Book Review: The Last Lecture

The Last Lecture by Randy Pausch


My rating: 3 of 5 stars
Thoughts I enjoyed from this book:

There's a lot of talk these days about giving your children self-esteem. It's not something you can give; it's something they have to build.

Time must be explicitly managed like money.

You can always change your plan, but only if you have one.

Ask yourself: Are you spending your time on the right things?

Treat the disease, not the symptom.

Look for the best in everybody. If you wait long enough, people will surprise and impress you. Almost everybody has a good side. Just keep waiting. It will come out.

Experience is what you get when you didn't get what you wanted.

One of the things I admired about Mr. Pausch was his willingness to accept his diagnosis and face the fact that he was going to die, so bravely. Of course, initially he went through treatment and felt like he might be successful in surviving cancer; but when the disease was no longer treatable, he accepted it and quite literally moved on.

I feel somewhat mystified that in our society everyone seems to think you can "fight" cancer, or that if you have a positive mental attitude you can overcome a terminal diagnosis. When cancer patients don't survive, I wonder if near the end they feel like they didn't fight hard enough or weren't positive enough. I don't think we have that much control. I think that's why I appreciated his attitude of acceptance and taking care of the things the way he wanted to, and not flying all over the world seeking a miraculous cure.

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