Last+Lecture&Time+Management

 Sean Guest 12-8-08 AP Economics 3rd Randy Pausch Lectures Randy Pausch was a professor at Carnegie Mellon and is notorious for his great speeches. The first speech which is known as “The Last Lecture” is very intriguing and interesting for it outlines how he became a successful person through his life experiences. He starts off by explaining that he is dying from about ten tumors in his liver but that he is not there to talk about that. He is giving the speech to tell people about actually accomplishing their childhood dreams. He gives a list of his childhood dreams which include; being in zero gravity, playing in the NFL, writing an article for the World Book encyclopedia, being Captain Kirk, winning stuff animals, and being a Disney Imagineer all of which his lecture focuses on. He was able to accomplish his goal of being in zero gravity without becoming an astronaut through a machine made by NASA called The Vomit Commit, which reenacts the “floating” sensation of being in outer space. Pausch is not able to get into the NFL, however he does learn many valuable lessons from playing as a kid and learning from his coaches. The people at the World Book encyclopedia actually came to him and asked him to write an article for the World Book because he was such an expert on virtual reality. Winning stuffed animals at carnivals was a very easy goal for him to accomplish and he won so many that he gave away some of them after his speech was over. The next challenge of his was to become an Imagineer for Disney, which means he creates virtual reality programs for Disney. At first he was denied his request to become an Imagineer many times and some people made it very hard on him. So he started working at Carnegie Mellon and he eventually was able to work for Disney. He helped Disney create a virtual ride called Aladdin and was offered to stay on with the Imagineers for good, but he denied that offer to continue being a full time professor. He loved to teach and thought it was the best way to also help other people realize and accomplish their childhood dreams. He helped many people at the University of Virginia accomplish their goals and even made his class into quite and event. All the students were assigned major projects over the course of the semester and at the end of the semester when the scholars presented their final product there were lines of people waiting to view their projects. Companies even started to guarantee jobs for his students because his course was so advanced and amazing. Randy Pausch founded the Alice program on computers, which is software that allows one to program objects to do whatever the designer desires and is used worldwide. Near the end of his speech, he talks a lot about his family and how they have influenced his life and helped him to achieve his goals. He also talks about the people that he had worked with that helped him and inspired him along his way. At the very end of the speech he tells the audience that his lecture was not for them, rather for his kids for he will die very soon. The next speech that Randy Pausch gave is about time management. He claims that he is not as smart as all of his colleagues at Carnegie Mellon where he works, however, he is very skilled at managing his time well. He makes the point very clear that time is money, and any time that one is not using to make money, or be productive is wasted money. A person should also not spend their very limited and valuable time on this earth doing something that does not make them happy. Randy Pausch has very little time left on earth and one of his greatest prides is that he did not spend his time doing something that he did not thoroughly enjoy. Another great point of his is that one must plan what they do each day, week, or in his case each semester. Everybody needs to be very organized in order to be successful, which means knowing what is important to do and what is not as vital. Randy Pausch, who is a very successful person, is extremely organized, which means he always has a clear desk, and knows what he needs to do each day to keep up with his work and his family. In his lecture, Pausch talks about the necessity of having resources such as multiple monitors for computers and speakerphones that enable people to multiple things at once and keep up with what they are doing. Being able to multitask efficiently and in an organized manner is a very necessary tool to becoming a successful person. He continues to talk about such time saving devices such as making meetings and phone calls short and to the point. In such discussions, it is not necessary to talk about things that just waste time and are not productive. While he does say that there is not enough time to just sit around and talk about unimportant things, Randy Pausch does state that he believes personal relationships are important and one must secure such relationships through such devices as writing personal thank you notes. Email is another topic, which he focuses on, and he makes it very apparent that he believes it is one of the most important new technologies that we have. One is able to communicate with others when he or she feels it is necessary. However, Pausch says that one needs to keep up with their email in order to continue to be efficient and happy for a full inbox can create stress. The next topic he covers is about focusing on what is important and getting that task accomplished well, rather than putting certain things off until they must be done. Procrastinating is not a good thing and getting the important tasks done well and correctly is extremely vital to being successful. One of the last topics he covers is about delegation of tasks to subordinates and keeping them in line. Randy Pausch gave many tips on how to make sure people get things done for you such as giving them a specific time and date at which such things need to accomplished by. In the end, all of the ways to make ones life more efficient is in order to be able to have time to spend with the people you love and have fun with them. Overall, I believe that the two speeches that Randy Pausch gave were amazingly helpful and informative on how to lead a better life overall. He gives anyone, not just people in his particular profession tips and advice on how to lead better lives and how to be happier and more efficient at it. He was a very inspirational man, for he accomplished so much in his short time on earth and he is happy and willing to spread his knowledge that he realizes he possesses to everyone. His first speech particularly helps in setting goals for oneself and realizing that those are the most important things to accomplish in ones life. His second speech makes people realize that family and friends are the most important things in life and one needs to work hard in order to spend as much time with them as possible and to be able to enjoy life. Some of his goals, however, are a little bit impossible for the normal human, I believe. He seems to be very rude at times in order to be effective, which is one thing I would not be willing to trade. Some people are also just not willing to give up things in life like watching television like he is. In the end, I would recommend everyone to watch his videos for it will make you a better person in the long run. 1,338 Words.