The Last Lecture by Randy Pausch

[Jean]

This book was not what I expected it to be. The author, Randy Pausch, was a professor at Carnegie Mellon who was one of the driving forces behind virtual reality technology. He was diagnosed with terminal cancer and had only a few months left to live. He wrote this in an effort to leave a little of himself behind for his family, and specifically his three small children, two of whom were too young to have any real memories of him. He freely admits that he is a highly analytical sort. That much is obvious. I found his writing to be strangely (to me anyway) emotionally detached.

The book is a series of little life lessons. For instance, one chapter is titled "Treat the Disease, Not the Symptoms". This chapter tells the tale of a woman he dated who had a large debt that was causing her stress. She attended a yoga class once a week to alleviate this stress. He advised her to take a part time job instead of attending the class and use the money she made to pay off the debt, thereby alleviating the stress by addressing the problem, not the symptoms. Well, duh. Not exactly mind-blowing stuff.

The chapters all have a life lesson -- be prepared, work together. Some of the lessons go a little deeper than that -- enjoy the moment, inject some magic in to the mundane. So I would say it might be useful for someone at the beginning of their adult life but to be honest I found it a little superficial for someone facing the end of their life.