鲜花( 152) 鸡蛋( 1)
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Randy Pausch’s Last Lecture: Really Achieving Your Childhood Dreams
# z( O* L v/ ]$ ZGiven at Carnegie Mellon University9 @% S: |( _& Y" p; c8 x5 o( _
Tuesday, September 18, 2007! P5 R4 W0 j# ^+ J& y: h$ ]
McConomy Auditorium1 \. b& w- V& W8 p+ |
For more information, see www.randypausch.com
7 v5 J, M% X& U! u; n w. `© Copyright Randy Pausch, 200712 c6 p+ {3 p# ~0 g) W" M
6 J2 m3 J' o' Z& |; h" e z( [Introduction by Indira Nair, Carnegie Mellon’s Vice Provost for Education:. l8 O7 y" `7 Z* N! o# f
Hi. Welcome. It’s my pleasure to introduce you to the first of our new university’s lectures titled
& y: @! w; @0 D/ }) q5 dJourneys – lectures in which members of our community will share with us reflections and insights
% C7 e) J. `+ N; v2 [5 yon their personal and professional journeys. Today’s Journey’s lecture as you all know is by5 Q2 N, c' ]: a( R! {
Professor Randy Pausch. The next one is on Monday, September 24th by Professor Roberta Klatzky./ m$ Y. B% r9 k* b. n, w+ \; q
To introduce Professor Randy Pausch, our first Journeys speaker, I would like to introduce Randy’s
. H3 Z) t U J- L: P+ ofriend and colleague, Steve Seabolt. Steve has been at Electronic Arts for six years and is the Vice
% ~$ p) B7 `7 S q+ M7 r* \5 MPresident of Global Brand Development for The Sims label at Electronic Arts. As you all know, The
. p( H4 r- j8 U! n( M+ ASims is one of the most, if not the most successful PC games in the world, with sales approaching
, q* Q, y$ z4 R! _/ w) y* e9 iover $100,000,000. Prior to that, Steve was the Vice President for Strategic Marketing and
, Z0 m- B. x4 P- [8 |, h7 vEducation at EA, bridging academia and Electronic Arts. His goal was to work with academics so/ U M, U3 f8 t+ x5 S
there was an effective educational pathway for kids with building games as their dreams. It was in7 @" f1 _0 m+ m* f1 y, ]
that role that Randy and Steve became colleagues and friends. Before Electronic Arts, Steve was the2 Q; Q/ g! i I: P" z
worldwide Ad Director for Time Magazine and CEO of Sunset Publishing, which is a very favorite3 o# V* h2 [' j
magazine in the Southwest, and as CEO there, one of the things he started was school tours,% v. {+ `* H; N' E4 E7 y" s
because like Randy he shares a passion for inspiring kids of all ages to share their excitement for) U( l/ O% P" @) t5 X7 x
science and technology.
. `4 O5 _5 L* u7 D ~% lSo to introduce Randy, his friend Steve Seabolt. Steve?9 q" I2 @/ T2 I* R4 S, y# \
[applause]" |: K5 R* i H, F% o3 z3 Q* [
Steve Seabolt, Vice President of Worldwide Publishing and Marketing for Electonic Arts (EA):
4 G; _3 T. ?6 P1 K/ x; yThank you very much. I don’t mean to sound ungracious by correcting you, but given that our PR
1 x) W0 }) C, j# Ipeople are probably watching this on webcast, I’d catch heck if I went home and didn’t say that it1 q" y' r- f+ h
was 100 million units for The Sims. [laughter] Not that big numbers matter to Electronic Arts.# p! O- w3 N* Z1 n% i/ W, t
[laughter]
, v% {2 E9 d. h V8 |0 _I don’t see any empty seats anywhere, which is a good thing, which means I just won a bet from
, o1 f6 d) |3 z7 N& CRandy as a matter of fact. Depending upon who’s version of the story you hear, he either owes me
$ O& \) Y P3 S& T6 D2 H- Y) o" b20 dollars or his new Volkswagen. [laughter] So, I’ll take the car.
( p! R" @7 H) o; pIt’s a pleasure to be here, thank you very much. I’m going to start by covering Randy’s academic6 `6 M! _3 p; |+ N
credentials. It’s a little bizarre for me to be standing here at Carnegie Mellon, which is a school I
( K, E& p5 o4 m m! acouldn’t get into no matter how much I contributed to this institution. [laughter] But, no really, I’m2 r8 K; Q& x9 i! @3 v1 p, F, T0 A
not kidding! You all think, oh gosh he’s humble. Really, no, I’m not humble at all. Very average SAT
" `( c. R0 A7 T+ M, N, x. q, mscores, you know, right in the middle of my high school class of 900. Anyway, Randy. Randy earned
1 H9 n2 h# g" W; H8 a/ f3 g– it really pisses me off that Randy’s so smart—actually I called him, we decided about, what, four6 ?6 A9 o# e1 Z6 y6 X
weeks, ago and we heard the news went from bad to horrific. It was on a Wednesday night and I
2 S9 O" k7 d, h5 e/ e* B* @" ]said look – we have two choices. We can play this really straight and very emotional , or we can go
6 q% `/ F5 @/ j. Z4 _to dark humor. And for those of you who know Randy well, he was like oh, dark humor! So I called
R7 R% [5 N" y9 f+ i+ X* Phim the next day and I was like, dude you can’t die. And he’s like, what do you mean? And I said,, x2 q. S6 d3 z& m: `4 L
well, when you die, the average of IQ of Seabolt’s friends is going to like drop 50 points. [laughter] To8 A( H! L0 J- q! G' p6 o3 c8 }
which he responded, we need to find you some smarter friends. [laughter] So you’re all smart
) \$ u, q# g! V3 |7 Gbecause you’re here, so if you want to be my friend, I’ll be over in a corner of the reception room./ w1 t2 a; Y0 t ?
Randy earned his undergraduate degree in Computer Science at Brown in 1982. His Ph.D. in CS from) N+ x& B9 E( F9 y- F7 K
Carnegie Mellon in 1988 and taught at the University of Virginia where he was granted tenure a year
# A7 a4 ] g9 \early. He joined the Carnegie Mellon faculty in 1997 with appointments in the CS, HCI and Design' F- I' c, o* L7 W' U2 L2 N
departments. He has authored or co-authored five books and over 60 reviewed journal and
6 ]+ z. G/ g; z" t9 Oconference proceeding articles, none of which I would understand. With Don Marinelli, he founded9 ^4 o- W* X1 q% L6 b) P& F
the Entertainment Technology Center, which quickly became the gold standard organization for
8 F4 B7 H! o e; A9 U9 a+ Ytraining artists and engineers to work together. It is my view and the view of our company,6 Q9 P: K5 o( }$ Y, K
Electronic Arts, that the ETC is the interactive program by which all others in the world are judged.
5 @" q7 y0 y7 z+ RI met Randy in the Spring of 2004, and when I look back it’s sort of hard to imagine it’s only been: x1 |9 L* V7 K7 Q
three years given the depth of our friendship. The ETC already had a very strong relationship with7 @0 M k, Z# t' @& g# h
EA and with Randy. And Randy as he always does, for those of you who know him well, wanted to$ |3 T. |9 X5 z* k
learn more, with his own eyes, about how the games business works, and how games really got! `0 @9 Q9 m. C2 P1 A% {
made. So he spent a summer in residence at EA, and I was his primary contact point. We were in
( U1 P+ T9 z( H0 W6 qmy view the odd couple. Randy the brilliant, charming, Carnegie educated CS professor. And me
) F3 t1 N9 i8 b6 ]# v$ V5 E/ P* Vwho went to the University of Iowa on a wing and a prayer. We spent a lot of time together that
7 a+ q/ z5 o# ?% @' @semester and for those of you who know Randy well, that’s a lot of turkey sandwiches on white
* V |, v* g' d( Q/ B; B1 p. [bread with mayo. [laughter, clapping] My kids tease me about being “white.” There’s nobody more
W9 R2 |1 G/ s: h# T“white” than Randy. [laughter] We spent an enormous amount of time together. We taught each" A# S8 }* K3 s
other about each other’s very interesting, strange cultures to the other. Academic versus the8 H7 L6 M! g S* l
corporate world. And we developed a deep friendship woven together with stories about our kids,+ ]+ K" A0 \* y8 [/ k% B1 Z6 e
our wives, our parents, as well as deep discussions about the paramount nature of integrity in
$ D# p4 I1 n9 g# R* T; A. e2 }everything you do, family first, religion, our shared joy in connecting people and ideas, and6 j8 G" s5 K9 T9 m
deploying money and influence to do good. And the importance of having a lot of laughs along the
: {: M; J4 j* C% @5 Bway.# {( X2 u& z9 O S
Randy’s dedication to making the world a better place is self evident to anyone who has crossed
% J& g4 }. w( _/ {paths with him. Whether it’s directly influencing students, creating organizations like the ETC,; j0 X, S+ E& _1 l3 D
building tools like Alice or doing what he probably does best, which is bridging cultures. As Ben
, v: Y7 {0 Q4 f8 n- u- [Gordon, EA’s Chief Creative Officer, says of Randy, even more important than Randy’s academic,- L8 W/ ?2 d$ t) H0 \6 T9 l2 y
philanthropic, and entrepreneurial accomplishments has been his humanity and the enthusiasm he! g$ L" W0 }! E
brings to students and coworkers on a daily basis.7 J( o8 U8 Y: n
For those of you who know Randy, Randy brings a particular zest for life and humor, even while
$ K- J! Y2 h. G, ?facing death. To Randy, this is simply another adventure. It is my great honor to introduce Dylan,
t- z# m3 k1 c9 T( q4 [1 VLogan and Chloe’s dad, Jai’s husband, and my very dear friend, Dr. Randy Pausch. [applause]
# B- A" _+ C% X1 W7 |Randy Pausch:
' C/ I. G$ q# I, f6 O$ j! f[responding to a standing ovation] Make me earn it. [laughter]: @9 w; c& }$ t; D. G" c& v
It’s wonderful to be here. What Indira didn’t tell you is that this lecture series used to be called the
4 z0 v+ w% ^7 E) V8 n) GLast Lecture. If you had one last lecture to give before you died, what would it be? I thought, damn,
$ k. z% q5 k# n: _/ Q9 ^: EI finally nailed the venue and they renamed it. [laughter]. t' u& N/ p7 ^* K& H
So, you know, in case there’s anybody who wandered in and doesn’t know the back story, my dad7 |! }( C4 a& a! P! _% Z
always taught me that when there’s an elephant in the room, introduce them. If you look at my CAT% o9 k8 R3 k: d5 |5 \0 s. m c
scans, there are approximately 10 tumors in my liver, and the doctors told me 3-6 months of good) s- q, X+ e. N4 e
health left. That was a month ago, so you can do the math. I have some of the best doctors in the7 s8 W1 J1 o! i9 w' H, o& H
world. Microphone’s not working? Then I’ll just have to talk louder. [Adjusts mic] Is that good? All5 n! |' C e9 Z, r5 T1 ?( g
right. So that is what it is. We can’t change it, and we just have to decide how we’re going to
. O3 l3 e) d7 K9 T. K o" y. g" prespond to that. We cannot change the cards we are dealt, just how we play the hand. If I don’t
: C" B/ y7 c, w4 E# l3 Wseem as depressed or morose as I should be, sorry to disappoint you. [laughter] And I assure you I( I. [5 b4 v) Z J, e
am not in denial. It’s not like I’m not aware of what’s going on. My family, my three kids, my wife,5 [" K j% d0 i8 l
we just decamped. We bought a lovely house in Virginia, and we’re doing that because that’s a1 F7 J0 U6 {& e8 Q' b0 [: y: B
better place for the family to be, down the road. And the other thing is I am in phenomenally good
$ i" e, K8 S5 q, p! X0 ohealth right now. I mean it’s the greatest thing of cognitive dissonance you will ever see is the fact) n. k4 ]/ r( H3 |3 [6 R( O8 V% D
that I am in really good shape. In fact, I am in better shape than most of you. [Randy gets on the
9 K0 w8 A( D/ q5 @' ?$ Mground and starts doing pushups] [Applause] So anybody who wants to cry or pity me can down and% `5 e- {8 a" ?$ l
do a few of those, and then you may pity me. [laughter]
9 v8 s7 A( U8 F/ tAll right, so what we’re not talking about today, we are not talking about cancer, because I spent a) |- V: T/ M7 C
lot of time talking about that and I’m really not interested. If you have any herbal supplements or
7 m' ^5 @7 \$ Premedies, please stay away from me. [laughter] And we’re not going to talk about things that are
; Q7 D2 u1 }+ p% E3 _even more important than achieving your childhood dreams. We’re not going to talk about my wife,
+ E/ Q7 y: |( T$ c( I' i9 }. Ewe’re not talking about my kids. Because I’m good, but I’m not good enough to talk about that M) b. m$ H( v! C/ C& q
without tearing up. So, we’re just going to take that off the table. That’s much more important.0 L U% P( a9 q2 ?
And we’re not going to talk about spirituality and religion, although I will tell you that I have" e) f9 W1 ]: t) Z1 e4 [" l' x
achieved a deathbed conversion. [dramatic pause] … I just bought a Macintosh. [laughter and+ E8 e! [3 \. W4 v; L' p
clapping] Now I knew I’d get 9% of the audience with that … All right, so what is today’s talk about2 M" S. i0 N8 P4 u r: J& U3 X. ~
then? It’s about my childhood dreams and how I have achieved them. I’ve been very fortunate that
( k S4 z; B3 E3 Jway. How I believe I’ve been able to enable the dreams of others, and to some degree, lessons
2 K' C$ n, `. `- Vlearned. I’m a professor, there should be some lessons learned and how you can use the stuff you; a8 s/ f8 j C3 s
hear today to achieve your dreams or enable the dreams of others. And as you get older, you may) A2 y5 C- C5 `2 n
find that “enabling the dreams of others” thing is even more fun.
& w! s+ c4 O" j1 C1 c1 {So what were my childhood dreams? Well, you know, I had a really good childhood. I mean, no6 L T9 q! t5 R8 f; K1 _1 W6 ~+ s
kidding around. I was going back through the family archives, and what was really amazing was, I
7 U# a/ T# {8 B( M$ [couldn’t find any pictures of me as a kid where I wasn’t smiling. And that was just a very gratifying
6 C6 S" \' N. U; T% @% ything. There was our dog, right? Aww, thank you. And there I actually have a picture of me
" N# u( p: S$ z6 ^" o) H4 Y* z& Sdreaming. I did a lot of that. You know, there’s a lot of wake up’s! I was born in 1960. When you
* L8 n, b% k2 P- `are 8 or 9 years old and you look at the TV set, men are landing on the moon, anything’s possible.: ]5 s U! [* ~+ D
And that’s something we should not lose sight of, is that the inspiration and the permission to
% p2 [7 c- k; y7 mdream is huge.+ R. e7 v+ C6 A [* |" ]$ t; @2 d
So what were my childhood dreams? You may not agree with this list, but I was there. [laughter]
, e# ^! R& G f4 e9 yBeing in zero gravity, playing in the National Football League, authoring an article in the World Book
/ }: T5 k" ]% ^. ^' BEncyclopedia – I guess you can tell the nerds early. [laughter] Being Captain Kirk, anybody here have! F- B- F2 s! D+ O
that childhood dream? Not at CMU, nooooo. I wanted to become one of the guys who won the big
( c' r8 |0 x7 {- Vstuffed animals in the amusement park, and I wanted to be an Imagineer with Disney. These are not
1 D9 b" }. Q2 r+ dsorted in any particular order, although I think they do get harder, except for maybe the first one./ Y: Q g0 j) v' ]4 e
OK, so being in zero gravity. Now it’s important to have specific dreams. I did not dream of being an
$ X ^' M5 R9 K* i9 M7 Rastronaut, because when I was a little kid, I wore glasses and they told me oh, astronauts can’t have
* J. g7 U" F. c4 O) w+ k4 i7 ~glasses. And I was like, mmm, I didn’t really want the whole astronaut gig, I just wanted the floating.
