 鲜花( 152)  鸡蛋( 1)
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Randy Pausch’s Last Lecture: Really Achieving Your Childhood Dreams* U( y2 _* Z& e s5 Y4 ?" J
Given at Carnegie Mellon University) p6 b W* |" u( y- ]! [
Tuesday, September 18, 2007
* n9 ~& S/ s) {! n3 D* CMcConomy Auditorium y0 U G9 m2 F. d0 \& Z4 z
For more information, see www.randypausch.com7 h; p1 M- i4 n4 K) L* L4 n
© Copyright Randy Pausch, 20071
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$ D1 I8 q$ _$ s. |- {Introduction by Indira Nair, Carnegie Mellon’s Vice Provost for Education:/ @' \* s+ q7 l" _+ J- j# V2 L
Hi. Welcome. It’s my pleasure to introduce you to the first of our new university’s lectures titled& J8 M4 X+ _: Z% C2 a/ t
Journeys – lectures in which members of our community will share with us reflections and insights
3 p4 q$ A( y* }1 N& d8 fon their personal and professional journeys. Today’s Journey’s lecture as you all know is by
. a6 X6 q& ~! @2 r. [' K: n$ hProfessor Randy Pausch. The next one is on Monday, September 24th by Professor Roberta Klatzky./ C+ n7 h$ z- R& Y
To introduce Professor Randy Pausch, our first Journeys speaker, I would like to introduce Randy’s. z+ D3 a4 _# D0 I1 M/ _
friend and colleague, Steve Seabolt. Steve has been at Electronic Arts for six years and is the Vice
* u* A+ X/ Y( N5 A$ ~$ {President of Global Brand Development for The Sims label at Electronic Arts. As you all know, The1 g4 @+ J) i$ I. L( K) V
Sims is one of the most, if not the most successful PC games in the world, with sales approaching6 H; ?' N- R/ J2 |) i
over $100,000,000. Prior to that, Steve was the Vice President for Strategic Marketing and
. ]6 T3 }0 p2 {" cEducation at EA, bridging academia and Electronic Arts. His goal was to work with academics so7 n! `3 h$ ~, w% P1 w
there was an effective educational pathway for kids with building games as their dreams. It was in
8 V1 _% }3 M9 z) b$ H7 O V9 e Cthat role that Randy and Steve became colleagues and friends. Before Electronic Arts, Steve was the( I; n* @6 K9 Y+ E
worldwide Ad Director for Time Magazine and CEO of Sunset Publishing, which is a very favorite, \4 ~7 c: n2 F ^
magazine in the Southwest, and as CEO there, one of the things he started was school tours,
+ ~, {! M% e6 \% _7 T. r0 ^1 sbecause like Randy he shares a passion for inspiring kids of all ages to share their excitement for
. Z/ X2 C# t2 C; G( Wscience and technology.
+ F& u+ P$ y9 j/ I E* Y% W4 H) MSo to introduce Randy, his friend Steve Seabolt. Steve?
- V( I" z P2 @3 P[applause]+ F( ]* V& o0 K, g; {1 N5 C
Steve Seabolt, Vice President of Worldwide Publishing and Marketing for Electonic Arts (EA):7 n) m# f& S" q
Thank you very much. I don’t mean to sound ungracious by correcting you, but given that our PR$ |5 ]; n& N/ q6 \# Y% m7 `
people are probably watching this on webcast, I’d catch heck if I went home and didn’t say that it
' R7 v+ U! P6 p9 ]3 h/ |! [. iwas 100 million units for The Sims. [laughter] Not that big numbers matter to Electronic Arts.0 E, Y' @, m% ~8 m H" _; C
[laughter]
6 j3 U3 L1 w. ]! K, }: FI don’t see any empty seats anywhere, which is a good thing, which means I just won a bet from! u4 g/ |; E! z9 E. Q( n
Randy as a matter of fact. Depending upon who’s version of the story you hear, he either owes me
) [$ |- H [- X) Y& I) O6 b [20 dollars or his new Volkswagen. [laughter] So, I’ll take the car.
) P& }3 m& [: Z6 s- XIt’s a pleasure to be here, thank you very much. I’m going to start by covering Randy’s academic0 e" P* V# p* p! x5 W8 b
credentials. It’s a little bizarre for me to be standing here at Carnegie Mellon, which is a school I
+ k; M/ r1 C6 Jcouldn’t get into no matter how much I contributed to this institution. [laughter] But, no really, I’m
' U6 x: J- B) Enot kidding! You all think, oh gosh he’s humble. Really, no, I’m not humble at all. Very average SAT
; E4 c! A7 A0 c9 e8 Hscores, you know, right in the middle of my high school class of 900. Anyway, Randy. Randy earned
; A6 W- k; @7 w* A6 Z$ S8 Q– it really pisses me off that Randy’s so smart—actually I called him, we decided about, what, four
: O$ Y9 g$ A) f) Y$ Gweeks, ago and we heard the news went from bad to horrific. It was on a Wednesday night and I" G f2 V$ ~3 L. u y
said look – we have two choices. We can play this really straight and very emotional , or we can go
8 W# D5 \2 `5 r4 J9 W$ T, r8 Xto dark humor. And for those of you who know Randy well, he was like oh, dark humor! So I called
, |" ?0 y; c8 shim the next day and I was like, dude you can’t die. And he’s like, what do you mean? And I said,! P) G& O8 b, ?6 j( Q. U
well, when you die, the average of IQ of Seabolt’s friends is going to like drop 50 points. [laughter] To8 { w8 ~3 ]# `
which he responded, we need to find you some smarter friends. [laughter] So you’re all smart
, ~1 |+ W) m( |3 o5 E/ U9 b4 V# Ibecause you’re here, so if you want to be my friend, I’ll be over in a corner of the reception room.; P% Q7 M$ j0 l$ M6 ?; B3 q+ K
Randy earned his undergraduate degree in Computer Science at Brown in 1982. His Ph.D. in CS from% S4 T d" ^# T9 x
Carnegie Mellon in 1988 and taught at the University of Virginia where he was granted tenure a year2 f5 x/ C6 x4 |
early. He joined the Carnegie Mellon faculty in 1997 with appointments in the CS, HCI and Design
; f: q$ T9 l, A/ \. g, edepartments. He has authored or co-authored five books and over 60 reviewed journal and
[% P/ H/ c" B+ N' R/ x$ Nconference proceeding articles, none of which I would understand. With Don Marinelli, he founded8 x6 W& H) \: e6 W3 A6 ]
the Entertainment Technology Center, which quickly became the gold standard organization for
$ A* {# q! A! r- k7 N/ d9 rtraining artists and engineers to work together. It is my view and the view of our company,4 {# w( K& H" x+ l6 c8 ~' i2 a
Electronic Arts, that the ETC is the interactive program by which all others in the world are judged.( ]% y% `, u+ P D
I met Randy in the Spring of 2004, and when I look back it’s sort of hard to imagine it’s only been
5 M: L) Q+ J; U+ E1 }, bthree years given the depth of our friendship. The ETC already had a very strong relationship with
4 k9 p* x' r( J. J# M; {# t3 \/ WEA and with Randy. And Randy as he always does, for those of you who know him well, wanted to
; ^3 P) X0 m) F8 Blearn more, with his own eyes, about how the games business works, and how games really got
+ d$ E2 W. {& t& T3 O. f7 mmade. So he spent a summer in residence at EA, and I was his primary contact point. We were in
+ w, ^& D! A+ v2 D: i. j5 mmy view the odd couple. Randy the brilliant, charming, Carnegie educated CS professor. And me* d4 M7 j/ a4 ?4 A" p1 i, k
who went to the University of Iowa on a wing and a prayer. We spent a lot of time together that3 \5 q0 L+ i3 e+ q
semester and for those of you who know Randy well, that’s a lot of turkey sandwiches on white9 {8 n6 |9 u, F5 p
bread with mayo. [laughter, clapping] My kids tease me about being “white.” There’s nobody more
* R" x; g% s+ G$ o7 \“white” than Randy. [laughter] We spent an enormous amount of time together. We taught each6 I* z2 }% V) q( z8 V
other about each other’s very interesting, strange cultures to the other. Academic versus the# q$ Z5 |, A4 ]
corporate world. And we developed a deep friendship woven together with stories about our kids,; V7 |% F+ |/ J$ X% V$ s Z
our wives, our parents, as well as deep discussions about the paramount nature of integrity in3 X$ X' Z8 \6 ?6 }1 u* m+ @
everything you do, family first, religion, our shared joy in connecting people and ideas, and
. t6 }+ x/ S( ~4 `% K) J* Xdeploying money and influence to do good. And the importance of having a lot of laughs along the
* u& q4 W- N m) W2 \5 O9 g* D# \way.
7 ]4 o1 v- F% h8 ~& \Randy’s dedication to making the world a better place is self evident to anyone who has crossed
* T! E0 |6 S! _) n7 Jpaths with him. Whether it’s directly influencing students, creating organizations like the ETC,, H; i+ a _8 t; b; b2 z, x: S3 F
building tools like Alice or doing what he probably does best, which is bridging cultures. As Ben6 y5 E7 G# P/ @! Q. M! q9 k
Gordon, EA’s Chief Creative Officer, says of Randy, even more important than Randy’s academic, D" v0 S* f, V
philanthropic, and entrepreneurial accomplishments has been his humanity and the enthusiasm he
; n+ ~' H" u# \3 J; H+ _0 L2 jbrings to students and coworkers on a daily basis.
& ~( w a' g' f" _/ t4 ZFor those of you who know Randy, Randy brings a particular zest for life and humor, even while$ M6 N0 q) s) w9 z$ |" O4 w0 s
facing death. To Randy, this is simply another adventure. It is my great honor to introduce Dylan,4 b3 }7 `7 Z! A8 L x
Logan and Chloe’s dad, Jai’s husband, and my very dear friend, Dr. Randy Pausch. [applause]
& E8 T4 P5 l+ _6 s8 Q" gRandy Pausch:3 w- k: P$ C, j7 B$ K7 i
[responding to a standing ovation] Make me earn it. [laughter]; E9 O: J, s: H
It’s wonderful to be here. What Indira didn’t tell you is that this lecture series used to be called the
4 g* y9 d' k6 U t/ WLast Lecture. If you had one last lecture to give before you died, what would it be? I thought, damn,5 X2 ~/ [ ^ q
I finally nailed the venue and they renamed it. [laughter]
; R4 [5 O# ~' I KSo, you know, in case there’s anybody who wandered in and doesn’t know the back story, my dad
" b9 O% ~( z8 o7 c/ F7 e5 h9 Malways taught me that when there’s an elephant in the room, introduce them. If you look at my CAT$ X3 p0 R. {- d0 B
scans, there are approximately 10 tumors in my liver, and the doctors told me 3-6 months of good8 k6 M/ P. m) |8 H
health left. That was a month ago, so you can do the math. I have some of the best doctors in the
, P6 L( n, l) _; `$ D W6 Y0 Wworld. Microphone’s not working? Then I’ll just have to talk louder. [Adjusts mic] Is that good? All
/ |. B% ^, {' @/ ]$ D Iright. So that is what it is. We can’t change it, and we just have to decide how we’re going to! @) A& w/ h* k1 t: x, \
respond to that. We cannot change the cards we are dealt, just how we play the hand. If I don’t
& l# W" | o% ] P8 h1 q5 @seem as depressed or morose as I should be, sorry to disappoint you. [laughter] And I assure you I1 R" q/ q# c: `4 t4 d: j- Z
am not in denial. It’s not like I’m not aware of what’s going on. My family, my three kids, my wife,' t4 l" T8 s5 y( K5 f
we just decamped. We bought a lovely house in Virginia, and we’re doing that because that’s a- X# T, ^! p" u A- c+ O! K
better place for the family to be, down the road. And the other thing is I am in phenomenally good
* v5 v5 W) z% K% [8 Ghealth right now. I mean it’s the greatest thing of cognitive dissonance you will ever see is the fact
. ^- d2 o1 F/ E0 S* T' q8 othat I am in really good shape. In fact, I am in better shape than most of you. [Randy gets on the& B- D, ?: F/ l. A$ [4 h: {
ground and starts doing pushups] [Applause] So anybody who wants to cry or pity me can down and
0 ~4 W* b: g1 Fdo a few of those, and then you may pity me. [laughter]1 s8 X/ r/ z% E/ e6 j7 G( p
All right, so what we’re not talking about today, we are not talking about cancer, because I spent a
: H+ ]. _/ f, c2 e; wlot of time talking about that and I’m really not interested. If you have any herbal supplements or
$ u. }. ^7 u6 [( q- tremedies, please stay away from me. [laughter] And we’re not going to talk about things that are" U4 Z$ {% C$ c/ O$ L
even more important than achieving your childhood dreams. We’re not going to talk about my wife,, F9 `: E& j4 k# B: r; W W
we’re not talking about my kids. Because I’m good, but I’m not good enough to talk about that) A, t) \0 _. H& D( o* j: a
without tearing up. So, we’re just going to take that off the table. That’s much more important.: m" A& T1 u$ ~' y+ Y$ J8 d! ?/ K
And we’re not going to talk about spirituality and religion, although I will tell you that I have
) E- q) ^( i+ ^achieved a deathbed conversion. [dramatic pause] … I just bought a Macintosh. [laughter and C- e; V: D: [" ~: `/ }
clapping] Now I knew I’d get 9% of the audience with that … All right, so what is today’s talk about4 x# E) K# U+ @# x9 o
then? It’s about my childhood dreams and how I have achieved them. I’ve been very fortunate that2 b1 h# n% ^" V0 `8 h/ _" H
way. How I believe I’ve been able to enable the dreams of others, and to some degree, lessons
3 |" o" V. e0 Zlearned. I’m a professor, there should be some lessons learned and how you can use the stuff you
H& S" q4 _0 N Uhear today to achieve your dreams or enable the dreams of others. And as you get older, you may
( ]$ W% `: M) M, p, {6 g9 G/ {* o$ Kfind that “enabling the dreams of others” thing is even more fun.
