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‘Last Lecture’ sensation becomes book
ISSUE: 78/26
ASSOCIATED PRESS
Jai and Randy Pausch, and their children
Logan, front left, Dylan and Chloe. Pausch’s
“The Last Lecture”was published Tuesday
by Hyperion.
To millions who have watched him on the Internet or on Oprah Winfrey’s TV show, Randy Pausch is the 47-year-old professor dying of cancer who inspired them with his “last lecture,” about achieving childhood dreams and living with integrity and joy. The Carnegie Mellon University computer science professor expanded his 76-minute talk into a book without taking time that he doesn’t have away from the people for whom the book was intended: the three children, all under 7, who he won’t be around to help his wife raise.
The book goes beyond the lecture, giving Pausch more room to tell his kids what he would have tried to teach them over the next 20 years. He counsels them to have fun, tell the truth, dare to take risks, look for the best in everyone, make time for what matters and always be prepared. “I like the book better than the lecture because I like operational advice,” he said. “We just felt ... if I can find some way to make lemonade for somebody else out of these lemons, then let’s do that,” he said.
Pausch found out in September 2006 that he had pancreatic cancer, an especially deadly cancer with few treatment options. Last August, he learned the cancer had spread. Doctors told him he had three to six months to live. He recently suffered heart and kidney failure. He’s in pain all the time and hasn’t been strong enough to ride his bike. He’s stopped chemotherapy and spends many days in bed.
He emphasizes that he isn’t giving up, and he’s doing what he can to “stretch the clock” so maybe he will live long enough to see someone find a cure. On the advice of experts, he doesn’t plan to tell his kids he’s dying until he looks and acts sick. A month after learning the cancer was terminal, Pausch gave his talk, in an auditorium packed with students and colleagues at Carnegie Mellon, where he had co-founded The Entertainment Technology Center and pioneered the nonprofit Alice project.
The lecture opens with him projecting
onto a large screen slides of his CT scans showing 10 tumors. To demonstrate that he’s still active and not to be pitied, he does push-ups. Pausch goes on to talk about achieving his childhood dreams, such as becoming an “Imagineer.” He also talks about lessons he learned along the way, such as to show gratitude, don’t complain and don’t give up when faced by challenges, which he calls “brick walls.” He also discusses enabling the dreams of others.
At the end, Pausch tells the audience that his talk wasn’t for them. It was for his kids. “The lecture wasn’t about dying, it’s about living,” Pausch said. “The book is the same way. I had no interest in writing about dying.” One of the most touching moments of the lecture comes when he has a cake with one large candle brought in and leads the audience in singing “Happy Birthday” to his wife, whose birthday was the day before. Jai Pausch walks up on stage from her front-row seat, and the couple embrace.
In the book, Pausch reveals what his wife whispered to him at that moment: “Please don’t die.” “Jai wanted that in. She felt that was important,” he said, his eyes reddening briefly before he jokes, “What Jai wants, Jai gets.”
