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CMU Professor Randy Pausch's 'Last Lecture'
This is a bit of an unusual story for Slashdot- it's the "Last Lecture" of a professor at CMU who is terminally ill. His early research in VR has benefited everyone and even if you have never heard of Randy Pausch I think this is worth your time. It's a 2 hour long wmv filled with insight, laughs and wisdom from a man who has really done some amazing work. I've been watching it all morning and I think it would really be worth your time if you can spare it to listen to what he has to say. From virtual reality to education to stuffed animals and childhood dreams, there's a lot here worth your time.
Thanks drew for the link. Update: 09/21 15:44 GMT by Z : The link is already a little shakey, so you might want to turn to this cut up YouTube version of the talk instead.
I havent seen the lecture, but the story in some Pittsburgh newspaper (sorry, dont have the link - it appeared on reddit yesterday) is really moving. Amazing, so 'close' to death but still in such good spirits. Sad that i came to know of such a great spirit when i know i wont be hearing more from/about him. Sad indeed.
I'm just not sure that it's worth my time.
He was the man who introduced me to Doom.
I often don't like the choices people make, but I like the fact that people make choices. That's why I'm a conservative.
This is actually the type of story I love to see on Slashdot. A nice break from yet another "YRO" stuff.
because they are worried that anything over 10 minutes is probably a copyright violation....they should at least create some mechanism whereby material that provably doesn't violate copyrights could have more than 10 minutes alloted to it....how you would prove it is another issue entirely, but I would imagine they could implement some type of peer review system.
Monstar L
It was an amazing lecture. If you dare to dream and dare to follow through, then he's the man to emulate.
It's kind of off-topic, but I read some inspirational lecture slides by Randy Pausch about time management a little while ago. In light of his illness, I guess there's two ways to take it: Perhaps time management isn't that important in the end, or perhaps the limited amount of time each of us may have makes it even more important.
(Or, I suppose, the stress related to worrying about time management may affect your health...)
This sucks.
...)
He was one of my classmates when I was going to graduate school in the CMU CS department (back then, it was "just" a department, not a school). He was a nice guy (and a bit of a clown).
I hadn't kept in touch, so this is the first I've heard about the cancer. (And with three young children
Here's hoping he's among the "15% - 20%" for whom the pallative care actually extends life, and that his quality of life will be (as) good (as it can be).
The word "more" in your post wasn't necessary.
Ah, yes, who could forget Randy taking out his frustrations with a VCR by smashing it with a sledge hammer on the first day of class? I definitely credit Randy and that class for getting me to prioritize the end users above almost everybody else.
This was the most valuable lecture I've ever attended. And it's the kind of lecture I can talk about with my girlfriend, with my friends, and with anyone I care about. It's the stuff of life.
This man has lived an amazing life, and no doubt, this gives him the courage and the peace of mind to leave in such a graceful way, in an ultimate act of generosity. "Take a piece of me" he said somewhere at the beginning, when inviting people in the audience to take away his stuffed animals. And I feel I received a piece of him, even though I am thousands of kilometers away from this great person.
If you want your children to persevere in their lives and reach their dreams, show them this lecture (I saw the videos on YouTube), and talk about it with them.
"The agriculture ministry is not in charge of Gundam" - Japanese ministry official.
Perhaps time management isn't that important in the end, or perhaps the limited amount of time each of us may have makes it even more important.
.38 Mannlicher and a one-way ticket to Washington, D.C. Consequently, my eulogy would depend entirely on how I behaved during the last five minutes of my life. Why should anyone be all that concerned about what people have to say about my Fark and Slashdot habits?
Yeah, that's the question I had when I read through his PowerPoint slides yesterday morning, after the WSJ video came up in the course of my daily hour of mindless Fark surfing.
