Randy Pausch last lecture -- edited to 45 for showing in class

00:44:20
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-Arnrxle4Gw

Résumé

TLDRIn his poignant lecture, Professor Randy Pausch reflects on his life, sharing insights about achieving childhood dreams and the importance of enabling the dreams of others. He discusses his personal journey, including his academic achievements and experiences, while emphasizing the significance of integrity, mentorship, and humor. Pausch highlights the concept of 'brick walls' as challenges that test one's determination and the value of indirect learning through 'head fakes.' He encourages listeners to lead their lives authentically, suggesting that true success comes from helping others and maintaining a positive outlook, even in the face of adversity. Ultimately, his message is about living a life of purpose and connection, leaving a lasting impact on those around us.

A retenir

  • 🎓 Achieving childhood dreams is possible with determination.
  • 🤝 Mentorship is crucial for personal and professional growth.
  • 🧱 Brick walls test your commitment to your goals.
  • 😂 Humor helps navigate life's challenges.
  • 🌱 Indirect learning (head fakes) is valuable.
  • 💪 Failure can lead to important lessons.
  • 🌟 Enabling others' dreams is a fulfilling pursuit.
  • 🗣️ Effective leadership involves understanding others.
  • 💖 Success is about helping others achieve their goals.
  • 🌈 Live authentically and with purpose.

Chronologie

  • 00:00:00 - 00:05:00

    The introduction of the lecture series 'Journeys' at Carnegie Mellon University, featuring Professor Randy Pausch, who humorously reflects on his academic journey and credentials, emphasizing his friendship with the speaker and the importance of integrity and laughter in life.

  • 00:05:00 - 00:10:00

    Professor Pausch candidly discusses his terminal cancer diagnosis, setting the tone for his lecture by focusing on how to respond to life's challenges rather than dwelling on his illness. He emphasizes the importance of discussing childhood dreams and lessons learned instead of personal struggles.

  • 00:10:00 - 00:15:00

    Pausch shares his childhood dreams, including experiencing zero gravity, playing in the NFL, and becoming Captain Kirk. He highlights the significance of having specific dreams and recounts how he achieved the dream of experiencing weightlessness through creative problem-solving.

  • 00:15:00 - 00:20:00

    He reflects on his dream of playing in the NFL, discussing the valuable lessons learned from his coaches about fundamentals and the importance of criticism. He emphasizes that not achieving a dream can lead to unexpected valuable experiences.

  • 00:20:00 - 00:25:00

    Pausch discusses his aspiration to author an article in the World Book Encyclopedia, which he achieved, humorously noting the quality of encyclopedias. He reflects on the indirect lessons learned through pursuing dreams, such as teamwork and perseverance.

  • 00:25:00 - 00:30:00

    He shares his dream of becoming an Imagineer at Disney, recounting the challenges he faced in achieving this dream and the importance of persistence in overcoming obstacles. He emphasizes that brick walls exist to test our dedication to our dreams.

  • 00:30:00 - 00:35:00

    Pausch describes his experiences working on the Aladdin virtual reality project at Disney, highlighting the collaboration between artists and engineers. He reflects on the importance of mentorship and the impact of working with talented individuals in achieving his goals.

  • 00:35:00 - 00:44:20

    In conclusion, Pausch shares lessons learned about enabling the dreams of others, the role of mentors, and the importance of leading a life of integrity and hard work. He emphasizes that the true essence of his talk is about leading life well, rather than just achieving personal dreams.

Afficher plus

Carte mentale

Vidéo Q&R

  • What is the main theme of Randy Pausch's lecture?

    The main theme is about achieving childhood dreams and enabling the dreams of others.

  • What does Randy say about brick walls?

    Brick walls are there to show how badly you want something and to keep out those who don't want it badly enough.

  • What is the significance of mentors in Randy's life?

    Mentors played a crucial role in Randy's success, providing guidance and support throughout his journey.

  • What does Randy mean by 'head fakes'?

    Head fakes refer to indirect learning, where the real lesson is different from what is initially perceived.

  • How does Randy view failure?

    Randy believes that failure can provide valuable experiences and lessons that contribute to personal growth.

  • What is the importance of humor in Randy's life?

    Humor helps to cope with challenges and brings joy to life, even in difficult times.

  • What legacy does Randy hope to leave?

    Randy hopes to inspire others to pursue their dreams and help them achieve their goals.

  • What advice does Randy give about leadership?

    Effective leadership involves understanding and bringing out the best in others.

  • How does Randy define success?

    Success is not just about personal achievements but also about enabling others to achieve their dreams.

  • What is the ultimate message of Randy's lecture?

    The ultimate message is to lead your life in a way that aligns with your values and helps others.

