The Dreams of Others

In his book, The Last Lecture, Randy Pausch gives his definition of head fake: teaching someone something that they do not realize they are learning. Randy also states; “Cancer doesn’t make me unique.” (9) As Pausch goes into the details of his life, childhood dreams, cancer, and final talk at Carnegie Mellon University, he presents us with a head-fake of our own; while we absorb the words of a highly regarded lecturer, on the topics of achieving childhood dreams, and making the most of ourselves, we are shown an even greater lesson – the things we do, and the way we interact with people can have an immense effect on the lives around us, for years to come. It is this perspective on life that makes Randy Pausch unique – especially in the way he inspires his students, and enables their dreams.

In two thousand seven, when Pausch gave his last lecture at Carnegie Mellon, he had already been diagnosed and undergone treatment for pancreatic cancer. He refers to his cancer as “an engineering problem,” (1) putting his disease into terms he could quantify as a scientist and engineer. This also sets the tone for the rest of the book – even though The Last Lecture is about a dying man, it will not be a dismal view of the world, it will instead present answers to life’s many engineering problems, both big and small. Pausch breaks The Last Lecture up into six sections: “The Last Lecture,” “Really Achieving Your Childhood Dreams,” “Adventures…And Lessons Learned,” “It’s About How To Live Your Life,” and “Final Remarks.” Pausch begins talking about his lecture. Carnegie Mellon had renamed this from “Last Lecture Series” to “Journeys.” The concept of “Journeys” was to ask professors to “offer reflections on their personal and professional jour...

... middle of paper ...

...ngs have been done in computer games only about a zillion times, and I was looking for original thinking.” (122) When the students came back two weeks later, Pausch was completely blown away with what they had created, stating, “I just gave my students a two-week assignment and they came back and did stuff that, had I given them an entire semester to complete it, I would have given them all A’s.” (123) So to further inspire his students to be the best they possibly could be, Pausch tells them, “Guys, that was pretty good, but I know you can do better.” (123) Pausch was not trying to be harsh on the projects presented; he was aiming to inspire his students to their absolute best. By the end of the term, the presentation days had audiences of over four hundred people; people that came to see the amazing worlds created out of the inspiration Pausch gifted his students.