Randy Pausch

The first person that immediately came to my mind when I thought about who or what is a creative, innovative genius, was Steve Jobs. But, the more I thought about it, the more obvious of a choice that seemed to be. After giving it more time to marinate in my brain, I decided that Randy Pauch is an even more interesting choice than the creator of Apple and iPods.

            For those of you who don’t know who Randy Pausch is, I’ll give a quick summary: He was a professor at Carnegie Mellon University that was diagnosed with Pancreatic cancer, and decided to give one last lecture at the university before he left. I was assigned to watch the YouTube video for my English class senior year, and to be honest I didn’t look forward to it. The video is over an hour long. An HOUR. Did I really have time for that?

            As it turns out, that hour just so happened to be one of the best hours of my life. Randy Pausch summarized big moments of his life and all about the trials he faced throughout it. He talked about his wife and kids and other life events. He discussed his childhood dreams and about living life to its fullest, about living it fearlessly.

 His dream was to pursue a career working for Disney Animation and he reminisced on how he consistently tried to get a job there but failed time and time again. That being said, he never gave up on trying to achieve that dream.

Randy Pausch was creative, genius and innovative in his own way. He was a college professor, which, through practice and experience, led him to being an extremely skilled speaker. Needless to say, his last speech was anything but boring and had creative ties the whole way through. What was so genius and innovative was the way he delivered this speech; it served as so much more than just, well, a speech. It was his last testament of his life and the last lecture he would ever give at Carnegie Mellon. But, even more than that, it was a letter of sorts for his wife and children. Yes, he covered his life story in a little more than an hour, but it served as a remembrance of himself for his children and wife.

The advice to his children about never giving up, setting goals, and not being afraid of failing is one of the most amazing gifts anyone could have left behind.

A New Way of Genius

Genius. Innovative. Creative.

The first thing I thought of when I heard those words during last week’s prewrite was Steve Jobs and, at first, that’s what I was going to run with. But, the more I thought about being creative and innovative, and without a doubt genius, Randy Pausch came to mind.

            For those of you who don’t know who Randy Pausch is, I’ll give a quick summary: He was a professor at Carnegie Mellon University that was diagnosed with Pancreatic cancer, and decided to give one last lecture at the university before he died. I was assigned to watch the YouTube video for my English class senior year, and to be honest I didn’t look forward to it. The video is over an hour long. An HOUR. Did I really have time for that?

            Turns out, that hour just so happened to be one of the best hours of my life. Randy Pausch talked about his life and all about the trials he faced throughout it. He talked about his wife and his kids and other life events. His dream was to pursue a career working for Disney Animation and he discussed how he consistently tried to get a job there but failed time and time again. He never gave up, though.

I don’t want to ruin the lecture for anyone that wants to watch it, but I have to talk about the ending. (So, basically, if you want to watch the video, don’t read the rest of this… or read it after.) The most genius thing about this lecture and video is the last 7 or so minutes. Randy Pausch reveals the real reason he decided to write and perform one last lecture at Carnegie Mellon: it served as a sort of last letter, speech and remembrance of him, for his children. I honestly didn’t see it coming and it hit me like a truck. It was one of the most magnificent and unexpected surprises I could have imagined.

Randy Pausch was creative, genius and innovative in his own way. He was an extremely skilled speaker, so his speech was interesting and had creative ties the whole way through. What was so genius and innovative was the way he delivered this speech that serves as so much more than just that. His speech, like I said, was for his children. The whole concept was to talk about Pausch’s own life and his childhood dreams, but I don’t think anyone expected it to serve the purpose it does. The advice to his children about never giving up, setting goals, following your childhood dreams, and not being afraid of failing, is one of the most amazing gifts he could have left them. 

Genius Pre-write/brainstorm

Last week in class we were given time to think of a person or object that we thought was incredibly creative or genius. Short and sweet, this is what I came up with:

iPod/Steve Jobs

·      Steve Jobs created Macintosh

·      Created a new, innovative way to use the computer

·      Computers are fast, clean, and easy to use

·      Created desktops and laptops with new technology

·      Eventually created the iPod, which continues to grow and improve today

·      Invention of the iPad

·      Tons of technologies made by Apple today: iPad, iPod, Apple TV, iMac, MacBooks, etc.

·      iPod is an Apple product

·      Music can be stored in a hand-held device

·      Thousands of songs can be kept in one place

·      The iPod is organized for you

·      The battery life is long

·      Listen to music as the soundtrack to your life

·      Playlists can be made to suit your mood

·      Product is simple and easy to use

·      Clean cut, straightforward

·      Organized into artists, songs, genres, etc.

Genius: creation of a product that is new and innovative that changes every day life and the ways people think and operate

OR Randy Pausch

Professor at Carnegie Mellon

“The Last Lecture”

OR “Tuesdays with Morrie”

Morrie Schwartz

By Mitch Albom