: [6 O) P M" USo, and as a child [laughter], prototype 0.0. [slide shown of Randy as a child lying in floatingformation
7 M! Z) U2 D' \. U% l7 `on a table top] But that didn’t work so well, and it turns out that NASA has something5 k6 ^0 k ^8 }) n5 D
called the Vomit Comet that they used to train the astronauts. And this thing does parabolic arcs,# v. D1 c$ s& `6 C2 w8 U2 y; { l
and at the top of each arc you get about 25 seconds where you’re ballistic and you get about, a
7 l# K3 h$ H% x6 k5 x; Crough equivalent of weightlessness for about 25 seconds. And there is a program where college) R* r0 N) h$ P1 T; M, M# v+ l
students can submit proposals and if they win the competition, they get to fly. And I thought that: V" d1 E0 K+ V2 v$ n m E
was really cool, and we had a team and we put a team together and they won and they got to fly.
8 I0 M( V1 [8 M6 iAnd I was all excited because I was going to go with them. And then I hit the first brick wall, because
) k" M8 i2 N" T6 l" E/ fthey made it very clear that under no circumstances were faculty members allowed to fly with the: J0 ^8 [8 J/ E: ]* ]4 Z
teams. I know, I was heartbroken. I was like, I worked so hard! And so I read the literature very
" Y+ [5 T' R8 ?carefully and it turns out that NASA, it’s part of their outreach and publicity program, and it turns
T5 e/ E1 n8 {% K# `: zout that the students were allowed to bring a local media journalist from their home town.
9 }8 I r" H$ n0 C4 g[laughter] And, [deep voice] Randy Pausch, web journalist. [regular voice] It’s really easy to get a
9 N. O7 \9 ?5 N) y" \, Vpress pass! [laughter] So I called up the guys at NASA and I said, I need to know where to fax some4 s: H: m' _! Y9 N& h/ F9 G8 W- |
documents. And they said, what documents are you going to fax us? And I said my resignation as4 `8 d6 b7 V! d5 `8 z! b
the faculty advisor and my application as the journalist. And he said, that’s a little transparent, don’t2 D# C" Q. u4 r8 H2 ~! Q
you think? And I said, yeah, but our project is virtual reality, and we’re going to bring down a whole. J3 B0 c% l* c# r7 H- J% ~! o
bunch of VR headsets and all the students from all the teams are going to experience it and all those
/ n9 K& X5 R$ ~' K. |, }other real journalists are going to get to film it. Jim Foley’s [who is nodding in the audience] going
# Z9 e9 w- A5 j% Soh you bastard, yes. And the guy said, here’s the fax number. So, indeed, we kept our end of the
& l% R1 o: f( gbargain, and that’s one of the themes that you’ll hear later on in the talk, is have something to bring3 i% Y4 p9 V# d1 I
to the table, right, because that will make you more welcome. And if you’re curious about what* q7 i$ x+ w* f) j/ e
zero gravity looks like, hopefully the sound will be working here. [slide shows videotape from
; s$ J9 Q) _! [( p& G5 H9 \Randy’s zero gravity experience] There I am. [laughter] You do pay the piper at the bottom. [laugher,% c4 G" V2 W" y
as the people in the video crash to the floor of the plane on the video] So, childhood dream number8 u$ E( w# T7 F# o
one, check.
7 V$ s1 y7 |* n0 Y8 H; a3 {OK, let’s talk about football. My dream was to play in the National Football League. And most of
& d0 `* W4 D- F. R4 Pyou don’t know that I actually – no. [laughter] No, I did not make it to the National Football League,
6 b% l2 u; V, r% wbut I probably got more from that dream and not accomplishing it than I got from any of the ones
6 [0 B7 _; g) J; {1 A* Dthat I did accomplish. I had a coach, I signed up when I was nine years old. I was the smallest kid in
* [3 T3 T7 S1 x. q4 |$ xthe league, by far. And I had a coach, Jim Graham, who was six-foot-four, he had played linebacker
9 V' C+ z) g- y1 S3 p8 [1 Iat Penn State. He was just this hulk of a guy and he was old school. And I mean really old school.
8 P1 Q/ R) F* [4 i C7 o4 CLike he thought the forward pass was a trick play. [laughter] And he showed up for practice the first# u2 C/ Z" S$ D3 Q
day, and you know, there’s big hulking guy, we were all scared to death of him. And he hadn’t" x: {5 h& R( T2 N/ |1 M
brought any footballs. How are we going to have practice without any footballs? And one of the
; j. q9 z# K1 I3 |" Q, s& Iother kids said, excuse me coach, but there’s no football. And Coach Graham said, right, how many! R& m# j: h+ `) ~5 w- [/ {! U
men are on a football field at a time? Eleven on a team, twenty-two. Coach Graham said, all right,
/ Q3 V3 d% [9 a* F% [and how many people are touching the football at any given time? One of them. And he said, right,
- O# R- J* J6 A6 lso we’re going to work on what those other twenty-one guys are doing. And that’s a really good* M) ?/ y. C- n6 b7 R7 L: t$ c
story because it’s all about fundamentals. Fundamentals, fundamentals, fundamentals. You’ve got
/ t" Z: k3 X: ?9 }6 @to get the fundamentals down because otherwise the fancy stuff isn’t going to work. And the other' G- F5 h+ t/ `5 \
Jim Graham story I have is there was one practice where he just rode me all practice. You’re doing, R3 I$ D# r+ l
this wrong, you’re doing this wrong, go back and do it again, you owe me, you’re doing push-ups+ z _) T" C1 q; i
after practice. And when it was all over, one of the other assistant coaches came over and said,
, l) z* y: e% ]. T) f$ `) _8 ~" Ryeah, Coach Graham rode you pretty hard, didn’t he? I said, yeah. He said, that’s a good thing. He0 v2 J/ d/ f. G# d5 X* X. F) R
said, when you’re screwing up and nobody’s saying anything to you anymore, that means they gave" I7 |* {/ @$ @- N8 x [
up. And that’s a lesson that stuck with me my whole life. Is that when you see yourself doing2 \5 Y1 B" h) y! F, p; t
something badly and nobody’s bothering to tell you anymore, that’s a very bad place to be. Your( z p6 p2 s8 b
critics are your ones telling you they still love you and care.
7 d' J; G$ N3 r6 V! M& k3 z) t6 yAfter Coach Graham, I had another coach, Coach Setliff, and he taught me a lot about the power of
; e/ x3 @5 T9 F5 n! Uenthusiasm. He did this one thing where only for one play at a time he would put people in at like
2 c3 g2 |2 J; t }' Rthe most horrifically wrong position for them. Like all the short guys would become receivers, right?3 x1 t- r/ c* Y& ^ T
It was just laughable. But we only went in for one play, right? And boy, the other team just never
0 ~- p5 J' i, G% vknew what hit ‘em them. Because when you’re only doing it for one play and you’re just not where
8 m& Q" _( P! q/ O* G% Q: ~you’re supposed to be, and freedom’s just another word for nothing left to lose, boy are you going
5 F& M/ {/ ]) {# Q7 F4 Jto clean somebody’s clock for that one play. And that kind of enthusiasm was great. And to this3 F2 P6 \0 S. g1 F! W
day, I am most comfortable on a football field. I mean, it’s just one of those things where, you
- F% x2 n& C8 v+ ]. O+ w; P( ?know, [pulls out a football] if I’m working a hard problem, people will see me wandering the halls, x6 v8 h+ Q4 [& D D0 y5 G
with one of these things, and that’s just because, you know, when you do something young enough; M0 h' y3 J; k
and you train for it, it just becomes a part of you. And I’m very glad that football was a part of my
! o1 Q. l: d+ U# f2 q3 Vlife. And if I didn’t get the dream of playing in the NFL, that’s OK. I’ve probably got stuff more
1 r8 f4 J' e2 o, Ivaluable. Because looking at what’s going on in the NFL, I’m not sure those guys are doing so great3 F1 D- a$ ^% i. M6 o
right now.( V% m/ u( ^- l2 l9 k. \
OK, and so one of the expressions I learned at Electronic Arts, which I love, which pertains to this, is3 W0 K& H3 e% y" K# W
experience is what you get when you didn’t get what you wanted. And I think that’s absolutely
$ K/ b' Z+ W( D: olovely. And the other thing about football is we send our kids out to play football or soccer or9 {! _* \* U H4 `9 o$ b& `& c: A
swimming or whatever it is, and it’s the first example of what I’m going to call a head fake, or7 l/ R5 E. f, Q/ ?
indirect learning. We actually don’t want our kids to learn football. I mean, yeah, it’s really nice that1 h5 M! d- _, e6 y7 f2 T
I have a wonderful three-point stance and that I know how to do a chop block and all this kind of
8 V0 R/ R0 }# o i9 mstuff. But we send our kids out to learn much more important things. Teamwork, sportsmanship,
/ P' I3 K8 o) n% }! \# e+ kperseverance, etcetera, etcetera. And these kinds of head fake learning are absolutely important.
- l) d/ s1 c3 P% S9 n. sAnd you should keep your eye out for them because they’re everywhere.6 y# w9 _# q- w% h; Y4 X+ d2 H
All right. A simple one, being an author in the World Book Encyclopedia. When I was a kid, we had" Y5 P5 r8 y9 r# `8 {- L& i# N
the World Book Encyclopedia on the shelf. For the freshman, this is paper. … We used to have these
( p9 Z+ B" r6 O# J9 [ T( vthings called books. [laughter] And after I had become somewhat of an authority on virtual reality,
/ g7 G8 M: C6 g0 G2 k( j$ [but not like a really important one, so I was at the level of people the World Book would badger.& D+ I, R$ p4 W0 N: A( @+ e
They called me up and I wrote an article, and this is Caitlin Kelleher [shows slide of Caitlin wearing; R9 l. K) G9 V
virtual reality headset manipulating a 3D world], and there’s an article if you go to your local library+ s `0 G/ _" g& @ y- l) F" G
where they still have copies of the World Book. Look under V for Virtual Reality, and there it is. And
% s% x2 j; I2 v/ ~all I have to say is that having been selected to be an author in the World Book Encyclopedia, I now
# E6 }3 ]' o! W/ E5 B7 _believe that Wikipedia is a perfectly fine source for your information because I know what the0 L7 g8 f% D4 k+ h0 Y6 T6 @' M4 c$ m$ x+ f
quality control is for real encyclopedias. They let me in.
, b) W: d! I5 q, H6 TAll right, next one. [laughter] [shows slide “Being like Meeting Captain Kirk”] At a certain point you
! {) l' x* X k& U0 e' b( u' Jjust realize there are some things you are not going to do, so maybe you just want to stand close to) U( b* y+ h- W, Y4 ?. G4 A, Z( @
the people. And I mean, my god, what a role model for young people. [laughter] [shows slide of
! \! [2 {) f* Z! ?9 s6 P; \) YCaptain Kirk sitting at his control station on the Starship Enterprise] I mean, this is everything you
- P' A1 i: }! ?1 k+ C/ }want to be, and what I learned that carried me forward in leadership later is that, you know, he" q% V0 ^- P3 W6 L; p4 ]& O$ @9 U
wasn’t the smartest guy on the ship. I mean, Spock was pretty smart and McCoy was the doctor and. ]$ c3 M3 S: S% j
Scotty was the engineer. And you sort of go, and what skill set did he have to get on this damn thing. W ~2 I! D0 [1 t, k8 k- J# r; y
and run it? And, you know, clearly there is this skill set called leadership, and, you know, whether or
8 w4 @! D1 g" j) Unot you like the series, there’s no doubt that there was a lot to be learned about how to lead people
) r/ i; r W. @by watching this guy in action. And he just had the coolest damn toys! [laughter] [shows slide of2 N4 }1 O m: E* p1 |7 F
Star Trek gadgets] I mean, my god, I just thought it was fascinating as a kid that he had this thing
: M' @3 [! H- W" p! ?, ?[Takes out Star Trek Communicator] and he could talk to the ship with it. I just thought that was just: r |# m9 B4 M. T
spectacular, and of course now I own one and it’s smaller. [takes out cell phone] So that’s kind of$ ~) |( S3 B+ Y! P# c" b5 z
cool.
7 l% ?) H! e+ M4 }So I got to achieve this dream. James T. Kirk, and his alter ego William Shatner, wrote a book, which
" Q* h# J9 Z- n, S* X* b* }I think was actually a pretty cool book. It was with Chip Walter who is a Pittsburgh- based author
7 A1 S! ?$ ~, l, x7 qwho is quite good, and they wrote a book on basically the science of Star Trek, you know, what has. `4 Y; p" F* t
come true. And they went around to the top places around the country and looked at various things
7 V1 I+ [+ z1 G0 A" C- Wand they came here to study our virtual reality setup. And so we build a virtual reality for him, it
1 X! E7 b( c4 U' olooks something like that. [shows slide of virtual Star Trek bridge from the 1960’s TV show] We put it
( Q% e H" [* B; T( Q+ k0 k! Bin, put it to red alert. He was a very good sport. [sarcastically] It’s not like he saw that one coming.* B2 `/ |5 j4 D6 w) q5 }
[laughter] And it’s really cool to meet your boyhood idol, but it’s even cooler when he comes to you$ \7 e5 U0 d. w/ i
to see what cool stuff you’re doing in your lab. And that was just a great moment.: Z) ?. M% }* B6 i h
All right, winning stuffed animals. This may seem mundane to you, but when you’re a little kid and
% u0 s$ E% o0 Nyou see the big buff guys walking around the amusement park and they’ve got all these big stuffed
9 u6 _ |0 ?8 T6 T! Yanimals, right? And this is my lovely wife, and I have a lot of pictures of stuffed animals I’ve won.6 s, I7 _: u% p3 l. a
[laughter] [shows slides of several large stuffed animals] That’s my dad posing with one that I won.; _2 Q- p- @0 w4 i1 p2 N* N2 h" ~
I’ve won a lot of these animals. There’s my dad, he did win that one, to his credit. And this was just
5 A' N9 h% }: y6 I2 C# o7 J: ea big part of my life and my family’s life. But you know, I can hear the cynics. In this age of digitally( r. y6 _* G2 u2 O
manipulated images, maybe those bears really aren’t in the pictures with me, or maybe I paid
8 J5 _# ]1 Z1 \somebody five bucks to take a picture in the theme park next to the bear. And I said, how, in this
. f% S2 M3 Y- w3 L2 Bage of cynicism can I convince people? And I said, I know, I can show them the bears! Bring them+ Q# U2 S2 W' I* X
out. [several large stuffed animals are brought onto the stage] [laughter and clapping] Just put them
& d6 Y% A6 D$ d2 S- Z' m: B7 s0 nback against the wall.
