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Randy Pausch's Last Lecture

Tags: 42 randypausch
Fri, 01/04/08 • via Neatorama • comments (3)

In September of '07, Carnegie-Mellon professor Randy Pausch was diagonsed with terminal pancreatic cancer, and told to expect about three months of good health. He did his final lecture, entitled, "How to Live Your Dreams" about a month later. The WMV of the lecture is here; an abbridged video is here; and a transcript is here.

The lecture is incredible. I was up all night tossing and turning and trying to resolve the cognitive dissonance of simultaneously wanting to bawl, cheer, punch something, hug Prof. Pausch, learn everything I could from this lecture, and turn it off and forget I'd ever seen it.

Randy Pausch is still fighting, and has a web page here, and a blog here.

You won't look at brick walls the same way again.

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Readers' Comments

Raser,

That was well worth the time spent watching the whole presentation. It's eye opening how well he has accepted his fate and what he is doing with his final days among the living.

I've passed this along to the current and graduated folks in the grad program here I'm applying for. The MIME program here is similar to the ETC group Randy co-founded and a lot of the MIMEsters either knew or knew of Randy.

Thanks.

Eller

Eller | 01/07/08 7:25PM
After watching that lecture, I find myself rethinking how I spend my time, and the goals I'm working toward. I've spent the last few years being extremely selfish, and while it was a path to being healthier, I think I'm also past the point where self-care has to trump care for others. Time to start contributing, time to start putting down roots, time to start laying the groundwork for the rest of my life.
Chris | 01/07/08 11:33PM
Of course, that comment was entirely about me, ha ha. I hope that your friends in the MIME project take this as an inspiration to further Prof. Pausch's enthusiasm, and help others live their dreams.

Also, careful about using the past tense! Prof. Pausch has retired, I think, to spend what time he has with his family, but he's still very much with us, and still doing amazing stuff. He ain't done by a long shot, I think.

Chris | 01/07/08 11:36PM
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