4 p, o l* q6 K% ]* hSo what were my childhood dreams? Well, you know, I had a really good childhood. I mean, no- [2 O8 [' |8 E
kidding around. I was going back through the family archives, and what was really amazing was, I( Y2 V) K) c9 m: y2 H
couldn’t find any pictures of me as a kid where I wasn’t smiling. And that was just a very gratifying
6 S3 e5 }6 N' f E- Xthing. There was our dog, right? Aww, thank you. And there I actually have a picture of me) X0 b; |2 L; }* ^: `% G. m
dreaming. I did a lot of that. You know, there’s a lot of wake up’s! I was born in 1960. When you
9 o7 W) ~6 k" j& rare 8 or 9 years old and you look at the TV set, men are landing on the moon, anything’s possible.# u% H3 [) R+ L+ u5 z c
And that’s something we should not lose sight of, is that the inspiration and the permission to
0 h+ L+ M# Z# l* |9 Wdream is huge.2 s5 P7 Z7 Z' p; i& o/ O
So what were my childhood dreams? You may not agree with this list, but I was there. [laughter]8 e* m9 c' L- g- d9 F$ l* m
Being in zero gravity, playing in the National Football League, authoring an article in the World Book
) H- S: {2 R' b9 s- C5 hEncyclopedia – I guess you can tell the nerds early. [laughter] Being Captain Kirk, anybody here have
6 Y! L; n. X9 G) ^4 Xthat childhood dream? Not at CMU, nooooo. I wanted to become one of the guys who won the big
1 T1 G; m% d3 y: Ustuffed animals in the amusement park, and I wanted to be an Imagineer with Disney. These are not Q/ ^# _5 C0 h5 I1 }
sorted in any particular order, although I think they do get harder, except for maybe the first one.! d% p4 D8 n# }/ M
OK, so being in zero gravity. Now it’s important to have specific dreams. I did not dream of being an5 u1 _7 M& S. f% u
astronaut, because when I was a little kid, I wore glasses and they told me oh, astronauts can’t have7 y _' ?$ j5 r+ K* d ^0 L0 _2 x3 |) e
glasses. And I was like, mmm, I didn’t really want the whole astronaut gig, I just wanted the floating.* v2 H: J" ^" h) I0 O
So, and as a child [laughter], prototype 0.0. [slide shown of Randy as a child lying in floatingformation7 T! n+ ~- ?' D/ R* G0 I: N. i
on a table top] But that didn’t work so well, and it turns out that NASA has something7 @5 \! Y/ s. {
called the Vomit Comet that they used to train the astronauts. And this thing does parabolic arcs,+ a0 \/ i- I* O
and at the top of each arc you get about 25 seconds where you’re ballistic and you get about, a
2 L7 M* _ c; R' _: @rough equivalent of weightlessness for about 25 seconds. And there is a program where college& _8 ^6 b- g& u% H4 j: l0 P) T
students can submit proposals and if they win the competition, they get to fly. And I thought that
, e3 A: O0 Y( x5 b3 H+ hwas really cool, and we had a team and we put a team together and they won and they got to fly.+ X/ t( F2 h4 _5 D7 h
And I was all excited because I was going to go with them. And then I hit the first brick wall, because" W# h7 @ V5 W1 w2 P* K. z" w# d
they made it very clear that under no circumstances were faculty members allowed to fly with the
7 w3 l/ I% |1 ]- cteams. I know, I was heartbroken. I was like, I worked so hard! And so I read the literature very, R* H9 V0 D! G
carefully and it turns out that NASA, it’s part of their outreach and publicity program, and it turns
! E! `7 U/ B: F0 f6 Aout that the students were allowed to bring a local media journalist from their home town.
! c: w8 E# ?8 o: v1 n, z$ w[laughter] And, [deep voice] Randy Pausch, web journalist. [regular voice] It’s really easy to get a8 n$ A: A* ?1 r3 w# p
press pass! [laughter] So I called up the guys at NASA and I said, I need to know where to fax some6 ?+ _$ w8 w \6 V% A
documents. And they said, what documents are you going to fax us? And I said my resignation as% F7 n) l( T Y; N. m; ~% { ?% }
the faculty advisor and my application as the journalist. And he said, that’s a little transparent, don’t
" n B! i/ W: p7 @, L" m( f7 r; Xyou think? And I said, yeah, but our project is virtual reality, and we’re going to bring down a whole& B5 m6 k: C! p) G7 V9 [
bunch of VR headsets and all the students from all the teams are going to experience it and all those3 v4 d3 }6 X# E1 f
other real journalists are going to get to film it. Jim Foley’s [who is nodding in the audience] going& ~7 u7 A! `, s
oh you bastard, yes. And the guy said, here’s the fax number. So, indeed, we kept our end of the
( ^# I9 G p+ k6 d# l) Xbargain, and that’s one of the themes that you’ll hear later on in the talk, is have something to bring; @* Q" E* ^, X# Z, K4 Y# }6 t" K
to the table, right, because that will make you more welcome. And if you’re curious about what
, }! ?4 A! X, A& p# k/ O uzero gravity looks like, hopefully the sound will be working here. [slide shows videotape from0 ` V. z: B+ Q% a. _# ^
Randy’s zero gravity experience] There I am. [laughter] You do pay the piper at the bottom. [laugher,: W+ v( E5 z! @
as the people in the video crash to the floor of the plane on the video] So, childhood dream number* a, ?% V, t$ K# i9 p9 o
one, check.7 h3 i, b0 B( O; n c9 @0 t
OK, let’s talk about football. My dream was to play in the National Football League. And most of5 L; O8 p+ x s* d& [* P# {
you don’t know that I actually – no. [laughter] No, I did not make it to the National Football League,
) \0 Z- H7 D5 y- g+ Abut I probably got more from that dream and not accomplishing it than I got from any of the ones! ^- H4 [) G; @5 U! U: F
that I did accomplish. I had a coach, I signed up when I was nine years old. I was the smallest kid in
! J v: }) j+ B; \0 f" v: U0 Mthe league, by far. And I had a coach, Jim Graham, who was six-foot-four, he had played linebacker5 E2 k i I+ N6 E
at Penn State. He was just this hulk of a guy and he was old school. And I mean really old school.; T# L* l% c2 R9 ?; ~" y% j
Like he thought the forward pass was a trick play. [laughter] And he showed up for practice the first
0 W! m( }2 H* ]4 Iday, and you know, there’s big hulking guy, we were all scared to death of him. And he hadn’t! R+ u+ \! }: H# _5 t/ _" }# S
brought any footballs. How are we going to have practice without any footballs? And one of the" t7 x, d, _" e, `5 O! R
other kids said, excuse me coach, but there’s no football. And Coach Graham said, right, how many5 q4 u, H0 o" V$ P: E
men are on a football field at a time? Eleven on a team, twenty-two. Coach Graham said, all right,
1 [2 P! D% K( H" @9 o7 Uand how many people are touching the football at any given time? One of them. And he said, right,* R/ z3 ~6 Y( e8 R& i0 @
so we’re going to work on what those other twenty-one guys are doing. And that’s a really good
$ F+ Y' g$ p1 M% h# D0 d. mstory because it’s all about fundamentals. Fundamentals, fundamentals, fundamentals. You’ve got! A' M, e A3 {' _7 J$ w! e
to get the fundamentals down because otherwise the fancy stuff isn’t going to work. And the other
% j: [3 D9 L6 U1 bJim Graham story I have is there was one practice where he just rode me all practice. You’re doing9 K0 U3 Z( G, l1 e# j# t
this wrong, you’re doing this wrong, go back and do it again, you owe me, you’re doing push-ups
* Q7 z/ R8 a4 B* ` Gafter practice. And when it was all over, one of the other assistant coaches came over and said,
* P, L8 H; r2 o/ v: E5 z0 Nyeah, Coach Graham rode you pretty hard, didn’t he? I said, yeah. He said, that’s a good thing. He
0 c! V% l; ?( [) `* W) `said, when you’re screwing up and nobody’s saying anything to you anymore, that means they gave
7 m* |( z3 n4 x; r" k9 y D5 }up. And that’s a lesson that stuck with me my whole life. Is that when you see yourself doing
( V) E5 L& i+ `something badly and nobody’s bothering to tell you anymore, that’s a very bad place to be. Your3 s( a( Y8 a; d5 N; l9 D- v: y; q9 E
critics are your ones telling you they still love you and care.; f* H+ q! i% h b& x3 k1 J9 R2 @; p
After Coach Graham, I had another coach, Coach Setliff, and he taught me a lot about the power of3 p& A9 P) b8 |
enthusiasm. He did this one thing where only for one play at a time he would put people in at like
) y5 _: D9 X3 {" |, v- j4 I% f1 nthe most horrifically wrong position for them. Like all the short guys would become receivers, right?2 c6 ^2 R/ N6 W, D6 m
It was just laughable. But we only went in for one play, right? And boy, the other team just never. K6 B) N9 `* a9 s' o; v9 R3 ~
knew what hit ‘em them. Because when you’re only doing it for one play and you’re just not where
) }% q4 K9 m+ `, G, \you’re supposed to be, and freedom’s just another word for nothing left to lose, boy are you going
: ~8 ~0 h, w1 kto clean somebody’s clock for that one play. And that kind of enthusiasm was great. And to this z) R# h0 o/ Q) K
day, I am most comfortable on a football field. I mean, it’s just one of those things where, you
+ o& p% X! g. j$ hknow, [pulls out a football] if I’m working a hard problem, people will see me wandering the halls
5 w: U& |0 i$ Rwith one of these things, and that’s just because, you know, when you do something young enough
- M- L% F8 g" d3 }and you train for it, it just becomes a part of you. And I’m very glad that football was a part of my( K5 p1 p9 K" J- O
life. And if I didn’t get the dream of playing in the NFL, that’s OK. I’ve probably got stuff more! ]* u% d# c1 p% G: W
valuable. Because looking at what’s going on in the NFL, I’m not sure those guys are doing so great/ ]+ Q4 H, p& u1 g+ h3 E! b
right now.: ~6 L: F, A' E! l) o7 { g3 n0 e
OK, and so one of the expressions I learned at Electronic Arts, which I love, which pertains to this, is
}) k1 v; w, J) `$ |5 H4 k1 kexperience is what you get when you didn’t get what you wanted. And I think that’s absolutely
* |1 O/ ^. `" J9 t8 [lovely. And the other thing about football is we send our kids out to play football or soccer or
]/ R1 K( X9 X, kswimming or whatever it is, and it’s the first example of what I’m going to call a head fake, or
+ [% T+ Z8 t1 s# {indirect learning. We actually don’t want our kids to learn football. I mean, yeah, it’s really nice that
+ c0 `# e; E' QI have a wonderful three-point stance and that I know how to do a chop block and all this kind of5 z' j: M. ]8 \' x- g
stuff. But we send our kids out to learn much more important things. Teamwork, sportsmanship,. s) F8 W3 E6 i! l+ v/ S0 @
perseverance, etcetera, etcetera. And these kinds of head fake learning are absolutely important.
+ t- h% r' _2 t8 p; m0 ^And you should keep your eye out for them because they’re everywhere.
" i! p, G6 f$ _% g% M+ }! cAll right. A simple one, being an author in the World Book Encyclopedia. When I was a kid, we had
. U- W% r( q; p+ o' z7 \the World Book Encyclopedia on the shelf. For the freshman, this is paper. … We used to have these7 y3 S: {3 O( ?# F' s
things called books. [laughter] And after I had become somewhat of an authority on virtual reality,
! d3 I2 ]# J( |4 v; e$ @. M- F% dbut not like a really important one, so I was at the level of people the World Book would badger.
2 R' [4 _1 V8 Y* ^They called me up and I wrote an article, and this is Caitlin Kelleher [shows slide of Caitlin wearing$ X$ m. `* T8 g4 u1 A& r
virtual reality headset manipulating a 3D world], and there’s an article if you go to your local library8 v D+ O U1 U- |
where they still have copies of the World Book. Look under V for Virtual Reality, and there it is. And: [+ h8 B1 R" x6 E) L1 H' j
all I have to say is that having been selected to be an author in the World Book Encyclopedia, I now3 P0 a8 H7 Z6 {. ]! O; Q( X$ Y8 I
believe that Wikipedia is a perfectly fine source for your information because I know what the8 O8 O+ b, S% {0 k; Q: v0 W3 n1 A
quality control is for real encyclopedias. They let me in.
1 x# ?# O: D$ @! u& H6 Z$ E/ Q& q2 JAll right, next one. [laughter] [shows slide “Being like Meeting Captain Kirk”] At a certain point you2 Z& t+ }' g* F/ u: Z; G' h8 c
just realize there are some things you are not going to do, so maybe you just want to stand close to" z$ X r8 ^: A/ J2 v# w% K
the people. And I mean, my god, what a role model for young people. [laughter] [shows slide of9 a7 Z/ L9 d3 N8 W0 [' }( q
Captain Kirk sitting at his control station on the Starship Enterprise] I mean, this is everything you
% F d$ P! l7 i; L- I; owant to be, and what I learned that carried me forward in leadership later is that, you know, he
( n9 b( U1 v. ?+ C$ Mwasn’t the smartest guy on the ship. I mean, Spock was pretty smart and McCoy was the doctor and/ {1 T9 R% e9 D( i: z/ A
Scotty was the engineer. And you sort of go, and what skill set did he have to get on this damn thing
# L' E K6 X ?) Tand run it? And, you know, clearly there is this skill set called leadership, and, you know, whether or
1 y; @3 }% q$ C1 R* H* t2 ynot you like the series, there’s no doubt that there was a lot to be learned about how to lead people5 J( z6 J- z4 q0 E
by watching this guy in action. And he just had the coolest damn toys! [laughter] [shows slide of
% R7 D/ B) y8 y" W+ G1 m; ]" ?# sStar Trek gadgets] I mean, my god, I just thought it was fascinating as a kid that he had this thing' n, B+ d0 Y6 R
[Takes out Star Trek Communicator] and he could talk to the ship with it. I just thought that was just9 t; \1 Q" ^- P, x
spectacular, and of course now I own one and it’s smaller. [takes out cell phone] So that’s kind of
+ I( h1 K$ F$ c4 x$ v# lcool.. {' a6 t5 c& X/ D
So I got to achieve this dream. James T. Kirk, and his alter ego William Shatner, wrote a book, which
8 w" F! V8 f* T, o7 lI think was actually a pretty cool book. It was with Chip Walter who is a Pittsburgh- based author$ R, Z% B& T( z4 b4 `) I% I$ @9 ^* r& i
who is quite good, and they wrote a book on basically the science of Star Trek, you know, what has( Q- E) Q' @# W% \
come true. And they went around to the top places around the country and looked at various things
/ B0 k X0 h! Q' Z! Pand they came here to study our virtual reality setup. And so we build a virtual reality for him, it/ i( ?1 |: R- V5 g1 k
looks something like that. [shows slide of virtual Star Trek bridge from the 1960’s TV show] We put it
" U# |7 N8 r! y! F) }; }: O6 ?4 iin, put it to red alert. He was a very good sport. [sarcastically] It’s not like he saw that one coming.0 \; J9 p: m) R7 d( \
[laughter] And it’s really cool to meet your boyhood idol, but it’s even cooler when he comes to you1 P. B# {* f5 J3 Y* Q8 }
to see what cool stuff you’re doing in your lab. And that was just a great moment.0 i% A6 T# w6 A
All right, winning stuffed animals. This may seem mundane to you, but when you’re a little kid and
3 J t$ E/ W5 o3 ^you see the big buff guys walking around the amusement park and they’ve got all these big stuffed
7 U" s& t" ^( p# B* V! G6 ganimals, right? And this is my lovely wife, and I have a lot of pictures of stuffed animals I’ve won.+ k! j' G8 S" Z4 T1 S; j
[laughter] [shows slides of several large stuffed animals] That’s my dad posing with one that I won.! w! p6 M: r# [3 S
I’ve won a lot of these animals. There’s my dad, he did win that one, to his credit. And this was just
# l* \5 k0 o2 D' Q: ua big part of my life and my family’s life. But you know, I can hear the cynics. In this age of digitally
5 c; z4 v; N7 C% T6 W" R/ @manipulated images, maybe those bears really aren’t in the pictures with me, or maybe I paid
4 T E8 z8 D( @: Q6 _8 Qsomebody five bucks to take a picture in the theme park next to the bear. And I said, how, in this
9 o+ |& e% H% r+ Q1 z! q; {. I r: uage of cynicism can I convince people? And I said, I know, I can show them the bears! Bring them
' C4 W3 d6 |7 R6 J" U6 Qout. [several large stuffed animals are brought onto the stage] [laughter and clapping] Just put them2 Q( O) Z6 h" H! l1 k
back against the wall.5 f$ S! z* X) L( `
Jai Pausch (Randy’s wife):
2 ]! Q# a# n, q1 ]" U/ B0 H" tIt’s hard to hear you. [adjusts Randy’s microphone]
; {0 [: R. S+ e4 B" y2 MRandy Pausch:
7 \$ J; ?) F& pThanks honey. [laughter] So here are some bears. We didn’t have quite enough room in the moving Q( d$ [% v- j. t5 a, h
truck, and anybody who would like a little piece of me at the end of this, feel free to come up and
% n$ B2 i5 t8 |3 U/ J( k" u* ptake a bear, first come, first served., N$ }, R5 L0 k" r
All right, my next one. Being an Imagineer. This was the hard one. Believe me, getting to zero* W4 Q- C4 E8 w2 ]; j# B9 d
gravity is easier than becoming an Imagineer. When I was a kid, I was eight years old and our family
$ D9 ` |$ u3 I- K, Z" d% xtook a trip cross-country to see Disneyland. And if you’ve ever seen the movie National Lampoon’s
! f" }" V# K" h) ]1 Z$ ^+ ^$ JVacation, it was a lot like that! [laughter] It was a quest. [shows slides of family at Disneyland] And* c, R$ p5 h9 K
these are real vintage photographs, and there I am in front of the castle. And there I am, and for1 n: Z) z, D' v. \
those of you who are into foreshadowing, this is the Alice ride. [laughter] And I just thought this was
. q! P3 O1 m6 s* w" n' vjust the coolest environment I had ever been in, and instead of saying, gee, I want to experience this,8 f$ N( q6 w+ ]3 Q9 |/ r* \
I said, I want to make stuff like this. And so I bided my time and then I graduated with my Ph.D.
