Pausch Last Lecture

On September 18, 2007, Dr. Pausch gave his memorable “last lecture” at Carnegie Mellon University. It is a tradition at Carnegie Mellon University that when a professor is retiring, they give one last lecture as their final goodbye. The idea of this lecture is to give an hour long speech that covers everything an individual would want to say if you were hypothetically dying. In spite of this, in Dr. Pausch’s case, he was literally dying with a diagnosis of terminal pancreatic cancer this being the “elephant in the room”. He then spends a minute discussing his condition where he gave detail about his ten tumors on his liver. Pausch looks like an average, healthy man, but looks can be deceiving. His doctors estimated he had about six more months
to live. He raises the emotion in the room by stating he is in “good health and even better then most people” he then followed by doing a series of pushups. Pausch opened his lecture in the best way possible by addressing the issues sooner then later, by not addressing the “elephant in the room” this could have distracted the audience throughout the speech. Pausch then proceeds to explain what the lecture will entail. He begins by outlining what he will talk about and what he will not talk about. “What we are not talking about: Cancer, Things more important then childhood dreams: my wife and kids, Spirituality & Religion: My deathbed conversion. Today’s Talk: My childhood dreams, Enabling the dreams of others, Lessons learned: how you can achieve your dreams or enable the dreams of others.” This is a classic speech outline technique. Declaring the essence is important because it establishes the starting point and boundaries for the presentation. Before Pausch got into the main idea of his speech he famed the key points for the audience. Dr. Pausch used the power of persuasion in his speech. “The Last Lecture appealed to millions of people not only because of it’s substance, but the way in which he proclaimed his argument that everyone must live through their childhood dreams. He establishes ethos through his respected education as a faculty member of Carnegie Mellon as a former professor of computer science, and with degrees from both Brown University and Carnegie Mellon University. However, this speech was so engaging to the everyday person because he was not talking confusing jargon on computer science. Dr. Pausch spoke from experience as an “Average Joe”, preaching from his soul and heart as a friend or family member. Through pathos, Dr. Pausch moved so many people with his speech because of the relatable subject matter that all individuals have childhood dreams. Dr. Pausch divided his presentation into three different areas which had a definite organization. His main subjects included: Childhood dreams, Enabling the dreams of others, and Lessons learned. Pausch was was born in the 1960’s when man first stepped on the moon, this then gave him insight that anything was possible. He goes on to recount his personal childhood dreams being in zero gravity, playing in the National Football League, being an author in the World Book Encyclopedia, being Captain Kirk, and working for Disney. He then explains what it takes to achieve your dreams. Pausch uses the metaphor of brick walls a word of advice he constantly repeated, “remember, the brick walls are there for a reason. The brick walls are there to give us a chance to show how badly we want something. Because the brick walls are there to stop the people who don't want it badly enough.” He explains that intensity and passion gets things done, that one must break the mold. He then elaborates on a few valuable lessons learned along the way that sometimes you learn more from the dream you were trying to accomplish by not accomplishing the dream. That we “send our kids out to play football or soccer or swimming or whatever it is, and it's the first example of what I'm going to call a head fake, or indirect learning. We actually don't want our kids to learn football… we send our kids out to learn much more important things. Teamwork, sportsmanship, perseverance, et cetera.” This example grabs the attention of the audience and gives insight. A couple of his lessons Pausch left us with were “to never give up on others, loyalty is a two-way street, be an earnest and valuable person, have something to bring to the table and you will be more welcomed, do not complain, and never to lose childhood wonder.” One of Dr.
Pausch’s main messages was having fun at all times even through hard times, such as himself in his final days of life. He explained that there are two types of people those who are always willing to look at the bright side of things and have fun, and others who mope around and feel sorry for themselves. Pausch’s message reached the audience by the quality of energy and enthusiasm which displayed how truly passionate he was about his topic. His lecture was more appealing because it was very upbeat with his high energy and also engaging with the audience. In conclusion of his speech he left with a extremely powerful message and challenge for the audience “It’s not how you achieve your dreams, it’s how you lead your life. If you lead life the right way karma will take care of itself. The dream will come to you”. His speech was created for his children, encouraging them to aspire to be something great and always work towards their goals in life. At the end of his presentation, Pausch makes a strong conclusion. He recaps everything he has displayed in his speech. By doing this, it instills the overall message of his presentation, and the main points he touched upon to the audience. People of every day life can be inspired by his
words.