Randy Pausch Lived at 47

"He hurried to the place from where others were fleeing." -Pliny the Younger (on the death of his uncle, Pliny the Elder, during the eruption of Mt. Vesuvius).

Randy Pausch, former Computer Science Professor at Carnegie Mellon University, husband to Jai and father to Dylan, Logan and Chloe, succumbed to pancreatic cancer July 25, 2008 in Virginia.

http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/08207/899511-100.stm

http://www.cmu.edu/homepage/beyond/2008/summer/an-enduring-legacy.shtml


He was famous for his "Last Lecture" speech. He also wrote a book about it, which his wife describes as a "manual" for their family.


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ji5_MqicxSo

However, it will not be the last we see of him yet; he has a walk-on role in the upcoming Star Trek movie. It should be out in May 2009.

I will take a moment to highlight some of his words to live by:

"You cannot change the cards you are dealt. Just how you play the hand."

"Don't complain. Just work harder."

"Luck is truly where preparation meets opportunity."

"Experience is what you get when you didn't get what you wanted."

"The brick walls are there for a reason. The brick walls are not there to keep us out; the brick walls are there to give us a chance to show how badly we want something. The brick walls are there to stop the people who don't want it badly enough."

"It's not about how to achieve your dreams. It's about how to lead your life. If you lead your life the right way ... the dreams will come to you."

"Be good at something; it makes you valuable…. Have something to bring to the table, because that will make you more welcome."

"To be cliché, death is a part of life and it’s going to happen to all of us. I have the blessing of getting a little bit of advance notice and I am able to optimize my use of time down the home stretch."

"We don't beat the [Grim] Reaper by living longer; we beat the Reaper by living well, and living fully, for the Reaper will come for all of us. The question is: What do we do between the time we're born, and the time he shows up? -Because when he shows up, it's too late to do all the things that you're always 'gonna kinda get around to.'"

"I’ve never understood pity and self-pity as an emotion. We have a finite amount of time. Whether short or long, it doesn’t matter. Life is to be lived."


This conviction to appreciate his life in the face of death is why the title, instead of saying that he died, states that he lived.