+ h' ?5 i* n# sfrom Carnegie Mellon, thinking that meant me infinitely qualified to do anything. And I dashed off9 D- H+ [7 _9 ^- V1 B8 r. m2 G
my letters of applications to Walt Disney Imagineering, and they sent me some of the damned nicest
9 p2 U4 u$ Q4 Q5 E+ U( @go-to-hell letters I have ever gotten. [laughter] I mean it was just, we have carefully reviewed your
# W: v! ^3 J) I8 v! `application and presently we do not have any positions available which require your particular
( v. A. j2 \" M4 ^0 D& |qualifications. Now think about the fact that you’re getting this from a place that’s famous for guys
4 @, N8 K* A6 c+ Lwho sweep the street. [laughter] So that was a bit of a setback. But remember, the brick walls are* h. [9 l$ P! a# y; P% I0 y( ?- Y! e
there for a reason. The brick walls are not there to keep us out. The brick walls are there to give us9 _# U- s# X8 c$ ^- X* k7 v# l8 A
a chance to show how badly we want something. Because the brick walls are there to stop the
7 f( @- Q p$ ?9 npeople who don’t want it badly enough. They’re there to stop the other people. S; I7 t; M) a8 W! b: i
All right, fast forward to 1991. We did a system back at the University of Virginia called Virtual7 K$ _: L, R2 {
Reality on Five Dollars a Day. Just one of those unbelievable spectacular things. I was so scared
( V! s. [. O: F, ^back in those days as a junior academic. Jim Foley’s here, and I just love to tell this story. He knew
) d# H* [5 F0 Y* j5 Pmy undergraduate advisor, Andy Van Dam, and I’m at my first conference and I’m just scared to+ D- |; R7 p0 g4 R9 y! T" A5 |
death. And this icon in the user interface community walks up to me and just out of nowhere just+ t5 E6 G4 M0 @2 I
gives me this huge bear hug and he says, that was from Andy. And that was when I thought, ok,
8 p. z' h6 T vmaybe I can make it. Maybe I do belong. And a similar story is that this was just this unbelievable
- O0 f/ o7 @9 k/ {1 W5 ^# V5 Lhit because at the time, everybody needed a half a million [dollars] to do virtual reality. And
% j7 q: g5 V1 C, D- feverybody felt frustrated. And we literally hacked together a system for about five thousand dollars
3 P8 D5 E: R7 c# w0 Sin parts and made a working VR system. And people were just like, oh my god, you know, the
$ f) Z( a! l4 }% G. _( gHewlett Packard garage thing. This is so awesome. And so I’m giving this talk and the room has just
) ?# B: z$ E6 N P% cgone wild, and during the Q and A, a guy named Tom Furness, who was one of the big names in+ E( {$ J& q* g1 Z' B' v
virtual reality at the time, he goes up to the microphone and he introduces himself. I didn’t know
. W% _9 W- y0 fwhat he looked like but I sure as hell knew the name. And he asked a question. And I was like, I’m
; f u( }5 q9 p" [0 j' Z3 `2 A6 J$ Zsorry did you say you were Tom Furness? And he said yes. I said, then I would love to answer your
5 G" S; M, d3 |% O1 q8 dquestion, but first, will you have lunch with me tomorrow? [laughter] And there’s a lot in that little6 }& H& ]- g: U! H' n; F4 _" l
moment, there’s a lot of humility but also asking a person where he can’t possibly say no. [laughter]
" F5 |9 W8 [8 z. c9 W6 GAnd so Imagineering a couple of years later was working on a virtual reality project. This was top# H' H& n7 K6 b. D
secret. They were denying the existence of a virtual reality attraction after the time that the Z3 U+ n2 D- R6 k8 U2 l/ Y" r) l+ L; u4 p
publicity department was running the TV commercials. So Imagineering really had nailed this one
; r" u+ a+ x* K, q {6 t7 ]tight. And it was the Aladdin attraction where you would fly a magic carpet, and the head mounted' u5 K0 y- H, j' I6 y1 z
display, sometimes known as gator vision. And so I had an in. As soon as the project had just, you
4 q8 m& L% Q& ]+ g* Mknow they start running the TV commercials, and I had been asked to brief the Secretary of Defense+ N D8 J+ d( F
on the state of virtual reality. OK, Fred Brooks and I had been asked to brief the Secretary of
5 `$ v Q" z& ~8 c) l7 nDefense, and that gave me an excuse. So I called them. I called Imagineering and I said, look, I’m/ d! k# [7 V9 z7 X- K) G; F6 {8 r/ m
briefing the Secretary of Defense. I’d like some materials on what you have because it’s one of the
4 Z" {$ ^8 x9 u7 ?, ]3 }9 \. [% {best VR systems in the world. And they kind of pushed back. And I said, look, is all this patriotism
% A, k' _+ a5 Y0 nstuff in the parks a farce? And they’re like, hmm, ok. [laughter] But they said this is so new the PR
1 [3 R8 J0 ^9 N+ Cdepartment doesn’t have any footage for you, so I’m going to have to connect you straight through
, U; Y; b; z2 U3 k( U. fto the team who did the work. Jackpot! So I find myself on the phone with a guy named Jon Snoddy
@* l$ ?3 v' Dwho is one of the most impressive guys I have ever met, and he was the guy running this team, and: U) c, g0 N, Q$ k$ p3 m
it’s not surprising they had done impressive things. And so he sent me some stuff, we talked briefly/ d$ c, W' ~4 D
and he sent me some stuff, and I said, hey, I’m going to be out in the area for a conference shortly,: g v6 `* q; s; N
would you like to get together and have lunch? Translation: I’m going to lie to you and say that I
9 E/ A5 \7 Y$ X% W# N) Rhave an excuse to be in the area so I don’t look too anxious, but I would go to Neptune to have$ v$ q" n9 b+ Y
lunch with you! [laughter] And so Jon said sure, and I spent something like 80 hours talking with all0 l! o: x$ R2 Z/ a
the VR experts in the world, saying if you had access to this one unbelievable project, what would
" Z/ i6 `$ L; A0 O% v, a; cyou ask? And then I compiled all of that and I had to memorize it, which anybody that knows me
9 L; Q) g c' \: L4 Mknows that I have no memory at all, because I couldn’t go in looking like a dweeb with, you know, [in3 V, E: j8 |& S
dweeby voice] Hi, Question 72. So, I went in, and this was like a two hour lunch, and Jon must have
0 l& f- v( W0 K- z2 v& uthought he was talking to some phenomenal person, because all I was doing was channeling Fred" h ?" b0 Z" _! i. y# C7 L& f
Brooks and Ivan Sutherland and Andy Van Dam and people like that. And Henry Fuchs. So it’s pretty
, x3 l% w) U! Y1 F/ V# Seasy to be smart when you’re parroting smart people. And at the end of the lunch with Jon, I sort: J8 Q# s5 l" ]! A
of, as we say in the business, made “the ask.” And I said, you know, I have a sabbatical coming up.
3 u, o* t8 w5 K/ g6 KAnd he said, what’s that? [laughter] The beginnings of the culture clash. And so I talked with him# Q3 M4 p2 t# z) l( D( `* O
about the possibility of coming there and working with him. And he said, well that’s really good
7 W3 g" l6 h! L% m, ^except, you know, you’re in the business of telling people stuff and we’re in the business of keeping
7 p! m' ?; P8 x) Csecrets. And then what made Jon Snoddy Jon Snoddy was he said, but we’ll work it out, which I9 U3 _6 c+ S: `
really loved. The other thing that I learned from Jon Snoddy – I could do easily an hour long talk just
% C" y* N9 o+ O! m/ Von what have I learned from Jon Snoddy. One of the things he told me was that wait long enough
; B4 Q; I8 i7 I$ H* q' a% \and people will surprise and impress you. He said, when you’re pissed off at somebody and you’re
# E' b. A! f3 K: jangry at them, you just haven’t given them enough time. Just give them a little more time and
# i9 t1 d" ?! u& ^, [* X7 \they’ll almost always impress you. And that really stuck with me. I think he’s absolutely right on
' m3 {) t3 M6 J- A) w7 T% uthat one. So to make a long story short, we negotiated a legal contract. It was going to be the first –
\+ b5 k6 C# b# z/ Xsome people referred to it as the first and last paper ever published by Imagineering. That the deal+ y: l7 z) [) @( s$ f8 S8 V
was I go, I provide my own funding, I go for six months, I work with a project, we publish a paper.
5 D/ r! N* Z& W% xAnd then we meet our villain. [shows slide of a picture of a former dean of Randy’s] I can’t be all; o2 J# J R- R: U" I- H, f& C
sweetness and light, because I have no credibility. Somebody’s head’s going to go on a stick. Turns: O, R7 _( p3 Q2 w7 t* ]
out that the person who gets his head on a stick is a dean back at the University of Virginia. His$ X3 ^4 Q4 _5 O4 `; l& \
name is not important. Let’s call him Dean Wormer. [laughter] And Dean Wormer has a meeting, X8 e7 s$ V# B: w
with me where I say I want to do this sabbatical thing and I’ve actually got the Imagineering guys to
7 x8 f* l2 n9 @% alet an academic in, which is insane. I mean if Jon hadn’t gone nuts, this would never have been a
! | |5 P$ Z9 M5 _6 W Y0 b6 spossibility. This is a very secretive organization. And Dean Wormer looks at the paperwork and he3 y9 i: B; v) O/ _
says, well it says they’re going to own your intellectual property. And I said, yeah, we got the; N# g6 `/ N9 |
agreement to publish the paper. There is no other IP. I don’t do patentable stuff. And says, yeah,
/ G7 Q4 l0 K% Q- N+ A* u/ ^. `but you might. And so deal’s off. Just go and get them to change that little clause there and then
2 @& N* t1 ~7 K7 Wcome back to me. I’m like, excuse me? And then I said to him, I want you to understand how5 Q" Q3 Y$ C$ \0 y0 i
important this is. If we can’t work this out, I’m going to take an unpaid leave of absence and I’m just R* \. h+ ] C: p5 @% @' r1 |' x
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
$ m8 A+ ^' }% W, X' A6 Q$ Mmean you’ve got the IP in your head already and maybe they’re going to suck it out of you, so that’s
! A2 p5 ?; d9 b$ S Nnot going to fly either. [laughter] It’s very important to know when you’re in a pissing match. And
& N' b% R( L' n1 Iit’s very important to get out of it as quickly as possible. So I said to him, well, let’s back off on this.# U) G$ c/ [5 M% A, C2 i+ i. v
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,# W4 b9 F1 S8 L1 M ]7 ^
[sarcastically] OK, well we’ve got common ground there. Then I said, well is this really your call?
! K* _% |7 D$ s7 M/ M! ~, dIsn’t this the call of the Dean of Sponsored Research if it’s an IP issue? And he said, yeah, that’s true.2 R+ l8 [6 V9 n- Q+ |5 O& p$ 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 ~( t- @( Z2 j% O X/ q; ^3 ~
Coyote, I’m gone in a big ball of dust. And I find myself in Gene Block’s office, who is the most
+ V/ v) I4 L9 \( _- j; q: p. R" lfantastic man in the world. And I start talking to Gene Block and I say let’s start at the high level,
5 w- x( X5 Y2 j. N' k9 Xsince I don’t want to have to back out again. So let’s start at the high level. Do you think this is a
! B! P: r+ W7 W+ g$ Qgood idea? He said, well if you’re asking me if it’s a good idea, I don’t have very much information.
9 ~# ]1 O2 {* sAll I know is that one of my star faculty members is in my office and he’s really excited, so tell me
" |, y2 f1 Q+ I; d' D& b: xmore. Here’s a lesson for everybody in administration. They both said the same thing. But think
1 A. O, E6 _9 E) \. U/ |. mabout how they said it, right? [In a loud, barking voice] I don’t know! [In a pleasant voice] Well, I
9 X3 H# H N8 x# Rdon’t have much information, but one of my start faculty members is here and he’s all excited so I
2 x! x& q& Q+ W! v! i0 Cwant to learn more. They’re both ways of saying I don’t know, but boy there’s a good way and a bad( w; t3 L3 a& g* D( }( E
way. So anyway, we got it all worked out. I went to Imagineering. Sweetness and light. And all’s. q( G5 s2 r# _3 F2 B* i$ M% i
well that ends well.
7 N8 i2 I4 a6 G' b6 r% KSome brick walls are made of flesh. So I worked on the Aladdin Project. It was absolutely
9 T$ f1 {* u3 r* D& e5 ospectacular, I mean just unbelievable. Here’s my nephew Christopher. [Shows slide of Christopher
- X8 z! p! E0 {& x* J+ k/ }& aon Aladdin apparatus] This was the apparatus. You would sit on this sort of motorcycle-type thing.
