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Binding: Hardcover
Dewey Decimal Number: 004.092
EAN: 9781401323257
Edition: 1st
Format: Deckle Edge
ISBN: 1401323251
Label: Hyperion
Manufacturer: Hyperion
Number Of Items: 1
Number Of Pages: 224
Publication Date: April 08, 2008
Publisher: Hyperion
Release Date: April 08, 2008
Studio: Hyperion
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Editorial Review:
Amazon.com Review:
"We cannot change the cards we are dealt, just how we play the hand."
--Randy Pausch
A lot of professors give talks titled "The Last Lecture." Professors are asked to consider their demise and to ruminate on what matters most to them. And while they speak, audiences can't help but mull the same question: What wisdom would we impart to the world if we knew it was our last chance? If we had to vanish tomorrow, what would we want as our legacy?
When Randy Pausch, a computer science professor at Carnegie Mellon, was asked to give such a lecture, he didn't have to imagine it as his last, since he had recently been diagnosed with terminal cancer. But the lecture he gave--"Really Achieving Your Childhood Dreams"--wasn't about dying. It was about the importance of overcoming obstacles, of enabling the dreams of others, of seizing every moment (because "time is all you have...and you may find one day that you have less than you think"). It was a summation of everything Randy had come to believe. It was about living.
In this book, Randy Pausch has combined the humor, inspiration and intelligence that made his lecture such a phenomenon and given it an indelible form. It is a book that will be shared for generations to come.
Questions for Randy Pausch
 We were shy about barging in on Randy Pausch's valuable time to ask him a few questions about his expansion of his famous Last Lecture into the book by the same name, but he was gracious enough to take a moment to answer. (See Randy to the right with his kids, Dylan, Logan, and Chloe.) As anyone who has watched the lecture or read the book will understand, the really crucial question is the last one, and we weren't surprised to learn that the "secret" to winning giant stuffed animals on the midway, like most anything else, is sheer persistence.
Amazon.com: I apologize for asking a question you must get far more often than you'd like, but how are you feeling?
Pausch: The tumors are not yet large enough to affect my health, so all the problems are related to the chemotherapy. I have neuropathy (numbness in fingers and toes), and varying degrees of GI discomfort, mild nausea, and fatigue. Occasionally I have an unusually bad reaction to a chemo infusion (last week, I spiked a 103 fever), but all of this is a small price to pay for walkin' around.
Amazon.com: Your lecture at Carnegie Mellon has reached millions of people, but even with the short time you apparently have, you wanted to write a book. What did you want to say in a book that you weren't able to say in the lecture?
Pausch: Well, the lecture was written quickly--in under a week. And it was time-limited. I had a great six-hour lecture I could give, but I suspect it would have been less popular at that length ;-).
A book allows me to cover many, many more stories from my life and the attendant lessons I hope my kids can take from them. Also, much of my lecture at Carnegie Mellon focused on the professional side of my life--my students, colleagues and career. The book is a far more personal look at my childhood dreams and all the lessons I've learned. Putting words on paper, I've found, was a better way for me to share all the yearnings I have regarding my wife, children and other loved ones. I knew I couldn't have gone into those subjects on stage without getting emotional.
Amazon.com: You talk about the importance--and the possibility!--of following your childhood dreams, and of keeping that childlike sense of wonder. But are there things you didn't learn until you were a grownup that helped you do that?
Pausch: That's a great question. I think the most important thing I learned as I grew older was that you can't get anywhere without help. That means people have to want to help you, and that begs the question: What kind of person do other people seem to want to help? That strikes me as a pretty good operational answer to the existential question: "What kind of person should you try to be?"
Amazon.com: One of the things that struck me most about your talk was how many other people you talked about. You made me want to meet them and work with them--and believe me, I wouldn't make much of a computer scientist. Do you think the people you've brought together will be your legacy as well?
Pausch: Like any teacher, my students are my biggest professional legacy. I'd like to think that the people I've crossed paths with have learned something from me, and I know I learned a great deal from them, for which I am very grateful. Certainly, I've dedicated a lot of my teaching to helping young folks realize how they need to be able to work with other people--especially other people who are very different from themselves.
Amazon.com: And last, the most important question: What's the secret for knocking down those milk bottles on the midway?
Pausch: Two-part answer:
1) long arms
2) discretionary income / persistence
Actually, I was never good at the milk bottles. I'm more of a ring toss and softball-in-milk-can guy, myself. More seriously, though, most people try these games once, don't win immediately, and then give up. I've won *lots* of midway stuffed animals, but I don't ever recall winning one on the very first try. Nor did I expect to. That's why I think midway games are a great metaphor for life.
