The Last Lecture, Randy Pausch

A friend encouraged me to check out The Last Lecture, by Randy Pausch, so I bought it in the airport on my way back from vacation recently. It was a quick read but incredibly inspiring and touching, and I finished it the same day before going to bed. The book is the literary version and biography of Carnegie Mellon Computer Science Professor Randy Pausch's last month as he prepares to give one of the institution's signature creations, "The Last Lecture", an invention designed to challenge professors to come up with a lecture that they would want to be remembered by.I also read The Last Lecture by Randy Pausch over vacation and it was an inspiring and touching reality check. The book is the literary version and biography of Carnegie Mellon Computer Science Professor Randy Pausch's last month as he prepares to give one of the institution's signature creations, "The Last Lecture", an invention designed to challenge professors to come up with a lecture that they would want to be remembered by.

This lecture had particular irony for Pausch who was diagnosed with terminal pancreatic cancer. Pausch's last lecture is indeed heartfelt and moving, but the book takes a closer look at the back-drop of some of what he speaks about in the lecture and also the preparation leading up to it as he tried to deal with spending his last moments with his wife and three children while trying to reflect on the material he wanted to cover in this lecture. It is a great work of motivational literature with practical tips on how to achieve your dreams, as well as a reality check that no matter the day you're having, things could always be worse so cheer up.

Here's also a great clip I found of TIME asking him 10 questions. You get a good glimpse of him in a much quicker video segment than the hour longer lecture above.