Randy Pausch, 'Last Lecture' Professor Passed Away

[ssrprotege]

This morning I was sad to learn that the last lecture professor passed away...But his last lectures (Time Management and Really Achieving Your Childhood Dreams) will never be forgotten....

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[AgentofGaming]

His lecture was most inspiring... a lasting gift to all.
It's unfortunate in the end he didn't make it through, it seemed like he had a lot more to do.

[IgnoranceIsKind]

Imagine his strength, that despite knowing his days were numbered, he lived to the end while still giving his service to the community. That is courage I haven't quite found in myself yet but hope to.

What do you reckon his type to be? My guess is ENTP.

[Fridays Child]

You know how so many things on youtube aren't worth the 10 seconds you lost cueing them up? This man held my attention for an unprecedented 1 hr 16 min 27 secs. And then I watched it again.

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An engineer, a family man, a teacher, a colleague, a friend, an innovative and playful mind. And an inspiration to millions, simply by answering the question: What would you do if you knew you were going to die?

What a gift, and what a loss.

[stasis]

Do any of you think that people would tend to be as touched and motivated and moved by what the professor is saying if he weren't also dying while saying it? If not, do you suppose the popular significance of what the gentleman has said could have much more to do with a cultural fascination with death than the rational content of the lecture?

[SirJac]

I think your right. His message wouldn't have been as powerful if it wasn't for the mortality behind it. Death has a way of putting things in perspective.

Still, for not having even heard of him until now, I am glad that I took the time to watch the enitre thing.

[Fridays Child]

Do any of you think that people would tend to be as touched and motivated and moved by what the professor is saying if he weren't also dying while saying it? If not, do you suppose the popular significance of what the gentleman has said could have much more to do with a cultural fascination with death than the rational content of the lecture?




You raise an excellent point. The message is of course far from new, or even novel. Poignancy has certainly accounted for much of the success of this particular delivery.

Perhaps the real fascination for many is the rationality of the approach in the face of certain death. The ability of this man to communicate and connect with others is unusual, and it is his apparent calmness that strikes many people as somehow bizarre and therefore fascinating.

It is rare to have such an opportunity to observe quiet rational courage on this scale. Pausch himself had no expectation of becoming famous for dying well: the lecture was only filmed for the benefit of those friends and colleagues who couldn't attend. Indeed, his point was not about dying but about living well. But he accepted graciously the attention of the world in a way most of us would find intolerable. And that alone makes him unusual enough to study.

As the cliche goes: We are all dying, we just don't know the date. His death is not the story, but rather, the manner of his living. But people will take from it according to their own understanding, like any good story that rings true for them. Without the emotionalism, it's just a man who lived and died. With full context, it's a remarkable reminder of what we all know, but seldom believe: that one day, it will be our turn to go.

What will we leave behind, I wonder?

[ssrprotege]

Perhaps the real fascination for many is the rationality of the approach in the face of certain death. The ability of this man to communicate and connect with others is unusual, and it is his apparent calmness that strikes many people as somehow bizarre and therefore fascinating.

It is rare to have such an opportunity to observe quiet rational courage on this scale. Pausch himself had no expectation of becoming famous for dying well: the lecture was only filmed for the benefit of those friends and colleagues who couldn't attend. Indeed, his point was not about dying but about living well. But he accepted graciously the attention of the world in a way most of us would find intolerable. And that alone makes him unusual enough to study.

As the cliche goes: We are all dying, we just don't know the date. His death is not the story, but rather, the manner of his living. But people will take from it according to their own understanding, like any good story that rings true for them. Without the emotionalism, it's just a man who lived and died. With full context, it's a remarkable reminder of what we all know, but seldom believe: that one day, it will be our turn to go.

What will we leave behind, I wonder?

Well said. FC well-put what I would have written.

[ScurvyRose]

I had seen interviews with him on Good Morning America and was intrigued. I watched a partial airing of the lecture one evening and I was engrossed. I watched the full episode on youtube and I then went to the website and ordered the dvd.

This was an amazing man, an amazing family, an amazing life perspective. He will be greatly missed.





ScurvyRose added to this post, 504 minutes and 56 seconds later...

ps The effect of his actions and speach are all the more impressive BECAUSE he did them after he found out he was terminal.

How many people would put that type of energy out there after learning they were going to die? He went above and beyond.

He also introduced us to "speech fake-outs", and that some brick walls are flesh!!

Did anyone watch the special last night?

[Fridays Child]

I didn't, but I hope they did him proud. It will give even more people a chance to hear of this remarkable man.

"The brick walls are there for a reason," he said during his lecture. "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."

I love that.