Voir plus de résumés vidéo

Accédez instantanément à des résumés vidéo gratuits sur YouTube grâce à l'IA !
Sous-titres
en
Défilement automatique:
  • 00:00:01
    welcome it's my pleasure to introduce
  • 00:00:04
    you to the first of our new University's
  • 00:00:06
    lectures titled
  • 00:00:08
    Journeys lectures in which members of
  • 00:00:11
    our community will share with us
  • 00:00:14
    Reflections and insights on their
  • 00:00:16
    personal and professional Journeys
  • 00:00:18
    today's Journey's lecture as you all
  • 00:00:20
    know is by Professor Randy P um it's a
  • 00:00:24
    pleasure to be here thank you very much
  • 00:00:27
    um I'm going to start by um covering
  • 00:00:30
    ry's academic
  • 00:00:32
    credentials um it's a little bizarre for
  • 00:00:34
    me to be standing here at Carnegie melon
  • 00:00:36
    which is a a school I couldn't get into
  • 00:00:40
    uh no matter how much uh I contributed
  • 00:00:43
    to this institution
  • 00:00:46
    but no really I'm not
  • 00:00:49
    kidding you all think oh gosh he's
  • 00:00:51
    humble really no I'm not humble at all
  • 00:00:54
    uh very average SAT scores you know
  • 00:00:56
    right in the middle of my High School
  • 00:00:58
    class of 900 anyway Randy Randy
  • 00:01:01
    earned it really pisses me off that
  • 00:01:03
    Randy's so smart is if you want the
  • 00:01:05
    actually I called him we decided about
  • 00:01:07
    what four weeks ago and he we heard the
  • 00:01:08
    news went from you know like bad to
  • 00:01:11
    horrific it was on a Wednesday night and
  • 00:01:13
    I said look we have two choices we can
  • 00:01:14
    like play this really straight and very
  • 00:01:16
    emotional or we can go to dark
  • 00:01:19
    humor and for those of you who know
  • 00:01:21
    Randy well he was like oh dark humor so
  • 00:01:24
    I called him the next day and I was like
  • 00:01:26
    dude you can't die and he's like what do
  • 00:01:28
    you mean and I said well when you die
  • 00:01:30
    the average IQ of seab bolts friends is
  • 00:01:32
    going to like Drop 50
  • 00:01:35
    points to which it responded we need to
  • 00:01:37
    find you some smarter
  • 00:01:40
    friends so you're all smart because
  • 00:01:42
    you're here so if you want to be my
  • 00:01:43
    friend I'll be over at the corner of the
  • 00:01:45
    reception room Randy earned his
  • 00:01:46
    undergraduate degree in computer science
  • 00:01:48
    at Brown in
  • 00:01:50
    1982 his PhD in CS from Carnegie melon
  • 00:01:54
    in 1988 and taught at the University of
  • 00:01:56
    Virginia where he was granted tenure a
  • 00:01:59
    year early
  • 00:02:01
    he joined the Carnegie melon faculty in
  • 00:02:03
    1997 with appointments in the CSH HCI in
  • 00:02:07
    design departments he has authored or
  • 00:02:10
    co-authored five books in over 60
  • 00:02:13
    reviewed journal and Conference
  • 00:02:15
    preceding articles none of which I would
  • 00:02:19
    understand we spent an enormous amount
  • 00:02:21
    of time together um we taught each other
  • 00:02:24
    about each other's very uh interesting
  • 00:02:27
    strange cultures to the other academic
  • 00:02:29
    versus the corporate world and we
  • 00:02:31
    developed a deep friendship woven
  • 00:02:33
    together with stories about our kids our
  • 00:02:35
    wives our parents as well as deep
  • 00:02:38
    discussions about the Paramount
  • 00:02:40
    importance of integrity and everything
  • 00:02:42
    you do family first religion our shared
  • 00:02:48
    joy in connecting people and
  • 00:02:50
    ideas in deploying money and influence
  • 00:02:53
    to do good and the importance of having
  • 00:02:57
    a lot of laughs along the way
  • 00:03:00
    ry's dedication to making the world a
  • 00:03:02
    better place is self-evident to anyone
  • 00:03:04
    who has crossed paths with him whether
  • 00:03:07
    it's directly influencing students
  • 00:03:09
    create creating organizations like the
  • 00:03:12
    ETC building tools like Alice or doing
  • 00:03:15
    what he probably does best which is
  • 00:03:17
    bridging
  • 00:03:18
    cultures as Bing Gordon EA's Chief
  • 00:03:21
    creative Officer says of Randy even more
  • 00:03:24
    important than ry's academic
  • 00:03:26
    philanthropic and entrepreneurial
  • 00:03:29
    accomplishments has been his humanity
  • 00:03:31
    and the enthusiasm he brings to students
  • 00:03:34
    and co-workers on a daily
  • 00:03:37
    basis for those of you who know Randy
  • 00:03:39
    Randy brings a particular zest for life
  • 00:03:42
    and humor even while facing
  • 00:03:46
    death to Randy this is simply another
  • 00:03:50
    adventure it is my great honor to
  • 00:03:53
    introduce Dylan Logan and Khloe's dad
  • 00:03:57
    Jay's husband and my very dear friend Dr
  • 00:04:00
    Randy
  • 00:04:18
    P Make Me earn
  • 00:04:21
    it um it's uh
  • 00:04:25
    did it's wonderful to be here um what
  • 00:04:29
    endir didn't tell you is that this
  • 00:04:30
    lecture series used to be called the
  • 00:04:31
    last lecture if you had one last lecture
  • 00:04:34
    to give before you died what would it be
  • 00:04:36
    I thought damn I finally nailed the
  • 00:04:38
    venue and they red it
  • 00:04:40
    so um you know in case there's anybody
  • 00:04:44
    who wandered in and doesn't know the
  • 00:04:46
    backstory my dad always taught me when
  • 00:04:47
    when there's an elephant in the room
  • 00:04:48
    introduce them uh if you look at my CAT
  • 00:04:51
    scans there are approximately 10 tumors
  • 00:04:53
    in my liver and the doctors told me
  • 00:04:55
    three to six months of good health left
  • 00:04:57
    uh that was a month ago so you can do
  • 00:04:59
    the math um I have some of the best
  • 00:05:01
    doctors in the world and
  • 00:05:04
    you microphone's not
  • 00:05:09
    working then I'll just have to talk
  • 00:05:11
    louder all right is that good all right
  • 00:05:15
    uh so that is what it is we can't change
  • 00:05:17
    it and we just have to decide how we're
  • 00:05:19
    going to respond to that we cannot
  • 00:05:21
    change the cards we are dealt just how
  • 00:05:23
    we play the hand all right so what are
  • 00:05:25
    we not talking about today we're not
  • 00:05:26
    talking about cancer because I spend a
  • 00:05:29
    lot of time talking about that I'm
  • 00:05:30
    really not interested if you have any
  • 00:05:32
    herbal supplements or remedies please
  • 00:05:33
    stay away from me uh and we're not going
  • 00:05:36
    to talk about things that are even more
  • 00:05:38
    important than achieving your childhood
  • 00:05:40
    dreams we're not going to talk about my
  • 00:05:41
    wife we're not talk about my kids
  • 00:05:42
    because I'm good but I'm not good enough
  • 00:05:44
    to talk about that without tearing up so
  • 00:05:46
    we're just going to take that off the
  • 00:05:47
    table that's much more important and
  • 00:05:49
    we're not going to talk about
  • 00:05:50
    spirituality and religion um although I
  • 00:05:53
    will tell you that I have experienced a
  • 00:05:55
    deathbed conversion um I just bought a
  • 00:05:58
    Macintosh
  • 00:06:08
    now I knew I'd get 9% of the audience
  • 00:06:10
    with
  • 00:06:11
    that all right so what is today's talk
  • 00:06:14
    about then it's about my childhood
  • 00:06:16
    dreams and how I've achieved them I've
  • 00:06:18
    been very fortunate that way how I
  • 00:06:21
    believe I've been able to enable the
  • 00:06:22
    dreams I've been able to enable the
  • 00:06:24
    dreams of others and to some degree
  • 00:06:27
    Lessons Learned I'm a professor there
  • 00:06:28
    should be some Lessons Learned and how
  • 00:06:31
    you can use the stuff you hear today to
  • 00:06:34
    achieve your dreams or enable the dreams
  • 00:06:36
    of others and as you get older you may
  • 00:06:37
    find that enabling the dreams of others
  • 00:06:39
    thing is even more
  • 00:06:41
    fun so what were my childhood dreams
  • 00:06:44
    well you know I had a really good
  • 00:06:45
    childhood I mean no kidding around so
  • 00:06:49
    what were my childhood dreams you may
  • 00:06:50
    not agree with this list but I was there
  • 00:06:54
