Last Lecture Assignment Guidelines

Randy Pausch is a famous name in the world of technology. In particular, he has helped develop numerous new ways how computers and humans can interact, especially in the world of Virtual Reality (VR).

The university where Randy Pausch taught, Carnegie Mellon University, holds a regular lecture series called "The Last Lecture." It was designed to bring in world renowned academics to give a lecture based on this premise: "If you knew you were going to die, and you could only give one last lecture to your students, what would you say?"

Randy's presentation was "Achieving Your Childhood Dreams" is considered a classic, not only for building a life and a career, but it also holds deep lessons about business organizations.

Your assignment is to watch the entire length of Randy's "Last Lecture." You may access the You Tube presentation either HERE or by clicking on the link on the Class Blog Page. After watching The Last Lecture at least once, your assignment is to write a paper that answers the following questions DUE 8 June 2010:

Name the things he said he would not talk about.

Name four childhood dreams that he was able to achieve.

What are his lessons learned?

What were the two "head fakes" for his lecture?

Describe the difference between the environment of him working in the university and working at Disney?

Describe three things what Randy says about "Brick Walls"

Describe in detail the Brick Walls Randy experienced when trying to fly on NASA's "Vomit Comet"

How did Randy overcome the Brick Walls to work as an Imagineer?

What does Randy mean by "Bringing Something to the Table?"

What are lessons that Randy makes that are useful for business owners and managers to learn?