The Last Lecture: A Review
In the final lecture of his life, Dr. Randy Pausch, popular Computer Science Professor at Carnegie Mellon who had recently been diagnosed with terminal cancer, encourages his students and colleagues to reach for their dreams. In The Last Lecture, the professor doesn’t talk about his looming death but about enduring life lessons and the achievement of his childhood dreams. “We cannot change the cards we are dealt, just how we play the hand”.
THE LAST LECTURE is the life affirming book based on the now famous farewell lecture given by award winning teacher and virtual reality pioneer Randy Pausch on September 18, 2007 to a packed auditorium at Carnegie Mellon University shortly after he was diagnosed with terminal cancer. The popular computer-science professor now with only months to live delivered a passionate, energetic, and humorous lecture to his admiring students and colleagues called “Really Achieving Your Childhood Dreams”. In his sensational 70-minute lecture which has been viewed by millions on the internet, Randy doesn’t focus on death and dying but universal life lessons and the importance of overcoming obstacles, or “brick walls” as he calls them, in pursuit of your dreams.
As Randy astutely muses “We cannot change the cards we are dealt, just how we play the hand”. At the close of his life teaching discourse Randy asks the unsuspecting listeners “Did you figured out the head fake? …The talk is not for you. It’s for my kids”. Sadly for his wife and three young children Randy lost his courageous fight against pancreatic cancer on July 25th 2008 but his legacy will forever inspire with purpose and joy how we should all “play the hand” life has dealt each of us. Read this inspirational book and prepare to have your views of life challenged and perhaps even changed. And that is no “head fake”.
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