A lot of professors give talks titled The Last Lecture. Professors are asked to consider their demise and to ruminate on what matters most to them: What wisdom would we impart to the world if we knew it was our last chance? If we had to vanish tomorrow, what would we want as our legacy?
When Randy Pausch, a computer science professor at Carnegie Mellon, was asked to give such a lecture, he didnt have to imagine it as his last, since he had recently been diagnosed with terminal cancer. But the lecture he gave, Really Achieving Your Childhood Dreams, wasnt about dying. It was about the importance of overcoming obstacles, of enabling the dreams of others, of seizing every moment (because time is all you have and you may find one day that you have less than you think). It was a summation of everything Randy had come to believe. It was about living.
In this book, Randy Pausch has combined the humour, inspiration, and intelligence that made his lecture such a phenomenon and given it an indelible form. It is a book that will be shared for generations to come.
兰迪·鲍许是一位热情、风趣且教学认真的大学教授,在46岁时被诊断出罹患死亡率最高的癌症——胰腺癌。之后,鲍许教授应学校之邀发表了一场演讲,这场演讲让现场所有人笑声不断,也让不少人潸然泪下。据美国《纽约时报》报道,至少已有1000万人上网观赏了这场演讲的内容。这场幽默、充满启发性及智慧的演讲获得了极为热烈而广泛的反响,《华尔街日报》专栏作家杰弗里让斯罗先后53次采访了鲍许教授,写成了这本精彩丰富而令人动容的《最后的演讲》。兰迪教授所传达的信息之所以如此震撼人心,是因为他以诚恳、幽默的态度去分享他独特的经验。他谈的不是死亡,而是人生中的重要议题,包括克服障碍,实现儿时梦想,帮助别人实现梦想,把握每一个时刻。本书不仅是献给天下所有的学生、教师、父母以及拥有梦想的人,其实也是兰迪教授打算在未来20年要教给三个年幼孩子的事情。