# y z# _( _; v+ ?+ B" SAnd you would steer your magic carpet and you would put on the head-mounted display. The headmounted. Q, Q9 G" p1 }( w' R
display is very interesting because it had two parts, and it was a very clever design. To get; f) }$ i7 Z( H8 N
throughput up, the only part that touched the guest’s head was this little cap and everything else x( \$ d) { g$ F$ u
clicked onto it – all the expensive hardware. So you could replicate the caps because they were* J. Q# G, p5 ~& J% ]; f, l
basically free to manufacture. [Showing slide of Randy cleaning a cap] And this is what I really did is
9 s! c8 \3 O. ]I was a cap cleaner during the sabbatical. [laughter] I loved Imagineering. It was just a spectacular8 N/ i* a) I; \ ?
place. Just spectacular. Everything that I had dreamed. I loved the model shop. People crawling0 {5 F$ o9 E! j% G9 h( \
around on things the size of this room that are just big physical models. It was just an incredible
1 w! _2 b* H' t4 d& |$ ^9 H6 yplace to walk around and be inspired. I’m always reminded of when I went there and people said,
- h) X E3 S7 J' B- zdo you think your expectations are too high? And I said, you ever see the movie Charlie and the5 g5 s6 `, r7 g* T; E3 H* L" E; Y
Chocolate Factory? Willy Wonka and The Chocolate Factory? Where Gene Wilder says to the little/ f2 z e7 w* b
boy Charlie, he’s about to give him the chocolate factory. He says “Well Charlie, did anybody ever
& F8 Q. {& _. N, [& [+ ntell you the story of the little boy who suddenly got everything he ever wanted?” Charlie’s eyes get: ~- F: C0 T2 n1 E* f( x
like saucers and he says, “No, what happened to him?” Gene Wilder says, “He lived happily ever& ]" C8 i- `# d$ \( ?
after.” [laughter]2 m7 p* I- ~0 b1 M
OK, so working on the Aladdin VR, I described it as a once in every five careers opportunity, and I
" w6 R1 E; e: {- vstand by that assessment. And it forever changed me. It wasn’t just that it was good work and I got" V! C" [5 ~ f9 D
to be a part of it. But it got me into the place of working with real people and real HCI user interface
- n8 P, B/ K# c; nissues. Most HCI people live in this fantasy world of white collar laborers with Ph.D.s and masters; g9 Z' H' F) y+ _+ v0 v
degrees. And you know, until you got ice cream spilled on you, you’re not doing field work. And
, _7 E+ j: z# x2 N& f0 w; S2 Lmore than anything else, from Jon Snoddy I learned how to put artists and engineers together, and% X5 N( o7 L8 d8 ]8 e% Y
that’s been the real legacy. N" m# ~' V% L' {5 n6 p
We published a paper. Just a nice academic cultural scandal. When we wrote the paper, the guys at/ N1 W: J$ p% u8 h1 V$ R; ^
Imagineering said, well let’s do a nice big picture. Like you would in a magazine. [Showing slide of v7 k; @' c' y% v
first page of the paper, with a photo at the top that spans two columns]. And the SIGGRAPH
8 N" l' D$ w# H/ A: w- Bcommittee, which accepted the paper, it was like this big scandal. Are they allowed to do that?
1 D5 W1 O9 X/ [[laughter] There was no rule! So we published the paper and amazingly since then there’s a0 w- v! d% | o
tradition of SIGGRAPH papers having color figures on the first page. So I’ve changed the world in a
* e! T& F) L+ x) J* Tsmall way. [laughter] And then at the end of my six months, they came to me and they said, you
( T; n, V8 H! L) t+ ~5 n; y& |1 F5 Mwant to do it for real? You can stay. And I said no. One of the only times in my life I have surprised1 Q+ o& {0 K) h( e" N; V
my father. He was like, you’re what? He said, since you were, you know [gesturing to height of a* t7 D- z3 X# D( ]4 C# N
child’s head],this is all you wanted, and now that you got it, and you’re… huh? There was a bottle of# a- j4 I7 w7 C7 t6 X7 T7 ]
Maalox in my desk drawer. Be careful what you wish for. It was a particularly stressful place.
0 \6 G3 `8 d! T5 ^" ^# j& r; `Imagineering in general is actually not so Maalox-laden, but the lab I was in – oh, Jon left in the7 y) n$ j6 [0 J" e5 q
middle. And it was a lot like the Soviet Union. It was a little dicey for awhile. But it worked out OK.+ t, T3 y. N5 w% C {. Y- v
And if they had said, stay here or never walk in the building again, I would have done it. I would# l; w$ f" [$ i5 H9 y7 x$ o
have walked away from tenure, I would have just done it. But they made it easy on me. They said
) Q1 f6 r6 |5 H( l) Ryou can have your cake and eat it too. And I basically became a day-a-week consultant for
- b* h) S8 [, j c F6 _Imagineering, and I did that for about ten years. And that’s one of the reasons you should all6 k0 @ N+ q. B. W, X6 D# l
become professors. Because you can have your cake and eat it too.2 T) h" u" l4 M0 G
I went and consulted on things like DisneyQuest. So there was the Virtual Jungle Cruise. And the
4 ^! T: B; h. O: H# B- P' p. @0 c7 Hbest interactive experience I think ever done, and Jesse Schell gets the credit for this, Pirates of the. C0 G$ I1 i8 z" u
Caribbean. Wonderful at DisneyQuest.
: d3 O, x. f a x M' [And so those are my childhood dreams. And that’s pretty good. I felt good about that. So then the, P6 M9 m, B3 m- t9 j
question becomes, how can I enable the childhood dreams of others. And again, boy am I glad I, D* a# g9 [" |3 S' W3 B
became a professor. What better place to enable childhood dreams? Eh, maybe working at EA, I4 G* e4 j; J% a6 H0 w2 w+ `* g8 Z
don’t know. That’d probably be a good close second. And this started in a very concrete realization
1 e V! y5 M: o) N1 C7 gthat I could do this, because a young man named Tommy Burnett, when I was at the University of( c2 c* K7 Q2 L
Virginia, came to me, was interested in joining my research group. And we talked about it, and he
/ A5 ^( J0 N! A3 P( ssaid, oh, and I have a childhood dream. It gets pretty easy to recognize them when they tell you.5 E% [9 V$ t# H4 U0 z5 {2 r
And I said, yes, Tommy, what is your childhood dream? He said, I want to work on the next Star
# R! T- y, n0 g( j0 p' y% U$ I9 vWars film. Now you got to remember the timing on this. Where is Tommy, Tommy is here today.2 V& }5 Y" V. V+ H( D/ g9 p
What year would this have been? Your sophomore year.
+ u( T2 S: k! i1 T( Z) Q4 y' LTommy:/ Q, ^+ l- C+ D
It was around ’93./ s# P& ?# e* F; C, I$ A" Y
Randy Pausch:
$ X" ?, ]: u# o" y ?Are you breaking anything back there young man? OK, all right, so in 1993. And I said to Tommy,& X- G. @- n+ z8 X! Z/ [
you know they’re probably not going to make those next movies. [laughter] And he said, no, THEY
( [& ]- x. ^- Q# aARE. And Tommy worked with me for a number of years as an undergraduate and then as a staff
y% T/ E1 a: S% L! K6 Tmember, and then I moved to Carnegie Mellon, every single member of my team came from Virginia
7 Z0 x) n7 L3 Kto Carnegie Mellon except for Tommy because he got a better offer. And he did indeed work on all$ ~" [" j- {/ N- z* q5 ]
three of those films. And then I said, well that’s nice, but you know, one at a time is kind of
( S: A/ V+ y* L5 R( n j! Yinefficient. And people who know me know that I’m an efficiency freak. So I said, can I do this in
G( d. }3 x* M$ U0 L" umass? Can I get people turned in such a way that they can be turned onto their childhood dreams?
; H& S& M! Z# S- I- I+ }And I created a course, I came to Carnegie Mellon and I created a course called Building Virtual
0 j% n* i7 ?' q+ x/ e8 {9 dWorlds. It’s a very simple course. How many people here have ever been to any of the shows?
. b' l. ~5 s# L# I) k* r) i) X[Some people from audience raise hands] OK, so some of you have an idea. For those of you who8 ?; b9 R+ M. ~2 g9 p* S
don’t, the course is very simple. There are 50 students drawn from all the different departments of1 E1 @3 f8 u* p+ G! _* l6 {/ j# a6 e2 g
the university. There are randomly chosen teams, four people per team, and they change every
+ U+ Z# ~% i: @* ]5 Vproject. A project only lasts two weeks, so you do something, you make something, you show! }2 E% Y0 {; H! h/ J
something, then I shuffle the teams, you get three new playmates and you do it again. And it’s
/ F* r. ~% O" |* x3 o8 r! Xevery two weeks, and so you get five projects during the semester. The first year we taught this. L) @& f6 I$ Q2 N. l- A/ g
course, it is impossible to describe how much of a tiger by the tail we had. I was just running the4 ], X6 b1 m1 ?! P* `3 M- a' h, b
course because I wanted to see if we could do it. We had just learned how to do texture mapping; @+ m( M- Y: w4 o6 F
on 3D graphics, and we could make stuff that looked half decent. But you know, we were running1 ?- H: x5 U6 a5 u; m4 {
on really weak computers, by current standards. But I said I’ll give it a try. And at my new university4 P* L& p% r& I" b6 r6 H+ [
[Carnegie Mellon] I made a couple of phone calls, and I said I want to cross-list this course to get all
5 S4 x# M. k. u kthese other people. And within 24 hours it was cross-listed in five departments. I love this& y9 G1 p. E( o' O4 H+ Q! ]
university. I mean it’s the most amazing place. And the kids said, well what content do we make? I
0 g2 Q% T( f' D, \- A4 Dsaid, hell, I don’t know. You make whatever you want. Two rules: no shooting violence and no' M' c! { m! E Y5 F
pornography. Not because I’m opposed to those in particular, but you know, that’s been done with
1 Z7 t& z- P- H$ j3 _VR, right? [laughter] And you’d be amazed how many 19-year-old boys are completely out of ideas/ c/ ?) t* k7 ?& ?5 F
when you take those off the table. [laughter and clapping]
7 b& ~$ [- ~5 R9 M/ f- Q4 _, sAnyway, so I taught the course. The first assignment, I gave it to them, they came back in two% H+ y) D! u4 I" b$ b* c. H6 A4 q
weeks and they just blew me away. I mean the work was so beyond, literally, my imagination,) X! j+ ]& ^; M$ t
because I had copied the process from Imagineering’s VR lab, but I had no idea what they could or
' ~- V% @6 G3 Q2 ccouldn’t do with it as undergraduates, and their tools were weaker, and they came back on the first
3 x7 P6 u+ ^* f3 u0 O$ r+ Qassignment, and they did something that was so spectacular that I literally didn’t, ten years as a
7 n# e4 G2 i( C nprofessor and I had no idea what to do next. So I called up my mentor, and I called up Andy Van
7 v9 N( h% p! o+ @+ B3 o9 YDam. And I said, Andy, I just gave a two-week assignment, and they came back and did stuff that if I
2 ?( A# C, }. m) M0 [7 w+ ?( F& ]had given them a whole semester I would have given them all As. Sensei, what do I do? [laughter]2 a: E( a( P+ \% }* V- `% V
And Andy thought for a minute and he said, you go back into class tomorrow and you look them in7 M, J6 Z) r" \
the eye and you say, “Guys, that was pretty good, but I know you can do better.” [laughter] And that& X6 T* w- R0 y) ~# Y+ n9 U3 ~
was exactly the right advice. Because what he said was, you obviously don’t know where the bar
# H {) J6 {6 h4 |should be, and you’re only going to do them a disservice by putting it anywhere. And boy was that
* `* [' P* ]( S% A* S# H( }' Hgood advice because they just kept going. And during that semester it became this underground
) R+ U' S) A" p! b. p4 @& G' m" ything. I’d walk into a class with 50 students in it and there were 95 people in the room. Because it
& t$ A& Y; l! E5 V7 m. ?was the day we were showing work. And people’s roommates and friends and parents – I’d never
5 y3 M( C: |( s1 Y* J, Ehad parents come to class before! It was flattering and somewhat scary. And so it snowballed and
7 c+ o: D4 [1 {$ X/ X& g# C! zwe had this bizarre thing of, well we’ve got to share this. If there’s anything I’ve been raised to do,, h% S5 `3 z, k$ R: Z
it’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
/ C$ F( m+ x! B2 B4 C. mshow. And we booked this room, McConomy. I have a lot of good memories in this room. And we: h$ A( `2 j+ A6 J+ g- o
booked it not because we thought we could fill it, but because it had the only AV setup that would- [3 {- \) M- B2 g0 W/ i
work, because this was a zoo. Computers and everything. And then we filled it. And we more than
0 w* O0 b% S+ hfilled it. We had people standing in the aisle. I will never forget the dean at the time, Jim Morris# T! c' ~3 `3 H8 R6 V9 ~; m/ t/ {+ v! r
was sitting on the stage right about there. We had to kind of scoot him out of the way. And the
- |/ Y- T3 j( [3 x: C; a+ Fenergy in the room was like nothing I had ever experienced before. And President Cohen, Jerry
) O7 g8 v+ X: U( F& t" CCohen was there, and he sensed the same thing. He later described it as like an Ohio State football
) T: K) @1 F1 s" a/ o Ppep rally. Except for academics. And he came over and he asked exactly the right question. He
' K+ f# `2 X9 ksaid, before you start, he said, where are these people from? He said, the audience, what. c- N2 R7 S* u
departments are they from? And we polled them and it was all the departments. And I felt very- T! O" d! r6 W- P4 m: C. A
good because I had just come to campus, he had just come to campus, and my new boss had seen in
/ \0 \6 g. D6 G" Ta very corporal way that this is the university that puts everybody together. And that made me feel! U7 h2 T( v: C8 r8 ?
just tremendous." Z) b' s9 G8 ]3 J) `* D* q: l
So we did this campus-wide exhibition. People performed down here. They’re in costume, and we; t \: S, M* g9 F8 `
project just like this and you can see what’s going on. You can see what they’re seeing in the head
+ ]- r0 n: j+ wmount. There’s a lot of big props, so there’s a guy white water rafting. [shows slides of a BVW show]0 P1 I% _$ G- C! w
This is Ben in E.T. And yes, I did tell them if they didn’t do the shot of the kids biking across the$ G8 q4 E" u* R8 W
moon I would fail him. That is a true story. And I thought I’d show you just one world, and if we can5 O6 v4 s) e: I2 R/ u) p" m
get the lights down if that’s at all possible. No, ok, that means no. All right. All right we’ll just do
% y, V+ v1 W% m, S9 M$ Oour best then. [Shows “Hello.world” world done in the BVW class, audience applauds at the end.] It
% t3 N! k# V% K6 vwas an unusual course. With some of the most brilliant, creative students from all across the
/ f5 ?# S/ l# V/ ycampus. It just was a joy to be involved. And they took the whole stage performance aspect of this( a: r7 n7 G0 ?- @" K2 L: S
way too seriously [shows pictures of very strange costumes students wore]. And it became this# O. J2 [8 D2 `. \
campus phenomenon every year. People would line up for it. It was very flattering. And it gave kids
, d. i, M! a* s* ua sense of excitement of putting on a show for people who were excited about it. And I think that, n+ W% k4 |' ?( y& [: B( @( `
that’s one of the best things you can give somebody – the chance to show them what it feels like to+ m$ `0 Q3 m5 m9 S' ]
make other people get excited and happy. I mean that’s a tremendous gift. We always try to) Z0 r8 j, K9 C6 J" ?& B- o
involve the audience. Whether it was people with glow sticks or batting a beach ball around… or* z7 F; a* j/ o+ J+ \4 N8 \2 H# B
driving [shows photo of audience members leaning in their seats to steer a car]. This is really cool.3 n; s* K/ D+ m" O2 {) e
This technology actually got used at the Spiderman 3 premiere in L.A., so the audience was
4 Y1 m- y S1 n1 Z z6 N3 o& N) n% econtrolling something on the screen, so that’s kind of nice. And I don’t have a class picture from: Q D5 m* Y+ c# }
every year, but I dredged all the ones that I do have, and all I can say is that what a privilege and an0 G: d8 j; r d
honor it was to teach that course for something like ten years.
