The Last Lecture

by Randy Pausch

With thanks to my parents who allowed me to dream, and with hopes for the dreams my children will have.

Would they be able to sense how close to death I was as I spoke? (My answer: “Just watch!”)

I let the slide linger, so the audience could follow the arrows and count my tumors. “All right,” I said. “That is what it is. We can’t change it. We just have to decide how we’ll respond. We cannot change the cards we are dealt, just how we play the hand.”

“If I don’t seem as depressed or morose as I should be, sorry to disappoint you,”

On the ceiling, Jack and I wrote the words “I’m trapped in the attic!” We did the letters backwards, so it seemed as if we’d imprisoned someone up there and he was scratching out an S.O.S.

Anybody out there who is a parent, if your kids want to paint their bedrooms, as a favor to me, let them do it. It’ll be OK. Don’t worry about resale value on the house.

You’ve got to get the fundamentals down, because otherwise the fancy stuff is not going to work.

“Coach Graham rode you pretty hard, didn’t he?” he said. I could barely muster a “yeah.” “That’s a good thing,” the assistant told me. “When you’re screwing up and nobody says anything to you anymore, that means they’ve given up on you.”

In fact, having been selected to be an author in the World Book, I now believe that Wikipedia is a perfectly fine source for your information, because I know what the quality control is for real encyclopedias.

Shatner stayed for three hours and asked tons of questions. A colleague later said to me: “He just kept asking and asking. He doesn’t seem to get it.” But I was hugely impressed. Kirk, I mean, Shatner, was the ultimate example of a man who knew what he didn’t know, was perfectly willing to admit it, and didn’t want to leave until he understood. That’s heroic to me. I wish every grad student had that attitude.

Disney had nothing for me? Not even a broom? So that was a setback. But I kept my mantra in mind: The brick walls are there for a reason. They’re not there to keep us out. The brick walls are there to give us a chance to show how badly we want something.

“That’s just the sort of admonition that sets kids up for failure. Of course they’d eventually get my car dirty. Kids can’t help it.” So I made things easy. While my sister was outlining the rules, I slowly and deliberately opened a can of soda, turned it over, and poured it on the cloth seats in the back of the convertible. My message: People are more important than things. A car, even a pristine gem like my new convertible, was just a thing. As I poured out that Coke, I watched Chris and Laura, mouths open, eyes widening. Here was crazy Uncle Randy completely rejecting adult rules.

Whenever the kids were with me, we had just two rules: 1) No whining. 2) Whatever we do together, don’t tell Mom.

Brick walls are there for a reason. They give us a chance to show how badly we want something.

I looked into the eyes of the ballooner. I often rely on people with expertise I don’t have, and I wanted to get a clear sense of where he was on this. In his face, I saw more than concern. I saw mild panic. I also saw fear. I looked at Jai. I’d enjoyed our marriage so far.

Through the whole ordeal, I don’t think we ever said to each other: “This isn’t fair.” We just kept going. We recognized that there were things we could do that might help the outcome in positive ways...and we did them. Without saying it in words, our attitude was, “Let’s saddle up and ride.”

“I know you’re smart. But everyone here is smart. Smart isn’t enough. The kind of people I want on my research team are those who will help everyone else feel happy to be here.”

Complaining does not work as a strategy. We all have finite time and energy. Any time we spend whining is unlikely to help us achieve our goals. And it won’t make us happier.

Phrase alternatives as questions: Instead of “I think we should do A, not B,” try “What if we did A, instead of B?” That allows people to offer comments rather than defend one choice.

“If you wait long enough,” he said, “people will surprise and impress you.”

Other than that, Mrs. Lincoln, how was the play? I’d say that to students as a reminder not to focus on little issues, while ignoring the major ones.

Rocky was an inspiration because he reminded me: It’s not how hard you hit. It’s how hard you get hit ...and keep moving forward.

failure is not just acceptable, it’s often essential.

I encouraged students to attempt hard things and to not worry about failing. I wanted to reward that way of thinking.

There is more than one way to measure profits and losses. On every level, institutions can and should have a heart.

As I see it, there’s a decision we all have to make, and it seems perfectly captured in the Winnie-the-Pooh characters created by A. A. Milne. Each of us must decide: Am I a fun-loving Tigger or am I a sad-sack Eeyore?

I’d always thought the father/daughter thing was overstated. But I can tell you, it’s real. Sometimes, she looks at me and I just become a puddle.

As I see it, a parent’s job is to encourage kids to develop a joy for life and a great urge to follow their own dreams. The best we can do is to help them develop a personal set of tools for the task.

my dreams for my kids are very exact: I want them to find their own path to fulfillment.