Randy Pausch’s last lecture
You may have already seen this, but if not - Randy Pausch passed away yesterday so I thought it fitting to link to it today. Carnegie Mellon Professor Randy Pausch was diagnosed with terminal cancer and was given only a very short time to live. Pausch talked about his lessons learned and gave advice to students on how to achieve their own career and personal goals. It’s definitely worth a listen beyond the simple draw of morbid fascination.
Comment posted on 7-28-2008
This guy was pretty incredible, and lucky too. Imagine knowing that you’re going to die and being given the opportunity to give the BIG motivational speech quite literally “of a lifetime.”
He really gets it too. He’s a great reminder of what in this crazy whirlwind of a lifetime is actually important, and he begs you not to forget it. He’s also a great reminder that we shouldn’t live our lives for the future alone, but that the present is really what should be at least equally important.
In my experience, the people who seem like they’d be most moved by such a lecture are probably those who already “get it” to some extent. The others, stuck in a rut, probably need more of a direct experience to break out of where they’re at.