5/08/08

Inspirational lecture becomes best-seller

by Mary Burns

The Last Lecture

By Randy Pausch

(Hyperion, $21.95)

Many college professors give talks called “last lectures.” They gather their lifetime of wisdom and present it, before retiring or dying, as advice to enlighten their students while there’s still time.

Randy Pausch, a professor of computer science at Carnegie Mellon, has terminal cancer.  He opts to give a “Last Lecture” there because it will be his last, and he wants this as a legacy on videotape for his young children who will grow up without him.  He has been giving such life-advice to his students for all the years he has taught, wanting to give them reality-based information along with what they’d signed up for.

His book is about the life that led up to that lecture, his childhood and list of goals, most of which came to fruition. He was a member of the Disney Imagineering team, among other objectives. Early in the book, Randy admits to his arrogance which made it easier for this reader to move beyond that and see the content as worthy to give an emerging graduate or simply a good read for a tune-up of one’s own life.

“We cannot change the cards we are dealt, just how we play the hand.”  -- Randy Pausch