Blog Post #6

Randy Pausch: The Last Lecture

This is a lecture given by Randy Pausch. A very optimistic fun loving guy that was listed as terminally ill given the fact that he has 11 tumors in his liver. His talk is based on a good number of ideas but I am going to focus on the lessons learned. To give a little back ground he showed the audience a list of his childhood dreams something that should be important to everyone and with that list he completed everything on it. I am going to mention the certain things that have stuck with him his whole life. The first of many is that when someone stops riding you and giving you criticism then that means they have given up on you. This is something you never want. It is a good thing when your teacher or coach pushes you. It means they care. "experience is what you get when you didn't get what you wanted." Brick walls are not there to keep you out, they are there to show you how badly you want something. Brick walls will rule out the people that don't want to work hard enough to get what they want. It shows that they didn't really want it to begin with. Make sure you enable the childhood dreams of others. A good thing to tell someone is, "Guys that was good but you can do better.'  They used video game type things to show useful skills to New York Firefighters. The goal you should have is to get your students to become self reflective and to be able to take your critiques and listen to them. "People are perceiving you this way. It is going to limit what you accomplish.' Never lose the childhood wonder. Help others.

I learned so many valuable things while watching this lecture. I discovered even more values and skills that I need to encourage my students to have. I love the quote about guys you can do better. I think that is a good standard to set. When you give a student free reign on a project and they come at you with something that just blows you mind then I think it is important to push them to achieve something even greater. He gave a lot of good advice. Something I need to take to heart is the listening to feedback but I also find myself in a place where I receive no feedback and I am lost. I think it is so important to give feedback so people know where they stand and what they need to do to become great. I also really like how his mentor told him people are viewing you this way and it is going to limit you. So many people go on living their lives unaware of how people see them. They are then in turn limited and they never know it. This inspires me to be more forward with people and more honest. Honesty was a big thing with Randy Pausch. He strongly suggested about karma and how it is going to get you in the place you deserve. I strongly believe in this. I feel that everything you do happens for a reason. Everything you do is going to have a consequence whether it is good or bad and you really need to be on the look out for it. I learned so much from this video. I strongly recommend you watch it and see what you take from it.