[ScurvyRose]

Are you a Tiger or are you an Eyore!

[SShack]

Imagine his strength, that despite knowing his days were numbered, he lived to the end while still giving his service to the community. That is courage I haven't quite found in myself yet but hope to.

What do you reckon his type to be? My guess is ENTP.

Most assuredly an ENTP. A very well-developed one who understood his flaws and adapted when necessary. What successes I've had as I've grown older is from learning what he has learned. I didn't have the kind of external influences he had, sadly, so my trajectory is a quite a bit behind his, but I'm getting there, I hope.

I just finally got to watch the lecture today for the first time (I found it intriguing because I'm also a huge Disney fan and am fascinated by the imagineers).

[Deadgod]

Do any of you think that people would tend to be as touched and motivated and moved by what the professor is saying if he weren't also dying while saying it? If not, do you suppose the popular significance of what the gentleman has said could have much more to do with a cultural fascination with death than the rational content of the lecture?

People have been force-feeding this idea that "if they're dead, then they must be lauded and respected". In the end, it's only the idea that counts. Actually, it's only the idea. The personal life doesn't mean much, only to the person. But this Cult of Personality lifestyle we live says otherwise. Watch Entertainment Weekly or even glimpse through Newsweek. Just blown out of proportion "idols". And what about the little snippet of praise for Einstein? Becuae he has been the most famous genius, he actually should be the ONLY one praised? You've gotta be kidding me! First of all, Einstein's genius could be overrated. Second of All, what about the forgotten geniuses that no one knows about, like John Von Neumann and Alan Turing? Not AlanTuring because he was homosexual. Please.

Back to the subject, I've never heard Randy Pausch's lecture so I can't say anything critical of him. I will soon so look forward to my next post here. ;)

[SShack]

Alan Turing did get a play, you know.

[Deadgod]

My review of Randy Pausch's last lecture:

The topic of the lecture is achieving childhood dreams. He describes his experiences involving zero gravity, football, meeting "Captain Kirk" (aka William Shatner), writing an article for an encyclopedia, winning huge stuffed bears, and "imagineering". At first you say, "So he's only there to talk about how successful he was at getting things?". Wrong. His lecture was mostly about the process of attaining such things. I really don't understand the badgering comments from his detractors. They say that he was a well-paid, materially privileged individual. And what does this have to do with the content Prof. Pausch presents? Besides, he didn't get into the NFL and actually came from a working class family.

The main lessons to be learned from the lecture, however, are nothing new. This leads to questioning the validity of such a lecture, typically concluding that such a thing be rendered worthless. But before one thinks such a thing, remember his last headfake. And one can also make the argument of "useful", if one considers his ideas revolutionary (in the literal sense of the word), as opposed to new. This makes sense because in our present context, it could be said that these lessons have been forgotten.

Obviously, to the overly-sentimental uber-humanist/empath, this is ear candy. To the skeptical thinker, not really, but if one continues to think, one might find something worth the while (with that something sometimes being at least one's own thoughts).

I think that Randy Pausch made a valiant effort in sharing an important message to us all, regardless of its redundancy. We need our imaginations back. We need our dreams back. We need those walls torn down. We need to learn to give to each other; to take care of each other. In his last message, we pick out our humanity despite the fact that it wasn't really for us.

The lecture was a nice 60+ mins. of life lessons which would've taken longer for none watchers to figure out. So, Kudos for saving time on life lessons! Overall, a humorous, heartfelt lecture worthy for anyone with a bit of humanity left.

(Alright, I'm expecting a lot of INTPs to point out my inconsistencies and flaws...)

[Fridays Child]

Bravo, Deadgod. You're a man of your word. And I'll have to leave it to others to find fault because it seems to me that you got the whole point. A message doesn't have to be new to make an impact. Otherwise, this would be an empty forum.

[SShack]

(This post may show some of my anti-Boomer bias)

I think what made Randy's speech so powerful at this particular point of time is the combination of idealism and practicality in his discussion of how he achieved his dream. Culturally, a lot of Americans can't seem to combine the two. We either have total dreamers who shrilly demand the world bend itself to their beliefs just because (there's my boomer bias) or people who have been consumed by the the daily grind and can't see anything beyond getting by.

Randy Pausch died at age 47, putting him at the end of the Boomer generation (idealistic, emotional) and the beginning of the Gen Xers (practical, innovative). So he's able to reach both of the dominant generations here with his speech. The idealist elements of it, wanting to be in space, in football, working at Disney, strike a chord with the Boomers. The hard work that went into it and his nerdy side appealed to the Gen Xers.

It was the right speech from the right guy at the right time.