
Randy Pausch, noted CMU prof, succumbs to cancer - demandred
http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/08207/899511-100.stm
======
donw
His "last lecture" helped to bootstrap me out of nearly a year of depression.

It is a sad day when a man who has helped, inspired, and driven so many to
excellence passes from the world, for few men are capable of stepping up to
shoulder the burden that Randy carried, and fewer still could do so with such
cheerfulness, tenacity, and care.

He was a great man, and he will be missed by many.

~~~
mattmaroon
Kinda interesting, when you consider that the fact that this day was imminent
was why he was able to help and inspire so many total strangers.

------
wallflower
"Brick walls are there for a reason. The brick walls are not there to keep us
out. The brick walls are there to show how badly we want something. Because
the brick walls are there to stop the people who don’t want something badly
enough. They are there to keep out the other people."

What a metaphor for challenges in life that we pursue

~~~
SethFinkelstein
I listened to the lecture and mean no disrespect to the man's spirit.

But that vapid aphorism sets my teeth on edge. I couldn't help thinking: Gee,
all those people who hit a brick wall because of racism, of sexism, of
poverty, because they didn't have all the advantages of a well-off handsome
personable white guy - well, they just must not have wanted it _badly_ enough.
They're those OTHER PEOPLE who are kept out.

It's a damn nasty metaphor when you think about it.

~~~
dehowell
There are two ways you can look at an aphorism such as this "brick wall"
business. Either:

1\. These words of wisdom are a useful way to motivate myself when things are
rough.

2\. These words of wisdom should be used as a criteria for judging other
people.

I think it's a damn nasty metaphor only when you apply it to someone other
than yourself. Let me put it this way... we should celebrate those people who
have pushed past whatever tremendous barriers they found in their way, but we
should never look down on those who tried and failed.

Probability of success in many areas of life is at least partially dependent
on attitude... and as cheesy and vapid as they may sometimes sound, I will
take whatever comfort and confidence I can from these sorts of inspirational
messages when I come across them.

~~~
SethFinkelstein
Given that that phrase is a snippet I've heard over and over in news coverage,
it's inevitable that it will be repeatedly applied as other than yourself. It
plays into a widespead mythology that success is purely a matter of
virtute/good-attitude (anti-straw-man: I didn't say attitude has no effect at
all), and a concommitant view that for those who did not succeed it's due to
their unvirtuousness/bad-attitude. How could it not be used to "look down on
those who tried and failed", given the part about "... stop the people who
don't want something badly enough. They are there to keep out the other
people." - that wording invites anyone who succeeds to think that the "other
people" are lesser, the ones the wall is there to keep out.

And critically, this doesn't all exist in a vacuum. His intent might have been
entirely benign, but that doesn't mean the overall effect will be entirely
benign.

------
rms
Time Management:
<http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-5784740380335567758>

Last Lecture: <http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-5700431505846055184>

------
Sam_Odio
Having been lucky enough to hear Randy speak in person, I can earnestly say he
was an inspirational and fearless person. When forced to confront his own
mortality, he took the extraordinary and selfless step of teaching the rest of
us what it means to live.

