I was gifted this book by some dear friends, the parents of my godson. It’s a short story that details the last lecture of a Carnegie Mellon professor, Randy Pausch, who was diagnosed with terminal pancreatic cancer leaving 2 young kids and his wife behind. Interestingly enough, the author of the other book I’m currently reading, I Am a Strange Loop by Douglas Hofstadter, lost his wife to cancer while their children were still young (5 and 2).

After chatting briefly about it with my wife, we decided that I should end my streak of not needing to go to the doctor :)

Some notes:

• Much of the book was centered around childhood dreams…not sure if I’m the only one who can’t remember what mine were? Should I be concerned about that?
• The notion that “brick walls” (or otherwise, life challenges) are there to test resilience is a helpful metaphor. Resilience is not a bad proxy for an input to success.
• Is Disneyland (even Disney) that great? I haven’t felt the “magic” yet, but maybe one day I will.
• What would happen if more people gave last lectures? Obituaries are typically written in third-person, but I wonder what a first-person obituary section would be like. Obviously, not everyone gets a heads up on their death as Randy did (he did mention being grateful for that), but for those who do, I’m curious of the themes that would emerge.