7 F1 W% {4 v" j+ a, ~' C3 A5 pJai Pausch (Randy’s wife):
& T. \) F) ]' @6 p. l" }+ |It’s hard to hear you. [adjusts Randy’s microphone]) c- h e% n4 J d
Randy Pausch:; X$ o! Q1 {6 q# h* X
Thanks honey. [laughter] So here are some bears. We didn’t have quite enough room in the moving9 M2 O8 r- P1 d0 E
truck, and anybody who would like a little piece of me at the end of this, feel free to come up and
5 S4 l; S# p$ {take a bear, first come, first served.
4 c- i5 z5 Z4 d$ J4 O0 E' U8 bAll right, my next one. Being an Imagineer. This was the hard one. Believe me, getting to zero
c! q: H1 w( D& H2 @4 d* J4 Jgravity is easier than becoming an Imagineer. When I was a kid, I was eight years old and our family
: G% t1 c, @# d' d) z, ^; Dtook a trip cross-country to see Disneyland. And if you’ve ever seen the movie National Lampoon’s! T9 s' z' B1 U7 s7 ?* T: R5 }3 ]
Vacation, it was a lot like that! [laughter] It was a quest. [shows slides of family at Disneyland] And; s- D. e- P7 ]+ M+ L
these are real vintage photographs, and there I am in front of the castle. And there I am, and for$ [. }" R w- N% ]
those of you who are into foreshadowing, this is the Alice ride. [laughter] And I just thought this was
2 k. e. Y. ]# Y' qjust the coolest environment I had ever been in, and instead of saying, gee, I want to experience this,
+ r6 ?3 D9 C8 Y5 I7 II said, I want to make stuff like this. And so I bided my time and then I graduated with my Ph.D.
/ i; ?- ^2 `9 n% a, efrom Carnegie Mellon, thinking that meant me infinitely qualified to do anything. And I dashed off# ~: {$ d$ G& [& t
my letters of applications to Walt Disney Imagineering, and they sent me some of the damned nicest/ Z( @0 M/ P6 Q, d
go-to-hell letters I have ever gotten. [laughter] I mean it was just, we have carefully reviewed your, p3 M# B( G/ \; u" G' ]
application and presently we do not have any positions available which require your particular
9 _0 K2 l3 O/ k( ~; Xqualifications. Now think about the fact that you’re getting this from a place that’s famous for guys
; M3 h5 m9 v4 ^: N+ ]# @who sweep the street. [laughter] So that was a bit of a setback. But remember, the brick walls are# i8 O) U9 w7 _; o4 a7 v& b
there for a reason. The brick walls are not there to keep us out. The brick walls are there to give us# ^3 L' D. T, `, Z. z& i0 X
a chance to show how badly we want something. Because the brick walls are there to stop the
/ b* [# K( g, k5 X9 n0 Lpeople who don’t want it badly enough. They’re there to stop the other people.! O r" f8 `9 R$ W2 n$ t. L
All right, fast forward to 1991. We did a system back at the University of Virginia called Virtual
y5 f( E% H9 E# y- v3 [Reality on Five Dollars a Day. Just one of those unbelievable spectacular things. I was so scared D' @+ H1 A: N0 R0 W
back in those days as a junior academic. Jim Foley’s here, and I just love to tell this story. He knew* F- g0 L: E6 m4 P# w/ W
my undergraduate advisor, Andy Van Dam, and I’m at my first conference and I’m just scared to
7 G8 e. Q/ i3 v" w3 Rdeath. And this icon in the user interface community walks up to me and just out of nowhere just% E6 F" {( M, m* x- k6 k8 h7 O
gives me this huge bear hug and he says, that was from Andy. And that was when I thought, ok,
+ t& q" Q9 |. s# b8 E$ y" gmaybe I can make it. Maybe I do belong. And a similar story is that this was just this unbelievable
( t/ G+ E" W& h3 Ihit because at the time, everybody needed a half a million [dollars] to do virtual reality. And2 D+ W0 P# c3 c1 ~4 U- E
everybody felt frustrated. And we literally hacked together a system for about five thousand dollars/ l# P/ X. v9 j6 N3 p+ Y" B, D
in parts and made a working VR system. And people were just like, oh my god, you know, the
2 P3 [, J5 D9 `/ ~: OHewlett Packard garage thing. This is so awesome. And so I’m giving this talk and the room has just* c+ T, l. {$ _, v6 M
gone wild, and during the Q and A, a guy named Tom Furness, who was one of the big names in; }. W q4 k: o& ~( l5 X
virtual reality at the time, he goes up to the microphone and he introduces himself. I didn’t know j {# J7 V l9 a" D
what he looked like but I sure as hell knew the name. And he asked a question. And I was like, I’m
* j; R( V3 C- J. O7 qsorry did you say you were Tom Furness? And he said yes. I said, then I would love to answer your5 t; ?7 t" \" R0 U
question, but first, will you have lunch with me tomorrow? [laughter] And there’s a lot in that little% m* `) J+ q) }3 A8 u1 |8 f& P8 p
moment, there’s a lot of humility but also asking a person where he can’t possibly say no. [laughter]
+ i" @; E. H1 o4 nAnd so Imagineering a couple of years later was working on a virtual reality project. This was top. d0 V2 R3 Z% h- l$ d
secret. They were denying the existence of a virtual reality attraction after the time that the
" q4 O3 M' h; i6 _6 N& @$ Epublicity department was running the TV commercials. So Imagineering really had nailed this one0 Q+ O- r% {" |* c
tight. And it was the Aladdin attraction where you would fly a magic carpet, and the head mounted
* p2 T, F& o4 ]9 B2 m8 Fdisplay, sometimes known as gator vision. And so I had an in. As soon as the project had just, you
- d" d- ~4 f% |know they start running the TV commercials, and I had been asked to brief the Secretary of Defense, H4 _! K. I3 E
on the state of virtual reality. OK, Fred Brooks and I had been asked to brief the Secretary of8 ]) I1 P- Q3 v) l- J
Defense, and that gave me an excuse. So I called them. I called Imagineering and I said, look, I’m
: P/ O0 |- |- X7 N( z2 ^briefing the Secretary of Defense. I’d like some materials on what you have because it’s one of the2 @# v0 E0 q" N6 X( J/ h" d
best VR systems in the world. And they kind of pushed back. And I said, look, is all this patriotism
- ]7 T# c! J3 U/ {stuff in the parks a farce? And they’re like, hmm, ok. [laughter] But they said this is so new the PR, n4 A1 y2 o& w5 c" \- k. Z
department doesn’t have any footage for you, so I’m going to have to connect you straight through
1 \4 C5 ]% s" v* m5 [: mto the team who did the work. Jackpot! So I find myself on the phone with a guy named Jon Snoddy) x" B" B; t5 N& H- h- z
who is one of the most impressive guys I have ever met, and he was the guy running this team, and
+ v( _6 M5 u8 y3 T2 s6 C, q' Rit’s not surprising they had done impressive things. And so he sent me some stuff, we talked briefly
$ V" a* R! R; Q0 a3 P3 W6 K! nand he sent me some stuff, and I said, hey, I’m going to be out in the area for a conference shortly, w; A$ ]$ O' N
would you like to get together and have lunch? Translation: I’m going to lie to you and say that I
: f5 { l& s6 v+ a; t1 o( chave an excuse to be in the area so I don’t look too anxious, but I would go to Neptune to have9 e( l# x1 W( p
lunch with you! [laughter] And so Jon said sure, and I spent something like 80 hours talking with all
* C! W. u8 P% |2 Sthe VR experts in the world, saying if you had access to this one unbelievable project, what would' q+ ?8 I) @: j, C+ x; r$ p
you ask? And then I compiled all of that and I had to memorize it, which anybody that knows me
z `2 V6 c% _+ pknows that I have no memory at all, because I couldn’t go in looking like a dweeb with, you know, [in
: w. w$ q; p) d7 j) d1 \; _; z! Adweeby voice] Hi, Question 72. So, I went in, and this was like a two hour lunch, and Jon must have0 @. Y) b6 h# |1 ~- a
thought he was talking to some phenomenal person, because all I was doing was channeling Fred5 K) y# }$ E0 y3 e# B
Brooks and Ivan Sutherland and Andy Van Dam and people like that. And Henry Fuchs. So it’s pretty8 x0 Y8 K# e" \& {0 Y
easy to be smart when you’re parroting smart people. And at the end of the lunch with Jon, I sort
$ b1 I8 j! e. y0 @ p8 ^9 D# }of, as we say in the business, made “the ask.” And I said, you know, I have a sabbatical coming up.0 @4 B3 f; [: Q2 I1 L
And he said, what’s that? [laughter] The beginnings of the culture clash. And so I talked with him& T6 ?- v) g. u( v$ F
about the possibility of coming there and working with him. And he said, well that’s really good0 z/ K" S, W# {4 V. o9 l. d
except, you know, you’re in the business of telling people stuff and we’re in the business of keeping b/ T. z {% X) S! k( d) _
secrets. And then what made Jon Snoddy Jon Snoddy was he said, but we’ll work it out, which I6 ~: a& H1 h) k/ t- i0 _
really loved. The other thing that I learned from Jon Snoddy – I could do easily an hour long talk just
: O* n" s* {$ U+ Qon what have I learned from Jon Snoddy. One of the things he told me was that wait long enough% N( w& m1 I* A+ S0 G1 i
and people will surprise and impress you. He said, when you’re pissed off at somebody and you’re
; V! a w* w G* ^2 D8 o; y6 wangry at them, you just haven’t given them enough time. Just give them a little more time and
8 A l1 b2 x, }4 \' x' m* ?" jthey’ll almost always impress you. And that really stuck with me. I think he’s absolutely right on6 x% R g [8 |' v. ~- K
that one. So to make a long story short, we negotiated a legal contract. It was going to be the first –5 H$ B% j& S4 G$ D; P$ B/ k' U
some people referred to it as the first and last paper ever published by Imagineering. That the deal$ @1 }3 E5 b+ }1 E
was I go, I provide my own funding, I go for six months, I work with a project, we publish a paper.
; R% N3 i6 l! Y! nAnd then we meet our villain. [shows slide of a picture of a former dean of Randy’s] I can’t be all! t# ?- H/ g; ~! @; A/ c$ X; a- u
sweetness and light, because I have no credibility. Somebody’s head’s going to go on a stick. Turns
+ w5 v/ k* b; C4 k1 jout that the person who gets his head on a stick is a dean back at the University of Virginia. His
: y( ^+ r1 p: e1 l4 Jname is not important. Let’s call him Dean Wormer. [laughter] And Dean Wormer has a meeting- ]$ g* C& I* h5 `! [+ R! Q
with me where I say I want to do this sabbatical thing and I’ve actually got the Imagineering guys to v* b d) ^& A4 |4 V, s7 Q
let an academic in, which is insane. I mean if Jon hadn’t gone nuts, this would never have been a
* T5 p& K; i" q; f; u0 kpossibility. This is a very secretive organization. And Dean Wormer looks at the paperwork and he
* p# ?8 c) \% P- e! Z) psays, well it says they’re going to own your intellectual property. And I said, yeah, we got the2 c4 o; | B# b) E& o$ H& @. ]9 o
agreement to publish the paper. There is no other IP. I don’t do patentable stuff. And says, yeah,( N% D0 {( F( Z3 P1 q# M+ F+ c( K8 ~
but you might. And so deal’s off. Just go and get them to change that little clause there and then) e# b5 l" p8 l! P5 L5 ~
come back to me. I’m like, excuse me? And then I said to him, I want you to understand how3 S8 I! Y' E/ d, X3 t
important this is. If we can’t work this out, I’m going to take an unpaid leave of absence and I’m just5 H$ t# Q/ D5 t0 ~# S
going to go there and I’m going to do this thing. And he said, hey, I might not even let you do that. I
6 N% _9 P# a' U. zmean you’ve got the IP in your head already and maybe they’re going to suck it out of you, so that’s
& q5 T- B1 @6 ?9 L( e2 u0 Cnot going to fly either. [laughter] It’s very important to know when you’re in a pissing match. And
M8 s( l, ^1 y- Q! `it’s very important to get out of it as quickly as possible. So I said to him, well, let’s back off on this.9 v) k i' G/ E4 Q8 O
Do we think this is a good idea at all? He said, I have no idea if this is a good idea. I was like,
, c: C" P' ?$ b; g; z/ j[sarcastically] OK, well we’ve got common ground there. Then I said, well is this really your call?
* E* r; k3 P3 D: aIsn’t this the call of the Dean of Sponsored Research if it’s an IP issue? And he said, yeah, that’s true.9 Y; I+ I# Q) S1 F: a7 F# K- [
I said, but so if he’s happy you’re happy? [So he says] Yeah, then I’d be fine. Whoosh! Like Wile E.
0 J% M# R" R' I& O4 }! o! t$ F3 jCoyote, I’m gone in a big ball of dust. And I find myself in Gene Block’s office, who is the most
% ~' \( W' G2 J O4 y& C+ mfantastic man in the world. And I start talking to Gene Block and I say let’s start at the high level,2 c2 P# v" o m0 Y) {. n1 D
since I don’t want to have to back out again. So let’s start at the high level. Do you think this is a3 u/ l$ a! a! g$ j
good idea? He said, well if you’re asking me if it’s a good idea, I don’t have very much information.
' R7 h: V) A, |3 y8 t6 R. \+ jAll I know is that one of my star faculty members is in my office and he’s really excited, so tell me! v( @2 p# p. {( p; E# l" ]
more. Here’s a lesson for everybody in administration. They both said the same thing. But think: K& q! \: M" b0 Z; _
about how they said it, right? [In a loud, barking voice] I don’t know! [In a pleasant voice] Well, I
4 S5 b/ B0 x! q$ Y' tdon’t have much information, but one of my start faculty members is here and he’s all excited so I% g* C! W! t2 v
want to learn more. They’re both ways of saying I don’t know, but boy there’s a good way and a bad' d* [) i, T% w2 d
way. So anyway, we got it all worked out. I went to Imagineering. Sweetness and light. And all’s
# ]- t, w+ Q7 Iwell that ends well.2 ?1 T" O' D. p
Some brick walls are made of flesh. So I worked on the Aladdin Project. It was absolutely
$ [. H* R0 R# r+ J# aspectacular, I mean just unbelievable. Here’s my nephew Christopher. [Shows slide of Christopher
: m7 D1 Z/ C8 @9 Son Aladdin apparatus] This was the apparatus. You would sit on this sort of motorcycle-type thing.0 \6 v; G0 S/ u9 \/ f
And you would steer your magic carpet and you would put on the head-mounted display. The headmounted/ u# A& P" ]! R9 O
display is very interesting because it had two parts, and it was a very clever design. To get7 E. Y a9 W" ^) F- E
throughput up, the only part that touched the guest’s head was this little cap and everything else
2 U0 X! b% v' B+ w! M# sclicked onto it – all the expensive hardware. So you could replicate the caps because they were
+ A3 Q& a! n# u# V! o9 ?0 H9 Kbasically free to manufacture. [Showing slide of Randy cleaning a cap] And this is what I really did is
' @0 V" X6 m& o# S8 lI was a cap cleaner during the sabbatical. [laughter] I loved Imagineering. It was just a spectacular8 `$ H4 u q) Y
place. Just spectacular. Everything that I had dreamed. I loved the model shop. People crawling4 O# k4 v6 W6 o$ j- ^) m1 Q* f% J! J. I
around on things the size of this room that are just big physical models. It was just an incredible3 |: u4 n/ g6 R- i) A
place to walk around and be inspired. I’m always reminded of when I went there and people said,
, \& Y# T# K7 K: |+ ~9 {do you think your expectations are too high? And I said, you ever see the movie Charlie and the
) y' i6 w6 ~; \4 \Chocolate Factory? Willy Wonka and The Chocolate Factory? Where Gene Wilder says to the little
! s: h) ^* f; E* [. T. ~/ L# kboy Charlie, he’s about to give him the chocolate factory. He says “Well Charlie, did anybody ever7 Y6 {. w7 t: D# [' J( n& [8 w
tell you the story of the little boy who suddenly got everything he ever wanted?” Charlie’s eyes get5 d5 G+ `- G) \( m; s9 x' b/ u, E
like saucers and he says, “No, what happened to him?” Gene Wilder says, “He lived happily ever3 F$ A. K" V! w" F4 ~# X6 Y) I$ H2 v
after.” [laughter]
; }7 c) r& F6 y% I: y' T. o" r8 ^OK, so working on the Aladdin VR, I described it as a once in every five careers opportunity, and I
# I- h! @) S! O! _stand by that assessment. And it forever changed me. It wasn’t just that it was good work and I got( n3 k1 a9 g- o- k- h
to be a part of it. But it got me into the place of working with real people and real HCI user interface
) A F, ?# v) k* ^issues. Most HCI people live in this fantasy world of white collar laborers with Ph.D.s and masters" c! C4 H/ f- |# d
degrees. And you know, until you got ice cream spilled on you, you’re not doing field work. And1 M: ]8 v, o1 j
more than anything else, from Jon Snoddy I learned how to put artists and engineers together, and
( T2 Q2 b0 v ]. Jthat’s been the real legacy.
0 g4 X5 } A% ZWe published a paper. Just a nice academic cultural scandal. When we wrote the paper, the guys at
3 Q+ t0 w6 O# \1 PImagineering said, well let’s do a nice big picture. Like you would in a magazine. [Showing slide of: N) a1 w' |+ ~0 f4 x( h" p9 J
first page of the paper, with a photo at the top that spans two columns]. And the SIGGRAPH0 p4 b: t$ ~* _9 w' v
committee, which accepted the paper, it was like this big scandal. Are they allowed to do that?8 l, e+ E0 ~, _* c1 `0 H# T
[laughter] There was no rule! So we published the paper and amazingly since then there’s a, P. z; f2 J' v9 r' ~3 f1 a, D
tradition of SIGGRAPH papers having color figures on the first page. So I’ve changed the world in a
" B) N9 U" e0 @9 b0 p$ ~+ T. Y/ Ismall way. [laughter] And then at the end of my six months, they came to me and they said, you H3 y, x, q$ P8 x: h4 L' |* W3 r
want to do it for real? You can stay. And I said no. One of the only times in my life I have surprised
; L+ `& v' q) R# ?( I' ~/ ]/ q# Kmy father. He was like, you’re what? He said, since you were, you know [gesturing to height of a
* C0 g& F+ M- {& E( e. cchild’s head],this is all you wanted, and now that you got it, and you’re… huh? There was a bottle of
: S; ?9 |, w2 F) ]) pMaalox in my desk drawer. Be careful what you wish for. It was a particularly stressful place.9 ]2 @) a ~3 ~
Imagineering in general is actually not so Maalox-laden, but the lab I was in – oh, Jon left in the
: g7 }, C9 N3 V; |middle. And it was a lot like the Soviet Union. It was a little dicey for awhile. But it worked out OK.
7 m3 l4 L$ J/ M. QAnd if they had said, stay here or never walk in the building again, I would have done it. I would
$ G. [9 {0 L$ j+ ^have walked away from tenure, I would have just done it. But they made it easy on me. They said, ]8 Q; p3 d+ N( m7 _4 ~
you can have your cake and eat it too. And I basically became a day-a-week consultant for
1 g2 P7 c# P a! y/ z$ K7 HImagineering, and I did that for about ten years. And that’s one of the reasons you should all
- F6 H( X9 X/ X; f- L1 C/ ]become professors. Because you can have your cake and eat it too.. V7 ^% N `# [
I went and consulted on things like DisneyQuest. So there was the Virtual Jungle Cruise. And the
9 n: `9 i; a" l. ubest interactive experience I think ever done, and Jesse Schell gets the credit for this, Pirates of the2 s0 H5 E' u( \4 H- Z1 S2 G) y
Caribbean. Wonderful at DisneyQuest., C6 |/ V! t0 b) @
And so those are my childhood dreams. And that’s pretty good. I felt good about that. So then the
. d6 ]/ y4 G8 `% mquestion becomes, how can I enable the childhood dreams of others. And again, boy am I glad I% E* C" t7 g; p! I
became a professor. What better place to enable childhood dreams? Eh, maybe working at EA, I" z+ [3 {7 l" o7 b3 O- a
don’t know. That’d probably be a good close second. And this started in a very concrete realization
! q2 D R( P/ p( T( xthat I could do this, because a young man named Tommy Burnett, when I was at the University of% b8 C# `1 j- U4 W
Virginia, came to me, was interested in joining my research group. And we talked about it, and he
# m: q7 C. a4 k1 `said, oh, and I have a childhood dream. It gets pretty easy to recognize them when they tell you. g+ {9 W" i& S/ F0 L- v
And I said, yes, Tommy, what is your childhood dream? He said, I want to work on the next Star
0 `' M: [- z* T, G- jWars film. Now you got to remember the timing on this. Where is Tommy, Tommy is here today.
5 ]& \+ c+ C# {8 d2 [What year would this have been? Your sophomore year.
0 P/ x" V! p. T$ P7 K+ `Tommy:
& h! B& j6 t; s# _, @) g+ x+ oIt was around ’93.( D7 I; t( @0 p, \* U
Randy Pausch:
/ @- n, ?4 ^8 _ H E- TAre you breaking anything back there young man? OK, all right, so in 1993. And I said to Tommy,7 f: J E( J0 Q! b! d
you know they’re probably not going to make those next movies. [laughter] And he said, no, THEY+ M4 x3 H2 m k' e4 X
ARE. And Tommy worked with me for a number of years as an undergraduate and then as a staff
& ~/ h- G2 ^9 r% Y, wmember, and then I moved to Carnegie Mellon, every single member of my team came from Virginia7 }. q Q8 J: K
to Carnegie Mellon except for Tommy because he got a better offer. And he did indeed work on all6 p4 U$ c8 m( l8 k1 Z
three of those films. And then I said, well that’s nice, but you know, one at a time is kind of0 J" X' G* e; z6 @1 s* o7 D5 _
inefficient. And people who know me know that I’m an efficiency freak. So I said, can I do this in
9 H8 p5 a2 }1 |9 O+ X( zmass? Can I get people turned in such a way that they can be turned onto their childhood dreams?
0 b9 W' b G+ V/ n/ P5 YAnd I created a course, I came to Carnegie Mellon and I created a course called Building Virtual1 Y5 ]- A- P# V
Worlds. It’s a very simple course. How many people here have ever been to any of the shows?
7 i8 N% m' ~2 w[Some people from audience raise hands] OK, so some of you have an idea. For those of you who; y" ?* T3 ` M
don’t, the course is very simple. There are 50 students drawn from all the different departments of9 \5 f6 F5 F# m* B) b
the university. There are randomly chosen teams, four people per team, and they change every
% w1 |& d, o- e9 i8 w( Zproject. A project only lasts two weeks, so you do something, you make something, you show: z6 i) m8 L! s# l! D; D1 Y
something, then I shuffle the teams, you get three new playmates and you do it again. And it’s
- R& H& R% A5 _) e, g4 }every two weeks, and so you get five projects during the semester. The first year we taught this! o9 l) i. Z- E2 X/ u" j8 Y$ j( o
course, it is impossible to describe how much of a tiger by the tail we had. I was just running the5 a A- h# ?( O! S$ k
course because I wanted to see if we could do it. We had just learned how to do texture mapping/ k; z" U( I9 P. B" g/ n' m
on 3D graphics, and we could make stuff that looked half decent. But you know, we were running* M2 Z+ Q, P1 N- S
on really weak computers, by current standards. But I said I’ll give it a try. And at my new university/ o) j( w$ b. w! y/ w/ k$ }/ h
[Carnegie Mellon] I made a couple of phone calls, and I said I want to cross-list this course to get all
6 W' }6 y3 `. B' V. Xthese other people. And within 24 hours it was cross-listed in five departments. I love this( p+ x! k1 c2 w5 r7 K1 K
university. I mean it’s the most amazing place. And the kids said, well what content do we make? I
$ L2 l3 f* G8 Dsaid, hell, I don’t know. You make whatever you want. Two rules: no shooting violence and no" O/ U5 j$ v5 q# [ E( i5 C+ F
pornography. Not because I’m opposed to those in particular, but you know, that’s been done with7 g- I7 E; b& y0 M3 a
VR, right? [laughter] And you’d be amazed how many 19-year-old boys are completely out of ideas
8 W4 m- J+ n3 ~when you take those off the table. [laughter and clapping]+ t7 Y& L: M( ~( @, o
Anyway, so I taught the course. The first assignment, I gave it to them, they came back in two
/ W# p. l% a( ?( H# j: }, e. i8 Qweeks and they just blew me away. I mean the work was so beyond, literally, my imagination,
8 T! _0 \4 ?% m# _. V: m1 p/ nbecause I had copied the process from Imagineering’s VR lab, but I had no idea what they could or
6 A/ c( _4 w1 a7 c! g) [3 I) w) Kcouldn’t do with it as undergraduates, and their tools were weaker, and they came back on the first
) x; z$ i! D# e, R. c! Iassignment, and they did something that was so spectacular that I literally didn’t, ten years as a. r0 [+ }9 C) }9 M0 p- j. n2 {9 i
professor and I had no idea what to do next. So I called up my mentor, and I called up Andy Van& C- g+ k$ w8 q
Dam. And I said, Andy, I just gave a two-week assignment, and they came back and did stuff that if I! y; @. \. w5 E; s9 E5 i
had given them a whole semester I would have given them all As. Sensei, what do I do? [laughter]* d( y* K* _* t
And Andy thought for a minute and he said, you go back into class tomorrow and you look them in$ _8 m* G# F; r# M
the eye and you say, “Guys, that was pretty good, but I know you can do better.” [laughter] And that
, t4 l. z& M1 S, }9 a! [was exactly the right advice. Because what he said was, you obviously don’t know where the bar
3 Q6 O+ v! o( W/ K7 t: O. Bshould be, and you’re only going to do them a disservice by putting it anywhere. And boy was that2 ~% _, f* s+ T
good advice because they just kept going. And during that semester it became this underground
/ L: ^! }/ g) ^6 { m+ }( c1 {3 ]thing. I’d walk into a class with 50 students in it and there were 95 people in the room. Because it
$ N( r7 J' u2 B' \was the day we were showing work. And people’s roommates and friends and parents – I’d never
) j1 m( w" K% |9 @; _had parents come to class before! It was flattering and somewhat scary. And so it snowballed and
4 {. x5 l/ a1 u w, L. q4 Cwe had this bizarre thing of, well we’ve got to share this. If there’s anything I’ve been raised to do,
) n$ ^+ K# S6 W! R; _) Q1 zit’s to share, and I said, we’ve got to show this at the end of the semester. We’ve got to have a big
3 K. ]1 `7 D' p+ }0 Gshow. And we booked this room, McConomy. I have a lot of good memories in this room. And we, P: I8 J, k* x
booked it not because we thought we could fill it, but because it had the only AV setup that would
6 r* S4 z2 Y) c' m# [work, because this was a zoo. Computers and everything. And then we filled it. And we more than8 }& s% }/ Y. @$ J2 O8 f, X
filled it. We had people standing in the aisle. I will never forget the dean at the time, Jim Morris
* R6 \! V0 N. V. _) ?) k1 s, ^. Awas sitting on the stage right about there. We had to kind of scoot him out of the way. And the+ [' B+ s5 e5 S8 J" B* k" @: E
energy in the room was like nothing I had ever experienced before. And President Cohen, Jerry, H- S+ ]; e. }9 p! A/ ]" I8 ~
Cohen was there, and he sensed the same thing. He later described it as like an Ohio State football& _( F) G9 e/ b
pep rally. Except for academics. And he came over and he asked exactly the right question. He
: C8 b' z4 F! a7 M4 M/ _said, before you start, he said, where are these people from? He said, the audience, what
! Z' n! Q c- ]4 k' V2 sdepartments are they from? And we polled them and it was all the departments. And I felt very
: G& ~- ~: O+ d4 V8 tgood because I had just come to campus, he had just come to campus, and my new boss had seen in
! Y7 n- k/ I) g% X' L. Na very corporal way that this is the university that puts everybody together. And that made me feel& J4 B( U% B' \* C& ?, A1 U
just tremendous.7 E: L9 T; {) S; J9 x( u) t
So we did this campus-wide exhibition. People performed down here. They’re in costume, and we: F7 Q4 l6 J/ r. |% d
project just like this and you can see what’s going on. You can see what they’re seeing in the head6 e) k6 o( F9 W7 v; r
mount. There’s a lot of big props, so there’s a guy white water rafting. [shows slides of a BVW show]
( \/ k0 [6 g+ _6 E# l3 s; q( ]6 G4 uThis is Ben in E.T. And yes, I did tell them if they didn’t do the shot of the kids biking across the1 H, X" f4 n, x( S' c
moon I would fail him. That is a true story. And I thought I’d show you just one world, and if we can7 X- [! M, z6 T4 ~- e/ g) \( K+ Z
get the lights down if that’s at all possible. No, ok, that means no. All right. All right we’ll just do
1 I% l9 w0 V2 @( C# Pour best then. [Shows “Hello.world” world done in the BVW class, audience applauds at the end.] It
: l1 J, b, X. {9 fwas an unusual course. With some of the most brilliant, creative students from all across the
+ _, d- |0 V& \' acampus. It just was a joy to be involved. And they took the whole stage performance aspect of this, u( c+ B' E6 `; _: b
way too seriously [shows pictures of very strange costumes students wore]. And it became this
3 J, I' {. F' Q) Rcampus phenomenon every year. People would line up for it. It was very flattering. And it gave kids/ a- |* @" B+ t
a sense of excitement of putting on a show for people who were excited about it. And I think that
( Z, f6 H- Z* k! X" u8 ?that’s one of the best things you can give somebody – the chance to show them what it feels like to( Z. K3 ?0 O6 W
make other people get excited and happy. I mean that’s a tremendous gift. We always try to4 ~. L9 `0 f/ l6 b. M. L1 h
involve the audience. Whether it was people with glow sticks or batting a beach ball around… or
9 O+ z/ F% S7 K; F' Odriving [shows photo of audience members leaning in their seats to steer a car]. This is really cool.* U2 ~9 Y+ q, D2 c4 E7 G* y/ }
This technology actually got used at the Spiderman 3 premiere in L.A., so the audience was
& S; G( _) Z" Lcontrolling something on the screen, so that’s kind of nice. And I don’t have a class picture from6 \0 o- q# r/ X5 }$ K
every year, but I dredged all the ones that I do have, and all I can say is that what a privilege and an2 ]% n; d% _; }. {$ I- w+ s
honor it was to teach that course for something like ten years.9 i0 [. e* y5 ]$ n
And all good things come to an end. And I stopped teaching that course about a year ago. People+ ? @7 ~. k) w8 c$ b
always ask me what was my favorite moment. I don’t know if you could have a favorite moment.
8 J* ]% h/ |" R% a$ V4 L4 qBut boy there is one I’ll never forget. This was a world with, I believe a roller skating ninja. And one* y1 T" c9 l* M
of the rules was that we perform these things live and they all had to really work. And the moment
- Y8 ]3 w; U, r: ?it stopped working, we went to your backup videotape. And this was very embarrassing. [Shows2 d! o0 W9 y8 F& D
image of Roller Ninja world presentation] So we have this ninja on stage and he’s doing this roller
2 a1 Y6 j- r& G# v V5 f oskating thing and the world, it did not crash gently. Whoosh. And I come out, and I believe it was
" h' m2 r5 M( X! [7 o$ w+ R3 TSteve, Audia, wasn’t it? Where is he? OK, where is Steve? Ah, my man. Steve Audia. And talk
8 B7 z1 S$ N/ @about quick on your feet. I say, Steve, I’m sorry but your world has crashed and we’re going to go to9 [' |" f' q1 P( g' W
videotape. And he pulls out his ninja sword and says, I am dishonored! Whaaa! And just drops!; |4 t& l/ G) y
[applause and laughter] And so I think it’s very telling that my very favorite moment in ten years of
( }8 Q9 V# o4 I( R0 fthis high technology course was a brilliant ad lib. And then when the videotape is done and the
1 x: t/ @# s( a; _& b8 I5 B# l8 Hlights come up, he’s lying there lifeless and his teammates drag him off! [laughter] It really was a1 B/ e/ h0 Z/ u* o1 x9 d5 D
fantastic moment.
8 z2 ^0 m+ y7 x$ NAnd the course was all about bonding. People used to say, you know, what’s going to make for a: L$ l" r* z' X; ~. J! V
good world? I said, I can’t tell you beforehand, but right before they present it I can tell you if the
5 Y6 E2 W* O0 ?4 W3 x2 t6 ]! y bworld’s good just by the body language. If they’re standing close to each other, the world is good.
8 `9 h/ m3 Q% R8 SAnd BVW was a pioneering course [Randy puts on vest with arrows poking out of the back], and I
% W% m" {6 ~! c1 s- F; nwon’t bore you with all the details, but it wasn’t easy to do, and I was given this when I stepped% Z) Q/ i. P; x- D
down from the ETC and I think it’s emblematic. If you’re going to do anything that pioneering you
6 \. _/ Q. R2 R. G/ Rwill get those arrows in the back, and you just have to put up with it. I mean everything that could( a- A; ^9 W+ R% X2 @
go wrong did go wrong. But at the end of the day, a whole lot of people had a whole lot of fun.9 |% t( k8 e4 d4 O! I6 x0 B; D
When you’ve had something for ten years that you hold so precious, it’s the toughest thing in the/ u, x5 Q/ d: I& e, y
world to hand it over. And the only advice I can give you is, find somebody better than you to hand* q# v! F5 {* y" p/ }( s
it to. And that’s what I did. There was this kid at the VR studios way back when, and you didn’t have
; k! f9 A! l4 J9 r+ ?+ bto spend very long in Jesse Schell’s orbit to go, the force is strong in this one. And one of my6 p3 E r1 h2 a
greatest – my two greatest accomplishments I think for Carnegie Mellon was that I got Jessica
0 t( L3 D# V8 L$ z7 M: ZHodgins and Jesse Schell to come here and join our faculty. And I was thrilled when I could hand this- w) l9 i3 R4 ^$ g% A; j2 n$ O
over to Jesse, and to no one’s surprise, he has really taken it up to the next notch. And the course is+ x0 [" @; O3 R& w
in more than good hands – it’s in better hands. But it was just one course. And then we really took9 C2 K4 h1 Q; a6 E
it up a notch. And we created what I would call the dream fulfillment factory. Don Marinelli and I* \0 M9 C) c1 d2 E) U) J
got together and with the university’s blessing and encouragement, we made this thing out of whole* p( |& y1 [1 W5 F2 y" j3 A
cloth that was absolutely insane. Should never have been tried. All the sane universities didn’t go
% h0 P/ [" w; r$ Jnear this kind of stuff. Creating a tremendous opportunistic void. So the Entertainment Technology7 k& M( l1 m; b& T
Center was all about artists and technologists working in small teams to make things. It was a twoyear
5 v* w* q2 f1 T( ], O2 T/ nprofessional master’s degree. And Don and I were two kindred spirits. We’re very different –/ u8 T1 f' k& B+ \, h7 T
anybody who knows us knows that we are very different people. And we liked to do things in a new
& `7 P' h1 Z; ~0 R6 H/ p- ?7 k" Tway, and the truth of the matter is that we are both a little uncomfortable in academia. I used to
" _' w `& o2 f7 \say that I am uncomfortable as an academic because I come from a long line of people who actually5 g3 H% t9 k- O' ^% M
worked for a living, so. [Nervous laughter] I detect nervous laughter! And I want to stress, Carnegie. Y% x4 w- ?1 n$ m' n4 ?$ w
Mellon is the only place in the world that the ETC could have happened. By far the only place.+ `) k1 I0 l9 [; E" u
[Shows slide of Don Marinelli in tye-dyed shirt, shades and an electric guitar, sitting on a desk next$ ]( g9 d9 j9 z+ h7 X8 ~
to Randy, wearing nerd glasses, button-up shirt, staring at a laptop. Above their heads were the/ @. s& N5 A/ m. i$ G' \7 Q- h) [& ^
labels “Right brain/Left brain”] [laughter] OK, this picture was Don’s idea, OK? And we like to refer- {6 f& ?6 {5 D2 d; S8 q3 {2 n
to this picture as Don Marinelli on guitar and Randy Pausch on keyboards. [laughter] But we really7 m: ~$ n$ C2 y: R
did play up the left brain, right brain and it worked out really well that way. [Shows slide of Don
3 y: x7 `$ e4 Mlooking intense] Don is an intense guy. And Don and I shared an office, and at first it was a small
$ I: Z( c# U0 Zoffice. We shared an office for six years. You know, those of you who know Don know he’s an) J& J! p1 e3 ~. \2 ~
intense guy. And you know, given my current condition, somebody was asking me … this is a3 q7 _* ? p. ^( I$ m5 J
terrible joke, but I’m going to use it anyway. Because I know Don will forgive me. Somebody said,
0 b/ X+ \1 a6 k1 r5 z6 F6 Sgiven your current condition, have you thought about whether you’re going to go to heaven or hell?
/ o4 ~8 r* d, w- {6 sAnd I said, I don’t know, but if I’m going to hell, I’m due six years for time served! [laughter] I kid.
" T( g* @7 w( P6 G( j7 o$ eSharing an office with Don was really like sharing an office with a tornado. There was just so much
6 a) |" P! K% penergy and you never knew which trailer was next, right? But you know something exciting was
3 x* [. {3 C5 i8 I: v0 m/ ygoing to happen. And there was so much energy, and I do believe in giving credit where credit is A7 W2 G$ x% m! b
due. So in my typically visual way, if Don and I were to split the success for the ETC, he clearly gets" B# i% b; F: Z1 v# G
the lion’s share of it. [Shows image of a pie chart divided 70/30 (Don/Randy) ] He did the lion’s share0 t# ?# {" [7 Z' A' H
of the work, ok, he had the lion’s share of the ideas. It was a great teamwork. I think it was a great
% x* E( h: l. V3 D; Byin and a yang, but it was more like YIN and yang. And he deserves that credit and I give it to him' V6 X$ t1 O4 q% q# _/ v H4 H9 i( y
because the ETC is a wonderful place. And he’s now running it and he’s taking it global. We’ll talk! e( ]. {% t: \9 p0 Z
about that in a second.0 r* H) j* o' B) I, u5 S( h
Describing the ETC is really hard, and I finally found a metaphor. Telling people about the ETC is like/ W6 O: ^# z, Q
describing Cirque du Soleil if they’ve never seen it. Sooner or later you’re going to make the
9 d, h G- R! e9 I2 Z3 fmistake. You’re going to say, well it’s like a circus. And then you’re dragged into this conversation. h/ E. c* j) Z
about oh, how many tigers, how many lions, how many trapeze acts? And that misses the whole0 {. X1 U8 ]- u9 m% U4 ^& ^* }9 G! v5 U
point. So when we say we’re a master’s degree, we’re really not like any master’s degree you’ve
6 ?' R4 j0 h$ ]& [' [; j1 `: zever seen. Here’s the curriculum [Shows slide of ETC curriculum, listing “Project Course” as the only" O& N/ j3 F5 A) _
course each semester; audience laughs] The curriculum ended up looking like this. [shows slightly/ `- _! f) `. N9 A/ U. \
more detailed slide]. All I want to do is visually communicate to you that you do five projects in
( r% z. L3 S* N& yBuilding Virtual Worlds, then you do three more. All of your time is spent in small teams making, A6 c8 v# r' J0 p
stuff. None of that book learning thing. Don and I had no patience for the book learning thing. It’s, @2 C7 t5 _5 r
a master’s degree. They already spent four years doing book learning. By now they should have+ Z; o( e8 W2 F1 g# T
read all the books.: \4 t; B M; G2 W+ O
The keys to success were that Carnegie Mellon gave us the reins. Completely gave us the reins. We; e7 [) X0 I& b/ O8 _+ E1 X" p* K
had no deans to report to. We reported directly to the provost, which is great because the provost
' A5 H- u1 K( fis way too busy to watch you carefully. [laughter] We were given explicit license to break the mold.
- I0 W- `% o t( A V3 sIt was all project based. It was intense, it was fun, and we took field trips! Every spring semester in
4 ~6 S7 d; J! ~3 L3 j' m2 O) mJanuary, we took all 50 students in the first year class and we’d take them out to Pixar, Industrial {( ^( c& l+ `
Light and Magic, and of course when you’ve got guys like Tommy there acting as host, right, it’s
+ A$ W" F& k+ U! `; [2 Y5 e$ q" Bpretty easy to get entrée to these places. So we did things very, very differently. The kind of
7 [$ P/ d, T( V. I" J0 t4 f) p* V! Bprojects students would do, we did a lot of what we’d call edutainment.1 o! y" t$ m" d" D
We developed a bunch of things with the Fire Department of New York, a network simulator for& f& k" g+ W. b T$ \
training firefighters, using video game-ish type technology to teach people useful things. That’s not+ v: x) K& y6 {
bad. Companies did this strange thing. They put in writing, we promise to hire your students. I’ve
. c: ]6 U7 E# |) o: W7 l; Q% sgot the EA and Activision ones here. I think there are now, how many, five? Drew knows I bet./ Z |# D/ X( F
[Drew Davison, head of ETC-Pittsburgh, gestures with five fingers]. So there are five written
# P. W+ f* m+ Cagreements. I don’t know of any other school that has this kind of written agreement with any
9 `1 Y7 x9 `: H; C2 b. Ccompany. And so that’s a real statement. And these are multiple year things, so they’re agreeing to
8 A. U$ j) C I5 U+ J, i+ k3 whire people for summer internships that we have not admitted yet. That’s a pretty strong statement4 j ?& s' _$ A7 |% I7 }$ |* T t
about the quality of the program. And Don, as I said, he’s now, he’s crazy. In a wonderful8 X6 L$ j2 y' T7 Q4 W
complimentary way. He’s doing these things where I’m like, oh my god. He’s not here tonight. n1 _# m; _8 n0 W4 l# ]
because he’s in Singapore because there’s going to be an ETC campus in Singapore. There’s already& }. {# _6 k! Z1 w, u/ U0 T
on in Australia and there’s going to be on in Korea. So this is becoming a global phenomenon. So I9 O$ h7 i/ Y: b& B" d! U
think this really speaks volumes about all the other universities. It’s really true that Carnegie Mellon
( _# v' J a+ C, S- ~is the only university that can do this. We just have to do it all over the world now.# r2 y" Y9 `9 `
One other big success about the ETC is teaching people about feedback [puts up bar chart where) G1 A' _+ w* p4 p$ z# a, X
students are (anonymous) listed on a scale labeled “how easy to work with” ] -- oh I hear the6 N/ i( L( `; H& |
nervous laughter from the students. I had forgotten the delayed shock therapy effect of these bar
' ~; `- w7 v0 m& K4 d* jcharts. When you’re taking Building Virtual Worlds, every two weeks we get peer feedback. We put: z" v0 z* i/ Z! J2 z
that all into a big spreadsheet and at the end of the semester, you had three teammates per project,- F1 v6 K* K y
five projects, that’s 15 data points, that’s statistically valid. And you get a bar chart telling you on a
* i$ d; M1 E8 \" oranking of how easy you are to work with, where you stacked up against your peers. Boy that’s hard/ b5 w! S! c8 S# S
feedback to ignore. Some still managed. [laughter] But for the most part, people looked at that and
! t1 g8 W4 R# C1 Twent, wow, I’ve got to take it up a notch. I better start thinking about what I’m saying to people in" h+ b5 d4 P2 I' H2 B% s
these meetings. And that is the best gift an educator can give is to get somebody to become self
( v4 \$ m( X# K5 ^reflective.3 ]$ k6 N# V; Z# D% o
So the ETC was wonderful, but even the ETC and even as Don scales it around the globe, it’s still very
; R v( U6 V/ z& [9 Flabor intensive, you know. It’s not Tommy one-at-a-time. It’s not a research group ten at a time.0 }' h$ s3 g) I8 g' ?
It’s 50 or 100 at a time per campus times four campuses. But I wanted something infinitely scalable.3 ~/ ~/ b9 [+ ^6 g2 x- X
Scalable to the point where millions or tens of millions of people could chase their dreams with6 \7 x& h9 o5 ? h- ]/ }
something. And you know, I guess that kind of a goal really does make me the Mad Hatter. [Puts on
: F3 j6 M8 k% ^2 ]) ]& ea Mad Hatter’s green top hat]. So Alice is a project that we worked on for a long, long time. It’s a
9 ]2 R/ T$ _4 j3 H0 Tnovel way to teach computer programming. Kids make movies and games. The head fake – again,
" W3 s* O r4 E( M( L. @# lwe’re back to the head fakes. The best way to teach somebody something is to have them think
+ O% h1 d9 n3 ]. Z3 m8 o" I, |they’re learning something else. I’ve done it my whole career. And the head fake here is that
& y+ p9 _& M3 i0 i9 Mthey’re learning to program but they just think they’re making movies and video games. This thing
3 |4 }3 g' y# r! q" g6 {8 Xhas already been downloaded well over a million times. There are eight textbooks that have been
( @, A+ v9 U3 r" lwritten about it. Ten percent of U.S. colleges are using it now. And it’s not the good stuff yet. The
( g. `# v$ \2 N* o }4 e, q9 Z4 Fgood stuff is coming in the next version. I, like Moses, get to see the promised land, but I won’t get0 X0 U: ~& `4 ^3 M* [
to set foot in it. And that’s OK, because I can see it. And the vision is clear. Millions of kids having
) ]) j. i' G5 B' i/ qfun while learning something hard. That’s pretty cool. I can deal with that as a legacy. The next
0 z! @7 D* J9 ]! |* l. [7 p& K. Xversion’s going to come out in 2008. It’s going to be teaching the Java language if you want them to& ]. R3 O+ U$ ^
know they’re learning Java. Otherwise they’ll just think that they’re writing movie scripts. And
; b9 T! T% |, E- ^; Owe’re getting the characters from the bestselling PC video game in history, The Sims. And this is" N- q3 R2 t+ H
already working in the lab, so there’s no real technological risk. I don’t have time to thank and& m& k& v+ R# z/ ]) \7 N: P0 M' O
mention everybody in the Alice team, but I just want to say that Dennis Cosgrove is going to be
8 L/ D$ d9 G* A# D% _building this, has been building this. He is the designer. This is his baby. And for those of you who
1 V" @7 x" a% \. b# m" u/ Aare wondering, well, in some number of months who should I be emailing about the Alice project,! b2 q# N; ~6 [# @
where’s Wanda Dann? Oh, there you are. Stand up, let them all see you. Everybody say, Hi Wanda.