    uh being in zero gravity playing in the
  • 00:06:56
    National Football League authoring an
  • 00:06:59
    article in the World Book Encyclopedia I
  • 00:07:00
    guess you can tell the Nerds early
  • 00:07:03
    um uh being Captain Kirk anybody here
  • 00:07:06
    have that childhood dream not at CMU no
  • 00:07:10
    um I wanted to become one of the guys
  • 00:07:12
    who won the big stuffed animals in the
  • 00:07:13
    amusement park and I wanted to be an
  • 00:07:15
    imagineer with Disney right these are
  • 00:07:17
    not sorted in any particular order
  • 00:07:19
    although I think they do get harder
  • 00:07:21
    except for maybe the first one um okay
  • 00:07:23
    so being in zero gravity now it's
  • 00:07:25
    important to have specific dreams I did
  • 00:07:27
    not dream of being an astronaut because
  • 00:07:29
    when I was a little kid I wore glasses
  • 00:07:30
    and they told me oh astronauts can't
  • 00:07:31
    have glasses and I was like I didn't
  • 00:07:33
    really want the whole astronaut gig I
  • 00:07:34
    just wanted the floating so uh and as a
  • 00:07:41
    child prototype
  • 00:07:44
    0.0 but that didn't work so well and uh
  • 00:07:48
    it turns out that NASA has uh something
  • 00:07:51
    called the vomit Comet that they used to
  • 00:07:53
    train the astronauts and this thing does
  • 00:07:55
    parabolic arcs and at the top of each
  • 00:07:57
    Arc you get about 25 second seconds
  • 00:07:59
    where you're ballistic and you get about
  • 00:08:01
    you know a rough equivalent of
  • 00:08:02
    weightlessness for about 25 seconds and
  • 00:08:05
    there is a program where college
  • 00:08:07
    students can submit
  • 00:08:09
    proposals and if they win the
  • 00:08:11
    competition they get to fly and I
  • 00:08:14
    thought that was really cool and we had
  • 00:08:15
    a team and we put a team together and
  • 00:08:17
    they won and they got to fly and I was
  • 00:08:19
    all excited because I was going to go
  • 00:08:20
    with
  • 00:08:21
    them and then I fit the first brick wall
  • 00:08:24
    because they made it very clear that
  • 00:08:26
    under no circumstances were faculty m M
  • 00:08:29
    allowed to fly with the
  • 00:08:31
    teams I know I was heartbroken right I
  • 00:08:34
    was like but I worked so
  • 00:08:39
    hard and so I read the literature very
  • 00:08:41
    carefully and it turns out that NASA
  • 00:08:43
    it's part of their Outreach and
  • 00:08:45
    publicity program and it turns out that
  • 00:08:47
    these students were allowed to bring a
  • 00:08:49
    local media journalist from their
  • 00:08:57
    Hometown and uh
  • 00:09:01
    Randy PCH web journalist uh it's really
  • 00:09:04
    easy to get a press pass so uh so I
  • 00:09:06
    called the guys at Nasa and I said um I
  • 00:09:08
    need to know where to fax some documents
  • 00:09:10
    and they said what documents are you
  • 00:09:11
    going to fax us I said my resignation as
  • 00:09:13
    the faculty adviser and my application
  • 00:09:16
    is the
  • 00:09:18
    journalist and he said that's a little
  • 00:09:20
    transparent don't you
  • 00:09:23
    think and I said yeah but our project is
  • 00:09:25
    virtual reality and we're going to bring
  • 00:09:27
    down a whole bunch of VR headsets and
  • 00:09:30
    all the students from all the teams are
  • 00:09:31
    going to to experience it and all those
  • 00:09:33
    other real journalists are going to get
  • 00:09:34
    to film
  • 00:09:36
    it Jim P's going a you bastard
  • 00:09:40
    yes and the guy said here's the facts
  • 00:09:43
    number so and indeed we kept our end of
  • 00:09:46
    the bargain uh and that's one of the
  • 00:09:47
    themes that you'll hear later on the
  • 00:09:48
    talk is have something to bring to the
  • 00:09:50
    table right because that will make you
  • 00:09:52
    more
  • 00:09:53
    welcomed uh and if you're curious about
  • 00:09:56
    what zero gravity looks like hopefully
  • 00:09:58
    the sound will be working
  • 00:10:05
    here
  • 00:10:08
    get this is
  • 00:10:10
    fantastic it's just amazing it's nothing
  • 00:10:12
    like I expected we are having a great I
  • 00:10:16
    don't think any of
  • 00:10:18
    us so this is
  • 00:10:25
    awesome you got one mzy that's good got
  • 00:10:32
    you you do pay the piper at the
  • 00:10:36
    bottom so childhood dream number one
  • 00:10:41
    check all right let's talk about
  • 00:10:43
    football my dream was to play in the
  • 00:10:44
    National Football League and most of you
  • 00:10:46
    don't know that I actually no
  • 00:10:49
    um no I did not make it to the National
  • 00:10:52
    Football League but I probably got more
  • 00:10:56
    from that dream and not accomplishing it
  • 00:10:59
    than I got from any of the ones that I
  • 00:11:00
    did accomplish um I I had a coach I
  • 00:11:04
    signed up when I was nine years old I
  • 00:11:05
    was the the smallest kid in the league
  • 00:11:08
    by far and I had to coach Jim Graham who
  • 00:11:11
    was 6'4 he had played linebacker at Penn
  • 00:11:13
    State he was just this Hulk of a guy and
  • 00:11:16
    he was old school okay I mean really old
  • 00:11:19
    school like he thought the forward pass
  • 00:11:21
    was a trick play so and he showed up for
  • 00:11:25
    practice the first day and you know this
  • 00:11:28
    big hulking guy we were all scared to
  • 00:11:29
    death of him and he hadn't brought any
  • 00:11:32
    footballs how how are we going to have
  • 00:11:34
    practice without any footballs and one
  • 00:11:37
    of the other kids said excuse me coach
  • 00:11:39
    but there's no football and Coach Graham
  • 00:11:42
    said right how many men are on a
  • 00:11:43
    football field at a time somebody said
  • 00:11:45
    11 on a team 22 and Coach Graham said
  • 00:11:49
    all right and how many people are
  • 00:11:50
    touching the football at any given time
  • 00:11:52
    one of them and he said right so we're
  • 00:11:54
    going to work on what those other 21
  • 00:11:55
    guys are
  • 00:11:56
    doing and that's a real really good
  • 00:11:59
    story because it's all about
  • 00:12:01
    fundamentals fundamentals fundamentals
  • 00:12:03
    fundamentals you've got to get the
  • 00:12:04
    fundamentals down because otherwise the
  • 00:12:05
    fancy stuff isn't going to work and the
  • 00:12:08
    other Jim Graham story I have is there
  • 00:12:09
    was one practice where he just rode me
  • 00:12:11
    all practice just you're doing this
  • 00:12:12
    wrong you're doing this wrong go back
  • 00:12:14
    and do it again you owe me you're doing
  • 00:12:15
    push-ups after practice and when it was
  • 00:12:17
    all over one of the other assistant
  • 00:12:18
    coaches came over and said yeah coach
  • 00:12:20
    Graham rode you pretty hard didn't he I
  • 00:12:22
    said yeah he said that's a good thing he
  • 00:12:25
    said when you're screwing up and
  • 00:12:27
    nobody's saying anything to anymore that
  • 00:12:30
    means they gave
  • 00:12:31
    up and that's a lesson that stuck with
  • 00:12:34
    me my whole life is that when you see
  • 00:12:36
    when you see yourself doing something
  • 00:12:38
    badly and nobody's bothering to tell you
  • 00:12:39
    anymore that's a very bad place to be
  • 00:12:42
    your critics are your ones telling you
  • 00:12:43
    they still love you and care uh after
  • 00:12:46
    coach grma I had another coach coach
  • 00:12:47
    setliff and he taught me a lot about the
  • 00:12:49
    power of enthusiasm he did this one
  • 00:12:51
    thing where only for one play at a time
  • 00:12:53
    he would put people in at like the most
  • 00:12:55
    horrifically wrong position for them
  • 00:12:58
    like all the short guys would become
  • 00:13:00
    receivers right it was just it was just
  • 00:13:02
    laughable but we only went in for one
  • 00:13:04
    play right and boy the other team just
  • 00:13:08
    never knew what hit him because when
  • 00:13:09
    when you're only doing it for one play
  • 00:13:11
    and you're just not where you're
  • 00:13:11
    supposed to be and freedom is just
  • 00:13:13
    another word for Nothing Left to Lose
  • 00:13:14
    boy are you going to clean somebody's
  • 00:13:16
    clock for that one play and and that
