getAbstract

Advanced Search
Blog Blog | RSS Feeds RSS Feeds | Free Free Summaries

The Last Lecture

by Randy Pausch and Jeffrey Zaslow

Hyperion, 2008

Category: Career & Self-Development

The Last Lecture

Get the summary

Subscribe today and dramatically increase your business knowledge in your own time and at an affordable rate. Our summaries will update your skills, jump-start your career and put you ahead of the pack. Learn how to thrive in every aspect of your professional life.

Subscribe
Subscribe

Sign up now and receive immediate full access to this summary.

Free Sample Summaries
Free sample summaries

Get summaries of two business bestsellers.

             

getAbstract rating

Overall (?)

rating 10 (10)

Applicability

rating 10 (10)

Innovation

rating 8 (8)

Style

rating 8 (8)

Level of Expertise (?)

rating 2 (2)

User rating

(9.5)

In this summary you will learn

  • How dying professor Randy Pausch presented the lessons he learned
  • How childhood dreams plant the seeds for a meaningful life
  • How to raise inquisitive, optimistic children
  • Why happiness is impossible without gratitude

Why you should read The Last Lecture

On July 4, 1939, Hall of Fame first baseman Lou Gehrig, fatally ill with Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis (ALS), the disease that would be named after him, told a capacity crowd at Yankee Stadium that he was “the luckiest man on the face of the earth.” Sixty-eight years later, computer science professor Randy Pausch, who had terminal pancreatic cancer, delivered his “last lecture.” Like Gehrig, Pausch used the opportunity to express his gratitude rather than focusing on his terrible misfortune. In an hour-long taped presentation that earned worldwide acclaim as it spread throughout the Internet, Pausch summarized his philosophy, and spoke of the importance of ambition, hard work and perseverance. Pausch’s main objective was to leave a meaningful legacy for his three children – and he succeeded brilliantly. His book, written with Jeffrey Zaslow, expands on the themes in his lecture, entitled “Really Achieving Your Childhood Dreams.” Pausch served up heaping portions of wonderful life-affirming advice. You’ll discover the qualities that made him so special. You’ll count your blessings. You’ll cry. You may even feel embarrassed or ashamed for those times when you lapse into self-pity. getAbstract believes that every reader can draw inspiration from this remarkable man who embraced and celebrated life even as he faced his death, which came on July 25, 2008.

About the authors

Randy Pausch was a tenured professor of computer science at Carnegie Mellon University. He died on July 25, 2008. Jeffrey Zaslow, a Wall Street Journal columnist, attended Pausch’s last lecture and wrote the story that brought him international acclaim.

inivs
inivs
inivs
 
Welcome | How It Works | Browse | Corporate Solutions | Subscribe

Accessibility | Publishers | About Us | Careers | Press Corner | Testimonials | Shvoong | Bloomberg | Book Award | Gift Subscriptions | Contact | Blog

Disclaimer | Privacy Statement | Affiliate Program | Operating Agreement | © 1999-2010, getAbstract