Response to Randy Pausch speaking about Achieving Childhood Dreams
My mother came home the other day going on and on about how she was going to make everyone listen to this lecture given by some guy dying of pancreatic cancer. Naturally, I am like why should I care? What does it matter to me?
Well she made me watch it just the same. I had to rig the computer up to the TV so we could watch 76 minutes of YouTube video comfortably. And, I must admit, it was interesting and he did have some good points, so now I am going to tell you about it, and suggest that you watch it.
Randy Pausch is dying of pancreatic cancer. He doesn’t have long to live, were talking days or weeks. He is a professor in the computer science department at Carnegie Mellon. He works with virtual reality and has changed the way the world looks at VR today, through research and student work. Randy is upbeat and practical about his condition. He knows his fate and is not trying to deny it. He was asked to speak in the Last Lecture series; a series about what professors would say during their last lecture. This, is a little more true for Randy.
I watched his lecture on Achieving Childhood Dreams. At the beginning he lists his childhood dreams and the lecture is on how he achieved them. One of the dreams he speaks about was playing in the NFL. Albeit he didn’t make it–he is really skinny and does computer science–he said as a kid he used to play football. The defining point was when he was talking about his coach. One day, he said, the coach was just pushing him harder and harder, not giving him a break. After practice was over, the assistant coach–or someone–came up to him and said, “Man the coach was really riding you today.” Randy agreed, and got a response along the lines of, “When people really ride you about something, it shows that they care. You really have to be concerned when you know your doing something poorly, and nobody is telling you about it.”
It was things like that, that I took away from Randy’s lecture; along with the need to have goals and chase them. I also drew a comparison with the Chase credit card commercial and their tagline “Chase what matters.” You have to do what you like in life. So the question for you is, Do you care enough to watch this video and open your mind to some new ideas? A new thought process? Don’t do it because he’s dying, don’t do it because I told you to. Do it because you’re interested and want to learn.
Here are links to the:
YouTube Video - Randy Pausch Last Lecture: Achieving Your Childhood Dreams
Tags: cancer, card, chase, childhood, credit, dream, Idea, pancreatic cancer, pausch, randy, randy pausch, Thought