The Last Lecture
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Lots has already been said about Pausch's inspiring story. A bit of luck certainly played a part, what with a Wall Street Journal reporter paying his own way to report on the story. Charisma did as well. Pausch took the time to re-order the priorities of such lectures by addressing not only the audience, but the three children he would ultimately leave behind.
Interesting points from the section entitled "Enabling the Dreams of Others" (Pausch, 104):
- In order to help others, you have to have the time. Use time wisely.
- Pausch sees himself as a jerk growing up in that he knew all the answers and didn't listen very well. A professor befriended him and pointed out his problem. Luckily, Pausch listened - and passed it on. He shared with his students how they rated on the "Easy to get along with scale," (Pausch, 115). When they didn't listen, or chose not to understand, he intervened. They listened to what others were saying, sometimes painfully, but modified their behavior.
- Occasionally, people over-perform. What do you do? Applaud, yes. That's obvious. And what else? Assign a higher level task and see what happens.
- Start something that's bigger than you. Pausch helped create Alice, the Carnegie Mellon software teaching tool. The tool will never be complete, and that's good, say Pausch. The newer versions will get better and better (Pausch, 127) much like Disney's vision for Disneyland - it's never complete, it's always changing.
Randy Pausch can be pretty direct. He certainly lived his last months with different constraints than many of us. Practicing his time management skills became vitally important to him as he juggled his new-found glamour with the reality of a loving family who obviously will miss him.
Key points for me:
- When people over-perform, build a platform for them to shine, sometimes publicly. His classes were meant to be fun - and engaging.
- Teams are meant to work well together. Jostle them a bit when they don't, even if it means pointing out painful facts to members who are resisting. Working together is crucial. If you're failing at that, how can you fix it, now?
- Balancing work and family isn't as easy as some folks make it out to be. Keep trying.
- Finally, when thanks are in order, offer them up cheerfully.
Thank you, Dr. Pausch.
Reference
Pausch, Randy. The Last Lecture. Hyperion. 2008.