% o" ^$ j2 [( _/ }And all good things come to an end. And I stopped teaching that course about a year ago. People* o W- f4 x5 \1 v& s8 F2 ]
always ask me what was my favorite moment. I don’t know if you could have a favorite moment.
+ n y$ `4 z& qBut boy there is one I’ll never forget. This was a world with, I believe a roller skating ninja. And one0 `9 x! i6 a5 E) H% ^9 G/ ~1 D
of the rules was that we perform these things live and they all had to really work. And the moment
& z; l, ?+ j; Pit stopped working, we went to your backup videotape. And this was very embarrassing. [Shows
& t1 K$ Y" N, [4 Z4 u5 oimage of Roller Ninja world presentation] So we have this ninja on stage and he’s doing this roller3 y$ k4 m3 D7 v0 q9 A% A
skating thing and the world, it did not crash gently. Whoosh. And I come out, and I believe it was9 P+ F* P) A6 G0 @$ c
Steve, Audia, wasn’t it? Where is he? OK, where is Steve? Ah, my man. Steve Audia. And talk
4 B( o8 d4 @$ r9 D2 zabout quick on your feet. I say, Steve, I’m sorry but your world has crashed and we’re going to go to! u% X' `& H4 t* B' D( P- ]1 B
videotape. And he pulls out his ninja sword and says, I am dishonored! Whaaa! And just drops!
9 T0 [$ ?, M/ d. Q7 ^[applause and laughter] And so I think it’s very telling that my very favorite moment in ten years of4 Z. Q4 C; q- n2 ^0 t
this high technology course was a brilliant ad lib. And then when the videotape is done and the7 u8 Z; T" I4 }
lights come up, he’s lying there lifeless and his teammates drag him off! [laughter] It really was a% e' r$ W% v7 |2 J
fantastic moment.
% d% F3 @1 F, A4 D" gAnd the course was all about bonding. People used to say, you know, what’s going to make for a
3 t r: I3 T! R" _, S* F) R& l* k9 mgood world? I said, I can’t tell you beforehand, but right before they present it I can tell you if the
' T# q5 f" u, lworld’s good just by the body language. If they’re standing close to each other, the world is good.+ f _: o+ E5 m" M$ g1 b: Y
And BVW was a pioneering course [Randy puts on vest with arrows poking out of the back], and I5 S0 L, Q8 D* u9 L7 k
won’t bore you with all the details, but it wasn’t easy to do, and I was given this when I stepped
/ V! A8 x& }0 Mdown from the ETC and I think it’s emblematic. If you’re going to do anything that pioneering you* ?" n& f, |( i% w, V8 i
will get those arrows in the back, and you just have to put up with it. I mean everything that could
; b/ A% a7 Q2 ~- Ago wrong did go wrong. But at the end of the day, a whole lot of people had a whole lot of fun.$ W" Z% h" Y% c: C2 ]6 x- q/ n2 c
When you’ve had something for ten years that you hold so precious, it’s the toughest thing in the: M, A5 i5 R6 B3 Z8 ^7 l
world to hand it over. And the only advice I can give you is, find somebody better than you to hand" N2 r) s4 A! _- p. x9 d
it to. And that’s what I did. There was this kid at the VR studios way back when, and you didn’t have
1 e) O T8 B; o& Y) c" D0 }. J8 a7 cto spend very long in Jesse Schell’s orbit to go, the force is strong in this one. And one of my
% E9 W3 E1 }# s; qgreatest – my two greatest accomplishments I think for Carnegie Mellon was that I got Jessica
+ B4 W6 b6 n; H7 a* Q4 |Hodgins and Jesse Schell to come here and join our faculty. And I was thrilled when I could hand this
1 I& t8 f/ c5 l0 i0 r. h0 tover to Jesse, and to no one’s surprise, he has really taken it up to the next notch. And the course is2 P1 z+ I6 S; L% J [" I! t4 [( x
in more than good hands – it’s in better hands. But it was just one course. And then we really took) Y7 [. L( l! T% h
it up a notch. And we created what I would call the dream fulfillment factory. Don Marinelli and I
) ~( A; O# l# q. E% f. U jgot together and with the university’s blessing and encouragement, we made this thing out of whole
4 P5 W( i7 i" [: T. t* V; fcloth that was absolutely insane. Should never have been tried. All the sane universities didn’t go
: ^/ m1 t$ i0 qnear this kind of stuff. Creating a tremendous opportunistic void. So the Entertainment Technology9 P' z s9 j( o5 E8 m7 L
Center was all about artists and technologists working in small teams to make things. It was a twoyear* f& c( E `/ k$ ~' s0 X! X0 U
professional master’s degree. And Don and I were two kindred spirits. We’re very different –
* h- ?8 D8 o5 }! D7 M# ?1 B8 }anybody who knows us knows that we are very different people. And we liked to do things in a new
- k1 ^" `8 K* \, T6 a5 u( wway, and the truth of the matter is that we are both a little uncomfortable in academia. I used to+ O/ m; M' p# ^9 o
say that I am uncomfortable as an academic because I come from a long line of people who actually/ S! z0 M+ `( ~' V" K
worked for a living, so. [Nervous laughter] I detect nervous laughter! And I want to stress, Carnegie
3 ~% f" @, w; g& Q2 l# r" A- V) xMellon is the only place in the world that the ETC could have happened. By far the only place.
& ^" |5 D( t/ m* [7 w[Shows slide of Don Marinelli in tye-dyed shirt, shades and an electric guitar, sitting on a desk next
9 M+ g( S5 d" v$ H+ w; Xto Randy, wearing nerd glasses, button-up shirt, staring at a laptop. Above their heads were the" Y5 s7 Y6 B1 F# B, x7 {0 _' X
labels “Right brain/Left brain”] [laughter] OK, this picture was Don’s idea, OK? And we like to refer
/ A8 D/ s0 |, Fto this picture as Don Marinelli on guitar and Randy Pausch on keyboards. [laughter] But we really
: V" O+ z$ G# J$ f0 `did play up the left brain, right brain and it worked out really well that way. [Shows slide of Don4 |" w. [, Y# K5 X& y' X! c/ h
looking intense] Don is an intense guy. And Don and I shared an office, and at first it was a small
% P6 a. H* x4 H C* q5 Koffice. We shared an office for six years. You know, those of you who know Don know he’s an: Q J7 D6 L( _7 t1 r
intense guy. And you know, given my current condition, somebody was asking me … this is a( v% e, b& ~$ K/ k1 W
terrible joke, but I’m going to use it anyway. Because I know Don will forgive me. Somebody said,
9 J- J; }7 L9 Q& W& ygiven your current condition, have you thought about whether you’re going to go to heaven or hell?
0 N4 Z) c( B7 NAnd I said, I don’t know, but if I’m going to hell, I’m due six years for time served! [laughter] I kid.' G) m1 ]% f; E* {! {. M% N0 ]
Sharing an office with Don was really like sharing an office with a tornado. There was just so much
* O; j/ C% ]* q1 \. _energy and you never knew which trailer was next, right? But you know something exciting was
* m2 Z$ Z1 x( lgoing to happen. And there was so much energy, and I do believe in giving credit where credit is' q: c3 w! \8 M- h
due. So in my typically visual way, if Don and I were to split the success for the ETC, he clearly gets
* s+ n) R8 _1 _7 K, ~7 r P. {" a, Othe lion’s share of it. [Shows image of a pie chart divided 70/30 (Don/Randy) ] He did the lion’s share. c, q* [/ i2 O4 j: w4 X
of the work, ok, he had the lion’s share of the ideas. It was a great teamwork. I think it was a great: e5 n$ E+ i$ L* \
yin and a yang, but it was more like YIN and yang. And he deserves that credit and I give it to him
5 |+ u- K- h f }3 wbecause the ETC is a wonderful place. And he’s now running it and he’s taking it global. We’ll talk
! p8 |/ M( ]6 _7 a6 u# gabout that in a second.. S3 ~9 d4 P' v4 ?
Describing the ETC is really hard, and I finally found a metaphor. Telling people about the ETC is like
W3 d# M, O. J/ G% B% l0 W/ Q# Ddescribing Cirque du Soleil if they’ve never seen it. Sooner or later you’re going to make the- r' J7 ?, j) H# C( w6 D7 w8 K
mistake. You’re going to say, well it’s like a circus. And then you’re dragged into this conversation; L" e' R+ `# R$ G4 c" p
about oh, how many tigers, how many lions, how many trapeze acts? And that misses the whole" K! K9 C8 U1 r/ y) C! ^5 s6 l
point. So when we say we’re a master’s degree, we’re really not like any master’s degree you’ve/ P( F1 O) H4 E& r# l/ |7 {/ A
ever seen. Here’s the curriculum [Shows slide of ETC curriculum, listing “Project Course” as the only& b! Y& ?# }0 q3 \; Q
course each semester; audience laughs] The curriculum ended up looking like this. [shows slightly
. o' `- Z3 ~9 M( O' smore detailed slide]. All I want to do is visually communicate to you that you do five projects in
6 x2 B8 R/ X# O3 yBuilding Virtual Worlds, then you do three more. All of your time is spent in small teams making6 k% c1 i6 J8 d) l+ Y9 p+ O
stuff. None of that book learning thing. Don and I had no patience for the book learning thing. It’s6 c" Z1 @2 z* R$ D: Q6 [
a master’s degree. They already spent four years doing book learning. By now they should have
" N% N( }/ X9 s8 I. zread all the books.
3 M0 e; S$ i2 p7 R+ Q- EThe keys to success were that Carnegie Mellon gave us the reins. Completely gave us the reins. We
: I% [$ e2 N8 U3 M0 Z7 E+ [1 uhad no deans to report to. We reported directly to the provost, which is great because the provost
( A/ U# c9 x* c0 b& Sis way too busy to watch you carefully. [laughter] We were given explicit license to break the mold.2 P1 a% J x% R
It was all project based. It was intense, it was fun, and we took field trips! Every spring semester in
: g( C( ]0 C% \( ]1 A- T6 vJanuary, we took all 50 students in the first year class and we’d take them out to Pixar, Industrial
+ J7 p+ t: T& c% I% t6 ^- @Light and Magic, and of course when you’ve got guys like Tommy there acting as host, right, it’s( f; ^+ i3 j6 t" E. z0 [1 _
pretty easy to get entrée to these places. So we did things very, very differently. The kind of# n6 `4 [- E F( f( ]
projects students would do, we did a lot of what we’d call edutainment.3 N1 U2 T. g1 s+ }6 `- B* U' P$ w: j
We developed a bunch of things with the Fire Department of New York, a network simulator for
$ ]* t. [+ W3 S0 `6 X4 \5 c. j0 Jtraining firefighters, using video game-ish type technology to teach people useful things. That’s not+ z, P# w4 G1 o" A
bad. Companies did this strange thing. They put in writing, we promise to hire your students. I’ve
& p _! v% J0 `5 E/ Jgot the EA and Activision ones here. I think there are now, how many, five? Drew knows I bet.
A* N; r8 A7 [' o+ x[Drew Davison, head of ETC-Pittsburgh, gestures with five fingers]. So there are five written: T; ~7 _- [. T, s
agreements. I don’t know of any other school that has this kind of written agreement with any
% A. Z. F+ p' _) D, acompany. And so that’s a real statement. And these are multiple year things, so they’re agreeing to0 P# R& H/ H& ]
hire people for summer internships that we have not admitted yet. That’s a pretty strong statement1 e+ F: w7 o! A& r, T$ |
about the quality of the program. And Don, as I said, he’s now, he’s crazy. In a wonderful
# t p! G1 m1 b- L' Ocomplimentary way. He’s doing these things where I’m like, oh my god. He’s not here tonight
4 @) t( h( l# X7 B Y9 L0 C& obecause he’s in Singapore because there’s going to be an ETC campus in Singapore. There’s already
( H, y% l. i" N# Qon in Australia and there’s going to be on in Korea. So this is becoming a global phenomenon. So I1 W% c/ p1 n( H1 g8 F' A$ U
think this really speaks volumes about all the other universities. It’s really true that Carnegie Mellon
$ l: v0 s* y. {. z9 Wis the only university that can do this. We just have to do it all over the world now.: i6 a- g7 F, a1 U' |0 P/ X l
One other big success about the ETC is teaching people about feedback [puts up bar chart where
# c& M s3 h* r7 E- M0 P' ostudents are (anonymous) listed on a scale labeled “how easy to work with” ] -- oh I hear the3 r+ G: V* F" z$ d8 ?9 }& u
nervous laughter from the students. I had forgotten the delayed shock therapy effect of these bar+ d4 z# Y5 k4 N# ~$ ^& X4 [
charts. When you’re taking Building Virtual Worlds, every two weeks we get peer feedback. We put
- d: S: e. Z. Lthat all into a big spreadsheet and at the end of the semester, you had three teammates per project,
+ r. Q; |! T7 N8 _) ~% i+ E Bfive projects, that’s 15 data points, that’s statistically valid. And you get a bar chart telling you on a
9 k$ p2 w) K+ Y3 D* nranking of how easy you are to work with, where you stacked up against your peers. Boy that’s hard9 k" E: o$ f0 V S6 H, n
feedback to ignore. Some still managed. [laughter] But for the most part, people looked at that and
5 E0 p" T. @4 R0 h& ~( p% Gwent, wow, I’ve got to take it up a notch. I better start thinking about what I’m saying to people in
6 o* N$ c: `" @& a$ K) t4 v {2 i) kthese meetings. And that is the best gift an educator can give is to get somebody to become self
; w7 H& v. `2 breflective.
: K( ]4 R& S1 S. S4 ?# c0 YSo the ETC was wonderful, but even the ETC and even as Don scales it around the globe, it’s still very7 a9 b& V( o. x0 L6 c9 {0 _
labor intensive, you know. It’s not Tommy one-at-a-time. It’s not a research group ten at a time.
: ~+ U5 s3 Q! s f& o7 pIt’s 50 or 100 at a time per campus times four campuses. But I wanted something infinitely scalable., O3 @( C+ }, e
Scalable to the point where millions or tens of millions of people could chase their dreams with
1 ^6 K6 P, ^$ r6 ~: hsomething. And you know, I guess that kind of a goal really does make me the Mad Hatter. [Puts on# r2 u8 w# y/ I% U4 e) @) s
a Mad Hatter’s green top hat]. So Alice is a project that we worked on for a long, long time. It’s a
8 \8 F3 ~' J( Z: Hnovel way to teach computer programming. Kids make movies and games. The head fake – again,; Z6 s; w5 d1 j* O9 L
we’re back to the head fakes. The best way to teach somebody something is to have them think
2 {) Z9 N0 l$ Gthey’re learning something else. I’ve done it my whole career. And the head fake here is that
, \; e7 Z( Y" s6 L+ Ithey’re learning to program but they just think they’re making movies and video games. This thing- Z) _; j7 m) @; R
has already been downloaded well over a million times. There are eight textbooks that have been
, U6 W, Y2 j: D2 m ^' _written about it. Ten percent of U.S. colleges are using it now. And it’s not the good stuff yet. The. y; |9 G% W9 X4 Y# x1 p' u- U
good stuff is coming in the next version. I, like Moses, get to see the promised land, but I won’t get
?% f& B1 |+ Z, u3 A0 pto set foot in it. And that’s OK, because I can see it. And the vision is clear. Millions of kids having! C. E) U# w! S
fun while learning something hard. That’s pretty cool. I can deal with that as a legacy. The next
S+ B; a" C) h/ r5 D. Rversion’s going to come out in 2008. It’s going to be teaching the Java language if you want them to
" b; I7 N( ~( o0 Z! i Cknow they’re learning Java. Otherwise they’ll just think that they’re writing movie scripts. And
9 F: H$ \& W1 t' A; a, c. a( Lwe’re getting the characters from the bestselling PC video game in history, The Sims. And this is5 N/ C& W( d( q, S" M
already working in the lab, so there’s no real technological risk. I don’t have time to thank and3 @* N9 F, ^/ A
mention everybody in the Alice team, but I just want to say that Dennis Cosgrove is going to be
6 y6 p, H% n" v6 t& Dbuilding this, has been building this. He is the designer. This is his baby. And for those of you who
" |1 s" E: ~6 X4 E6 v, {are wondering, well, in some number of months who should I be emailing about the Alice project,
! b7 G3 l2 T5 u* Ewhere’s Wanda Dann? Oh, there you are. Stand up, let them all see you. Everybody say, Hi Wanda.# W7 X6 D. _5 R% x' `) {% K4 q0 t
Audience:0 G' W4 Z& @8 J
Hi, Wanda.
