The Last Lecture

Randy Pausch, Erik Singer

eAudio - 2008

“We cannot change the cards we are dealt, just how we play the hand.”–Randy PauschAlot of professors give talks titled “The Last Lecture.” Professors are asked to consider their demise and to ruminate on what matters most to them. And while they speak, audiences can’t help but mull the same question: What wisdom would we impart to the world if we knew it was our last chance? If we had to vanish tomorrow, what would we want as our legacy? When Randy Pausch, a computer science professor at Carnegie Mellon, was asked to give such a lecture, he didn’t have to imagine it as his last, since he had recently been diagnosed with terminal cancer. But the lecture he gave–“Really Achieving Your Childhood Dreams”–wasn’t abou...t dying. It was about the importance of overcoming obstacles, of enabling the dreams of others, of seizing every moment (because “time is all you... more