Pausch's methods are great for people who value a highly-regimented life, or who require the same to accomplish anything at all. There are people like that, and maybe he's one of them, but he overgeneralizes to a criminal extent, IMHO. Most of the worthwhile things I've accomplished can trace their beginnings to sitting around daydreaming and doing not much of anything, or looking for an excuse to put something else off. Hell, I wouldn't have seen his video and slides in the first place if I hadn't been killing time surfing the Web, right?
Ultimately, I spent half an hour watching the slides, and then went back to finish my daily list of unimportant links on Fark. I'll admit I was a little unsettled by one of the suggestions he raises ("Write your own eulogy. What do you want it to say?") because frankly, I don't know if people would find enough interesting things about me to even bother attending my funeral, and of course that bugs me. Everybody wants to leave a meaningful legacy, right? But ultimately, living by what you want your eulogist to say is just another way of living according to other people's standards. I finally managed to refute Pausch's dictums by imagining myself trying to persuade a Zen Buddhist practitioner to follow them.
You have to go your own way in life, and if you're lucky, you'll have the chance to determine how you die as well. If I were in Prof. Pausch's shoes, I'd like to think I'd wrap things up on my own terms, with a
http://www.mininova.org/tor/900739
Try that. I hope it's ok, I didn't have a chance to preview the wmv, no graphics on that machine.
Give me Classic Slashdot or give me death!
GP video is the stupid Rick Rolled video.
I had the pleasure of taking Randy's first course on "User Interfaces" back in 92 or 93. How many courses have you heard of where the professor begins the first class by assailing the poor UIs of clock radios and VCRs only to immediately smash them Gallagher style in front of a classroom of undergrads. Randy was one of three truly inspirational teachers that I had the pleasure of studying under during my entire formal education. I still retain and use much of the knowledge that I learned from him.
Godspeed Randy.
I may have mangled the .wmv a bit. It's in an avi container but the data is wmv. mplayer should be able to play it.
Give me Classic Slashdot or give me death!
It's what you do with what you got, and that's what he's about.
I was in the 10th row, or so. The talk was given in the biggest auditorium on campus, with overflow locations in other big rooms watching it onscreen. I have to say that this really was one of the most moving, intense moments I've ever experienced. This was compounded by the sense that it was being shared with thousands of other people laughing, thinking, and occasionally crying together. At the close of his talk he received a standing ovation that did not even begin to wane after what seemed like ten minutes, until Randy Bryant (in my opinion somewhat rudely) brought it to an end. For that hour, all of CMU was on the same page. In the days since then I've had conversations with several people who were there, and my sense is that people will remember the talk and Randy Pausch's message for the rest of their lives. I know I will. Especially since he's a nerdy smartass just like me.
Or you can use the google video link, which is the full lecture not broken up.
Randy's Last Lecture
I think this is a very pertinent slashdot topic. The fellow in question is a Computer Science prof. If he were a humanities prof, I'd feel less so. Sure, the story is a tear-jerker and contemplating the imminent demise of someone who's a nice guy is a downer.
But I'd rather see this story on slashdot than something political. And I've seen far too much political bull on slashdot. If you wear a t-shirt that says Rush is Right or Impeach Cheney First, there's a 50% chance you'll end up nattering on about stuff that may be life-and-death stuff (yeah sure) but it won't be "news for nerds, stuff that matters." Right now, I'm wearing a t-shirt with Maxwell's equations on the back. And if yours says, Code Poet, we'll probably end up nattering on about stuff the poly sci types find boring.
Dr. Pausch is an accomplished technologist and as a technologist I'll appreciate his views on career and personal goals. I'm also a cancer survivor and I hope he''ll do the impossible and beat the disease.
He is... under the label biggest dick and largest ego.
His ego is, I swear to God, bigger than that of Steve Jobs, really, no joke. When I was in school at CMU he required an Interview (uppercase I) to get into his class. What kind of professor tells undergrads that they don't deserve to have "an educational experience" in 3d, VR, game technology, etc?
I sumbitted. I didn't want to because i wholey disagreed with his philosophy of education. His class seemed interesting enough that i let it go. The interview went something like this:
Me: Hello, Professor. Your class sounds very interesting and I'd like to take it.