5 X! e" C, w! p- HRandy Pausch:' |! l. a) F9 j8 R
Send her the email. And I’ll talk a little bit more about Caitlin Kelleher, but she’s graduated with her
! j$ r/ T' l- u9 L, D6 GPh.D., and she’s at Washington University, and she’s going to be taking this up a notch and going to- x& {+ V y6 l {6 l
middle schools with it. So, grand vision and to the extent that you can live on in something, I will
: V- x I( I& X* ~3 h) @live on in Alice.% U [3 A3 S* l. L! K' [( N( E
All right, so now the third part of the talk. Lessons learned. We’ve talked about my dreams. We’ve- ]+ F1 B$ L7 W) }5 w4 X5 X
talked about helping other people enable their dreams. Somewhere along the way there’s got to be
- x# u, N$ {$ V6 Usome aspect of what lets you get to achieve your dreams. First one is the rule of parents, mentors
& U; m* [* B9 I$ a- d7 U& aand students. I was blessed to have been born to two incredible people. This is my mother on her
- s2 G& N. E; D! X70th birthday. [Shows slide of Randy’s mom driving a race car on an amusement park race course]$ ~$ { R1 Q! a% D- v
[laughter] I am back here. I have just been lapped. [laughter] This is my dad riding a roller coaster
0 s1 |$ a6 X- k! Y0 D+ jon his 80th birthday. [Shows slide of dad] And he points out that he’s not only brave, he’s talented7 [: p( g) k5 @1 S6 N; w: P4 X
because he did win that big bear the same day. My dad was so full of life, anything with him was an
8 \" D: m3 l8 z7 Y1 C# {adventure. [Shows picture of his Dad holding a brown paper bag.] I don’t know what’s in that bag,, I: J, t1 |: V
but I know it’s cool. My dad dressed up as Santa Claus, but he also did very, very significant things
0 \8 ]3 X: i- D3 u& i: p: p! wto help lots of people. This is a dormitory in Thailand that my mom and dad underwrote. And every9 o$ h: X3 Y- k o) c
year about 30 students get to go to school who wouldn’t have otherwise. This is something my wife* E; h$ [, J3 m
and I have also been involved in heavily. And these are the kind of things that I think everybody# ^ {9 c- C& _0 `
ought to be doing. Helping others.# `* Y. h l1 L
But the best story I have about my dad – unfortunately my dad passed away a little over a year ago
# n1 y& f' b3 o4 s; s/ D– and when we were going through his things, he had fought in World War II in the Battle of the$ l- N0 @. t) u5 X" z; R
Bulge, and when we were going through his things, we found out he had been awarded the Bronze8 C/ ^4 h0 h) ^0 F4 [5 f8 Z( C
Star for Valor. My mom didn’t know it. In 50 years of marriage it had just never come up.8 h, J( I# P1 h# \$ j
My mom. [Shows picture of Randy as a young child, pulling his Mom’s hair]. Mothers are people
) h S( x$ G! h5 hwho love even when you pull their hair. And I have two great mom stories. When I was here$ N& {# {0 f. O' _0 r1 e3 O
studying to get my Ph.D. and I was taking something called the theory qualifier, which I can) J1 o& e5 w' B: u. k6 N) f2 \$ i
definitively say is the second worst thing in my life after chemotherapy. [laughter] And I was
8 l) q" Z0 p+ H' g& r& kcomplaining to my mother about how hard this test was and how awful it was, and she just leaned9 k7 j5 R" G8 x- B( V7 x
over and she patted me on the arm and she said, we know how you feel honey, and remember when
4 z* s/ {, T+ W: U6 k- ?2 T, dyour father was your age he was fighting the Germans. [laugher] After I got my Ph.D., my mother
: }2 |3 D5 I( u/ |7 ~( k; Jtook great relish in introducing me as, this is my son, he’s a doctor but not the kind that helps people.; t4 X" ]/ d5 K6 F
[laughter] These slides are a little bit dark [meaning “hard to see”], but when I was in high school I1 v% E M, ~! P! b
decided to paint my bedroom. [shows slides of bedroom] I always wanted a submarine and an
& E7 F( f8 y& p' X$ h+ Pelevator. And the great thing about this [shows slide of quadratic formula painted on wall]
7 c) L, A0 S2 T; _0 E$ t[interrupted by laughter] – what can I say? And the great thing about this is they let me do it. And
1 O# C5 l" g. C! V& dthey didn’t get upset about it. And it’s still there. If you go to my parent’s house it’s still there. And
3 P7 ?. p) E8 R1 r& f! Z% [* ^3 _anybody who is out there who is a parent, if your kids want to paint their bedroom, as a favor to me/ ~& S F ~4 h' P
let them do it. It’ll be OK. Don’t worry about resale value on the house.
. @7 r4 m' P$ m3 j% SOther people who help us besides our parents: our teachers, our mentors, our friends, our
, _7 X/ Z b" N3 m3 P3 a, v! rcolleagues. God, what is there to say about Andy Van Dam? When I was a freshman at Brown, he( I9 D+ c( X5 f$ w* ~5 W
was on leave. And all I heard about was this Andy Van Dam. He was like a mythical creature. Like a
* _$ I6 D6 _4 p; j2 E$ w1 h; S9 K" Ncentaur, but like a really pissed off centaur. And everybody was like really sad that he was gone, but
0 e: P8 {7 U7 V. Jkind of more relaxed? And I found out why. Because I started working for Andy. I was a teaching
$ \% K4 ]& E/ L7 ?. Cassistant for him as a sophomore. And I was quite an arrogant young man. And I came in to some
; k- b1 [: T. W& b* r+ soffice hours and of course it was nine o’clock at night and Andy was there at office hours, which is, a0 y/ a# c0 m& `) F
your first clue as to what kind of professor he was. And I come bounding in and you know, I’m just4 b5 v( E$ x* Z; D7 _
I’m going to save the world. There’re all these kids waiting for help, da da, da da, da da, da da, da9 f4 ~- _% \% i& R* j- m; J
da. And afterwards, Andy literally Dutch-uncled – he’s Dutch, right? He Dutch-uncled me. And he" m. f& A% x, {# M' E( ] l2 d3 i9 n: w
put his arm around my shoulders and we went for a little walk and he said, Randy, it’s such a shame
# n7 p$ A! v; V0 dthat people perceive you as so arrogant. Because it’s going to limit what you’re going to be able to: U8 G1 U+ C" D4 S; `7 b$ c
accomplish in life. What a hell of a way to word “you’re being a jerk.” [laughter] Right? He doesn’t
E) ~8 q* q4 F, ]! wsay you’re a jerk. He says people are perceiving you this way and he says the downside is it’s going$ b" |9 E+ D7 j/ f
to limit what you’re going to be able to accomplish.9 p5 n9 o3 s8 n- s7 t% t$ N* h
When I got to know Andy better, the beatings became more direct, but. [laughter] I could tell you& H" E l/ k2 ^, e6 X8 \ y# d
Andy stories for a month, but the one I will tell you is that when it came time to start thinking about$ J2 H" @1 P) U" |
what to do about graduating from Brown, it had never occurred to me in a million years to go to
/ i3 Z8 w4 ?0 i6 v4 |% P* c7 e% hgraduate school. Just out of my imagination. It wasn’t the kind of thing people from my family did.) O' B% N# o. b% \# d4 M" p
We got, say, what do you call them? …. jobs. And Andy said, no, don’t go do that. Go get a Ph.D.
! [) V8 Q! c- n% G9 VBecome a professor. And I said, why? And he said, because you’re such a good salesman that any! h% v+ e, N: m
company that gets you is going to use you as a salesman. And you might as well be selling+ A3 ?' q& i. i. ^
something worthwhile like education. [long pause, looks directly at Andy van Dam] Thanks.
" m2 D8 G! C8 L$ s. M5 B5 d* WAndy was my first boss, so to speak. I was lucky enough to have a lot of bosses. [shows slide of7 N. ?* Z1 M$ R |
various bosses] That red circle is way off. Al is over here. [laughter] I don’t know what the hell
+ A3 M i- V0 v5 D: y" ihappened there. He’s probably watching this on the webcast going, my god he’s targeting and he
7 _7 z1 H$ d) d9 d$ R8 Bstill can’t aim! [laughter] I don’t want to say much about the great bosses I’ve had except that they
, R% J! D0 T; n5 o) V3 m3 l) twere great. And I know a lot of people in the world that have had bad bosses, and I haven’t had to
& q5 ~ d3 b, X6 p' D2 S% Rendure that experience and I’m very grateful to all the people that I ever had to have worked for.) A: E, Z" A7 t- {! F
They have just been incredible.
8 l" e" O( I- X# }% U, \6 t9 hBut it’s not just our bosses, we learn from our students. I think the best head fake of all time comes
8 ^$ T8 M* x! ~2 X: S$ V9 m% ?from Caitlin Kelleher. Excuse me, Doctor Caitlin Kelleher, who just finished up here and is starting at+ J* c# \# e, F6 N- s
Washington University, and she looked at Alice when it was an easier way to learn to program, and2 `4 q% Q- A% s. T* o7 e' @" c% V
she said, yeah, but why is that fun? I was like, ‘cause uh, I’m a compulsive male…I like to make the' I {2 |' P' _
little toy soldiers move around by my command, and that’s fun. She’s like, hmm. And she was the
3 R5 O! q" W. Y7 Oone who said, no, we’ll just approach it all as a storytelling activity. And she’s done wonderful work
- }* Z* D7 s5 d2 g2 G( _; ^showing that, particularly with middle school girls, if you present it as a storytelling activity, they’re
! H; K0 L: k5 [7 CP a u s c h P a g e | 19
8 f. g3 u' j" b( g# |* l% uperfectly willing to learn how to write computer software. So all-time best head fake award goes to9 e) ^8 w. k2 K
Caitlin Kelleher’s dissertation.# T, r& h( u& r3 X! G' R
President Cohen, when I told him I was going to do this talk, he said, please tell them about having8 _7 D2 N) C4 B2 N
fun, because that’s what I remember you for. And I said, I can do that, but it’s kind of like a fish
( k |& q) ^9 y4 t1 a" ]talking about the importance of water. I mean I don’t know how to not have fun. I’m dying and I’m
f! w+ o" W% Lhaving fun. And I’m going to keep having fun every day I have left. Because there’s no other way to$ ~! z1 W M( L/ c) u0 X0 Z
play it.
. r$ H' ?# g( |8 d: K& ?So my next piece of advice is, you just have to decide if you’re a Tigger or and Eeyore. [shows slide
& K2 @$ b1 g- n" Y) r9 N. Xwith an image of Tigger and Eeyore with the phrase “Decide if you’re Tigger or Eeyore”] I think I’m' n* v' ~7 S1 I8 p7 u. O1 H. [
clear where I stand on the great Tigger/Eeyore debate. [laughter] Never lose the childlike wonder.
6 [7 R) P4 I0 I* L7 {4 i# @It’s just too important. It’s what drives us. Help others. Denny Proffitt knows more about helping+ F2 f1 I7 s: c7 C
other people. He’s forgotten more than I’ll ever know. He’s taught me by example how to run a8 t, [ D, F, s$ I
group, how to care about people. M.K. Haley – I have a theory that people who come from large
) R; e& f' [9 z! vfamilies are better people because they’ve just had to learn to get along. M.K. Haley comes from a. W Y! T! e8 Y0 J+ V4 p6 {
family with 20 kids. [audience collectively “aaahs”] Yeah. Unbelievable. And she always says it’s
! @) ]. K7 A$ S& U# t, ikind of fun to do the impossible. When I first got to Imagineering, she was one of the people who. ?5 }/ V- o+ O& I2 t! J- Y4 R. f: |" P I
dressed me down, and she said, I understand you’ve joined the Aladdin Project. What can you do?
* D. [ a$ x8 c, z+ b4 O3 e% e! Z: ]And I said, well I’m a tenured professor of computer science. And she said, well that’s very nice
' I! h, Y3 x" RProfessor Boy, but that’s not what I asked. I said what can you do? [laughter]& {5 S: R- I3 F; G4 H, i0 }1 f
And you know I mentioned sort of my working class roots. We keep what is valuable to us, what we
3 S7 ]7 o4 g8 b* Mcherish. And I’ve kept my [high school] letterman’s jacket all these years. [Puts on letterman’s6 G& G2 `' l: c/ {+ y7 E q' M# j
jacket] I used to like wearing it in grad school, and one of my friends, Jessica Hodgins would say, why
/ h+ n5 o: P E1 z# n0 D1 f6 vdo you wear this letterman’s jacket? And I looked around at all the non-athletic guys around me! z7 E% d4 v3 }( ^' _' G
who were much smarter than me. And I said, because I can. [laughter] And so she thought that was
1 Y: h$ V! e# ^/ ~ R3 _+ ja real hoot so one year she made for me this little Raggedy Randy doll. [takes out Raggedy Randy]" g# l; A) l6 u: Y ]
[laughter] He’s got a little letterman’s jacket too. That’s my all-time favorite. It’s the perfect gift for
4 a* b' k3 q- P7 cthe egomaniac in your life. So, I’ve met so many wonderful people along the way.
8 `2 n9 f# x" e5 g4 t( l- oLoyalty is a two way street. There was a young man named Dennis Cosgrove at the University of
- x, e1 x" a% V; B# D2 ~Virginia, and when he was a young man, let’s just say things happened. And I found myself talking1 Q2 ?( w" B8 ?% C% z( Z
to a dean. No, not that dean. And anyway, this dean really had it in for Dennis, and I could never
6 C; A0 H/ d; Q9 j* e/ ofigure out why because Dennis was a fine fellow. But for some reason this Dean really had it in for
) G2 G: d5 F& N, S3 ehim. And I ended up basically saying, no, I vouch for Dennis. And the guy says, you’re not even) } Z) K' q6 G
tenured yet and you’re telling me you’re going to vouch for this sophomore or junior or whatever? I
$ a, s u# M2 `8 Q' o" B$ Cthink he was a junior at the time. I said, yeah, I’m going to vouch for him because I believe in him.
, O: i3 Y3 N$ @6 Y9 y* I, pAnd the dean said, and I’m going to remember this when your tenure case comes up. And I said,+ z$ \+ ? [& t0 t* T* s
deal. I went back to talk to Dennis and I said, I would really appreciate you… that would be good.