I hope that he continues to change us in the way he seemed to have wanted, and
that our decisions in life will continue to benefit from the perspective he's
provided.

~~~
rbanffy
I just wanted to point out there is a difference between being brave and being
fearless. While one has no fear, the other faces it and does not succumb. For
all I read from and about him and his struggle against cancer, he was a very
brave man.

When my time comes, I hope I die with at least a fraction of his dignity.

------
froo
My heart truly goes out to his family. I have to admit that even on the other
side of the world, I was inspired by him.

The only time I saw one of his lectures was on youtube, I happened across it
in the middle of the night one time, and I just had to finish it - I stayed up
until 5am just to see what he had to say.

It was one of those moments that really makes you think about what we can
really achieve when we put our minds to it.

------
huherto
"But we don't beat the Reaper by living longer. We beat the Reaper by living
well," said Dr. Pausch.

Something to keep in mind.

------
24pfilms
His development on alice is an amazing tool to teach kids programming.
<http://www.alice.org/>

Randy you rock, and always will.

------
jcl
:(

I'd been following Randy's story for a while now. He was constantly upbeat,
still going strong two years after his doctor's initial "matter of months"
prognosis.

As Randy's web page seems to be inundated, here's a page with links to various
Pausch-related media, including his Last Lecture and Time Management talks, as
well as various interviews:

<http://www.cs.virginia.edu/~robins/Randy/>

------
oqtol
It’s a sad day when anyone passes, but his inspirational "Last Lecture" if
anything has taught me to celebrate life.

------
jonnytran
CMU's official page (of his lectures):

<http://www.cmu.edu/randyslecture/>

------
bkrausz
I think the email from CMU's president sums it up very well:

Dear Colleagues:

It is with great sadness that I inform you that our dear friend and colleague
Randy Pausch passed away today, July 25, after a brave struggle against
pancreatic cancer.

Randy captured the minds and hearts of millions worldwide with his Carnegie
Mellon lecture, "Really Achieving Your Childhood Dreams," and his book, "The
Last Lecture."

Randy, who earned his doctorate from Carnegie Mellon in 1988, returned to the
university in 1997 as an associate professor of human-computer interaction and
computer science. Along with Carnegie Mellon Professor Don Marinelli, Randy
was the co-founder of the Entertainment Technology Center, a leading
interactive multimedia education and entertainment center.

At Carnegie Mellon, Randy was also the director of the Alice software project,
a revolutionary way to teach computer programming. The interactive Alice
program teaches computer programming by having kids make animated movies and
games. A fitting legacy to Randy's life and work, Alice may in the future help
to reverse the dramatic drop in the number of students majoring in computer
science at colleges and universities. Randy was also known as a pioneer in the
development of virtual reality, and he created the popular Building Virtual
Worlds class.

An award-winning teacher and researcher, Randy was also a National Science
Foundation Presidential Young Investigator and a Lilly Foundation Teaching
Fellow. He used sabbatical leaves to work at Walt Disney Imagineering and
Electronic Arts (EA), and he consulted with Google Inc. on user interface
design. He is the author or co-author of five books and more than 70 articles.

Perhaps the greatest lesson, however, Randy taught us all was how to live,
even in the face of great challenges, and how to follow our passion. While
Randy's greatest passion was clearly his family, he did not shy from sharing
his passion for his work as a professor, for his students, and for Carnegie
Mellon. We will miss Randy, but we will carry the memory of him and all that
he did to make Carnegie Mellon a better university and each of us who knew him
a better person.

A memorial service for Randy will be scheduled at a later date.

Sincerely,

Jared L. Cohon

------
jedc
Very sad news, indeed.

------
raju
RIP Randy. I know I will miss his fearless spirit.

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jfornear
Pray for his family and children especially.

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thomasswift
I never really new about him until his last lecture was posted on google
video. His speech is truly inspiring and it is very sad to hear of passing.

If you haven't seen that video you need to watch it. links are above.

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whiskeyjack
Ah bugger. Really gutted to hear this. Loved the Last Lecture (book too). A
real inspirational guy. Gotta feel for his family.

------
eznet
A loss for not only the realm of science, but the world as a whole - very
inspirational man. Mr. Pausch will be missed.

------
mrtron
An inspirational man. If he can deal with dying that well - we can all deal
with living a little better.

------
jlouis
This guy gave some of the best lectures I've ever watched. It is a sad day
when someone like this dies.

------
beaudeal
professor pausch was a great man and i was deeply moved by watching his
lectures and he will be missed. granted, i only knew anything about him
because of his last lecture, but my life has been made richer because of the
things that he has done. thank you, randy.

------
charlesju
RIP

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siculars
a real mensch.

------
ispy
It's unfortunate that he died but to be honest, I don't quite understand the
appeal of Dr. Pausch.

All of the quotes attributed to him seem specious reasoning at best. "Beat the
Reaper by living well?" I think "death" wins, always. "Brick walls" are just
there. They don't have a purpose. Pontifications about the meaning of life? It
looks like it doesn't really have one. Sort of like 'god', you can just make
up what ever you want. What's his proof for any of what he's telling me?

Do we listen to this man because we feel sorry for him? because we're afraid
of dying as well? The whole concept just seems like so much saccherine from a
dying man. In 20 years no one will remember this book or him.

I remember seeing him on the Oprah show and starts spouting about how he's in
oh-so-great shape. Then he starts doing push-ups to demonstrate. The whole
display was pathetic and delusional. I'm thinking, "Dude, your dying! You're
not in good health!"

The whole lecture just seems like a bunch of jibbersh from, unfortunately, a
walking-dead man.

~~~
simplegeek
What a piece of crap. There is this thing called emotions. Human beings tend
to get attached to each other. I will cry even if I will see a dead dog
walking. Hell, he was a human facing all this without fear. He will be missed
by many, at least I will remember him in my lifetime.

~~~
ispy
I'm also a little personally offended about your insinuation that I don't have
emotions.

I acted as primary care giver for an elderly relative with alzheimer's, broken
hip, and a few other problems as well as losing my father to brain cancer. Of
course I care, but I just think that everyone focusing on Dr. Pausch's issue
while ignoring everyone else's is ... bad.

Besides, I'm sorry, but if you think that life is some how a beautiful thing
or that there is some sort of divine purpose to it all, see if you feel the
same way when you have to watch a person you've known and loved your whole
life shit themselves or scream at people who aren't there to show their spouse
who died twenty years ago.

Nature's a bitch, god's an asshole, then you turn into worm food.

Fortunately, though people don't know it, we are free to make our own way, and
don't have to be held up to anyone's dogma about how to live life. Or buy
their books.

~~~
DocSavage
I don't think Randy would ask you to buy his book or hold his beliefs above
others. He'd ask you to think about things critically and take a bite out of
life knowing it's not going to last.

Randy was a decent, intelligent guy who got dealt a bad hand and made the best
of it. He was more like one of us than your random celebrity. He was a
_hacker_ who had time to look back on his life through a different lens and
share his thoughts. That's one reason I read his book -- a shared background.
And remember, a significant part of his drive to leave his thoughts was a
parting gift to his children who are too young to know him now. Doesn't take
anything away from all the other people with things to say.

