Thursday, October 18, 2007

Make time to watch this


Sometimes, it's all about the head fake.

You think you're watching a brilliant, funny and poignant "last lecture" by Carnegie Mellon computer-science professor Randy Pausch -- one that really was his last lecture. He's dying of pancreatic cancer, and only has months to live.

That's what you think. Because it's all about the head fake.

Here's part of a
Wall Street Journal Online column by Jeff Zaslow:

The 46-year-old father of three has pancreatic cancer and expects to live for just a few months. His lecture, using images on a giant screen, turned out to be a rollicking and riveting journey through the lessons of his life.

He began by showing his CT scans, revealing 10 tumors on his liver. But after that, he talked about living. If anyone expected him to be morose, he said, "I'm sorry to disappoint you." He then dropped to the floor and did one-handed push ups.

Clicking through photos of himself as a boy, he talked about his childhood dreams: to win giant stuffed animals at carnivals, to walk in zero gravity, to design Disney rides, to write a World Book entry. By adulthood, he had achieved each goal. As proof, he had students carry out all the huge stuffed animals he'd won in his life, which he gave to audience members. After all, he doesn't need them anymore.

He paid tribute to his techie background. "I've experienced a deathbed conversion," he said, smiling. "I just bought a Macintosh." Flashing his rejection letters on the screen, he talked about setbacks in his career, repeating: "Brick walls are there for a reason. They let us prove how badly we want things." He encouraged us to be patient with others. "Wait long enough, and people will surprise and impress you." After showing photos of his childhood bedroom, decorated with mathematical notations he'd drawn on the walls, he said: "If your kids want to paint their bedrooms, as a favor to me, let 'em do it."

While displaying photos of his bosses and students over the years, he said that helping others fulfill their dreams is even more fun than achieving your own. He talked of requiring his students to create video games without sex and violence. "You'd be surprised how many 19-year-old boys run out of ideas when you take those possibilities away," he said, but they all rose to the challenge.

He also saluted his parents, who let him make his childhood bedroom his domain, even if his wall etchings hurt the home's resale value. He knew his mom was proud of him when he got his Ph.D, he said, despite how she'd introduce him: "This is my son. He's a doctor, but not the kind who helps people."

He then spoke about his legacy. Considered one of the nation's foremost teachers of video game and virtual-reality technology, he helped develop "Alice," a Carnegie Mellon software project that allows people to easily create 3-D animations. It had one million downloads in the past year, and usage is expected to soar.

"Like Moses, I get to see the Promised Land, but I don't get to step foot in it," Dr. Pausch said. "That's OK. I will live on in Alice."

SEE, PAUSCH'S LECTURE was far more than just a dying professor's parting words of wisdom to his students and colleagues. That, he said at the end, was the head fake. This was a dying father giving life lessons to his three small children, lessons they will see someday on an old DVD, delivered by a long-dead father they barely remember.

And they will be enveloped by his love. Death can separate a man's body and soul, but it holds no sway over love. Love defeats death every time.

There's a final head fake, though.

You get to the end of the hour-plus lecture, and something else hits you. And you are shattered by the realization.

Pausch's final lecture -- this tender message from father to children -- was a tender mesage from a Father to His children. He just needed to apply a little head fake to get us to listen to what He had to say.

1 comment:

oyster said...

Great video, and wonderful contextualization. Thanks!