The Last Lecture By Randy Pausch

The Last Lecture by Randy Pausch and Jeffrey Zaslow is a biography as well as an examination of the meaning of life. Randy Pausch, a professor of computer science at Carnegie Mellon University, wrote this book based on a lecture he gave on September 18, 2007. The title of the lecture was “Really Achieving Your Childhood Dreams.” In his lecture, Mr. Pausch voiced his opinions on what he believes is truly important in life.

Interjected between his ideas on life was an extensive biography of the 47 year old professor. In his lecture, he explained each of his childhood dreams as well as the dreams he had for his own children. Mr. Pausch was very open with his recent diagnosis of pancreatic cancer. The doctors only gave him several months to live, and instead of spending his last months on earth wondering why he has to die so young, Randy decided to embrace life and live the last few months to the best of his ability. Randy had this lecture videotaped so his young children would one day be able to hear and see his message.

Months after the taping of the “Last Lecture” the students of Carnegie Mellon uploaded the video of Randy’s lecture on YouTube. Since the original upload in late 2007, nearly 10 million viewers have enjoyed the professor’s message. Soon after the success of the YouTube video, The Last Lecture, in book form, was published. Randy uses the format of the original Lecture in his book to describe his past experiences and future hopes.

Mr. Pausch puts a lot of emphasis on achieving childhood dreams. He believes that happiness is dependent on the success of childhood dreams. Some of his dreams were being in zero gravity, playing in the NFL, writing an article in the World Book encyclopedia, and being a Disney Imagineer. Although some of these dreams might seem a little ambitious, Randy strives to achieve these dreams. In his book, Randy states that he has achieved all of his childhood dreams in some way or another. He adds that he is happy with the decisions he made throughout his life and would not change anything in his life if he had the chance.

While some readers might view Randy Pausch’s The Last Lecture as nothing more than a rationalization of the professor’s life, I found the book very enjoyable. Randy’s cheerful and humorous attitude in the face of death is extremely inspiring. I have not found any other book that is more uplifting, cheerful, or inspiring than Mr. Pausch’s The Last Lecture. Readers can read this book again and again and get something new out of the book after each read. The book is not very difficult to read because of its easy grammar and vocabulary. Although I did not have any trouble reading the book itself, some of the content was unfamiliar to me. Mr. Pausch frequently references various computer programming and virtual reality subject matter that I have never heard of. While reading, I had several questions about some of the technology he describes, but a few quick searches on Google answered my questions. If anyone is looking for a quick, uplifting read, I would absolutely recommend The Last Lecture by Randy Pausch. Even after reading the book, the reader can read it again and again and enjoy Randy’s message each time.