2 C( U# B+ ^- l5 M+ y* ~5 zBut loyalty is a two-way street. That was god knows how many years ago, but that’s the same" a* R" k" w" Z F1 Y
Dennis Cosgrove who’s carrying Alice forward. He’s been with me all these years. And if we only/ X% ]. k" m3 o4 y# U
had one person to send in a space probe to meet an alien species, I’m picking Dennis. [laughter] You& ~9 u5 ^' Y% W4 C4 X
can’t give a talk at Carnegie Mellon without acknowledging one very special person. And that would
/ u9 u' g6 X" ?5 ^ e" n- A/ Dbe Sharon Burks. I joked with her, I said, well look, if you’re retiring, it’s just not worth living, L3 a ?. k( f/ V* {& |7 h7 x( N1 I$ D
anymore. Sharon is so wonderful it’s beyond description, and for all of us who have been helped by
( ~) t8 ?: n2 D3 n. ~' _0 b* Gher, it’s just indescribable. I love this picture because it puts here together with Syl, and Syl is great
M5 E! N. o- ^$ b1 Y$ `because Syl gave the best piece of advice pound-for-pound that I have ever heard. And I think all$ L. B( ]) m1 ~" |- I4 R( E+ s& b
young ladies should hear this. Syl said, it took me a long time but I’ve finally figured it out. When it2 m# ]% `2 X! X
comes to men that are romantically interested in you, it’s really simple. Just ignore everything they3 }. S9 }( z1 _: L: r$ I1 q
say and only pay attention to what they do. It’s that simple. It’s that easy. And I thought back to8 |7 L2 v3 @! \% h$ S4 d
my bachelor days and I said, damn. [laughter]
. f: \' g( @0 w1 @: g ]Never give up. I didn’t get into Brown University. I was on the wait list. I called them up and they
- i( v. r# }8 v* ~ ?eventually decided that it was getting really annoying to have me call everyday so they let me in. At1 l; r' T/ \' @. G# x
Carnegie Mellon I didn’t get into graduate school. Andy had mentored me. He said, go to graduate
2 C E- O4 q% ^' fschool, you’re going to Carnegie Mellon. All my good students go to Carnegie Mellon. Yeah, you
: _: }! a! S, E$ Gknow what’s coming. And so he said, you’re going to go to Carnegie Mellon no problem. What he7 G8 g$ }- y) X) W0 G/ C
had kind of forgotten was that the difficulty of getting to the top Ph.D. program in the country had
9 R' G8 x: M8 u) T$ Y# zreally gone up. And he also didn’t know I was going to tank my GRE’s because he believed in me.3 K) B' ~) O2 K& @* U- }4 V
Which, based on my board scores was a really stupid idea. And so I didn’t get into Carnegie Mellon.0 ^( {4 S' {$ j W/ e$ K
No one knows this. ‘Til today I’m telling the story. I was declined admission to Carnegie Mellon.0 ]! Z: q7 j ?5 [; R
And I was a bit of an obnoxious little kid. I went into Andy’s office and I dropped the rejection letter
+ J t) H7 T3 O& r* [9 t* ]9 Pon his desk. And I said, I just want you to know what your letter of recommendation goes for at
3 {/ V( Q4 ^9 r, ECarnegie Mellon. [laughter] And before the letter had hit his desk, his hand was on the phone and
( [+ _( ~$ O1 h: Y, v( f- ]0 Dhe said, I will fix this. [laughter] And I said, no no no, I don’t want to do it that way. That’s not the3 r9 u/ W2 t; v5 q7 I, Z
way I was raised. [In a sad voice] Maybe some other graduate schools will see fit to admit me.
( ~) p% f; o E7 q2 t[laughter] And he said, look, Carnegie Mellon’s where you’re going to be. He said, I’ll tell you what,
4 A2 e! ^' x) OI’ll make you a deal. Go visit the other schools. Because I did get into all the other schools. He said,! s$ K7 e6 I6 g, H# M( o
go visit the other schools and if you really don’t feel comfortable at any of them, then will you let me* i k; w! {" I; Q& E
call Nico? Nico being Nico Habermann [the head of Carnegie Mellon’s Computer Science Dept.] and; X* Z+ w5 \. `- C, n( g$ F% |
I said, OK deal. I went to the other schools. Without naming them by name -- [in a coughing voice]
, ~# T8 y! D' X) M7 P4 U+ KBerkeley, Cornell. They managed to be so unwelcoming that I found myself saying to Andy, you5 O" L# j( E. \* n) A$ P3 e
know, I’m going to get a job. And he said, no, you’re not. And he picked up the phone and he talked
S8 v0 R( }( H* G8 [; Win Dutch. [laughter] And he hung up the phone and he said, Nico says if you’re serious, be in his
' ~$ B* H& e; t) ]. Goffice tomorrow morning at eight a.m. And for those of you who know Nico, this is really scary. So
0 h& N F# J/ z0 o: {6 LI’m in Nico Habermann’s office the next morning at eight a.m. and he’s talking with me, and frankly I
/ }5 N5 e0 h ] I1 \don’t think he’s that keen on this meeting. I don’t think he’s that keen at all. And he says, Randy,+ X1 n2 f+ V# h6 U! g7 Y o
why are we here? And I said, because Andy phoned you? Heh-heh. [laughter] And I said, well, since
: @/ P% J1 p( C$ I( Y6 {0 K5 Q5 {* Vyou admitted me, I have won a fellowship. The Office of Naval Research is a very prestigious$ s' a# N7 k$ g9 }% B
fellowship. I’ve won this fellowship and that wasn’t in my file when I applied. And Nico said, a* `3 o( h, R1 b! W4 d9 s' m6 @/ b. t
fellowship, money, we have plenty of money. That was back then. He said, we have plenty of
! k2 `3 c q G. X: A: amoney. Why do you think having a fellowship makes any difference to us? And he looked at me.$ k. h; _. \* H6 r p
There are moments that change your life. And ten years later if you know in retrospect it was one of
0 i1 m( { ]( S. }" K+ S9 xthose moments, you’re blessed. But to know it at the moment …. with Nico staring through your
0 A* E5 f8 T. L; V2 |2 MP a u s c h P a g e | 21, x! Y( r8 y1 ^8 y$ w: ~
soul. [laughter] And I said, I didn’t mean to imply anything about the money. It’s just that it was an3 p3 ?. _6 @+ D/ t5 P# e; E; i
honor. There were only 15 given nationwide. And I did think it was an honor that would be
9 U9 u9 J2 S% Y5 C6 qsomething that would be meritorious. And I apologize if that was presumptuous. And he smiled.
! _3 o( M- @4 q" l7 P% TAnd that was good.4 g8 w* A' Z$ l W" I
So. How do you get people to help you? You can’t get there alone. People have to help you and I
9 U$ w9 u, @) S6 \do believe in karma. I believe in paybacks. You get people to help you by telling the truth. Being( F; O. ]3 ~3 V# X
earnest. I’ll take an earnest person over a hip person every day, because hip is short term. Earnest; x' f# @: [: u) ]9 T
is long term.
6 R3 I+ c; f* t* ^ A, f8 k! IApologize when you screw up and focus on other people, not on yourself. And I thought, how do I
* D( m* n u% u% Z% j1 W$ |possibly make a concrete example of that? [Speaking to stage hand] Do we have a concrete
6 D# Z" e4 n+ T0 w7 y F& h# Texample of focusing on somebody else over there? Could we bring it out? [Speaking to audience]& Q7 r, W1 V8 F$ B' u! E
See, yesterday was my wife’s birthday. If there was ever a time I might be entitled to have the focus
; E/ W h; P& a5 X# Q. \on me, it might be the last lecture. But no, I feel very badly that my wife didn’t really get a proper
7 A/ f$ ?4 N) u5 M- fbirthday, and I thought it would be very nice if 500 people— [an oversized birthday cake is wheeled
" n# `8 C' }9 W9 X( b8 Zonto the stage] [applause] Happy—; }4 q; \& g1 {) S) c. ?
Everyone: g, F* o* B/ r) Q9 @
…birthday to you [Randy: her name is Jai], happy birthday to you. Happy birthday dear Jai, happy9 e$ d/ v! \# P0 S# p
birthday to you! [applause]
u% X" {3 b& ^ k" H& A[Jai walks on stage, teary-eyed. She walks with Randy to the cake. Randy: You gotta blow it out. The
/ C' S2 a$ D$ l% a6 qaudience goes quiet. Jai blows out the candle on the cake. Randy: All right. Massive applause.]
& y) x0 g+ J' fRandy Pausch:
7 f. D& m1 r$ Z" R. XAnd now you all have an extra reason to come to the reception. [laughter] Remember brick walls let- D/ e+ I- S/ r O
us show our dedication. They are there to separate us from the people who don’t really want to
6 t) d6 H9 I# pachieve their childhood dreams. Don’t bail. The best of the gold’s at the bottom of barrels of crap.; s& s# l# H% X
[Shows slide of Steve Seabolt next to a picture of The Sims] [laughter] What Steve didn’t tell you was
. b4 _% C' {4 V# o( J4 ~/ s8 pthe big sabbatical at EA, I had been there for 48 hours and they loved the ETC, we were the best, we, b+ f# F8 |6 C) R9 a5 D
were the favorites, and then somebody pulled me aside and said, oh, by the way, we’re about to
! n0 }2 ]2 r1 X( V4 a+ ]8 Rgive eight million dollars to USC to build a program just like yours. We’re hoping you can help them& b! k" | q. ?$ |
get it off the ground. [laughter] And then Steve came along and said, they said what? Oh god. And* }, b4 g6 U7 M% y5 D# b. q
to quote a famous man, I will fix this. And he did. Steve has been an incredible partner. And we
8 f" G% ?+ d0 Z- h2 \have a great relationship, personal and professional. And he has certainly been point man on
' v+ R* U* ^5 X+ O+ j' S( \getting a gaming asset to help teach millions of kids and that’s just incredible. But, you know, it" O f# N" k; Z6 O/ F
certainly would have been reasonable for me to leave 48 hours after that sabbatical, but it wouldn’t8 s- W5 s b9 J9 a
have been the right thing to do, and when you do the right thing, good stuff has a way of happening.
8 G$ q- Z. }1 \& VGet a feedback loop and listen to it. Your feedback loop can be this dorky spreadsheet thing I did, or9 M7 }' R8 I+ u; E3 ^* ]; Y0 Q* {
it can just be one great man who tells you what you need to hear. The hard part is the listening to it.) c0 e1 t- u8 y0 M8 _1 }
P a u s c h P a g e | 222 E* }; A8 ]9 S7 m& w
Anybody can get chewed out. It’s the rare person who says, oh my god, you were right. As opposed" X( p6 w$ a$ f r! v( W) M
to, no wait, the real reason is… We’ve all heard that. When people give you feedback, cherish it and
6 B) t' A. ] b) X3 |; Nuse it.
# H& X+ Y7 e/ [& dShow gratitude. When I got tenure I took all of my research team down to Disneyworld for a week.* u; z5 u, u7 y0 e) S2 L
And one of the other professors at Virginia said, how can you do that? I said these people just o3 T( j+ A! ~
busted their ass and got me the best job in the world for life. How could I not do that?
c9 E) p: c5 a3 Z0 Q F. UDon’t complain. Just work harder. [shows slide of Jackie Robinson, the first black major league
/ q9 p+ D9 [- C0 ^baseball player] That’s a picture of Jackie Robinson. It was in his contract not to complain, even2 m9 H& {, [1 f/ _
when the fans spit on him.
' ^: a3 U0 J8 z' `' }( ^2 fBe good at something, it makes you valuable.
8 O! U, S% b7 W5 E/ \) u t! R3 ~3 ~Work hard. I got tenure a year early as Steve mentioned. Junior faculty members used to say to me,
9 p l4 s. |2 Wwow, you got tenure early. What’s your secret? I said, it’s pretty simple. Call my any Friday night in* V: ~- n0 D% _% V
my office at ten o’clock and I’ll tell you.
. W& r* |: I' J. R7 B G. Y! gFind the best in everybody. One of the things that Jon Snoddy as I said told me, is that you might
+ c0 x8 p$ L! o }/ [have to wait a long time, sometimes years, but people will show you their good side. Just keep
& [) S. e, E& }! n' Owaiting no matter how long it takes. No one is all evil. Everybody has a good side, just keep waiting,
( H( U7 s! z: a% r: ]0 E9 Q( x+ dit will come out.
+ n5 ~% j5 _& S6 R e( ?5 hAnd be prepared. Luck is truly where preparation meets opportunity.2 Y$ A/ i# t4 n. Z
So today’s talk was about my childhood dreams, enabling the dreams of others, and some lessons& p8 J1 G, x6 q. Y; T5 T& h! M
learned. But did you figure out the head fake? [dramatic pause] It’s not about how to achieve your
/ C( j$ m6 L T5 ^- H) h/ [dreams. It’s about how to lead your life. If you lead your life the right way, the karma will take care& j* c9 w) ]' B7 e- f, U6 M- I1 O
of itself. The dreams will come to you.
0 T! H- v+ U5 E& _+ y* YHave you figured out the second head fake? The talk’s not for you, it’s for my kids. Thank you all,, R. z6 O" O7 g7 n
good night.
2 b/ ], j: p2 y" w7 a' K; s" a1 Z[applause; standing ovation for 90 seconds; Randy brings Jai onto the stage and they take a bow; they sit% u: ]: D4 [# ^" L( z4 v
down in their seats; standing ovation continues for another minute]8 B$ e5 `+ z3 I) r; i! g }! H
Randy Bryant:
, `# X `/ r4 HThank you everyone. I’d like to thank all of you for coming. This really means a lot I know to Randy.
; |6 r* u6 Z0 Q* [' q8 vHe had this theory even up to yesterday that there wouldn’t be anyone in the room.+ g4 n9 a& b' Y
Randy Pausch [from seat]:* Z6 G; W; {; ?; @, N
After CS50…" C- q: C. b% q& D2 r
Randy Bryant:8 F. I2 l6 Q$ z
I know. I’m the other Randy. That’s been my role here for the past 10 years ever since Randy1 R( k2 d S* T( a- b$ `
Pausch came here on the faculty. And what I mean by that is, I introduce myself. I’m Randy Bryant
/ `6 g( K5 b1 V0 `5 afrom Computer Science. They go, oh, Randy from CS. You’re the one that does all that cool stuff of
. r% h# C) J3 W8 gbuilding virtual worlds and teaching children how to program. And I go, no, no, sorry. That’s the4 V% z- d3 ]! o$ }
other Randy. I’m the wrong one. Sorry, I’m just like a dull nerd. [laughter] So, but I’m very pleased# }' O \' q1 f9 _* ~6 l! r
today to be able to sort of run a brief series of ways in which we want to recognize Randy for his! s3 N! W4 ] M8 {% r" r' ~
contributions he’s made to Carnegie Mellon, to computer science and to the world at large. So we
* f# @# }0 j) r% F2 ]; [have a few – it will be a brief program. We have a few people I’ll be bringing up one after the other.
