Summary for Randy Pausch Lecture: Time Management Who is Randy Pausch? Randolf Frederick Pausch was born in Baltimore on Oct. 23, 1960. (Martin, 2008) Pausch had been a professor of computer science, human-computer interaction and design at Carnegie Mellon. With a drama professor, he founded the university's Entertainment Technology Center, which teams students from the arts with those in technology to develop projects. (Nelson, 2008) He died in his home on 25th of July, 2008. He was 47 and had lived five months longer than the six months a doctor gave him as an upside limit following a recurrence of pancreatic cancer. What was he known for? Pausch delivered his "Last Lecture", titled "Really Achieving Your Childhood Dreams", at CMU on September 18, 2007. The lecture made him gain public fame and was later known as “The Last Lecture”. Also, Pausch expanded it into a best-selling book, “The Last Lecture”. He was also known to be the leader of researchers who created Alice, a revolutionary way to teach computer programming. (Randy’s story, n.d.) 5 points that I liked in his talk. The first and main point that I like in his talk, was really how he used his sense of humour during the whole lecture, he wasn’t just able to send the important message to every single person watching, but it showed how passionate he is about what he is doing. Despite the fact that he was told he is going to die soon, he still knew that he can enjoy every single moment left in his life. Another point I liked was when he was making a comparison in the beginning between the way people treat money and the way they treat time. People can be good at managing their money really carefully and with a lot of care, yet they don’t manage their time well enough despite the fact that the time that passes never gets back. I liked also how he emphasized on the example he gave about university students and as he said: “You can earn more money later but what you will never do is get the two years of your life back”. I also liked how he answered the question: “If you are not going to have fun, why do it?” Because indeed if you are not passionate about the thing you decided to do for the rest of your life, then you are just wasting your time. Yes, maybe change will need some extra work to achieve, but if you can have fun doing it, you won’t notice that hard work. Moreover, He did a great job in the lecture when he talked about how important experience is. Indeed experience is really valuable and can’t be gained except by time. There are no shortcuts to earn experience. Experience comes from learning from our mistakes, so if we don’t even go try new things and make mistakes how will we gain it? The point is, if we don’t try and fail, we will never reach our goals. From an optimistic point of view from Randy: “If things get bad, you are learning a lot and it will get better later”. The last point I enjoyed in the talk was when he highlighted how significant can to do lists be. Because even if you can memorise every single appointment, interview, meeting, assignment date, why use the space in your brain for that when you can leave it empty for more important things? As Randy said: “I don’t have enough brain to spare on things I can have paper or computers do for me”. References: Carnegie Mellon University. (n.d.). Randy’s story. Retrieved August 25, 2017 from http://www.cmu.edu/randyslecture/story/index.html Carnegie Mellon University. (2008, February 06). Randy Pausch Lecture: Time Management. [Video file] Retrieved August 25, 2017 from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oTugjssqOT0&t=915s Martin, D. (2008, July 26). Randy Pausch, 47, Dies; His ‘Last Lecture’ Inspired Many to Live With Wonder. The New York Times. Retrieved August 25, 2017 from http://www.nytimes.com/2008/07/26/us/26pausch.html Nelson, Valerie J. (2008, July 26). Randy Pausch, 47; terminally ill professor inspired many with his 'last lecture. Los Angeles Times. Retrieved August 25, 2017 from http://articles.latimes.com/2008/jul/26/local/me-pausch26 .