Randy Pausch (1960–2008)

I read this long after the lecture and the hype of the book, as well as his passing, so this is a review on how I interpret the man's legacy and the impact it had on me. Since it was written with a writer co-author I am assuming it became more personable through the mediator. He mentions many runs talking into a recorder, so I imagine the message and the desire of what he wanted said being added to the content of his actual lecture to create this work at a time when he didn't have the time and energy to devote to it and still accomplish what he wanted with his remaining life. He says the lecture was for the kids; I see the book as for the public.
The content was a collection of rules and anti-rules that he lived by with examples of how they impacted his life. He had a zest for life that came across. He was smart, personable and creative. He was also arrogant, tactless, and self-serving at times. He is not afraid to mention failures and bad choices but I always got the feeling he was picking and choosing just the things that could be positively interpreted (rightly so, if you are leaving this to give a positive view of you for your kids). I think he did what he set out to do and this was an interesting look at his life and legacy.… (more)

The Last Lecture by Randy Pausch is a fantastic memoir. It discusses his fight with pancreatic cancer and his desire to live his life to the fullest despite his diagnosis and knowledge he had only a short time to live.

It is a life lesson on an approach to life and death and milestones in his life and what he learned from them.

Lastly, it is indeed about his fulfillment of a Carnegie Melon tradition of delivering ( A Last Lecture) to the students, in which he discusses his lifelong desire to live dreams as possible. Very much in the tradition of Mitch Albums, Tuesdays With Morrie on how to live one’s life, I encourage fans of that to read this memoir.… (more)