  • 00:13:18
    kind of enthusiasm was great and to this
  • 00:13:19
    day I am most comfortable on a football
  • 00:13:21
    field I mean it's it's just one of those
  • 00:13:23
    things where you know if I'm working a
  • 00:13:26
    hard problem people will see me
  • 00:13:27
    wandering the halls with one of these
  • 00:13:29
    things and that's just because you know
  • 00:13:31
    when you do something young enough and
  • 00:13:33
    you train for it it just becomes a part
  • 00:13:34
    of you and I'm very glad that football
  • 00:13:36
    was a part of my life and if I didn't
  • 00:13:39
    get the dream of playing in the NFL
  • 00:13:40
    that's okay I probably got stuff more
  • 00:13:42
    valuable because looking at what's going
  • 00:13:44
    on in the NFL I'm not sure those guys
  • 00:13:45
    are doing so great right
  • 00:13:48
    now okay and so one of the Expressions I
  • 00:13:51
    learned Electronic Arts which I love
  • 00:13:52
    which pertains to this is experience is
  • 00:13:54
    what you get when you didn't get what
  • 00:13:56
    you wanted and I think that's abs
  • 00:13:58
    absolutely lovely um and the other thing
  • 00:14:01
    about football is we send our kids out
  • 00:14:03
    to play football or soccer or swimming
  • 00:14:05
    or whatever it is and it's first example
  • 00:14:07
    of what I'm going to call a head fake or
  • 00:14:08
    indirect learning we actually don't want
  • 00:14:10
    our kids to learn football I mean yeah
  • 00:14:12
    it's really nice that I have a wonderful
  • 00:14:13
    three-point stance and that I know how
  • 00:14:15
    to do a chop block and all this kind of
  • 00:14:16
    stuff but we send our kids out to learn
  • 00:14:18
    much more important things teamwork
  • 00:14:21
    sportsmanship perseverance etc etc and
  • 00:14:24
    these kinds of head fake learnings are
  • 00:14:27
    absolutely important and you should keep
  • 00:14:29
    your eye out for them because they're
  • 00:14:31
    everywhere all right the simple one
  • 00:14:33
    being an author in the World Book
  • 00:14:34
    Encyclopedia when I was a kid we had the
  • 00:14:37
    World Book Encyclopedia on the Shelf uh
  • 00:14:39
    for the Freshman this is
  • 00:14:43
    paper we used to have these things
  • 00:14:45
    called
  • 00:14:47
    books um and after I had become somewhat
  • 00:14:51
    of an authority on virtual reality but
  • 00:14:52
    not like a really important one so I was
  • 00:14:54
    at the level of people the world book
  • 00:14:56
    would Badger uh they called me up and I
  • 00:14:59
    wrote an article and this is Caitlyn
  • 00:15:01
    kellerer and there's an article if you
  • 00:15:03
    go to your local library where they
  • 00:15:04
    still have copies of the World book look
  • 00:15:06
    under V for virtual reality and there it
  • 00:15:08
    is and all I have to say is that um
  • 00:15:11
    having been selected to be an author in
  • 00:15:13
    in the world book in cyclopedia I now
  • 00:15:15
    believe that Wikipedia is a perfectly
  • 00:15:17
    fine source for your information because
  • 00:15:19
    I know what the quality control is for
  • 00:15:21
    Real encyclopedias they let me in
  • 00:15:24
    uh all right next one uh
  • 00:15:30
    [Applause]
  • 00:15:32
    at at a certain point you just realize
  • 00:15:34
    there are some things you're not going
  • 00:15:35
    to do so maybe you just want to stand
  • 00:15:36
    close to the
  • 00:15:38
    people and
  • 00:15:42
    uh uh I mean my God what a what a role
  • 00:15:45
    model for young
  • 00:15:47
    people I mean just this is everything
  • 00:15:50
    you want to be and what I what I learned
  • 00:15:52
    that carried me forward in leadership
  • 00:15:53
    later is that you know he wasn't the
  • 00:15:55
    smartest guy on the ship I mean Spock
  • 00:15:57
    was pretty smart and McCoy was was the
  • 00:15:58
    doctor and Scotty was the engineer and
  • 00:16:00
    you sort of go and what skill set did he
  • 00:16:03
    have to get on this damn thing and run
  • 00:16:04
    it and you know clearly there's this
  • 00:16:06
    skill set called leadership and you know
  • 00:16:09
    whether or not you like the series
  • 00:16:10
    there's no doubt that there was a lot to
  • 00:16:12
    be learned about how to lead people by
  • 00:16:14
    watching this guy in action so and he
  • 00:16:17
    just had the coolest damn
  • 00:16:19
    toys right I mean my God he uh you know
  • 00:16:25
    I I just thought it was fascinating as a
  • 00:16:26
    kid that he had this thing and he could
  • 00:16:29
    you know talk to the ship with
  • 00:16:31
    it right you know I just thought that
  • 00:16:34
    was just spectacular and of course now I
  • 00:16:36
    own one and it's
  • 00:16:39
    smaller so that's kind of
  • 00:16:42
    cool uh
  • 00:16:44
    so I got to achieve this
  • 00:16:47
    dream uh James T Kirk his alter eager um
  • 00:16:53
    William Shatner wrote a book which I
  • 00:16:54
    think was actually a pretty cool book uh
  • 00:16:56
    it was with chip Walter who is uh a
  • 00:16:59
    Pittsburgh based author who's quite good
  • 00:17:01
    and they wrote a book on basically the
  • 00:17:02
    science of Star Trek you know what has
  • 00:17:04
    come true and they went around to top
  • 00:17:06
    places around the country and looked at
  • 00:17:08
    various things and they came here to
  • 00:17:09
    study our virtual reality setup and uh
  • 00:17:11
    so we built a virtual reality for him it
  • 00:17:13
    looked something like that um we put it
  • 00:17:16
    in put it to Red Alert he was a very
  • 00:17:17
    good sport it's not like he saw that one
  • 00:17:22
    coming and it's really cool to meet your
  • 00:17:26
    Boyhood Idol
  • 00:17:29
    but it's even cooler when he comes to
  • 00:17:31
    you to see what cool stuff you're doing
  • 00:17:33
    in your lab all right my next one being
  • 00:17:36
    an
  • 00:17:37
    imagineer this was the hard
  • 00:17:40
    one believe me getting to zero gravity
  • 00:17:42
    is easier than becoming an imagineer uh
  • 00:17:45
    when I was a kid I was eight years old
  • 00:17:47
    and our family took a trip cross country
  • 00:17:49
    to see Disneyland and if you ever seen
  • 00:17:52
    the movie National Lampoons Vacation it
  • 00:17:55
    was a lot like that it was a quest
  • 00:17:59
    and these are real vintage
  • 00:18:01
    photographs uh and there I am in front
  • 00:18:06
    of the castle and there I am and for
  • 00:18:08
    those of you who are into foreshadowing
  • 00:18:10
    this is the Alice
  • 00:18:13
    ride and and I just thought this was
  • 00:18:16
    just the coolest coolest environment I'd
  • 00:18:18
    ever been in and instead of saying gee I
  • 00:18:20
    want to experience this I said I want to
  • 00:18:21
    make stuff like this and so I I bided my
  • 00:18:25
    time and then I graduated with my PhD
  • 00:18:27
    from Carnegie melon thinking that meant
  • 00:18:28
    me infinitely qualified to do anything
  • 00:18:30
    and I dashed off my letters of
  • 00:18:31
    application to Walt Disney imagineering
  • 00:18:33
    and they sent me some of the damn nicest
  • 00:18:35
    go to hell letters I've ever
  • 00:18:38
    gotten I mean it was just uh we have
  • 00:18:41
    carefully reviewed your application and
  • 00:18:44
    presently we do not have any positions
  • 00:18:46
    available which require your particular
  • 00:18:49
    qualifications now think about the fact
  • 00:18:51
    that you're getting this from a place
  • 00:18:52
    that's famous for guys who sweep the
  • 00:18:54
    street
  • 00:18:56
    right so that was a bit of a
  • 00:18:58
    setback but remember the brick walls are
  • 00:19:02
    there for a reason right the brick walls
  • 00:19:04
    are not there to keep us out the brick
  • 00:19:06
    walls are there to give us a chance to
  • 00:19:08
    show how badly we want something because
  • 00:19:11
    the brick walls are there to stop the
  • 00:19:13
    people who don't want it badly enough
  • 00:19:15
    they're there to stop the other
  • 00:19:19
    people all right fast forward in 1991 we
  • 00:19:23
    did a system back at the University of
  • 00:19:24
    Virginia called virtual reality on $5 a
  • 00:19:26