Randy: Hi. So your a white upper class yuppy student who thinks they deserves whatever they want. {sarcasm}Greeeeeaaaat.{/sarcasm} What aspect of my class are you interested in?
I swear on the holy bible it was the first thing out of his mouth! He still admitted me to his class... I emailed him back saying i wasn't going to take it.
Even though he was a complete ass-hole to me I still respect _some_ of the work he's done. One exception is this, I did a technology review of Alice at one point. It was not impressive coming from an experience of writing a 3d game engine and scripting system. He really does think he's "THE BIG SHIT" when in fact he is just "a shit."
That is just my experience with him. Has anyone else met the guy?
Dear Randy,
I'm sorry to hear about your condition. No one deserves it. My positive thoughts tonight are with you. May you live a painless and pleasant life that remains. Also, could you not be a prick to those around you?
javalizard
I had Randy Pausch for an undergrad CS class at UVA in either 88 or 89.... so that was either his first or second year teaching there. Without a doubt, he was the best teacher I had in all four years. I can only imagine that he got even better after almost 20 years of practice. He truly engaged the students. I've been in the software business for 17 years now, and I continue to enjoy it today. I have to think he's partly the reason I ended up there (since I was in the EE program).
http://www.k5n.us
And just want to say: thank you.
-- @rjamestaylor on Ello
Those two gents made a huge impact upon me when I was growing through high school, and all I had access to were a few recordings and videos of them speaking, but the philosophies they broadcast were powerful enough to change me forever.
Teachers of this caliber are golden.
The very best thing you can do for the world is to Live Your Light. --Just doing so and encouraging others to do so changes the world in ways which are not immediately obvious, but it is enough to win the war against the dark side.
-FL
Excuse me. No life is any more valuable than any other. Just ask the Dalai Lama. The bum down the street is just as human as George Bush or John Kerry. All deserve to be treated with immense value.
I'm sorry you don't know my accomplishments but maybe you should hold your tongue until you know what I've done in the world, not that what one has done makes one valuable. Have you seen Fight club? "You are not your job. You are not the money in your bank account. You are not the car you drive. You are not how much money is in your wallet. You are not your fucking khakis."
Anyway, death is not a reason to silence discussion. He has done a lot of things including some of the ass hole things he's done to me and many others. Discussing the total of who he is is more respectful than just putting him high on a pedestal (which he did on his own and doesn't need any more help with). You need to see him as a whole person, not just as what he's done. His accomlishments don't make up for, in my perspective, that he was an ugly person.
I do wish him health and long life. No on deserves what he's going through.
Yes, I viewed the whole video, and specifically noticed his remark, something like please don't come up to me with 'herbal remedies' etc. Which is maybe too bad, because it might not be coincidental that he's at CMU which is fairly North, and perhaps he also uses sunscreen, might even be a religious sunscreen user. You saw it coming - MY religion can be found by Googling (( Holick p53 tumor ))- what if he "got religion" and vowed to spend his final days on the beach, and experienced a miraculous recovery ? Of course this is a very serious cancer, but that's all the more reason to dismiss skin-cancer as a potential side-effect of my folk remedy - I am not a doctor.
Wanting my taxes to go toward potentially extending or saving the lives of people who contribute a great deal to science, society and culture is "political spew"? Are you insane?! (You're clearly a coward, but that isn't the question here).
Our resources are spent on so many destructive processes that dwarf the amount spent on constructive ones. How can you possibly watch so many people suffer or die prematurely -- especially when you see what kind of people and personalities they are like you have been able to here -- and have anything but contempt for a society that places curing such ailments anywhere but in the top three priorities?
heh, and while you're at it, JL, you might try a bit of the same egocentric and bizarre mathematics:
Hmm... who has done more for (in decreasing order: the universe, all life, humanity, my family, my country, my region, my town, my neighborhood)? javalizard or Anonymous Coward... um...
'nuff said.