Monday, May 12, 2008

Sydney / May 2008

I spent money on nonsengs in Paddington (evil place with lots of nice shops), time with Azura/Khad/Alia and an hour watching Grey's Anatomy over the weekend. I had also spent some time watching Randy Pausch's 'Last Lecture: Really Achieving Your Childhood Dreams'.

Randy Pausch, as I had read in Time's 100 Most Influential People 2008 issue, is a professor of Computer Science at Carnegie Mellon University. In 2006, he was diagnosed with terminal pancreatic cancer. Doctors told him he had 3-6 months to live.

On September 18, 2007 Randy delivered his 'Last Lecture' (this was part of lecture series where top academics were asked to think what matters most to them and then give a hypothetical "final talk" - basically answering the question of: "what wisdom would you try to impart to the world if you knew it was your last chance?") at CMU.

Calling it 'Really Achieving Your Childhood Dreams', Randy didn't appear frail or sick. He managed to do push-ups on stage, humored the audience and gave insights on CS and life lessons for 70 minutes without a break. Richard Stengel, Time's Managing Editor, describes the lecture as "poignant 'last lecture' and its message of fortitude and good humor in the face of death".

Carnegie Mellon has posted the video of Randy's lecture on YouTube so that it could reach millions of people. When I watched it last night, I was number 2,209,580. It was pretty fun to watch. Do make time to watch it. It's not as corny as Tuesdays with Morrie, I promise.

"What was the second head fake? This [lecture] wasn't for you. It was for my kids. Thank you very much"

Listening to: Cat Power

No comments: