching him. Partly that's because what might seem like flat
aphorisms are just the punchline to rich stories from his career. And
partly because what really strikes me is the metadata: the context, the
manner of speaking, the life itself. My reaction was, this is a nerd made
good. Unlike some of us analytically-minded guys who are attracted to
computer science like he was, he reached outside himself, to find what are
the really important things that make up a life. And over and over he
defines it in terms of human relationships - technology is a secondary
(though important) player. There are three major things he shows off, that
I am currently trying really hard to incorporate into myself, and wish I
had started long ago: Appreciating people, being positive, and defining
and expressing who you are so strongly. Right at this moment, would I be
able to express so strongly who I am and what I'm about, what my story is,
if I suddenly had my own opportunity to give a Last Lecture? What an
inspiration.
---
Brick walls are there for a reason: they let us prove how badly we want
things. They're there to stop the *other* people
Fundamentals, fundamentals, fundamentals. You've got to get the
fundamentals down, or else the fancy stuff won't work.
When you screw up and no one's bothering to correct you anymore, that
means they've given up.
When you do something young enough and train for it, it just becomes a
part of you.
Experience is what you get when you didn't get what you wanted.
It's very important to know when you're in a pissing match. And it's very
important to get out as quickly as possible.
That's one of the reasons you should all become professors: It's because
you can have your cake and eat it too.
Course called building virtual worlds: 50 students from all different
departments. (art, design, drama, and CS) Randomly chosen 4 person team,
change every project ("three new playmates"), two week projects, 5 per
semester.
What to do when they completely blow you away on the first project? "That
was pretty good, but I know you can do better." You don't really know
where the bar is, and you're doing them a disservice by placing it
anywhere.
ETC curriculum: "5 small projects followed by 3 big projects. All of your
time is spent in small teams, makin' stuff."
Project-based curriculum
Intense, fun student experience
Field trips!
Alice: "Millions of kids having fun while learning something hard. And
that's pretty cool. I can deal with that as a legacy."
He painted stuff all over his bedroom walls. To anybody out there who's a
parent, if your kids want to paint their bedroom, let them do it.
"Randy, it's such a shame that people perceive you as so arrogant. Because
it's going to limit what you're going to be able to accomplish in life."
What a hell of a good way to word "you're being a jerk."
Particularly with middle school girls, if you present it as a storytelling
activity they're perfectly willing to learn to program computer software.
Decide if you're tigger or eeyore
Never lose childlike wonder
Help others
How to get people to help you
- Tell the truth
- Be earnest (I'll take an earnest person over a hip person any day,
because hip is short term but earnest is long term)
- Apologize when you screw up
- Focus on others, not yourself
Get a feedback loop, and listen to it. When people give you feedback,
cherish it and use it.
Show gratitude.
Don't complain, just work harder
Be good at something, it makes you valuable
Find the best in everybody. It might take years, but people will show you
their good side.
[the lecture is ] not about how to achieve your dreams - it's about how to
lead your life.
Wonka :: "Do you know what happened to the boy who got everything he ever
wanted?"
Charlie :: "No, what?"
Wonka :: "He lived happily ever after."
--
Finally, from his equally moving (and much shorter) commencement address
at Carnegie Mellon this May:
You will need to find your passion. Many of you have done it, many of you
will later, many of you will take until your 30s and 40s. But don't give
up on finding it. Because then all you're doing is waiting for the reaper.
Find your passion, and follow it, and if there's anything I've learned in
this life, it's that *you will not find your passion in things.* And you
will not find that passion in money. Because the more things and the more
money you have the more you will just look around and use that as the
metric, and there will always be someone with more. So your passion must
come from the things that fuel you from the inside... that passion will be
grounded in people. It will be grounded in relationships with people, and
in what they think of you when your time comes.
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