Lessons from "The Last Lecture"

Distinguished professor Randy Pausch gave the traditional "last lecture" to a packed house at Carnegie Mellon University in fall 2007. These lectures, given by retiring or departing faculty answer the question:

"If you had one last lecture to give students, what would you tell them?"

Pausch is a beloved figure, virtual reality pioneer, human-computer interaction researcher, co-founder of CMU's Entertainment Technology Center, and creator of the Alice software project. And Randy Pausch is dying. Last year, he felt somewhat tired and had a few digestive symptoms. He went to the doctor, only to be told that he had mere months to live because he had metastic pancreatic cancer -- the most deadly of all cancers. Yet Pausch, a father of three young children, focused on "Achieving Your Childhood Dreams," his lifelong pursuit.

Pausch on How to Achieve Your Childhood Dreams

• We can't control the cards we're dealt, but only how we play them.
• Focus not on problems or death, but on how to live.
• Never give up dreams, childlike wonder, and enthusiasm.
• We benefit and learn from pursuing dreams, even if we never achieve them.
• Experience is what we get when we don't get what we wanted.
• If no one tells us when we're doing a poor job, that means others have given up on us.
• When someone pushes us, it's because they care that we are our best.
• Rejection letters are inspirational -- one more avenue explored.
• "Brick walls" are there to give us a chance to show how much we want "it."
• Have fun all the time, every day. Consciously choose to enjoy life.
• Humility is important.
• Expressing creativity is more important than pristine surroundings -- let kids paint their dreams on their bedrooms walls, and forget the resale value.
• No whining, no self-pity. ("When your father was your age, he was fighting the Germans.")
• Value people over things.
• Choose to be a "Tigger," not an "Eeyore."
• Work and play well with others: tell the truth, apologize when wrong, and look for the best in others.
• A true apology says, "I'm sorry. It was my fault. How can I make it right?"
• No one is pure evil -- be patient, and the good side will show itself.
• Show gratitude: It's simple and powerful.
• Don't complain -- just work harder.
• If we live life the right way, dreams will come to us, and karma will work itself out.

While Randy Pausch makes it clear that his last lecture is for his children, millions have seen and been changed by it since its posting online.

• The video is worth watching in its entirety, and can be seen here: http://download.srv.cs.cmu.edu/~pausch/.
• Pausch also gave an 11 minute reprise of the presentation on the Oprah Winfrey Show October 7th, 2007, which can be viewed here: http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=8577255250907450469&pr=goog-sl.
• High-resolution downloadable versions of Randy's videos can be found at www.cs.virginia.edu/robins/Randy.
• And his book, "The Last Lecture," which delves deeper into these life lessons, is available here: http://search.barnesandnoble.com/Last-Lecture/Randy-Pausch/e/9781401323257/?itm=1
• Other Links: www.randypausch.com www.etc.cmu.edu www.alice.org

Good Reads: The Next Generation of Work

From the Indianapolis Star: "Today's age groups express their values and perceive work differently:

• Valuing family: Older men show they value their family by working long hours to make lots of money. Younger workers like to show they value their family by spending more time with them.
• Experience: The older generation tries to maintain its clout by emphasizing experience, which it equates with knowledge. The younger generation values experience not "just because," but by analyzing whether anything was learned or gained from it.
• Respect: Older workers want to be held in higher esteem than their younger peers, because they are older or earn more. Younger people also want esteem and to be listened to, but they have no expectation that they should be deferred to in decision-making.
• Work ethic: Older workers believe younger employees don't want to put in the hours necessary to get ahead. Younger workers are willing to put in the time for their jobs, but they're uninterested in having a lot of "face time" at the office."

To attract the best and brightest of coming generations of workers, companies and managers will likely have to adjust their expectations of what the work day, work week, and work life look like, using communications technology and infrastructure, allowing flexible work schedules that still get the right work done the right way.

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