Aug 1st, 2008
Inspiration and Learning: Five Things I Learned from Randy Pausch
Dr. Randy Pausch passed away a few days ago, a brilliant mind leaving us at a way-too-young age with so much to share. His Last Lecture video presentation was a total Internet sensation and is well worth watching (or listening to, which is what I did). For most of the way it’s a very good talk, but the last few minutes elevate it to great status. He has another presentation that’s also online on time management which is in my opinion better than the Last Lecture (who better to figure out how to manage time than someone who knows very clearly how little of it he has left?). PowerPoint slides of both the Last Lecture and the time management presentation are available for download (and view fine in Keynote as well although admittedly I didn’t do much other than view the slides individually).
I thought I’d bring to the forefront some key lessons I got from The Last Lecture–there are so many there’s likely to be a part two to this soon–and share these with you. Dr. Pausch said during his session that he’s always been taught to share, so in his honor, here we go:
We Cannot Change the Cards We’ve Been Dealt, Only How We Play the Hand: Not much attention is given to this line (which is very early on) with our presenter referring to his terminal diagnosis, but it really shows wisdom. I cannot change where I was born, who I was born to, where I grew up, or how much money I had in my savings account yesterday, but I certainly can make an impact on the future by making changes in the way I deal with things starting today.
Brick Walls are There for a Reason–They Let Us Prove How Badly we Want Things and They Let Us Show Our Dedication: There are going to be lots of obstacles to overcome no matter what we choose to do in life; when they pop up it’s not a sign for us to give up but rather a signal that we need to figure out how important this is to us and what we’re willing to do to get around them or over them.
Practice Without the Football: There are 22 players on a football field at any given time and 21 of them don’t have the football, yet everyone wants to be the one with it (and some question why they’re even practicing if they’re not the ones with it). The point is that fundamentals are important no matter if you’re the one with the ball or not and that hard work in honing these is as important as anything. Also that if people criticize you, fear not–at least they care enough -to- criticize you!
Experience is What You Get When You Didn’t Get What You Wanted: Things that I’ve failed at aren’t really failures–they’re learning experiences. A 41 year old bachelor doesn’t necessarily like hearing those words (again) but it’s true–we learn something, or hopefully learn something, whenever we get less than what we want.
There are many, many more bits of wisdom in this presentation. I suggest you watch it–there’s also an audiobook which I haven’t yet heard but put a request in to the library for the CD. It’s currently in cataloging, meaning it’s not actually available for loan yet, and I was already number 34 in line, so I’m sure it’ll be a hit!
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[...] Randy Pausch would say that doing things when they’re urgent is a lot more expensive than doing things just before they’re urgent–paying a late fee on a bill is a lot worse than getting the bill there just in time; shipping something via the United States Postal Service is a lot cheaper than doing so via Federal Express. That said, there’s a need for a system to help us remember when we need to take care of something–sometimes long into the future. [...]
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