4 P3 V j4 Z$ i: zI’m sort of the MC here. So first I’d like to introduce who you’ve already met, Steve Seabolt from
2 _2 Y( Q; k b" i8 QElectronic Arts. [applause]: E/ W& D3 N+ f+ s* I
Steve Seabolt:" p! ?! a+ g- g2 R. |
My family wondered whether or not I would make it through the introduction. [voice starts to crack
# P& B+ l4 |' i" uup] And I did that but I might not do so well now. So bear with me. As Randy mentioned, he and I,
9 i( x& `' m4 l# T# r( M: hCarnegie Mellon and Electronic Arts share a particular passion about nurturing young girls and trying3 Z* N4 b. z, S3 N2 m0 y
to encourage young girls to stay with math and stay with science. Every geek in the world shouldn’t" y( J1 G# }) w; J+ {, B4 [
be a guy. You know, it’s such a twist of fate that there’s so many people that are worried about offshoring,
* B! Z+ R* R# g5 f; b' D, A& u2 tand at the same time companies are forced to off-shore, there are fewer and fewer
7 F- L$ b3 u) A# }students entering computer science. And the number of women entering computer science just% n7 d9 T z( c; v' ^5 s5 ]
keeps dropping like a rock. There are way too few Caitlins in this world. And Caitlin, we need so8 P4 e9 L2 Z4 @# e* @3 C, S
many more of you. And with that in mind, Electronic Arts has endowed a scholarship fund. It’s the
1 `$ m( t0 d2 n p! X- CRandy Pausch endowed scholarship fund, established in 2007 by EA. In honor of Randy’s leadership* v* Y1 O5 W7 X* ~ r2 y. I
and contribution to education, computer science, digital entertainment, and his commitment to
# U0 P: ?: ]/ U) m# Q3 }# Nwomen in technology. This scholarship will be awarded annually to a female undergraduate CMU h8 q5 a/ {) P
student who demonstrates excellence in computer science and a passion in the pursuit of a career in0 C' I% U9 e# j5 g3 q6 L' C) v# v
video games. Randy, we’re so honored to do this in your name. [applause]
2 ?; z; p" F4 [+ ]# P* @! g" ^Randy Bryant:
; Q d% m1 U; A( V% k% v* ONext I’d like to introduce Jim Foley. He’s on the faculty at Georgia Tech and he’s here representing6 K' ^* l1 i; [
the ACM Special Interest Group in Computer Human Interaction. Jim. [applause]- v! \8 R& K6 w; v
Jim Foley:/ k9 A o1 Z1 o/ }6 a
[motions to Randy Pausch to come on stage; gives him a hug] That was for Jim. [applause] ACM, the0 p- }( ^/ j2 D0 e1 Q! u
Association for Computing Machinery is a group of about 100,000 computing professionals. One of% R( X- v3 s+ k! A2 b
their special areas of interest is computer human interaction. A few weeks ago, someone who’s a
/ a( l. z* u$ T7 i A6 Uvery good friend of Randy’s wrote a citation which was endorsed by a number of people and went to, Q7 }6 h# D+ ]1 v" B
the executive committee of SIGCHI, which on behalf of the SIGCHI membership, has authorized this% n8 M2 _. P3 r& x0 K; D, a' H
special presentation. The citation was written by Ben Schneiderman and worked on then by Jenny
' ` g7 U, c! B4 V# A- _# TPreese and Ben Peterson, and endorsed by a whole bunch of your friends and now from the* x) W' o: J( t5 \7 n/ U
executive committee. So let me read to you the citation. Special award for professional
& Y2 U1 _0 B1 z! y/ A$ g$ s- ncontributions. Randy Pausch’s innovative work has spanned several disciplines and has inspired both" R W: e+ }* ], z6 v: }; [$ }
mature researchers and a generation of students. His deep technical competence, choice of6 j: H) D1 y5 w/ K' }' l4 P
imaginative projects and visionary thinking are always combined with energy and passion. We’ve) T e1 Y$ k! R/ j
seen that. From his early work on the simple user interface toolkit to his current work on 3D Alice. `( j: ^5 w! r4 w: b. Z& B
programming language, he has shown that innovative tool design enables broad participation in
4 C, g6 K5 K! a/ J1 Lprogramming, especially by women and minorities. Randy Pausch has vigorous commitment to0 y! Z$ M3 | [5 u- U7 e4 T
engaging students at every level by compelling and intellectually rigorous projects, and his appealing
( a/ P4 ?2 m- v! e& O$ Blecture style for a role-model for every teacher and lecture. Yes, yes yes. [voice starts to crack up]' g {6 U; I3 C; q) j
His work has helped make team project experiences and educational computing research more
, v1 A" v1 I# g! C zcommon and respected. As a National Science Foundation Presidential Young Investigator, a Lilly
& Y; W' J7 \& U9 z5 QTeaching Foundation Teaching Fellow, co-founder of the CMU ET Center and consultant for Disney) f( g& S8 Y! m, V
Imagineering and EA, Randy’s done pioneering work in combining computing interface design and
- I( \8 d) s5 ^9 aemotionally rich experiences. For these and many other contributions, the ACM SIGCHI executive' o; E- J( v! M
council is proud to present to Randy Pausch a special award for professional contributions.
# M" e. ]- Z7 |6 a5 ?[applause] [Randy comes back on stage to receive award]
$ p6 |" w0 d2 p2 ~# GRandy Bryant:
6 A$ h6 F2 |4 ]: ^4 D, v; E; Q2 e* sThank you, Jim. Next I’d like to introduce Jerry Cohen, the President of Carnegie Mellon University.# n/ g3 u# V% S. Y0 Q# [
[applause]5 W3 H7 L8 M, A7 y, q- n& R B2 b
Jerry Cohen:2 Y( v7 W' d0 Z
Thank you other Randy. [Tries to move Randy Pausch’s bag of props to the side of the podium] You
: s# Y4 l4 g- P6 Z% J1 M: O; f+ L; ~know you’re traveling heavy, buddy. Many of us have been thinking about and talking about how2 t0 U+ s6 H7 M5 v2 o
we can recognize you on this campus in a way that is lasting and fitting in terms of what you meant/ w1 z4 D. f& r9 G# z- i" J
to this university. A lot of people are involved in this. You thought the provost wasn’t paying x1 S& W2 c- ~
attention all those years. [laughter] Actually, one of the ways we’re going to remember you is this
' P* G# c: h+ J( t T$50,000 bill for stuffed animals. $47,862.32 for pizza. You’ve made great contributions, Randy, we
5 R7 \8 _& S) V" b8 J7 B+ f2 [: ]really appreciate it. [laughter] One thing we could not do, regrettably, is figure out a way to capture) D. k* Y- L# E6 S8 k$ a
the kind of person that you are. You’re humanity, what you’ve meant to us as a colleague, as a
' f' X1 o- F5 Fteacher. As a student. And as a friend. There’s just no way to capture that. There is our memories,
- i' }7 j7 G0 q showever. And there is a way to remember you every day, as people walk this campus. So we’ve
, c& r; v) T5 ]; w+ T6 Vcome up with an idea. You’ve done great things for this campus and for computer science and for
) i- b9 ^8 Z' F6 c7 Jthe world. Surely Alice will live on. But the one we’re going to focus on right now is what you’ve
$ D; l7 F: S% x7 K2 [# gdone to connect computer science with the arts. It was remarkable, it was stunning. It’s had
/ P5 F" h* Y4 W, U" M. t5 {+ uenormous impact, and it will last, I daresay forever. So to recognize that, we are going to do the
5 Q6 \# j& Q/ s: P$ pfollowing. Good job, other Randy. [laughter, as Randy Bryant gets the projector to show the next
1 T6 h4 r( b, _8 W( C9 Xslide] In order to effect this, we had to build a building. [Shows slide of mockup of Gates building] A
6 u) {, [# T; e/ x% w: }. m6 mhundred million dollar building which will allow us to do the following. You’ll note, by the way, to
( G* o( M' b2 A2 O( d- korient people. So the Purnell Center for the Arts is the home of the School of Drama. That modern0 ]- d% a4 r5 `! d
looking new thing, half of which has a green roof, is the new Gates Center for Computer Science.
3 ]* v4 o) Z6 p7 z! Y. ?" mAnd we had long planned to connect these two physically, both to allow people to get down from$ c7 ^" ^" r5 x2 [# ~
the cut to lower campus, and you have to admit it carries tremendous symbolic importance. Well
9 L4 F, \, j' x! c. @* aon behalf of the Board of Trustees of Carnegie Mellon and on behalf of the entire university, I’m
0 L. g3 t' V" _, b: h! O4 ^pleased to announce today that the bridge connecting these two will be known as the Randy Pausch" @( M+ Z# T0 n5 R2 Z$ n
Memorial Footbridge. [shows slide of mockup of bridge] [applause] Now actually based on your talk8 B9 k7 @5 [: A* |) {1 p, P( ~0 A
today we’re thinking now about putting up a brick wall up at either end, and let students see what& B9 f3 A5 x' D9 _! _
they can do with it. [laughter] Randy, there’ll be a generation of students and faculty to come here
U) c% p1 I7 b$ }! }; awho will not know you, but they will cross that bridge, they will see your name, and they’ll ask those
$ H. ]( s- W3 u# k" t* s2 r- _of us who did know you. And we will tell them that unfortunately they were not able to experience) O. R1 @) @+ @8 J
the man, but they are surely experiencing the impact of the man. Randy, thank you for all that2 L% [/ j: ^( i' P2 ~6 d
you’ve done for Carnegie Mellon. We’re going to miss you. [applause] [Randy walks on stage and) V( z& q3 T3 ~! M
gives Jerry a hug]( h2 r2 X$ l& T/ B
Randy Bryant:
' X( G7 ?" B2 I9 w# I! fSo every good show needs a closing act, and so to do that I’ll invite Andy Van Dam. [applause]: ]0 F" U0 m0 g8 {3 T/ A; K
Andy Van Dam:4 _. ^5 O5 `: ^ c% s. q
Oh how I love having the last word. [applause] But to have to go on after that fabulous show, I don’t8 X$ y7 v, q0 g, V7 r; @, k& U
know whether that was good planning. Well I started in Brown in 1965 and it has been my pleasure
* V# Q5 M" N L$ Oand great joy not just to teach thousands of undergraduates and some graduates, but also to work5 G& a9 m6 u& H5 e! J( Y# x! p# \
one-on-one with a couple hundred of them. And over 35 have followed me into teaching I’m proud
3 `9 i" X+ x* Y* n; L9 a3 ?1 Xto say. Out of those best and brightest it was very clear that Randy would stand out. He showed
# l; }- R$ I8 O+ {7 s6 R) K( r- ygreat promise early on and a passion about our field and about helping others that you’ve seen+ l5 b6 j# o c' m7 o* p
amply demonstrated today. It was matched by fierce determination and by persistence in the face
- d g$ L/ S6 ?/ S! o/ |9 xof all brick wall odds. And you’ve heard a lot about that and seen that demonstrated as he fights
% h: L! R( D8 }" p; p& K3 fthis terrible disease. Like the elephant’s child, however, he was filled with satiable curiosity, you# `! t0 F, ?& a! g7 a% m* B
remember that. And what happened to the elephant’s child, he got spanked by all of his relations,
: X' T! b7 Y9 ?7 N0 I* z9 eand you’ve heard some of that. He was brash, he had an irrepressible, raucous sense of humor, w7 V. n0 l6 U) f: X3 A% R4 e; E0 k
which led to the fantastic showmanship that you saw today. He was self-assured, occasionally to. E" n$ q. w0 E
the point of outright cockiness. And stubborn as a mule. And I’m a Dutchman and I know from6 G" N" e, C' v" w3 A- t3 _) y
stubbornness. The kind way to say it is he had an exceedingly strong inner compass, and you’ve
! e: n7 ]7 h, s$ n8 D: M9 _seen that demonstrated over and over again. Now, having been accused of many such traits myself,
7 `6 Z! |8 n0 ]3 L1 TI rather thought of them as features, not bugs. [laughter] Having had to learn English the hard way, I
/ a$ h" C/ i9 w% [6 t* dwas a fanatic about getting students to speak and write correct English from the get-go. And Randy
) m$ I4 j/ c a$ `4 W9 {& \the mouth had no problem with that. But he did have one problem. And I’m having a problem with9 Q/ j7 H2 `# k! s9 h
my machine here, here we go. [gets slide to project on screen]. And that was another part of my* u4 I7 R5 {7 `- G3 i* K& e
fanaticism which dealt with having American students learn about foreign cultures. And specifically
1 Z! M0 w3 k+ H0 D0 R" @about food cultures, and more specifically yet, about Chinese food culture. So I would take my
8 b& @4 H3 M% R; \students to this wonderful Chinese restaurant where they cooked off the menu using a Chinese
, s0 n; B6 c- w" r' f, fmenu. And I tried to get Randy to sample this. But would Mr. White Bread touch that stuff?
& o# ~9 @# T# @& @& b5 Q; v3 d[laughter] Absolutely not. And worse, he refused to learn to eat with chopsticks. I was chairman at
) Q) |; t. H4 o( `the time and I said, Randy, you know, I’m not going to let you graduate if you don’t learn to eat with
- E7 g. ~$ A) ^% k0 [chopsticks! [laughter] It’s a requirement, didn’t you see that? He of course didn’t believe that. And
% G: }. a6 Z4 |: L' hso it came time for graduation and I handed him his diploma. And this was the picture one of my, M K9 B* R' O9 s$ `5 a+ Q/ T
friends took. [Shows slide of Brown University commencement, 1982, Randy dressed in his cap and
) s& r+ `" k6 l, t. Q/ ?gown, opening his diploma, his mouth wide open in surprise] And what you see is Randy opening his+ y- R( C, U) a/ B/ Q J# O% o: W$ O
diploma to show it to his parents, and there was an autographed copy of the menu in Chinese and
2 s. ^% F, L. [3 h3 s5 O6 {no diploma. [laughter, applause] It was one of the few times I got the better of him, I have to( t7 r& q& w! D9 t( C$ L9 W
confess. Well here we are today, all of us, and hundreds and hundreds of people all over the1 z7 }' b+ a1 j* }, P Z' [
country, I dare say all over the world, participating in this great event to celebrate you and your life.
5 u& n( A, [, K) j) D6 |/ v0 xRandy is the person, the Mensch, as we say in Yiddish. Your manifold accomplishments as a model- ?8 J5 U- N2 O, ]& a
academic, especially as a mentor to your students. Your Disneyland expeditions not only were1 M; Z* \4 R4 T0 Z, F; ?
unique but they are legendary. You have more than fulfilled the terms of Brown University Charter,
( N: Z7 M2 G+ ~& i7 P1 Bwhich are: to discharge the offices of life with usefulness and reputation. Your utter devotion to8 J0 U7 y: W0 @ t- c+ [- ~/ a
your family and your career are exemplary, and continue unabated as you cope with the immensity" @6 y8 p, A3 x' t' y. _8 G
of your situation. You exemplify undaunted courage and grace under pressure. The most terrible" o9 p: c; V7 o' a; F5 g5 P4 Z
pressure one can imagine. Randy, you have been and you will continue to be a role model for us.
/ \: i- b) \; p5 D% T0 y[Voice starts cracking up] Thank you so much for all you have done for us. And to allow us to tell
7 ]1 c6 J. V. t! n' g5 V& C( p! W ~you privately and in such a public way how much we admire, honor, and indeed love you. [applause]
- x9 I% K$ A$ w[standing ovation]' c- o- t7 v; h/ C! x+ U
g* M- T9 ]4 l6 A; p
[ 本帖最后由 billzhao 于 2008-11-16 18:02 编辑 ] |
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