    day uh just one of those unbelievable
  • 00:19:29
    spectacular things I was so scared back
  • 00:19:32
    in those days as a junior academic Jim
  • 00:19:34
    Foley's here and I just love to tell the
  • 00:19:36
    story uh he knew my undergraduate
  • 00:19:37
    adviser Andy vanam and I'm at my first
  • 00:19:39
    conference and I'm just scared to death
  • 00:19:42
    and this this icon in the user interface
  • 00:19:44
    Community walks up to me and just out of
  • 00:19:46
    nowhere just gives me this huge bear hug
  • 00:19:47
    and he says that was from
  • 00:19:49
    Andy and that was when I thought okay
  • 00:19:52
    maybe I can make it all right you know
  • 00:19:54
    maybe maybe I do belong uh and a similar
  • 00:19:57
    story is that this was just this
  • 00:19:58
    unbelievable hit because at the time
  • 00:20:00
    everybody needed a half a million
  • 00:20:01
    dollars to do virtual reality and
  • 00:20:02
    everybody felt frustrated and we
  • 00:20:04
    literally hacked together a system for
  • 00:20:05
    about $5,000 in parts and made a working
  • 00:20:08
    VR system and people were just like oh
  • 00:20:10
    my God it's like you know the hulet
  • 00:20:11
    Packard garage thing this is so awesome
  • 00:20:13
    and so I'm giving this talk in the room
  • 00:20:15
    has just gone wild and during the Q&A a
  • 00:20:17
    guy named Tom Fess who was one of the
  • 00:20:19
    big names in virtual reality at the time
  • 00:20:21
    he goes over to the microphone and he
  • 00:20:22
    introduces himself I didn't know what he
  • 00:20:23
    looked like but I sure as hell knew the
  • 00:20:24
    name and he and he asked a question and
  • 00:20:27
    I was like I'm sorry did you say you're
  • 00:20:28
    Tom
  • 00:20:29
    Fess he said yes I said then I would
  • 00:20:32
    love to answer your question but first
  • 00:20:33
    will you have lunch with me
  • 00:20:36
    tomorrow and there's a lot in that
  • 00:20:38
    little moment right there's a lot of
  • 00:20:41
    humility but also asking a person where
  • 00:20:43
    he can't possibly say
  • 00:20:49
    no
  • 00:20:51
    uh and so imagineering a couple of years
  • 00:20:54
    later was working on a virtual reality
  • 00:20:56
    project this was top secret they were
  • 00:20:57
    denying the existence of a virtual
  • 00:20:59
    reality attraction after the time that
  • 00:21:02
    the publicity Department was running the
  • 00:21:03
    TV commercials okay so imagineering
  • 00:21:06
    really had nailed this one tight and uh
  • 00:21:09
    it was the Aladdin attraction where you
  • 00:21:10
    would fly Magic Carpet and the head
  • 00:21:12
    mounted display sometimes known as Gator
  • 00:21:15
    Vision uh and so I had an inn as soon as
  • 00:21:19
    the the project had just you know they
  • 00:21:21
    started running the TV commercials and I
  • 00:21:24
    had been asked to brief the Secretary of
  • 00:21:26
    Defense on the state of virtual reality
  • 00:21:27
    okay Fred Brooks and I uh had been asked
  • 00:21:31
    to brief the Secretary of Defense and uh
  • 00:21:35
    that gave me an excuse so I I called
  • 00:21:37
    them up I called imagineering and I said
  • 00:21:39
    look I'm briefing the Secretary of
  • 00:21:40
    Defense I'd like some materials on what
  • 00:21:42
    you have because it's one of the best V
  • 00:21:43
    Systems in the world and they kind of
  • 00:21:45
    pushed back and I said look is all this
  • 00:21:46
    patriotism stuff in the parks of
  • 00:21:48
    farce and they're like okay uh they said
  • 00:21:52
    but but the PR department doesn't this
  • 00:21:54
    is so new the PR department doesn't have
  • 00:21:55
    any footage for you so I'm going to have
  • 00:21:57
    to connect you straight straight through
  • 00:21:58
    to the team who did the work jackpot
  • 00:22:01
    right so I find myself on the phone with
  • 00:22:03
    a guy named John snotty who is one of
  • 00:22:05
    the most impressive guys I have ever met
  • 00:22:08
    and he was the guy running this team and
  • 00:22:09
    it's not surprising they had done
  • 00:22:10
    impressive things and uh so he sent me
  • 00:22:13
    some stuff we talked briefly he sent me
  • 00:22:15
    some stuff and I said hey I'm going to
  • 00:22:16
    be out in the area for a conference
  • 00:22:18
    shortly would you like to get together
  • 00:22:19
    to have lunch translation I'm going to
  • 00:22:22
    lie to you and say that I have an excuse
  • 00:22:24
    to be in the area so I don't look too
  • 00:22:25
    anxious but I would go to tuned to have
  • 00:22:28
    lunch with
  • 00:22:30
    you uh and so John said
  • 00:22:33
    sure and uh I spent something like 80
  • 00:22:38
    hours talking with all the VR experts in
  • 00:22:40
    the world saying if you had access to
  • 00:22:42
    this one unbelievable project what would
  • 00:22:45
    you ask and then I compiled all of that
  • 00:22:48
    and I had to memorize it which anybody
  • 00:22:49
    who knows me knows that I have no memory
  • 00:22:50
    at all because I couldn't go in looking
  • 00:22:51
    like a dwee with you know hi question 72
  • 00:22:54
    right so I went in and this was like a
  • 00:22:57
    2hour lunch and John must have thought
  • 00:22:59
    he was talking to you know some
  • 00:23:02
    phenomenal person because all I was do
  • 00:23:03
    was doing was channeling Fred Brooks and
  • 00:23:05
    Ian Southerland and Andy Van Dam and
  • 00:23:07
    people like that and Henry fuks so it's
  • 00:23:09
    pretty easy to be smart when you're
  • 00:23:10
    parting smart
  • 00:23:12
    people uh and at the end of the lunch
  • 00:23:15
    with John I sort of as we say in the
  • 00:23:17
    business made the ask and I said you
  • 00:23:20
    know I have a sabatical coming
  • 00:23:22
    up and he said what's
  • 00:23:26
    that
  • 00:23:29
    the beginnings of the culture Clash uh
  • 00:23:33
    and so I talked to them about the
  • 00:23:35
    possibility of coming there and working
  • 00:23:37
    with him and uh he uh he said well
  • 00:23:40
    that's really good except you know
  • 00:23:42
    you're in the business of telling people
  • 00:23:44
    stuff and we're in the business of
  • 00:23:45
    keeping
  • 00:23:46
    secrets right and then what made John
  • 00:23:48
    snotty John snotty was he said but we'll
  • 00:23:50
    work it out right which I really love
  • 00:23:53
    the other thing that I learned from John
  • 00:23:54
    snotty I could do easily an hourong talk
  • 00:23:55
    just on what have I learned from John
  • 00:23:57
    snotty one of the things he told me was
  • 00:23:58
    that wait long enough and people will
  • 00:24:01
    surprise and impress you he said when
  • 00:24:03
    you're pissed off at somebody and you're
  • 00:24:04
    angry at them you just haven't given
  • 00:24:06
    them enough time just give them a little
  • 00:24:08
    more time and they'll almost always
  • 00:24:10
    impress you and that really stuck with
  • 00:24:11
    me I think he's absolutely right on that
  • 00:24:12
    one uh so uh to make a long story short
  • 00:24:16
    we
  • 00:24:17
    negotiated uh a legal contract it was
  • 00:24:20
    going to be the first some people
  • 00:24:21
    referred to it as the first and last
  • 00:24:23
    paper ever published by imagineering but
  • 00:24:25
    the deal was I go I I provide my funding
  • 00:24:28
    I go for six months I work with a
  • 00:24:29
    project we publish a paper um so I
  • 00:24:32
    worked on the Aladdin project it was
  • 00:24:34
    absolutely spectacular I mean just
  • 00:24:38
    unbelievable uh here's my nephew
  • 00:24:40
    Christopher this was the apparatus you
  • 00:24:41
    would sit on this sort of motorcycle
  • 00:24:43
    type thing and you would steer your
  • 00:24:44
    magic carpet and you would put on the
  • 00:24:47
    head mounted display the head Mount
  • 00:24:48
    display was very interesting it had two
  • 00:24:49
    parts and it was a very very clever
  • 00:24:51
    design to get throughput through the
  • 00:24:53
    only part that touched the guest head
  • 00:24:54
    was this little cap and everything else
  • 00:24:55
    clicked onto it all the expensive
  • 00:24:56
    Hardware so you could replicate the Caps
  • 00:24:58
    because they were basically free to
  • 00:25:00
