The Last Lecture is a New York Times best-selling book written by Randy Pausch, a professor of computer science, human-computer interaction, and design at Carnegie Mellon University in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, United States. The book was born out of a lecture Pausch gave in September 2007, “Really Achieving Your Childhood Dreams”.
“Last Lecture” speech
Main article: Really Achieving Your Childhood Dreams
Pausch delivered his “Last Lecture,” titled Really Achieving Your Childhood Dreams, at Carnegie Mellon on September 18, 2007. This talk was modeled after an ongoing series of lectures where top academics are asked to think deeply about what matters to them, and then give a hypothetical “final talk”, i.e., “what wisdom would you try to impart to the world if you knew it was your last chance?”
A month before giving the lecture, Pausch had received a prognosis that the pancreatic cancer with which he had been diagnosed a year earlier was terminal. Before speaking, Pausch received a long standing ovation from a large crowd of over 400 colleagues and students. When he motioned them to sit down, saying, “Make me earn it,” some in the audience shouted back, “You did!”
During the lecture Pausch was upbeat and humorous, shrugging off the pity often given to those diagnosed with terminal illness. At one point, to prove his own vitality, Pausch dropped down and did push-ups on stage. He offered insights on computer science and engineering education, multi-disciplinary collaborations, and working in groups and interacting with other people. Pausch also offered his listeners inspirational life advice that can be applied to one’s professional and personal life. Shortly after the lecture was presented, a book was written to better educate people on Randy Pausch’s methods of living a more fufilling life, by simply achieving your childhood dreams. The book was written by Randy Pausch and Jeffrey Zaslow of the Wall Street Journal.
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