Dying of cancer, Randy Pausch took the stage at Carnegie Mellon to deliver his last lecture. The official video posted by Carnegie Mellon has had over 15 million views. I picked up the book, expecting the text of the lecture, but was pleasantly surprised to find that he gives more of his personal story in the book.
The title he chose for his lecture was "Achieving Your Childhood Dreams". In this book he tells us about his childhood dreams, how he achieved them, and how we can achieve our own dreams or enable the dreams of others.
There are two themes running through the book: brick walls and head-fakes.
"The brick walls are there for a reason. They're not there to keep us out. The brick walls are there to give us a chance to show how badly we want something." (pages 51-52).
In story after story he shows us how he refused to give up and kept pursuing his dreams.
As a teacher, the concept that clicked most with me was the head-fake. He explains the literal head-fake in football and then the second kind of head-fake (also used by his coach).
"The second kind of head-fake is the really important one-- the one that teaches people things they don't realize they're learning until well into the process. If you're a head-fake specialist, your hidden objective is to get them to learn something you really want them to learn." (page 39).
This feel-good book is a quick read and offers much advice for a happy, productive life. Although I didn't agree with all his advice, his positive attitude allowed me to just set those things aside and find the good that I needed and am ready for right now.
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