0 A+ @8 l2 u' G7 w6 t/ UAudience:
. m e. e; v, }0 `" O2 y$ qHi, Wanda.
0 p8 k# l7 H8 w3 p: `0 m, XRandy Pausch:
* I7 n" |" e& W9 Y5 xSend her the email. And I’ll talk a little bit more about Caitlin Kelleher, but she’s graduated with her* l$ J9 w3 m( c
Ph.D., and she’s at Washington University, and she’s going to be taking this up a notch and going to/ @4 v* k5 O& }! u
middle schools with it. So, grand vision and to the extent that you can live on in something, I will
- I' Q% z A( f! O+ nlive on in Alice.+ P. Q2 i" X/ h8 [5 u/ q
All right, so now the third part of the talk. Lessons learned. We’ve talked about my dreams. We’ve
2 z' }. Y5 K7 k5 g V0 D- W4 otalked about helping other people enable their dreams. Somewhere along the way there’s got to be
2 C2 f, C' b" F. Xsome aspect of what lets you get to achieve your dreams. First one is the rule of parents, mentors
8 }0 e/ `; m9 m& |and students. I was blessed to have been born to two incredible people. This is my mother on her
2 ^% i( c6 r5 D) g70th birthday. [Shows slide of Randy’s mom driving a race car on an amusement park race course]8 O3 e% k9 e5 g2 L' ?1 ^
[laughter] I am back here. I have just been lapped. [laughter] This is my dad riding a roller coaster
$ w9 ?; q9 u: E2 O' g& \on his 80th birthday. [Shows slide of dad] And he points out that he’s not only brave, he’s talented
# q5 I- @. u/ B: Y) Mbecause he did win that big bear the same day. My dad was so full of life, anything with him was an3 S- ~* ]7 t1 I6 q9 f8 P
adventure. [Shows picture of his Dad holding a brown paper bag.] I don’t know what’s in that bag,$ N8 I, G* q! U2 h0 z0 F) F
but I know it’s cool. My dad dressed up as Santa Claus, but he also did very, very significant things+ z- X* W& m: H; `& p
to help lots of people. This is a dormitory in Thailand that my mom and dad underwrote. And every
6 A# R# @4 t0 f; C' _, ?) d1 U* ayear about 30 students get to go to school who wouldn’t have otherwise. This is something my wife
) |4 I9 s$ L" l$ Q% {% f8 p$ O' Iand I have also been involved in heavily. And these are the kind of things that I think everybody* d4 F0 \2 C) o% v" z8 T% k
ought to be doing. Helping others.
! B2 ]6 y- p6 y0 q J8 m1 ?, u5 ~But the best story I have about my dad – unfortunately my dad passed away a little over a year ago
, E7 J* U8 w* [5 z– and when we were going through his things, he had fought in World War II in the Battle of the
2 V5 h" D. F" P# y# S, fBulge, and when we were going through his things, we found out he had been awarded the Bronze
& ?& K/ U4 {3 q2 A! eStar for Valor. My mom didn’t know it. In 50 years of marriage it had just never come up.
# _ p+ \# X+ ~' L3 cMy mom. [Shows picture of Randy as a young child, pulling his Mom’s hair]. Mothers are people, X" F) O* ~1 y; T; N
who love even when you pull their hair. And I have two great mom stories. When I was here
2 { e6 U# |8 \! i6 K& vstudying to get my Ph.D. and I was taking something called the theory qualifier, which I can% o9 c$ B! X$ q" u
definitively say is the second worst thing in my life after chemotherapy. [laughter] And I was; r/ }0 J' m% W& [, R; W
complaining to my mother about how hard this test was and how awful it was, and she just leaned* ?( l% O X: ?
over and she patted me on the arm and she said, we know how you feel honey, and remember when1 h3 z+ U2 ?) M8 k! c( ]4 J
your father was your age he was fighting the Germans. [laugher] After I got my Ph.D., my mother
" Y R& o0 g, s# q- Xtook great relish in introducing me as, this is my son, he’s a doctor but not the kind that helps people.
8 l0 o, G5 @5 n6 w# e, @8 @1 \7 I/ D[laughter] These slides are a little bit dark [meaning “hard to see”], but when I was in high school I
- x! K. o/ R* wdecided to paint my bedroom. [shows slides of bedroom] I always wanted a submarine and an
9 z+ z: W: Q1 P- l1 S" z* N8 Selevator. And the great thing about this [shows slide of quadratic formula painted on wall]2 Y! x V! L5 G
[interrupted by laughter] – what can I say? And the great thing about this is they let me do it. And% G* q8 y$ h# T S
they didn’t get upset about it. And it’s still there. If you go to my parent’s house it’s still there. And+ K, K. i! U' V5 J% `' A4 u' ]
anybody who is out there who is a parent, if your kids want to paint their bedroom, as a favor to me
. V4 y/ S, ?9 i/ t c- Qlet them do it. It’ll be OK. Don’t worry about resale value on the house.9 D! U) H3 v+ i3 ?7 |
Other people who help us besides our parents: our teachers, our mentors, our friends, our
5 M7 N. X7 |+ Y$ d" w- scolleagues. God, what is there to say about Andy Van Dam? When I was a freshman at Brown, he S+ v5 T7 U/ u) h
was on leave. And all I heard about was this Andy Van Dam. He was like a mythical creature. Like a
5 k1 C- v* ]; ?- M, M7 [7 K' jcentaur, but like a really pissed off centaur. And everybody was like really sad that he was gone, but
: ^6 P4 Z% ^1 d" E- s6 u4 Hkind of more relaxed? And I found out why. Because I started working for Andy. I was a teaching
5 V6 H% E2 m8 Y" z# ?assistant for him as a sophomore. And I was quite an arrogant young man. And I came in to some* k4 l! x3 t5 v4 y) A6 [
office hours and of course it was nine o’clock at night and Andy was there at office hours, which is: _8 n$ J! y5 G. L5 A7 @
your first clue as to what kind of professor he was. And I come bounding in and you know, I’m just
% X/ L4 ?& n/ _2 T$ f- o" G2 Y0 MI’m going to save the world. There’re all these kids waiting for help, da da, da da, da da, da da, da
% i$ N' C1 J1 Vda. And afterwards, Andy literally Dutch-uncled – he’s Dutch, right? He Dutch-uncled me. And he& l. ?. \& E7 \$ ]3 R V# p) T9 J" B: i' F
put his arm around my shoulders and we went for a little walk and he said, Randy, it’s such a shame
; W$ g1 I& S% Y1 G4 P* ^that people perceive you as so arrogant. Because it’s going to limit what you’re going to be able to
: K$ [' W# R$ Q; uaccomplish in life. What a hell of a way to word “you’re being a jerk.” [laughter] Right? He doesn’t, p7 x5 m. |" r; R8 m
say you’re a jerk. He says people are perceiving you this way and he says the downside is it’s going
: |9 w7 U. Q) y( `: l7 ]to limit what you’re going to be able to accomplish.
9 o ^6 n! `* fWhen I got to know Andy better, the beatings became more direct, but. [laughter] I could tell you
' _4 J3 n1 t1 YAndy stories for a month, but the one I will tell you is that when it came time to start thinking about# r# ]1 n, B, N5 V U7 g
what to do about graduating from Brown, it had never occurred to me in a million years to go to* Q- [" V3 e. w* a
graduate school. Just out of my imagination. It wasn’t the kind of thing people from my family did.5 p1 v: u% m2 e4 h& {! ^" D
We got, say, what do you call them? …. jobs. And Andy said, no, don’t go do that. Go get a Ph.D.% t4 I7 b- y) t8 W; D1 v
Become a professor. And I said, why? And he said, because you’re such a good salesman that any3 S4 Q0 |' s3 h& O$ @$ ^. _
company that gets you is going to use you as a salesman. And you might as well be selling
% u7 m! \# t' U; ]! y( I7 S c1 Fsomething worthwhile like education. [long pause, looks directly at Andy van Dam] Thanks.+ b: M* a4 Z9 D( D! f
Andy was my first boss, so to speak. I was lucky enough to have a lot of bosses. [shows slide of& M4 R4 c1 X' H4 B) w7 a6 i# @/ b3 Z
various bosses] That red circle is way off. Al is over here. [laughter] I don’t know what the hell
2 j4 F. F# ^7 u. h/ C3 whappened there. He’s probably watching this on the webcast going, my god he’s targeting and he t9 ~2 u% }9 ~$ _1 i v" V
still can’t aim! [laughter] I don’t want to say much about the great bosses I’ve had except that they
% I# g( K& F+ u, t) k5 _were great. And I know a lot of people in the world that have had bad bosses, and I haven’t had to$ ?1 K+ u4 f. n9 f( m2 o) n3 s# j
endure that experience and I’m very grateful to all the people that I ever had to have worked for.
5 e. ^" I$ Y% @9 h) uThey have just been incredible.& S, o! Z2 N" X E: u7 Y
But it’s not just our bosses, we learn from our students. I think the best head fake of all time comes& F* S2 g& Z$ q/ S8 m( x) {
from Caitlin Kelleher. Excuse me, Doctor Caitlin Kelleher, who just finished up here and is starting at
0 I0 I3 P) m( i, ZWashington University, and she looked at Alice when it was an easier way to learn to program, and# k) C& x' `$ J
she said, yeah, but why is that fun? I was like, ‘cause uh, I’m a compulsive male…I like to make the
! H) s8 B* j# M' @& qlittle toy soldiers move around by my command, and that’s fun. She’s like, hmm. And she was the8 a" a& f6 B& D
one who said, no, we’ll just approach it all as a storytelling activity. And she’s done wonderful work
p$ x9 |# i5 ]5 Kshowing that, particularly with middle school girls, if you present it as a storytelling activity, they’re) N) G) q) K0 r+ K, \" C% G3 a3 D
P a u s c h P a g e | 195 ?3 \! m o( c1 o! e
perfectly willing to learn how to write computer software. So all-time best head fake award goes to
( b" Z9 e1 U( p+ R* K+ XCaitlin Kelleher’s dissertation.
' L" x0 z& j7 @8 q' fPresident Cohen, when I told him I was going to do this talk, he said, please tell them about having3 l1 ^7 m4 W# X( P' X! ?6 p
fun, because that’s what I remember you for. And I said, I can do that, but it’s kind of like a fish
$ H- _" L; R/ |1 U4 vtalking about the importance of water. I mean I don’t know how to not have fun. I’m dying and I’m
) o% f' o1 C8 Shaving fun. And I’m going to keep having fun every day I have left. Because there’s no other way to( P* [( M$ V! N. l
play it.( K0 t9 ?. Z7 [$ r$ c% `
So my next piece of advice is, you just have to decide if you’re a Tigger or and Eeyore. [shows slide1 p1 i9 u+ N6 w
with an image of Tigger and Eeyore with the phrase “Decide if you’re Tigger or Eeyore”] I think I’m' @ e% J; g1 j2 B* \" l/ V+ n8 _5 V
clear where I stand on the great Tigger/Eeyore debate. [laughter] Never lose the childlike wonder.
7 L8 b% C1 Y$ X XIt’s just too important. It’s what drives us. Help others. Denny Proffitt knows more about helping
6 Y' p1 H8 s1 K4 `2 J1 W% A# | g+ ~2 Wother people. He’s forgotten more than I’ll ever know. He’s taught me by example how to run a
F7 ]# k$ ]( e4 o2 ^: zgroup, how to care about people. M.K. Haley – I have a theory that people who come from large
; i7 o6 T# h- |8 ~6 @families are better people because they’ve just had to learn to get along. M.K. Haley comes from a! F, M- g4 {3 r+ D! `( n2 k g
family with 20 kids. [audience collectively “aaahs”] Yeah. Unbelievable. And she always says it’s; }6 m3 ^) \4 d/ _/ J, s$ O
kind of fun to do the impossible. When I first got to Imagineering, she was one of the people who
" b4 g+ d' ~' M! [8 p8 cdressed me down, and she said, I understand you’ve joined the Aladdin Project. What can you do?
* E1 L+ r0 v2 IAnd I said, well I’m a tenured professor of computer science. And she said, well that’s very nice
3 a9 o0 a2 e+ F) y8 ZProfessor Boy, but that’s not what I asked. I said what can you do? [laughter]
) h1 ^ R3 b# X# I' L$ ]And you know I mentioned sort of my working class roots. We keep what is valuable to us, what we1 }6 C1 d6 r( @3 I, b* |
cherish. And I’ve kept my [high school] letterman’s jacket all these years. [Puts on letterman’s! f a" j' j. f! G! n
jacket] I used to like wearing it in grad school, and one of my friends, Jessica Hodgins would say, why
$ R8 G, V- U/ ^! l: o% ido you wear this letterman’s jacket? And I looked around at all the non-athletic guys around me
8 E* U% B q7 l: u$ x/ n, Bwho were much smarter than me. And I said, because I can. [laughter] And so she thought that was
. l; w* X$ z* F1 e7 a0 Y3 ~a real hoot so one year she made for me this little Raggedy Randy doll. [takes out Raggedy Randy]
; I" R& r9 g/ i7 L( k[laughter] He’s got a little letterman’s jacket too. That’s my all-time favorite. It’s the perfect gift for+ f+ X' X+ m9 b4 S" o- Q- C
the egomaniac in your life. So, I’ve met so many wonderful people along the way.
7 [' h4 o, V8 a: [ tLoyalty is a two way street. There was a young man named Dennis Cosgrove at the University of
$ K. W7 i# {% c# [Virginia, and when he was a young man, let’s just say things happened. And I found myself talking
7 l; r w/ _2 x! }# R5 Cto a dean. No, not that dean. And anyway, this dean really had it in for Dennis, and I could never
+ B8 J- V% W' H1 p- Nfigure out why because Dennis was a fine fellow. But for some reason this Dean really had it in for& Q6 ]) W6 O2 R; m/ I4 w6 R
him. And I ended up basically saying, no, I vouch for Dennis. And the guy says, you’re not even9 V; B& ?- U7 F+ G& e5 ]
tenured yet and you’re telling me you’re going to vouch for this sophomore or junior or whatever? I; u' k2 B( A, x
think he was a junior at the time. I said, yeah, I’m going to vouch for him because I believe in him.+ n, Z7 b: G5 S. `8 o0 ?, i1 Y
And the dean said, and I’m going to remember this when your tenure case comes up. And I said,
; n" y. L& Z v! H$ c5 b! xdeal. I went back to talk to Dennis and I said, I would really appreciate you… that would be good.
