The Last Lecture

"The Last Lecture" was a lecture done by Randy Pausch. This lecture was done by a man who only had about three to six months to live due to ten tumors in his body. His over all personality was wonderful. He was very healthy looking and very optimistic about the lecture. He looked as though he had been happy all his life because he showed pictures and noted that he was always smiling as a child. In the beginning of the lecture when explaining to everyone his situation, he said "We cannot change the cards we are dealt, just how we play the hand." I loved this and wrote it down immediately.

The lecture he gave covered many keys points such as the "head fake learnings," where he would teach one thing with the intention of secretly teaching them something else. Another thing mentioned often were the brick walls. These were the things stopping us from what we want to do. Sometimes they're there for a reason. He talked about his childhood dreams. They ranged from being in a zero gravity atmosphere to being an imagineer. I loved the story about his football coach and the statement about when you're messing up and nobody tells you that means nobody cares. I thought that was a very good way of looking at things.

Randy Pausch started a course called Building Virtual Worlds. His students did such a good job on there first assignment that he didn't feel he had anything left for them to do. His students got so good at building these virtual worlds that they started having shows for people to come and see the worlds created by this students. They showed an example of one and it was amazing. It looked like someone must have spent a ridiculous amount of time on these projects.

This extraordinary individual created a game based on Alice in Wonderland that taught people about computer programming. This is one of those "head fakes" I discussed earlier. He also created a similar program that taught java through and interpretation of The Sims game. He talked about his friend And Van Dam that talked him into going to graduate school and becoming a professor. He told him if he was going to sell something it should be something worth while like education.

He ended the lecture by telling the importance of Karma, that of which I am a firm believer in. He tells the audience to always apologize when you mess up and to always focus on others. It was already known to the audience that this man was not self centered at all . There he was giving his last lecture and he talked about the people in his life that have influenced him and made him the person he is, but he went further and got the entire audience to sing happy birthday to his wife. The last few things he said were the most important. The lecture was titled follow your dreams but it was another "head fake". He was teaching people how to lead there life. Also it was to teach his children something. It was very interesting. If you would like to read it the link is http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ji5_MqicxSo