Product Description:
"We cannot change the cards we are dealt, just how we play the hand."
--Randy Pausch
A lot of professors give talks titled "The Last Lecture." Professors are asked to consider their demise and to ruminate on what matters most to them. And while they speak, audiences can't help but mull the same question: What wisdom would we impart to the world if we knew it was our last chance? If we had to vanish tomorrow, what would we want as our legacy?
When Randy Pausch, a computer science professor at Carnegie Mellon, was asked to give such a lecture, he didn't have to imagine it as his last, since he had recently been diagnosed with terminal cancer. But the lecture he gave--"Really Achieving Your Childhood Dreams"--wasn't about dying. It was about the importance of overcoming obstacles, of enabling the dreams of others, of seizing every moment (because "time is all you have...and you may find one day that you have less than you think"). It was a summation of everything Randy had come to believe. It was about living.
In this book, Randy Pausch has combined the humor, inspiration and intelligence that made his lecture such a phenomenon and given it an indelible form. It is a book that will be shared for generations to come.
Average Rating: 
Rating:  -
Last Lecture is a grand story of a mans life, who he is , where he came from and his journey down the river of life. It has the feel and glory of Huck Fin, a story told with an open heart and an honest soul.
When Randy Pausch is diagnosed with terminal cancer he had the desire to leave something of great value to his family. It would need to be something timeless and have the ability to provide a well spring for the love he would be unable to give in person. It would need to convey the important lessons he felt his children would have learned were he able to live a normal lifespan.
Randy Pausch gathered the moments in his life that he felt were self defining moments, the times when a persons eyes are opened to the truly important things that need to become a priority and thereby guide them towards becoming better people. They are the moments when the blinders come off and one realizes that there are really only a few things that give value to life. Material things become "just" material things. Family, love, encouragement, honesty and a childlike sense of fascination flow with a vitality that ignites the pages with life and the very real promise of eternal hope.
Rating:  -
The last lecture outlines the story and life philosophy behind Professor Randy Pausch, who died of pancreatic cancer and whose legacy is a speech he gave before he died that became an internet sensation.
Randy was a professor at Carnegie Mellon University and a man who lived many of his childhood dreams. He chose to put his thoughts into a book and a speech so that he could leave something behind for his children. His words will not leave you disappointed, and his attitude is inspiring.
The full scope of the book is filled with good humor, an unexpected positive viewpoint even on his last days, and an overwhelming amount of tremendously profound and qualified advice. This book is short and enjoyable from cover to cover and one I recommend to any avid reader.
Rating: -
Since it was written by a dying man intent upon leaving something meaningful from himself to his children. He did that beautifully in his lecture.
Randy Pausch was lots of fun, smart, and thoughtful. But he isn't a great writer, and his book, while full of wonderful stories and insights, was not particularly well written. That said, it is delightful, and will surely impart wisdom to those who read it, and reinforce the importance of placing priorities on how we spend our limited time.
Rating: -
Anyone who has watched and loved Randy Pausch's "Last Lecture" on video owes themselves the chance to read his marvelous book. In it, Pausch not only gives his last lecture in book form but also a view of the way the book was conceived, developed and delivered. Pausch, as many now know, was diagnosed with pancreatic cancer and given a few months to love. He decided to use that time leaving a testament for his three small children who would not have their dad to grow up with. Pausch's lecture was developed around the theme of how to make your dreams come true. It is packed with his own story of fulfilling his own dreams -- from becoming a Disney imagineer (via a sabbatical from teaching) and an astronaut (by finding and exploiting a loophole in his class's tour aboard NASA's "Vomit Comet") to starring on Star Trek. Pausch is energetic and irrepressible, never taking no for an answer. To him, brick walls are not obstacles but challenges to prove who most wants to conquer them. He is optimistic and unstoppable, almost annoyingly so. And he has the computer scientist's black-and-white view of the world. But his insights are neither maudlin nor trite, often counterintuitive, but always worth thinking about. After his wife dings his car, she is afraid he'll be upset at the cost of the repair. Instead, he chooses to ignore the car's status value and drives it with the dings.
Pausch sometimes seems arrogant, brusque and overfly breezy, but his life is a testament to the truth of optimism, creativity and doggedness, qualities others often have in short supply. Though he has gone on, his boundless spirit and energy live on in this book.
Rating: -
My 40 year-old brother-in-law was diagnosed with pancreatic cancer and this book was so helpful and inspiring. The sense of humor and the incredible positive attitude by Randy was amazing. I had to then watch the actual Last Lecture on line after reading this book. I would have liked to learn more about how he handled every day knowing that he was dying, but they do address that at the end and it was very helpful.
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