2 F$ Y3 W7 U( P- \3 DBut loyalty is a two-way street. That was god knows how many years ago, but that’s the same
" D$ u" ]( U* m+ B F; f9 p5 s n* [Dennis Cosgrove who’s carrying Alice forward. He’s been with me all these years. And if we only) J) p" k- [) [+ q
had one person to send in a space probe to meet an alien species, I’m picking Dennis. [laughter] You4 t9 ]# v% l. A9 |
can’t give a talk at Carnegie Mellon without acknowledging one very special person. And that would
1 }/ J9 I3 b) K' a. Ibe Sharon Burks. I joked with her, I said, well look, if you’re retiring, it’s just not worth living8 o# ~2 H! p4 i* ~ h
anymore. Sharon is so wonderful it’s beyond description, and for all of us who have been helped by% g/ U2 F) c& L4 h
her, it’s just indescribable. I love this picture because it puts here together with Syl, and Syl is great
# r+ ~* f W* M- G8 b1 mbecause Syl gave the best piece of advice pound-for-pound that I have ever heard. And I think all! O% _$ J n8 V
young ladies should hear this. Syl said, it took me a long time but I’ve finally figured it out. When it# _ K: [+ f$ C: y3 U$ h: i" J% i6 D
comes to men that are romantically interested in you, it’s really simple. Just ignore everything they
* n( }/ a1 D. U6 V8 }6 N( _say and only pay attention to what they do. It’s that simple. It’s that easy. And I thought back to. I% v( P) z% _: U. w D+ q
my bachelor days and I said, damn. [laughter]1 G8 _9 m$ R1 o( C
Never give up. I didn’t get into Brown University. I was on the wait list. I called them up and they
" I/ X D/ @+ i+ m- Jeventually decided that it was getting really annoying to have me call everyday so they let me in. At2 ~2 |, ]* q! \* W
Carnegie Mellon I didn’t get into graduate school. Andy had mentored me. He said, go to graduate9 r* n( ^) } G. e5 e
school, you’re going to Carnegie Mellon. All my good students go to Carnegie Mellon. Yeah, you
4 b8 r( A: B( ]" T) k6 @) @/ S2 N- cknow what’s coming. And so he said, you’re going to go to Carnegie Mellon no problem. What he; ~6 G. W1 e8 q( }
had kind of forgotten was that the difficulty of getting to the top Ph.D. program in the country had8 e1 s8 G/ d ?( k) f( m, T
really gone up. And he also didn’t know I was going to tank my GRE’s because he believed in me.+ p: k' ^' @* K# q: p7 v' B* ~
Which, based on my board scores was a really stupid idea. And so I didn’t get into Carnegie Mellon.
/ T: Y! }6 ~$ p. @% x8 e, [1 M' W& @No one knows this. ‘Til today I’m telling the story. I was declined admission to Carnegie Mellon.
# n( c' R1 c6 n, u- h6 ~+ kAnd I was a bit of an obnoxious little kid. I went into Andy’s office and I dropped the rejection letter
% B; E4 j! B+ {+ d, v {on his desk. And I said, I just want you to know what your letter of recommendation goes for at
# I9 g9 t- p0 U& ?! VCarnegie Mellon. [laughter] And before the letter had hit his desk, his hand was on the phone and9 |2 c& c7 L; m- i) N
he said, I will fix this. [laughter] And I said, no no no, I don’t want to do it that way. That’s not the
' |. o. C# J ]9 N, p5 R4 Sway I was raised. [In a sad voice] Maybe some other graduate schools will see fit to admit me.; J' w5 i, k( n4 d; J
[laughter] And he said, look, Carnegie Mellon’s where you’re going to be. He said, I’ll tell you what,: u( [) j. Y7 L3 V
I’ll make you a deal. Go visit the other schools. Because I did get into all the other schools. He said,
3 x* m3 ~. A" S7 I4 V! e- wgo visit the other schools and if you really don’t feel comfortable at any of them, then will you let me
+ r m1 [3 t7 S9 x) r1 C. dcall Nico? Nico being Nico Habermann [the head of Carnegie Mellon’s Computer Science Dept.] and M3 A+ @( ^" |6 i8 s2 m: \
I said, OK deal. I went to the other schools. Without naming them by name -- [in a coughing voice]
$ \/ K3 S6 j8 w, q, q* x5 K3 yBerkeley, Cornell. They managed to be so unwelcoming that I found myself saying to Andy, you8 Q8 E# n) h" J, T! y7 [
know, I’m going to get a job. And he said, no, you’re not. And he picked up the phone and he talked
* F# Z0 x5 _. q, Y1 W2 Tin Dutch. [laughter] And he hung up the phone and he said, Nico says if you’re serious, be in his
0 Q7 ~3 m# _( W+ {office tomorrow morning at eight a.m. And for those of you who know Nico, this is really scary. So
A) S' E/ F# k% Y6 @I’m in Nico Habermann’s office the next morning at eight a.m. and he’s talking with me, and frankly I
4 y% b h) u# {8 l/ Adon’t think he’s that keen on this meeting. I don’t think he’s that keen at all. And he says, Randy,) C8 } y, i( D! n( `& R
why are we here? And I said, because Andy phoned you? Heh-heh. [laughter] And I said, well, since
' g6 i, m0 k* {3 E X5 j! s- uyou admitted me, I have won a fellowship. The Office of Naval Research is a very prestigious
6 z9 ]. {0 Q% x0 }9 x* Rfellowship. I’ve won this fellowship and that wasn’t in my file when I applied. And Nico said, a
8 [! }9 ?& b3 I6 a% I1 w- a; kfellowship, money, we have plenty of money. That was back then. He said, we have plenty of
: j' R; w: I' M) |/ P! T6 P: w" o0 Imoney. Why do you think having a fellowship makes any difference to us? And he looked at me.4 b4 s" @, H6 c4 Y' Z0 e
There are moments that change your life. And ten years later if you know in retrospect it was one of
1 n* l" G- ]* nthose moments, you’re blessed. But to know it at the moment …. with Nico staring through your7 Y5 Q H% X: _! T9 w
P a u s c h P a g e | 21* j8 N- _, C: W% \* u# w
soul. [laughter] And I said, I didn’t mean to imply anything about the money. It’s just that it was an' G$ z$ y4 N/ @
honor. There were only 15 given nationwide. And I did think it was an honor that would be
! x3 H" W) T2 r% w- Isomething that would be meritorious. And I apologize if that was presumptuous. And he smiled.
) |/ j* j& z; d5 m$ H- vAnd that was good.
* K* I7 q! Z, ^$ y6 ?: ?* mSo. How do you get people to help you? You can’t get there alone. People have to help you and I
! F0 W1 B! r( J; S* |! Pdo believe in karma. I believe in paybacks. You get people to help you by telling the truth. Being4 V7 q7 p1 p5 b5 I9 d% ?
earnest. I’ll take an earnest person over a hip person every day, because hip is short term. Earnest
4 P7 n2 m) S( y- g- F$ Ris long term.. N5 V6 f3 Q a; k! g/ U/ y" U7 }
Apologize when you screw up and focus on other people, not on yourself. And I thought, how do I3 S1 ~7 x+ h: }8 Y( \6 I
possibly make a concrete example of that? [Speaking to stage hand] Do we have a concrete& J) @3 z: T+ C5 o% I; f; o
example of focusing on somebody else over there? Could we bring it out? [Speaking to audience] M7 h3 P8 Y/ L" g+ T7 Q% Z( [& x
See, yesterday was my wife’s birthday. If there was ever a time I might be entitled to have the focus J; h+ p/ k4 @: I+ ~+ [
on me, it might be the last lecture. But no, I feel very badly that my wife didn’t really get a proper
' @6 Q% N: [! n# {1 B/ jbirthday, and I thought it would be very nice if 500 people— [an oversized birthday cake is wheeled5 E. N3 F+ S- _" {* {
onto the stage] [applause] Happy—" ^, w5 T' W+ s& D' H$ v# x
Everyone:
0 M, z2 X$ s3 V8 d" Z4 l…birthday to you [Randy: her name is Jai], happy birthday to you. Happy birthday dear Jai, happy+ u: h1 A3 U+ e% v* S. z4 x3 |
birthday to you! [applause]
* I4 z$ J3 F( k! q: o[Jai walks on stage, teary-eyed. She walks with Randy to the cake. Randy: You gotta blow it out. The
6 j: Z1 s+ r, c2 K5 M0 W0 ~audience goes quiet. Jai blows out the candle on the cake. Randy: All right. Massive applause.]
' F: f, g, o% S z/ CRandy Pausch:
7 G n# T. l# ?! `+ _+ {$ kAnd now you all have an extra reason to come to the reception. [laughter] Remember brick walls let
; \; D( a! _. i/ Wus show our dedication. They are there to separate us from the people who don’t really want to: J0 R% d2 Z1 C( }5 c) M; d4 V: w
achieve their childhood dreams. Don’t bail. The best of the gold’s at the bottom of barrels of crap.' u6 _- S/ m+ i& ]* ]: f
[Shows slide of Steve Seabolt next to a picture of The Sims] [laughter] What Steve didn’t tell you was+ h% t" p$ |' |( |; Z" r
the big sabbatical at EA, I had been there for 48 hours and they loved the ETC, we were the best, we0 Q. Q, i. ?* \/ O# Z- h; c
were the favorites, and then somebody pulled me aside and said, oh, by the way, we’re about to
& w- N p, T0 f+ U+ g6 b+ @8 Mgive eight million dollars to USC to build a program just like yours. We’re hoping you can help them% ^ @5 `5 n$ o2 L9 y* B# |
get it off the ground. [laughter] And then Steve came along and said, they said what? Oh god. And
1 z' @# W$ r `6 Nto quote a famous man, I will fix this. And he did. Steve has been an incredible partner. And we
* M: M2 d% G: f& B$ W; Y# Chave a great relationship, personal and professional. And he has certainly been point man on. A) `, K4 T2 S; l& U" T0 D/ l
getting a gaming asset to help teach millions of kids and that’s just incredible. But, you know, it5 \$ y; C/ W" x2 {3 @4 u' I
certainly would have been reasonable for me to leave 48 hours after that sabbatical, but it wouldn’t
# @5 G; J( T4 f3 s6 Z: Yhave been the right thing to do, and when you do the right thing, good stuff has a way of happening.8 z6 Z, I, j% N2 j# f6 e0 D/ O
Get a feedback loop and listen to it. Your feedback loop can be this dorky spreadsheet thing I did, or
1 u% a9 b" q- I3 @it can just be one great man who tells you what you need to hear. The hard part is the listening to it.
0 \7 q U1 F+ T; }P a u s c h P a g e | 22* D/ q& n* V9 M/ E. E
Anybody can get chewed out. It’s the rare person who says, oh my god, you were right. As opposed
3 i9 x; {: B+ vto, no wait, the real reason is… We’ve all heard that. When people give you feedback, cherish it and
" P- i4 |! L% A' |2 T5 ^use it.
0 H1 J8 I! N' |Show gratitude. When I got tenure I took all of my research team down to Disneyworld for a week.
6 X' \0 K; T8 d* e4 N9 p2 CAnd one of the other professors at Virginia said, how can you do that? I said these people just$ S3 H4 V0 K6 u+ ?/ _: k
busted their ass and got me the best job in the world for life. How could I not do that?
7 O& `$ F: q4 h$ H1 @Don’t complain. Just work harder. [shows slide of Jackie Robinson, the first black major league6 L# \ g" q# B' Q9 B; Y
baseball player] That’s a picture of Jackie Robinson. It was in his contract not to complain, even
: \0 c8 e& x8 A4 S. K6 B" uwhen the fans spit on him.2 P4 F. s7 v5 @ i
Be good at something, it makes you valuable.
! h# _8 M6 H1 Z) n# rWork hard. I got tenure a year early as Steve mentioned. Junior faculty members used to say to me,- @2 K3 F# H# M6 x# f4 U, r
wow, you got tenure early. What’s your secret? I said, it’s pretty simple. Call my any Friday night in8 Z9 ] J8 v+ p9 N/ S
my office at ten o’clock and I’ll tell you.7 c- B+ I3 c' y+ ~
Find the best in everybody. One of the things that Jon Snoddy as I said told me, is that you might
$ }2 W& N6 m( E' i% Q: thave to wait a long time, sometimes years, but people will show you their good side. Just keep1 y0 R' W6 }+ i6 q
waiting no matter how long it takes. No one is all evil. Everybody has a good side, just keep waiting,
: R% t9 X) A6 D8 b% |) o4 Wit will come out. r) F8 j) u' _
And be prepared. Luck is truly where preparation meets opportunity.$ E' `6 ~% ]6 E9 G* r3 u+ a
So today’s talk was about my childhood dreams, enabling the dreams of others, and some lessons. A, k: T: Z% _, y
learned. But did you figure out the head fake? [dramatic pause] It’s not about how to achieve your
" b% i7 N) p: h: g5 k, \: w }' `3 [dreams. It’s about how to lead your life. If you lead your life the right way, the karma will take care
, q1 s' b( {& u% j4 Tof itself. The dreams will come to you.
