(2007) You could be watching this on YouTube right now. So why are you reading this review?

On September 18th, 2007, Randy Pausch, 47-year-old professor of computer science and alumnus of Carnegie Mellon University in Pittsburgh, spoke before an audience of faculty and students about his childhood dreams, enabling the childhood dreams of others, and the lessons he'd learned from life. He begins the lecture by displaying an x-ray of his pancreas's cancerous tumors to say he's not going to talk about his dying, about his family, or about religion or spirituality.

Expressing a joyous, infectious humor, he insists that he's not in denial with a prognosis of less than a year to live, though he confesses to a deathbed conversion: "I just bought a MacIntosh." Further, he says, "I'm in better shape than most of you," before doing pushups on the stage.

On the auditorium screen photos from his childhood are projected as he enumerates his six childhood dreams. First, he yearned to experience zero gravity; second, he fained with fancy to play football in the NFL; third, he hungered with hope to have an article he'd written published in the World Book Encyclopedia (remember, this was before the Internet and Wikipedia); fourth, he wished he could be Capt James T. Kirk of Star Trek; fifth, he craved winning big stuffed animals at amusement parks; sixth, he really, really longed to be an imagineer for Walt Disney.

With one exception and one modification ("It's really cool to meet your boyhood idol"), he achieved all of these dreams. (Can you guess which one he failed to accomplish? From it he gained appreciation of the head fake and knowing the fundamentals.) "Experience is what you get when you didn't get what you wanted."

The sixth, he says, was the hardest victory: "Brick walls [some made of flesh] let us prove how badly we want things." He finally managed to win admission (wait, be patient, give people time) into the top-secret Aladdin video-reality project.

As a professor he's had the opportunity to enable the dreams of students. In a course he created and taught for a decade, "Building Virtual Worlds," attracting students from every department and discipline in the university, he discovered that not setting the bar for students ("I know you can do better") allowed them to soar to heights he never would have expected. When leaving something you're proud of having started: "Find somebody better than you to hand it to."

With a colleague Randy next designed the Dream Fulfillment Factory or, as the master's degree course was titled, Entertainment Technology Center, which has since gone global; he enthusiastically gives credit to others where credit's due. Finally, with Alice ("I will live on in Alice") he found a novel way to teach computer programming in which "kids have fun while learning something hard."

Among the many lessons learned he speaks about critics being those who "still love you and care" (beware when people ignore you) and employing tactful criticism (e.g., instead of telling someone he's a jerk, suggest that his arrogance will limit his future opportunities). As for your superiors: "Respect authority while questioning it."

Pay attention to moments that change your life. Have fun - "I'm dying and I'm having fun" - and "Never lose childlike wonder." "Tell the truth." "Help others." "Show gratitude." "Never give up." "Don't complain; just work harder." "Apologize when you screw up."

Randy says he believes in karma and payback. "Get a feedback loop and listen to it." "Loyalty is a two-way street." "Be good at something; it makes you valuable." And most important of all, remember your wife's birthday and let her blow out a candle on a cake in front of 500 people.

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Copyright © 2010 Patrick Ivers. All rights reserved.
Reproduced with the permission of the copyright holder.

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