    manufacture uh and this is what I really
  • 00:25:03
    did as I was a cap cleaner during
  • 00:25:07
    this uh I loved imagineering it was just
  • 00:25:10
    a spectacular place just spectacular
  • 00:25:13
    everything that I have dreamed I love
  • 00:25:15
    the model Shop people crawling around on
  • 00:25:17
    things the size of this room that are
  • 00:25:19
    just big physical models it was just an
  • 00:25:21
    incredible place to walk around and be
  • 00:25:24
    inspired uh I'm always reminded of when
  • 00:25:27
    I went there and people said you think
  • 00:25:28
    the expectations are too high and I said
  • 00:25:30
    you ever see the movie Charlie in the
  • 00:25:31
    Chocolate Factory Will Wonka in the
  • 00:25:33
    Chocolate Factory where Jee Wilder says
  • 00:25:34
    to the little boy Charlie is's about to
  • 00:25:36
    give him the Chocolatea he says well
  • 00:25:37
    Charlie did anybody ever tell you the
  • 00:25:39
    story of the little boy who suddenly got
  • 00:25:42
    everything he ever wanted Charlie's eyes
  • 00:25:45
    get like saucers and he says no what
  • 00:25:47
    happened to him Jee Wilder says he lived
  • 00:25:50
    happily ever
  • 00:25:53
    after okay so working on the Aladdin VR
  • 00:25:55
    I described it as a once in every five
  • 00:25:57
    years opportunity and I stand by that
  • 00:25:59
    assessment uh it forever changed me it
  • 00:26:01
    wasn't just that it was good work and I
  • 00:26:03
    got to be a part of it uh but it got me
  • 00:26:06
    into the place of working with real
  • 00:26:08
    people and real HCI user interface
  • 00:26:10
    issues most HCI people live in this
  • 00:26:13
    fantasy world of white collar laborers
  • 00:26:15
    with phds and master's degrees and you
  • 00:26:17
    know until you got ice cream spilled on
  • 00:26:19
    you you're not doing field work right uh
  • 00:26:22
    and more more than anything else from
  • 00:26:24
    John snotty I learned how to put artists
  • 00:26:25
    and Engineers together and that's in the
  • 00:26:27
    real Legacy uh we published a paper uh
  • 00:26:30
    just a nice academic cultural Scandal
  • 00:26:32
    when we wrote the paper the guys at
  • 00:26:33
    imagineering said well let's do a nice
  • 00:26:35
    big
  • 00:26:36
    picture like like you would in a
  • 00:26:37
    magazine and the cigar committee which
  • 00:26:39
    accepted the paper was like this big
  • 00:26:41
    Scandal are they allowed to do
  • 00:26:45
    that there was no
  • 00:26:48
    rule so we published the paper and
  • 00:26:50
    amazingly since then there's a tradition
  • 00:26:52
    of cigar papers having color figures on
  • 00:26:54
    the first page I so I've I've changed
  • 00:26:57
    the world in a small
  • 00:26:59
    away and then at the end of my 6 months
  • 00:27:02
    they came to me and they said you want
  • 00:27:04
    to do it for real you can
  • 00:27:12
    stay and I said no uh one of the only
  • 00:27:15
    times in my life I have surprised my
  • 00:27:17
    father he was like you
  • 00:27:19
    what he said since you were you know all
  • 00:27:22
    you wanted and now they got it and
  • 00:27:24
    you're like
  • 00:27:25
    huh uh there was a bottle of mail to my
  • 00:27:27
    desk drawer be careful what you wish for
  • 00:27:29
    it was a particularly stressful place
  • 00:27:30
    imagineering in general is actually not
  • 00:27:32
    so Moc Laden but the lab I was in oh
  • 00:27:35
    John left in the
  • 00:27:36
    middle and it was a lot like the Soviet
  • 00:27:39
    Union was a little dicey for a while uh
  • 00:27:43
    but it worked out okay and if they had
  • 00:27:45
    said stay here or never walk in the
  • 00:27:47
    building again I would have done it I
  • 00:27:49
    would have walked away from tenure I
  • 00:27:51
    would have just done it but they made it
  • 00:27:53
    easy on me they said you can have your
  • 00:27:54
    cake and eat it too and I basically
  • 00:27:56
    become a day a week day a week consult
  • 00:27:57
    consultant for imagineering and I did
  • 00:27:58
    that for about 10 years and that's one
  • 00:28:01
    of the reasons you should all become
  • 00:28:03
    professors because you can have your
  • 00:28:05
    cake and eat it too okay uh I went on
  • 00:28:08
    and consulted on things like Disney
  • 00:28:10
    Quest so there was the virtual jungle
  • 00:28:11
    cruise and the best interactive
  • 00:28:13
    experience I think ever done and Jesse
  • 00:28:15
    shell gets the credit for this uh
  • 00:28:17
    Pirates of the Caribbean wonderful at
  • 00:28:19
    Disney Quest um and so those are my
  • 00:28:22
    childhood dreams and you know that's
  • 00:28:25
    pretty good I felt good about that so
  • 00:28:27
    then question becomes how can I enable
  • 00:28:29
    the childhood dreams of others and again
  • 00:28:32
    boy am I glad I became a
  • 00:28:34
    professor what better place to enable
  • 00:28:36
    childhood
  • 00:28:39
    dreams maybe working at EA I don't know
  • 00:28:41
    that' probably good close second but
  • 00:28:45
    uh
  • 00:28:47
    and this started in a very concrete
  • 00:28:50
    realization that I could do this because
  • 00:28:53
    a young man named Tommy Bernett when I
  • 00:28:55
    was at the University of Virginia came
  • 00:28:56
    to me was interested in joining my
  • 00:28:57
    research group and uh we talked about it
  • 00:29:00
    he said oh and I have a childhood Dream
  • 00:29:02
    well it gets pretty easy to recognize
  • 00:29:04
    them when they tell you uh and I said
  • 00:29:07
    yes Tommy what is your childhood dream
  • 00:29:08
    he said I want to work on The Next Star
  • 00:29:09
    Wars
  • 00:29:12
    film now you got to remember the timing
  • 00:29:14
    on this where is Tommy Tommy is here
  • 00:29:16
    today what year would this have been
  • 00:29:18
    your sophomore
  • 00:29:19
    year around 193 are you are you breaking
  • 00:29:22
    anything back there young man okay all
  • 00:29:23
    right so in 1993 and I said to Tommy you
  • 00:29:28
    know they're probably not going to make
  • 00:29:29
    those next
  • 00:29:35
    movies and he said no they
  • 00:29:43
    are and Tommy worked with me for a
  • 00:29:46
    number of years as an undergraduate and
  • 00:29:48
    then as a staff member and then when I
  • 00:29:50
    moved to Carnegie melon every single
  • 00:29:52
    member of my team came from Virginia to
  • 00:29:54
    Carnegie melon except for Tommy cuz he
  • 00:29:57
    got a better
  • 00:29:58
    offer and he did indeed work on all
  • 00:30:02
    three of those films so
  • 00:30:05
    Alice uh is a project that we've worked
  • 00:30:07
    on for a long long time it's a novel way
  • 00:30:10
    to teach computer programming kids make
  • 00:30:12
    movies and games the head fake again
  • 00:30:14
    we're back to the Head fakes best way to
  • 00:30:17
    teach somebody something is to have them
  • 00:30:19
    think they're learning something else
  • 00:30:21
    right I've done it my whole career and
  • 00:30:23
    the head fake here is that they're
  • 00:30:24
    learning to program but they just think
  • 00:30:25
    they're making movies and video games
  • 00:30:27
    this has already been downloaded well
  • 00:30:28
    over a million times there are eight
  • 00:30:29
    textbooks that been written about it 10%
  • 00:30:31
    of us colleges are using it now and it's
  • 00:30:34
    not the good stuff yet the good stuff is
  • 00:30:37
    coming in the next
  • 00:30:38
    version okay uh I like Moses get to see
  • 00:30:43
    the promised land but I won't get to set
  • 00:30:44
    foot in
  • 00:30:45
    it and that's okay because I can see it
  • 00:30:49
    and the vision is clear millions of kids
  • 00:30:53
    having fun while learning something hard
  • 00:30:57
    that's pretty cool I can deal with that
  • 00:30:59
    as a legacy the next version is going to
  • 00:31:01
    come out in 2008 it's going to be
  • 00:31:03
    teaching the Java language if you want
  • 00:31:04
    them to know their learning Java
  • 00:31:05
    otherwise they'll just think that
  • 00:31:07
    they're writing movie scripts uh and uh
  • 00:31:10
    we're getting the characters from the P
  • 00:31:13
    the the bestselling PC game in history
  • 00:31:15
