The Last Lecture
by Randy Pausch, Jeffrey Zaslow · first published 2008
59% recommend39% neutral2% critical
Why HN recommends it
Reflections on life and achieving childhood dreams from a dying CS professor writing for his kids. Appeals even to readers who avoid self-help. Pairs well with the lecture video, and some find the book adds more.
Summarised by Claude from recommending comments
"We cannot change the cards we are dealt, just how we play the hand.” —Randy Pausch When Randy Pausch, a computer science professor at Carnegie Mellon University, was asked to give a last lecture," he didn’t have to imagine it as his last, since he had recently been diagnosed with terminal cancer. But the lecture he gave — “Really Achieving Your Childhood Dreams” — wasn’t about dying. It was about the importance of overcoming obstacles, of enabling the dreams of others, of seizing every moment (because “time is all you have... and you may find one day that you have less than you think”). I
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…want to find heroes, but really, there are no heroes. Only groups of people working their asses off to make things happen. Maybe the secret to reaching your potential is as Randy Pausch said in his Last Lecture: realize that to accomplish anything worthwhile, you'll need help from other people. And then focus on being the type of person that other people want to help. It also seems to be a lot more fun this…
on “On Living Below Your Potential” ↗…Life Engineering, where kids/young adults are taught tools to help them shape their lives. Alongside this, pg's essay "What You Wish You'd Known" (http://www.paulgraham.com/hs.html) and Randy Pausch's "Last Lecture" (http://www.paulgraham.com/hs.html) would be included in class materials. This class should would also teach you important little life skills like how to tie your shoes better using the Ian knot (http://lifehacker.com/5451765/ditch-the-granny-knot-to-tie-y...),…
on “David Foster Wallace's Kenyon Commencement Speech (2005)” ↗…into the square hole, and you might lose a finger in the process. NB: Your finger is your happiness. -cut out negative people, but don't create a Hooli yes-man echo chamber. -watch randy Pausch - the last lecture. And Randy Pausch - time management. -email if you need help! I'm an extremely generous person.
on “Ask HN: What is a way of making residual income with $5K a month?” ↗"The Last Lecture", by Randy Pausch. While it's by a well-known CS professor (who was dying of cancer at the time), it's not a technical talk, but about life and work, and how to make the most of it. One of the most inspiring…
on “Ask HN: What's your favorite tech talk?” ↗…if not better. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ji5_MqicxSo Spoiler: It is a former CS professor at Carnegie Mellon named Randy Pausch. He had terminal pancreatic cancer. This is a dying professor's last lecture. It is a father sharing life lessons for his kids when they are older to watch. Some relevant quotes: - “As you get older, you may find that 'enabling the dreams of others' thing is even more fun.”…
on “YouTube’s top creators are burning out” ↗The Last Lecture by Randy Pausch -- http://www.thelastlecture.com/ Everybody should read it, or at least watch the video on Youtube. It changed my life.
on “Ask HN: Books that changed your life?” ↗…commonly badges, ranks, points, etc) can be a massive boon to learning something. There's also the "head fake" element of teaching while not looking like you're teaching, which I got from Randy Pausch's Last Lecture (highly, highly recommended if you haven't seen it). With all that said, I haven't found quite the right way to harness it in my own life. A lot of the tracking I do gives me a way to get numbers and…
on “To live forever, break habits” ↗If you enjoyed this article, you will probably love Randy Pausch's Last Lecture: http://www.amazon.com/Last-Lecture-Randy-Pausch/dp/140132325... I had already watched the lecture on YouTube and thought I wouldn't get much from the book but I was wrong. The story of Pausch muscling…
on “It's Better to Beg for Forgiveness than to Ask for Permission” ↗If you're looking for something different then check out The Last Lecture by Randy Pausch. It's is an eye-opening book in a very nontraditional sense. You may remember Pausch as the computer science professor at Carnegie Mellon who was told that he had but a few months left…
on “Ask HN: Good books?” ↗It's not a blog post, but I think Randy Pausch's "Last Lecture" is perhaps the most inspirational "thing" I've found on the Internet: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ji5_MqicxSo
on “Ask HN: What are the most inspirational blog posts you've ever read?” ↗The late Randy Pausch, in his Last Lecture[1] at Carnegie Mellon University, offered up... well, a lot of great advice, but the piece that jumped into my mind was: "It’s very important to know when you’re in a pissing match. And it’s very important…
on “LA Mayor Shuts Off Power at Hollywood Hills House That Hosted Large Parties” ↗This reminds me of the Last Lecture by Professor Andy Pausch. It is a lecture that will really hit you in the feels: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j7zzQpvoYcQ It is also an excellent book.
on “Monday was my 46th birthday and likely my last (2013)” ↗@bananabat, congrats on launching your game and on your beautiful write up here. It made me remember Randy Pausch‘a famous “Really Achieving Your Childhood Dreams”, better known as “The Last Lecture.” (https://youtu.be/ji5_MqicxSo). Like many others, I remember being deeply touched by it. It is ultimately being about a man reflecting on a life well lived and achieving some childhood dreams like this…
on “Show HN: I'm 48 and finally learning how to be a game developer” ↗100%. I regularly point people to his video "Why Gifted Children are Special Needs." It and Randy Pausch's Last Lecture may be the only legitimately lifechanging videos I've ever watched. One of his core messages is that we (meaning his target audience, mostly males under 40) generally have too high expectations of ourselves…
on “You Are Burned Out and Don’t Even Know It [video]” ↗…the Search for Mathematical Truth - Paul Hoffman The Man Who Knew Infinity: A Life of the Genius Ramanujan - Robert Kanigel Also, I haven't read it yet myself, but I have heard good things about The Last Lecture[1] by Randy Pausch, and have it queued up to read soon. [1]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Last_Lecture
on “Ask HN: What are some good inspirational and uplifting books?” ↗