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Book Review: “The Last Lecture”

Author: Randy Pausch(with Jeffrey Zaslow)

www.profmanishparihar.blogspot.com

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About the author

PhD in Computer Science; Professor at Carnegie Mellon University from 1988-2007

• A teacher and researcher, and worked with Adobe, Google, Electronic Arts (EA), and Walt Disney Imagineering, and pioneered the non-profit Alice project.

Prof. Randy Pausch

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At the peak of his career, Pausch learned that he had pancreatic cancer in September 2006, and in August 2007 he was given a terminal diagnosis of 3 to 6 months of ‘good health left’.

Randy with his wife JaiAnd his three kids,

Dylan, Logan, and Chloe

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Instead of blaming and going down with depression, Prof. Pausch went all out to do things that would secure his family’s future..

Moved to a new home, settled down with his family near his in-laws so that they could have emotional support..

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And decided to deliver ‘the last lecture’ at Carnegie Mellon University

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He gave an upbeat lecture titled “Really Achieving Your Childhood Dreams" on September 18, 2007, at Carnegie Mellon, which became a popular YouTube video with more than 10 million hits in just one month..

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The lecture was picked up by the mainstream media and was also converted into a book with the help of Jeffrey Zaslow, a columnist for the Wall Street Journal..

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Central Ideas of the book / lecture:

• His childhood dreams• Enabling the dreams of others

• Lessons learnt: How you can achieve your dreams or enable the dreams of others..

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See the glass of life as “half-full”

“We cannot change the cards we are dealt, just how we play the hand. If I don't seem as depressed or morose as I should be, I'm sorry to disappoint you.”

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“Dreaming big…But not day-dreaming..

Then working hard to achieve those dreams”

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Circumnavigate your obstacles..

“The brick walls are there for a reason. The brick walls are not there to keep us out; the brick walls are there to give us a chance to show how badly we want something.”

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“The brick walls are there to stop the people who don't want it badly enough. They are there to stop the other people!”

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‘Experience is what you get when you didn't get what you wanted.’

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• After diagnosis of cancer, Pausch had just over a year to accomplish things that most of us cannot in our entire life-times..!

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Be patient with the students..

Wait long enough and people will surprise and impress you.

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Don’t limit their creativity

You obviously don't know where the bar should be, and you're only going to do a disservice by putting it anywhere.

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The Head Fake

The best way to teach somebody something is to have them think they're learning something else.

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More ‘You’ than ‘I’

Focus on other people, not on yourself. Find the best in everybody..

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Do not tell people how to live their lives. Just tell them stories. And they will figure out how those stories apply to them.

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Don’t be serious..Be sincere (Chetan Bhagat)

Be earnest.. (Randy Pausch)

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Live in the ‘now’

It is not the things we do in life that we regret on our death bed. It is the things we do not. Find your passion and follow it.

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Thank You ! 24th December 2011

www.profmanishparihar.blogspot.com

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