    The Sims and this is all already working
  • 00:31:17
    in the lab so there's no real
  • 00:31:19
    technological risk all right so now the
  • 00:31:21
    third part of the talk Lessons Learned
  • 00:31:24
    you we've talked about my dreams we've
  • 00:31:25
    talked about helping other people en
  • 00:31:27
    their dreams somewhere along the way
  • 00:31:29
    there's got to be some aspect of what
  • 00:31:31
    lets you get to achieve your
  • 00:31:33
    dreams first one is the role of parents
  • 00:31:36
    mentors and
  • 00:31:38
    students I was
  • 00:31:40
    blessed to have been born to two
  • 00:31:42
    incredible people this is my mother on
  • 00:31:44
    her 70th
  • 00:31:46
    birthday I am back here I have just been
  • 00:31:52
    lapped this is my dad riding a roller
  • 00:31:54
    coaster on his 80th birthday um
  • 00:31:57
    and he points out that you know he's not
  • 00:31:59
    only Brave he's talented because he did
  • 00:32:02
    win that Big Bear the same
  • 00:32:04
    day uh my dad was so full of life uh
  • 00:32:09
    anything with him was an adventure I
  • 00:32:10
    don't know what's in that bag but I know
  • 00:32:12
    it's
  • 00:32:14
    cool uh my dad dressed up as Santa Claus
  • 00:32:18
    but he also did very very significant
  • 00:32:22
    things to help lots of people uh this is
  • 00:32:24
    a dormatory in Thailand that my mom and
  • 00:32:26
    dad underwrote
  • 00:32:27
    and every year about uh 30 students get
  • 00:32:30
    to go to school who wouldn't have
  • 00:32:32
    otherwise I mean my wife and I have also
  • 00:32:33
    been involved in heavily and these are
  • 00:32:36
    the kind of things that I think
  • 00:32:37
    everybody ought to be doing helping
  • 00:32:40
    others uh but the best story I have
  • 00:32:42
    about my dad is unfortunately my dad
  • 00:32:43
    passed away a little over a year ago and
  • 00:32:45
    when we were going through his things he
  • 00:32:47
    had fought in World War II in the Battle
  • 00:32:48
    of the Bulge and when we were going
  • 00:32:49
    through his things we found out he had
  • 00:32:51
    been awarded the Bronze Star for
  • 00:32:54
    Valor my mom didn't know it in 50 years
  • 00:32:57
    of marriage it had just never come
  • 00:33:02
    up uh my mom uh mothers are people who
  • 00:33:05
    love you even when you pull their
  • 00:33:08
    hair and uh I have two great mom stories
  • 00:33:11
    when I was here studying to get my PhD
  • 00:33:13
    and I was taking something called the
  • 00:33:14
    theory
  • 00:33:15
    qualifier um which I can definitively
  • 00:33:18
    say is the second worst thing in my life
  • 00:33:19
    after
  • 00:33:24
    chemotherapy and I was complaining to my
  • 00:33:26
    mother about how hard this test was and
  • 00:33:28
    how awful it was and she just leaned
  • 00:33:31
    over and she patted me on the arm and
  • 00:33:32
    she said we know how you feel honey and
  • 00:33:34
    remember when your father was your age
  • 00:33:35
    he was fighting the
  • 00:33:41
    [Applause]
  • 00:33:43
    Germans so my next piece of advice is
  • 00:33:46
    you just have to decide if you're a
  • 00:33:48
    tiger or you're an eore I think I'm
  • 00:33:51
    clear where I stand on the great Tigger
  • 00:33:53
    Eeyore
  • 00:33:55
    debate
  • 00:33:58
    never lose the childlike
  • 00:34:00
    Wonder it's just too important it's what
  • 00:34:02
    drives
  • 00:34:03
    us help others uh Denny profit knows
  • 00:34:07
    more about helping other people he's
  • 00:34:09
    forgotten more than I'll ever know he's
  • 00:34:11
    taught Me by Example how to run a group
  • 00:34:14
    how to care about people MK Haley I have
  • 00:34:16
    a theory that people come from large
  • 00:34:17
    families are better people because they
  • 00:34:19
    just had to learn how to get along MK
  • 00:34:21
    Haley comes from a family with 20
  • 00:34:24
    kids yeah um believable and she she
  • 00:34:28
    always says it's kind of fun to do the
  • 00:34:29
    impossible when I first got to
  • 00:34:31
    imagineering she was one of the people
  • 00:34:32
    who dressed me down and uh and she said
  • 00:34:35
    I understand you've joined the Aladdin
  • 00:34:36
    project what can you do and I said well
  • 00:34:38
    I'm a tenured professor of computer
  • 00:34:40
    science and she said well that's a very
  • 00:34:42
    nice Professor boy but that's not what I
  • 00:34:44
    asked I said what can you
  • 00:34:51
    do um and you know I mentioned sort of
  • 00:34:55
    my my working class roots I uh um we
  • 00:34:59
    keep what is valuable to us what we
  • 00:35:00
    cherish and I've kept my Letterman's
  • 00:35:02
    jacket all these years I used to like
  • 00:35:04
    wearing it in grad school and uh one of
  • 00:35:06
    my friends Jessica hodin would
  • 00:35:08
    say why do you wear this Letterman's
  • 00:35:11
    jacket and I looked around at all the
  • 00:35:13
    non-athletic guys around me who were
  • 00:35:14
    much smarter than me and I said CU I
  • 00:35:18
    can and uh so she thought that was a
  • 00:35:21
    real hoot so one year she made for me
  • 00:35:23
    this little raggedy Randy doll and he's
  • 00:35:26
    got a little man's jacket too uh that's
  • 00:35:29
    my all-time favorite it's the perfect
  • 00:35:30
    gift for the egomaniac in your
  • 00:35:33
    life so I've met so many wonderful
  • 00:35:37
    people along the way loyalty is a
  • 00:35:40
    two-way street there was a young man
  • 00:35:41
    named Dennis Cosgrove at the University
  • 00:35:43
    of Virginia uh and when he was a young
  • 00:35:47
    man uh let's just say things
  • 00:35:52
    happened and I found myself talking to a
  • 00:35:55
    dean and the dean no not that
  • 00:36:00
    Dean and anyway this Dean really had it
  • 00:36:02
    in for Dennis and I could never figure
  • 00:36:03
    out why because Dennis was a fine fellow
  • 00:36:04
    but for some reason this Dean really had
  • 00:36:06
    it in for him and I ended up basically
  • 00:36:07
    saying no I vouch for Dennis and the guy
  • 00:36:09
    says you're not even tenured yet and
  • 00:36:11
    you're telling me you're GNA vouch for
  • 00:36:14
    this sophomore or Junior whatever I
  • 00:36:16
    think it was a junior at the time I said
  • 00:36:17
    yeah I'm gonna vouch for him because I
  • 00:36:18
    believe in him and the dean said and I'm
  • 00:36:21
    going to remember this when your tenure
  • 00:36:22
    case comes up I said deal I went back to
  • 00:36:26
    talk to Dennis and I said said I would
  • 00:36:27
    really appreciate
  • 00:36:29
    you that would be good um but loyalty is
  • 00:36:33
    a two-way street I mean that was God
  • 00:36:35
    knows how many years ago but that's the
  • 00:36:37
    same Dennis Cosgrove who's carrying
  • 00:36:39
    Alice forward he's been with me all
  • 00:36:41
    these years right and you know if we
  • 00:36:44
    only had one person to send in a space
  • 00:36:46
    probe to meet an alien species I'm
  • 00:36:47
    picking
  • 00:36:49
    Dennis never give up I didn't get into
  • 00:36:52
    Brown
  • 00:36:53
    University was on the wait list I called
  • 00:36:55
    him up and they eventually decided that
  • 00:36:59
    it was getting really annoying to have
  • 00:37:01
    me call every day so they let me in um
  • 00:37:03
    at carnegy melon I didn't get into
  • 00:37:05
    graduate school Andy had mentored me he
  • 00:37:07
    said go to graduate school you're going
  • 00:37:08
    to Carnegie melon all my good students
  • 00:37:09
    go to Carnegie
  • 00:37:10
    melon and uh yeah you know what's
  • 00:37:14
    coming and so he said you're going to go
  • 00:37:15
    to carneg Millan no problem what he had
  • 00:37:17
    kind of Forgotten was that the
  • 00:37:19
    difficulty of getting into the top THD
  • 00:37:21
    program in the country had really gone
  • 00:37:23
    up and he also didn't know I was going
  • 00:37:24
    to tank my Gres
  • 00:37:27
    because he believed in me which based on
  • 00:37:29
    my board scores was a really stupid idea
  • 00:37:32
    and uh so I didn't get into car Mill no
  • 00:37:34
    one knows this till today I'm telling
  • 00:37:35
    the story I was declined admission to
  • 00:37:37
    Carnegie melon and uh I I was bit of an
