The Last Lecture by Randy Pausch

"We cannot change the cards we are dealt, just how we play the hand.”
—Randy Pausch

When Randy Pausch, a computer science professor at Carnegie Mellon University, was asked to give a last 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 about dying. It was about the importance of overcoming obstacles, of enabling the dreams of others, of seizing every moment (because “time is all you have... and you may find one day that you have less than you think”). It was a summation of everything Randy had come to believe. It was about living.

In this book, Randy Pausch has combined the humor, inspiration and intelligence that made his lecture such a phenomenon and given it an indelible form. It is a book that will be shared for generations to come.

You can watch [The Last Lecture on YouTube][1].

[1]: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ji5_MqicxSo

It means even more rereading 13 years later. When the author's Last Lecture went viral, I was a twenty-something computer science graduate. It spoke to me then, perhaps because I was a lot like Pausch's students. Now, as a father of young children, I see it all very differently. I hope I'll know my children into adulthood, but mortality is at the forefront in this memoir that also serves as an advice book and personal legacy for Pausch.

Another thing that's much clearer now are his personal faults. I lapped up his workaholism on the first reading in a way that I actively avoid now. Despite his blanket optimism, there's a cynicism that comes through in parts about people who don't do what he considers the necessary, hard work. These don't bother me, because they remind me he's a complete human—just like all of us who have our own strong opinions that run counter to another's way of life. Plus, through his death he found clarity about the things that really matter. And I hope that's what I take away, as I read this on a Sunday while my kids are playing independently. Maybe it's time we all play a game.

While this book had some great topics and ideas how to live life to the fullest—dare to dream big dreams, work hard, be honest, just ask—for the most part, it was just stories of how great his life was and not the actual application or how of a lot of these concepts. For much of the book, I didn't care about the experiences but wanted more about the subject they were trying to illustrate and I didn't get that.
There were some good things in there, but were mostly lost as he shares too much about his own life, which I wasn't that interested in.