9 s& ~5 s/ H* |4 {# x! j, sHave you figured out the second head fake? The talk’s not for you, it’s for my kids. Thank you all,9 P( i W7 x' i+ ~5 s
good night.' {- b. c2 w; r6 v
[applause; standing ovation for 90 seconds; Randy brings Jai onto the stage and they take a bow; they sit. {$ _) P1 r2 ]: q! C% |; j" v
down in their seats; standing ovation continues for another minute]. q- D8 |9 w9 y* A3 S1 [5 L
Randy Bryant:4 z: u. u+ f* \
Thank you everyone. I’d like to thank all of you for coming. This really means a lot I know to Randy.3 j8 z6 a% i. ^" k* {
He had this theory even up to yesterday that there wouldn’t be anyone in the room.# q* A) [- y- i/ f+ J- g
Randy Pausch [from seat]:
% {$ i+ X& V+ O& s& zAfter CS50…
6 g& \1 n1 m% A5 ]% ^0 _Randy Bryant:6 v m! E3 d1 z+ Z2 v
I know. I’m the other Randy. That’s been my role here for the past 10 years ever since Randy
7 E( f' `9 E( ]9 k# d( DPausch came here on the faculty. And what I mean by that is, I introduce myself. I’m Randy Bryant
2 c1 S9 ?8 W: R+ afrom Computer Science. They go, oh, Randy from CS. You’re the one that does all that cool stuff of( T% {3 |" S" [
building virtual worlds and teaching children how to program. And I go, no, no, sorry. That’s the
9 X% n5 N* l# q& n- |7 Pother Randy. I’m the wrong one. Sorry, I’m just like a dull nerd. [laughter] So, but I’m very pleased
: U* [9 t- o- g6 `today to be able to sort of run a brief series of ways in which we want to recognize Randy for his
) d4 o0 @8 S# W6 \+ Vcontributions he’s made to Carnegie Mellon, to computer science and to the world at large. So we
( i7 @$ o9 [. N7 N0 Z8 f" `have a few – it will be a brief program. We have a few people I’ll be bringing up one after the other.' }, \7 s8 {" s3 l9 U
I’m sort of the MC here. So first I’d like to introduce who you’ve already met, Steve Seabolt from
3 I! \4 F# s4 e9 }2 q( h. CElectronic Arts. [applause]' W- s2 Z+ y( \; D; A7 L! Y- k
Steve Seabolt:
% |3 A' u7 l; U, e# ~My family wondered whether or not I would make it through the introduction. [voice starts to crack& m$ {- U1 D9 x& K1 B+ C2 N- D n
up] And I did that but I might not do so well now. So bear with me. As Randy mentioned, he and I,
- _% \* f5 ^$ b- f; F' d) BCarnegie Mellon and Electronic Arts share a particular passion about nurturing young girls and trying4 [6 z8 \+ B: O
to encourage young girls to stay with math and stay with science. Every geek in the world shouldn’t, x% l' h% o3 j" `+ G
be a guy. You know, it’s such a twist of fate that there’s so many people that are worried about offshoring,
/ z' `7 q f% Y" A0 H8 T8 M2 \+ |and at the same time companies are forced to off-shore, there are fewer and fewer
! q: X' r" n- o, r1 ~+ ^, qstudents entering computer science. And the number of women entering computer science just
3 e3 J* J" O( Q2 j8 j2 H4 zkeeps dropping like a rock. There are way too few Caitlins in this world. And Caitlin, we need so- E# l2 g4 g2 F8 m5 H
many more of you. And with that in mind, Electronic Arts has endowed a scholarship fund. It’s the$ F% \: y# B- \4 B
Randy Pausch endowed scholarship fund, established in 2007 by EA. In honor of Randy’s leadership' n: z1 W( R3 r5 F2 W. Y
and contribution to education, computer science, digital entertainment, and his commitment to- y, I1 X5 O- L5 {# S# T
women in technology. This scholarship will be awarded annually to a female undergraduate CMU3 F" Z7 O9 k& M# s) g r
student who demonstrates excellence in computer science and a passion in the pursuit of a career in% t% o# ]! G: i, w
video games. Randy, we’re so honored to do this in your name. [applause]
" I, j9 K- { g" J: tRandy Bryant:
2 S5 t3 D; D. F- X" i. bNext I’d like to introduce Jim Foley. He’s on the faculty at Georgia Tech and he’s here representing% L0 \: l5 |; { q* k' ?2 s& w
the ACM Special Interest Group in Computer Human Interaction. Jim. [applause]8 F2 A: W2 z2 g2 `, d: z1 R
Jim Foley:8 i2 m# [- S3 s) d# c
[motions to Randy Pausch to come on stage; gives him a hug] That was for Jim. [applause] ACM, the' [% l6 _; x. ^, j" {
Association for Computing Machinery is a group of about 100,000 computing professionals. One of
" F3 s+ X* ?! P k5 ctheir special areas of interest is computer human interaction. A few weeks ago, someone who’s a
+ j( ^4 g( _3 z% tvery good friend of Randy’s wrote a citation which was endorsed by a number of people and went to8 R0 ?& o4 k- b: ]1 B$ D3 b m* q' Z
the executive committee of SIGCHI, which on behalf of the SIGCHI membership, has authorized this2 U q6 d2 v# q2 O2 O
special presentation. The citation was written by Ben Schneiderman and worked on then by Jenny7 C% O) G$ V/ H. c2 W
Preese and Ben Peterson, and endorsed by a whole bunch of your friends and now from the( [( w& I/ [% n/ Y' K% [6 B
executive committee. So let me read to you the citation. Special award for professional
" q0 K2 J3 k& R/ K7 a4 wcontributions. Randy Pausch’s innovative work has spanned several disciplines and has inspired both- a( J' L# w9 y( q F2 q& O" n
mature researchers and a generation of students. His deep technical competence, choice of; O: J0 |0 M+ }9 j- N
imaginative projects and visionary thinking are always combined with energy and passion. We’ve
' k" j& |, Q7 f+ t4 ^9 j+ O2 {# fseen that. From his early work on the simple user interface toolkit to his current work on 3D Alice% ]/ _+ C4 z/ t; Q
programming language, he has shown that innovative tool design enables broad participation in7 q/ k: b4 G; \+ K/ R, @; B7 \4 n* r
programming, especially by women and minorities. Randy Pausch has vigorous commitment to
9 L) {0 M% J# K, |; @" B, `engaging students at every level by compelling and intellectually rigorous projects, and his appealing
7 @5 Q q5 ]' C6 J( N. n; {lecture style for a role-model for every teacher and lecture. Yes, yes yes. [voice starts to crack up]
; n8 W2 L8 e0 J! o: T8 rHis work has helped make team project experiences and educational computing research more8 ?0 K. d7 ~9 S: l3 B: N, q
common and respected. As a National Science Foundation Presidential Young Investigator, a Lilly
# }/ z V; U& p, E9 OTeaching Foundation Teaching Fellow, co-founder of the CMU ET Center and consultant for Disney5 P5 E% }9 O. Q$ \9 a; l8 e. f
Imagineering and EA, Randy’s done pioneering work in combining computing interface design and
) S, l* }8 m/ t$ zemotionally rich experiences. For these and many other contributions, the ACM SIGCHI executive
- W; W, z4 e5 U) n* r) y, ` ccouncil is proud to present to Randy Pausch a special award for professional contributions.
8 ]- n+ Z' b% T) K[applause] [Randy comes back on stage to receive award]
* }# B! f5 ?5 Q1 i( p& iRandy Bryant:
/ L/ h* `4 H& h* y1 u) s7 _# gThank you, Jim. Next I’d like to introduce Jerry Cohen, the President of Carnegie Mellon University.
: \# Z& [* ?/ c[applause]) B$ S7 r/ J6 Y# O0 F
Jerry Cohen:0 C) _7 V1 Y7 ^. M
Thank you other Randy. [Tries to move Randy Pausch’s bag of props to the side of the podium] You
6 b. _8 ^, V' ?9 D# X3 x4 c$ q( M$ Nknow you’re traveling heavy, buddy. Many of us have been thinking about and talking about how
+ h* o; D9 q/ Qwe can recognize you on this campus in a way that is lasting and fitting in terms of what you meant
9 ?/ h" {% I+ W+ v( S1 m4 z5 xto this university. A lot of people are involved in this. You thought the provost wasn’t paying
+ @' V$ E( X! o8 ?! `- Rattention all those years. [laughter] Actually, one of the ways we’re going to remember you is this
7 ] L" M7 _5 _/ |( Z1 d R$50,000 bill for stuffed animals. $47,862.32 for pizza. You’ve made great contributions, Randy, we
6 f- N9 i' ?4 p, Greally appreciate it. [laughter] One thing we could not do, regrettably, is figure out a way to capture
- S7 Z* F- ]0 |; V9 E# B+ Zthe kind of person that you are. You’re humanity, what you’ve meant to us as a colleague, as a% C6 O, T9 M* G% T5 v$ W2 G7 _
teacher. As a student. And as a friend. There’s just no way to capture that. There is our memories,
% l5 h- V a4 thowever. And there is a way to remember you every day, as people walk this campus. So we’ve9 s. J/ j! q+ P) [
come up with an idea. You’ve done great things for this campus and for computer science and for$ x* U4 y n" Q. R# R( F7 H2 l
the world. Surely Alice will live on. But the one we’re going to focus on right now is what you’ve
2 [6 X$ |* s h* a3 j3 rdone to connect computer science with the arts. It was remarkable, it was stunning. It’s had. J4 K7 }# ^0 D+ V/ W, a5 d! `# X+ D
enormous impact, and it will last, I daresay forever. So to recognize that, we are going to do the. d5 }& r1 X2 H
following. Good job, other Randy. [laughter, as Randy Bryant gets the projector to show the next
5 U/ h. H/ {! \' e% V0 Tslide] In order to effect this, we had to build a building. [Shows slide of mockup of Gates building] A
6 O' W- s5 F! whundred million dollar building which will allow us to do the following. You’ll note, by the way, to
; f& e% ]) b' q& d1 I% Morient people. So the Purnell Center for the Arts is the home of the School of Drama. That modern
. x2 Y1 D3 _$ {8 F) U$ {4 c1 m3 blooking new thing, half of which has a green roof, is the new Gates Center for Computer Science.
% T/ ?& x% n' C. L1 E$ WAnd we had long planned to connect these two physically, both to allow people to get down from
2 p4 Z' {) W+ m$ I9 Gthe cut to lower campus, and you have to admit it carries tremendous symbolic importance. Well4 z2 [8 _( a1 o* K' o
on behalf of the Board of Trustees of Carnegie Mellon and on behalf of the entire university, I’m1 a8 D3 L6 x* T/ I7 p
pleased to announce today that the bridge connecting these two will be known as the Randy Pausch# C' Y; ]$ y/ j- M$ H; ~2 G
Memorial Footbridge. [shows slide of mockup of bridge] [applause] Now actually based on your talk
9 n6 R8 ?+ u9 z# }# J8 Itoday we’re thinking now about putting up a brick wall up at either end, and let students see what
0 j T$ J' W% |" bthey can do with it. [laughter] Randy, there’ll be a generation of students and faculty to come here5 K5 o( W+ P# r# S7 O" a
who will not know you, but they will cross that bridge, they will see your name, and they’ll ask those7 x% k9 b2 C* y- P
of us who did know you. And we will tell them that unfortunately they were not able to experience
8 Z( @- b0 F$ R8 r5 bthe man, but they are surely experiencing the impact of the man. Randy, thank you for all that( F& T6 S, [9 }) E D
you’ve done for Carnegie Mellon. We’re going to miss you. [applause] [Randy walks on stage and
5 A* }( @9 n: c' Q. D5 H% Rgives Jerry a hug]3 Q' z8 _# y. | _; ?9 Y/ C/ [9 n q
Randy Bryant:; @$ t% Z; P5 T- Y/ Y9 x8 W. w
So every good show needs a closing act, and so to do that I’ll invite Andy Van Dam. [applause]' H: h2 N4 E" _5 `
Andy Van Dam:: z* p4 e) _* ]1 [' [0 i- w% S/ _
Oh how I love having the last word. [applause] But to have to go on after that fabulous show, I don’t; u: ~" k$ v) Z7 B
know whether that was good planning. Well I started in Brown in 1965 and it has been my pleasure
) ]# [: T" Q/ d, band great joy not just to teach thousands of undergraduates and some graduates, but also to work; v1 @& ~. A |! w2 A. F+ m% L1 \
one-on-one with a couple hundred of them. And over 35 have followed me into teaching I’m proud
, Z# i% H# Q4 Q7 F! t8 A& yto say. Out of those best and brightest it was very clear that Randy would stand out. He showed5 D4 n1 P x, Z7 E4 Z
great promise early on and a passion about our field and about helping others that you’ve seen+ O" s, |* F* `: @" p1 H
amply demonstrated today. It was matched by fierce determination and by persistence in the face2 B& k+ b6 s9 |% m* v. ]0 z
of all brick wall odds. And you’ve heard a lot about that and seen that demonstrated as he fights
$ o! ?8 u+ x' d0 \this terrible disease. Like the elephant’s child, however, he was filled with satiable curiosity, you& ^+ }9 K' t% X
remember that. And what happened to the elephant’s child, he got spanked by all of his relations,! x. p- G+ E0 l* P2 D$ R
and you’ve heard some of that. He was brash, he had an irrepressible, raucous sense of humor,
( p. A% R, s, }; j2 E( i8 h9 Qwhich led to the fantastic showmanship that you saw today. He was self-assured, occasionally to* e# L" h5 @4 u/ v
the point of outright cockiness. And stubborn as a mule. And I’m a Dutchman and I know from
' ]/ R% q& z9 |stubbornness. The kind way to say it is he had an exceedingly strong inner compass, and you’ve
$ N x& E1 t5 O3 f* Y$ C; y# dseen that demonstrated over and over again. Now, having been accused of many such traits myself,. t# [; J P( O/ y- Q }) F9 l3 X
I rather thought of them as features, not bugs. [laughter] Having had to learn English the hard way, I
* r6 d& O; _* `( Y$ X3 g/ N8 awas a fanatic about getting students to speak and write correct English from the get-go. And Randy
& e) ]) ?; t- x/ Ythe mouth had no problem with that. But he did have one problem. And I’m having a problem with
1 c6 _1 a% @" qmy machine here, here we go. [gets slide to project on screen]. And that was another part of my" u) y/ h0 Q, f; b. a
fanaticism which dealt with having American students learn about foreign cultures. And specifically
b# Q3 A2 X7 tabout food cultures, and more specifically yet, about Chinese food culture. So I would take my
( h; A: g% B( O8 astudents to this wonderful Chinese restaurant where they cooked off the menu using a Chinese& A3 u% z1 O( j
menu. And I tried to get Randy to sample this. But would Mr. White Bread touch that stuff?! O Z% K9 T& ` A' M% Q5 ` a
[laughter] Absolutely not. And worse, he refused to learn to eat with chopsticks. I was chairman at7 v$ y" O0 b9 v/ p( E Z$ e
the time and I said, Randy, you know, I’m not going to let you graduate if you don’t learn to eat with: B2 f7 Z1 R3 C
chopsticks! [laughter] It’s a requirement, didn’t you see that? He of course didn’t believe that. And
9 B* ~! l2 E1 wso it came time for graduation and I handed him his diploma. And this was the picture one of my
) Y# y6 ~* f2 h/ efriends took. [Shows slide of Brown University commencement, 1982, Randy dressed in his cap and
. \/ C X0 G' H. egown, opening his diploma, his mouth wide open in surprise] And what you see is Randy opening his
6 }* h' x8 d4 ?9 M% gdiploma to show it to his parents, and there was an autographed copy of the menu in Chinese and9 X. `& P4 T; [. a# f: l
no diploma. [laughter, applause] It was one of the few times I got the better of him, I have to' U1 x: g: @8 b. R
confess. Well here we are today, all of us, and hundreds and hundreds of people all over the( Z- v# q3 h. ^
country, I dare say all over the world, participating in this great event to celebrate you and your life.
! ?: j3 b4 T& {- E/ l& nRandy is the person, the Mensch, as we say in Yiddish. Your manifold accomplishments as a model
/ W/ i, b1 B9 racademic, especially as a mentor to your students. Your Disneyland expeditions not only were
. @: M8 L. J% n3 C' a }unique but they are legendary. You have more than fulfilled the terms of Brown University Charter,: F) d$ P0 `, Q+ s. l" g
which are: to discharge the offices of life with usefulness and reputation. Your utter devotion to
1 q4 G: C" O/ b7 C0 O; C; s: }your family and your career are exemplary, and continue unabated as you cope with the immensity
' Y6 C; }- [3 U/ ~7 s' Wof your situation. You exemplify undaunted courage and grace under pressure. The most terrible
/ O, z4 e) P+ ]- t! q+ k. A8 @pressure one can imagine. Randy, you have been and you will continue to be a role model for us.5 e: J# `. l6 m
[Voice starts cracking up] Thank you so much for all you have done for us. And to allow us to tell% I2 W+ |+ ]- o% A0 L4 q
you privately and in such a public way how much we admire, honor, and indeed love you. [applause]' R/ H8 `( R; q$ w
[standing ovation]
2 W1 z v3 u% K# [( i- i" W( n. A$ {
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