  • 00:37:41
    obnoxious little kid I went into Andy's
  • 00:37:44
    office and I dropped the rejection
  • 00:37:46
    letter on his desk and I said I just
  • 00:37:47
    want you to know what your letter of
  • 00:37:49
    recommendation goes for it Carnegie
  • 00:37:55
    melon
  • 00:37:59
    and before the letter had hit his desk
  • 00:38:02
    his hand was on the phone and he said I
  • 00:38:05
    will fix
  • 00:38:06
    [Music]
  • 00:38:09
    this and I said no no no I don't want to
  • 00:38:12
    do it that way that's not the way I was
  • 00:38:13
    raised you know maybe some other
  • 00:38:15
    graduate schools will see fit to admit
  • 00:38:18
    me and he said look Cy M's where you're
  • 00:38:20
    going to be he said I tell you what I'll
  • 00:38:21
    make you a deal go visit the other
  • 00:38:22
    schools because I did get into all the
  • 00:38:24
    other schools he said go visit the other
  • 00:38:25
    schools and if you really don't feel
  • 00:38:27
    comfortable at any of them then will let
  • 00:38:28
    will you let me call Nico Nico being
  • 00:38:30
    Niko hman and I said okay deal I went to
  • 00:38:33
    the other schools without naming them by
  • 00:38:35
    name Berkeley
  • 00:38:38
    Cornell they managed to be so
  • 00:38:40
    unwelcoming that I found myself saying
  • 00:38:42
    to Andy you know I'm gonna go get a job
  • 00:38:44
    and he said no you're not and he picked
  • 00:38:46
    up the phone and he talked in
  • 00:38:51
    Dutch and he hung up the phone and he
  • 00:38:53
    said Nico says if you're serious been
  • 00:38:55
    his office tomorrow morning at 8:00
  • 00:38:59
    a.m. and for those of you who know
  • 00:39:02
    Nico this is really scary so I'm in niik
  • 00:39:05
    huberman's office the next morning at 8
  • 00:39:07
    AM and he's talking with me and frankly
  • 00:39:09
    I don't think he's that Keen on this
  • 00:39:11
    meeting I don't think he's that Keen at
  • 00:39:13
    all and he says um Randy uh why are we
  • 00:39:19
    here and um I said because Andy phoned
  • 00:39:24
    you and I said well
  • 00:39:27
    since you admitted me I have won a
  • 00:39:29
    fellowship the office of Na Office of
  • 00:39:32
    Naval Research is a very prestigious
  • 00:39:33
    Fellowship I've won this fellowship and
  • 00:39:35
    that wasn't in my file when I applied
  • 00:39:37
    and N said a fellowship money we have
  • 00:39:40
    plenty of money that was back
  • 00:39:44
    then uh and he said we have plenty of
  • 00:39:46
    money why do you think having a
  • 00:39:47
    fellowship makes any difference to us
  • 00:39:50
    and he looked at me there are moments
  • 00:39:52
    that change your life and 10 years later
  • 00:39:55
    if you know in retrospect it was one of
  • 00:39:57
    those moments you're blessed but to know
  • 00:40:00
    it at the
  • 00:40:02
    moment with Nico staring through your
  • 00:40:07
    soul and I said I didn't mean to imply
  • 00:40:09
    anything about the money it's just that
  • 00:40:11
    it was an honor there were only 15 given
  • 00:40:12
    Nationwide and I did think it was an
  • 00:40:14
    honor that would be something that would
  • 00:40:16
    be meritorious and I apologize if that
  • 00:40:18
    was
  • 00:40:20
    presumptuous and he
  • 00:40:23
    smiled and that was good so how do you
  • 00:40:27
    get people to help you you can't get
  • 00:40:28
    there alone people have to help you and
  • 00:40:31
    I do believe in karma I believe in
  • 00:40:32
    paybacks you get people to help you by
  • 00:40:34
    telling the truth Being Earnest I'll
  • 00:40:36
    take an Earnest person over a hip person
  • 00:40:39
    every day because hip is short term
  • 00:40:41
    Earnest is long term apologize when you
  • 00:40:44
    screw up and focus on other people not
  • 00:40:48
    on yourself remember brick walls let us
  • 00:40:50
    show our dedication they are there to
  • 00:40:53
    separate us from the people who don't
  • 00:40:55
    really want to achieve their childhood
  • 00:40:57
    dreams don't bail the best of the gold
  • 00:40:59
    is at the bottom of barrels of
  • 00:41:06
    crap what
  • 00:41:08
    Steve what Steve didn't tell you was the
  • 00:41:11
    big sabatical EA I'd been there for 48
  • 00:41:14
    hours and they they loved the ETC we
  • 00:41:17
    were the best we were the favorites and
  • 00:41:19
    then uh somebody else pulled me aside
  • 00:41:21
    and said oh by the way um we're about to
  • 00:41:23
    give $8 million to USC to build a
  • 00:41:24
    program just like yours we're hoping you
  • 00:41:26
    could help him get it off the
  • 00:41:32
    ground and then Steve came along and
  • 00:41:34
    said they said what oh
  • 00:41:36
    god and and to quote a famous man I will
  • 00:41:40
    fix this and he did Steve has been an
  • 00:41:43
    incredible partner and we have a great
  • 00:41:45
    relationship personal and professional
  • 00:41:48
    uh and he has certainly been Point man
  • 00:41:50
    on on getting a gaming asset to help
  • 00:41:53
    teach millions of kids and you know
  • 00:41:55
    that's just inred incredible but uh you
  • 00:41:58
    know it certainly would have been
  • 00:41:59
    reasonable for me to leave 48 hours into
  • 00:42:01
    that sabatical but it wouldn't have been
  • 00:42:04
    the right thing to do and when you do
  • 00:42:06
    the right thing good stuff has a way of
  • 00:42:09
    happening uh get a feedback loop and
  • 00:42:12
    listen to it your feedback loop can be
  • 00:42:14
    this dorky spreadsheet thing I did or it
  • 00:42:16
    can just be one great man who tells you
  • 00:42:18
    what you need to hear the hard part is
  • 00:42:20
    the listening to it anybody can get
  • 00:42:22
    chewed out right it's the rare person
  • 00:42:25
    who says oh my God you're right as
  • 00:42:27
    opposed to no wait the real reason is
  • 00:42:29
    Right we've all heard that when people
  • 00:42:31
    give you feedback cherish it and use it
  • 00:42:34
    show gratitude when I got tenure I took
  • 00:42:36
    all of my research team down to Disney
  • 00:42:39
    World for a week and one of the other
  • 00:42:41
    professors at Virginia said how can you
  • 00:42:43
    do that I said these people just busted
  • 00:42:46
    their ass and got me the best job in the
  • 00:42:47
    world for Life how could I not do that
  • 00:42:51
    right uh don't complain just work
  • 00:42:54
    harder all right there a picture of
  • 00:42:55
    Jackie Robinson it was in his contract
  • 00:42:57
    not to complain even when the fans spit
  • 00:42:59
    on him
  • 00:43:01
    right uh be good at something it makes
  • 00:43:04
    you valuable work hard people I got
  • 00:43:08
    tenure year early as Steve mentioned
  • 00:43:09
    Junior faculty members used to say to me
  • 00:43:11
    wow you got 10 year early what's your
  • 00:43:14
    secret I said it's pretty simple call me
  • 00:43:16
    any Friday night in my office at 10
  • 00:43:17
    o'clock and I'll tell
  • 00:43:20
    you find the best in everybody one of
  • 00:43:22
    the things that John snotty as I said
  • 00:43:23
    told me is that uh you might have to
  • 00:43:26
    wait a long time sometimes years but
  • 00:43:28
    people will show you their good side
  • 00:43:31
    just keep waiting no matter how long it
  • 00:43:35
    takes no one is all evil everybody has a
  • 00:43:38
    good side just keep waiting it will come
  • 00:43:39
    out and be prepared luck is truly where
  • 00:43:42
    preparation meets
  • 00:43:44
    opportunity so today's talk was about my
  • 00:43:47
    childhood dreams enabling the dreams of
  • 00:43:50
    others and some lessons
  • 00:43:53
    learned but did you figure out the head
  • 00:43:55
    fake
  • 00:43:59
    it's not about how to achieve your
  • 00:44:01
    dreams it's about how to lead your
  • 00:44:03
    life if you lead your life the right way
  • 00:44:06
    the karma will take care of itself the
  • 00:44:08
    dreams will come to
  • 00:44:10
    you have you figured out the second head
  • 00:44:15
    fake Talk's not for you it's for my kids
  • 00:44:18
    thank you all good night
Tags
  • Randy Pausch
  • Childhood Dreams
  • Mentorship
  • Integrity
  • Humor
  • Leadership
  • Life Lessons
  • Education
  • Inspiration
  • Personal Growth