鲜花( 152) 鸡蛋( 1)
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- m1 y, @+ E5 G9 r% C8 v! W% k8 l0 Z. k/ l Z3 W0 A2 v6 b: V! H
8 ^2 d0 z; s( J* g# Z( j# @$ yRandy Pausch’s Last Lecture: Really Achieving Your Childhood Dreams9 g. ]* V5 Z) x+ [6 @
Given at Carnegie Mellon University7 e! e B! W; u
Tuesday, September 18, 2007+ M% s* ~% T4 \$ ?" u1 f* H* y: D
McConomy Auditorium
5 e! s! y* G8 g: L) q% g2 h+ \For more information, see www.randypausch.com$ D, c( B0 a1 h' N8 l
© Copyright Randy Pausch, 20071
6 m% ~ C4 c# q& P# \" R4 S o- q( w* y9 _3 W# M1 \; W, E
Introduction by Indira Nair, Carnegie Mellon’s Vice Provost for Education:
2 p) F* K0 x0 U- o& E2 hHi. Welcome. It’s my pleasure to introduce you to the first of our new university’s lectures titled' ^2 } Q! Z. `, V, v3 v
Journeys – lectures in which members of our community will share with us reflections and insights
4 c0 v8 H4 D W# }0 l4 P( H. kon their personal and professional journeys. Today’s Journey’s lecture as you all know is by; ?9 A% N D9 @! o- X
Professor Randy Pausch. The next one is on Monday, September 24th by Professor Roberta Klatzky.$ H6 E, S. r1 v0 R$ z
To introduce Professor Randy Pausch, our first Journeys speaker, I would like to introduce Randy’s
# P/ t( p {- Yfriend and colleague, Steve Seabolt. Steve has been at Electronic Arts for six years and is the Vice
3 {9 A0 G$ Q, a& z3 _President of Global Brand Development for The Sims label at Electronic Arts. As you all know, The
' C7 Z1 U4 ?) d& H: ^. f, lSims is one of the most, if not the most successful PC games in the world, with sales approaching
( D4 ?/ t& [ T1 k- }+ nover $100,000,000. Prior to that, Steve was the Vice President for Strategic Marketing and
7 ?# b) G4 x7 d* @0 h' {1 \" `0 C! ?Education at EA, bridging academia and Electronic Arts. His goal was to work with academics so& c( Q$ ^) N% Z- j4 i, {( B; p
there was an effective educational pathway for kids with building games as their dreams. It was in4 g- h! E3 J2 j# i, }
that role that Randy and Steve became colleagues and friends. Before Electronic Arts, Steve was the
" C3 W% @' F# h1 X. l1 jworldwide Ad Director for Time Magazine and CEO of Sunset Publishing, which is a very favorite- g* N( r" `9 G7 w+ w
magazine in the Southwest, and as CEO there, one of the things he started was school tours,
4 r% P T8 Z; P5 |' Xbecause like Randy he shares a passion for inspiring kids of all ages to share their excitement for7 }6 z/ C5 F5 B' r0 O3 G
science and technology.0 c- D7 i# g: n% p3 d, R5 ]5 U
So to introduce Randy, his friend Steve Seabolt. Steve? L+ X. c6 Z2 N8 o/ k4 t0 ]2 W. T5 o
[applause], {/ f) f3 T/ Q) h8 V2 K- J
Steve Seabolt, Vice President of Worldwide Publishing and Marketing for Electonic Arts (EA):
. e$ R/ n5 `) \3 J4 uThank you very much. I don’t mean to sound ungracious by correcting you, but given that our PR' o1 x" P) }$ j. }3 j% j T! g( v
people are probably watching this on webcast, I’d catch heck if I went home and didn’t say that it
: ?, X# D; p/ r, d7 U0 ^5 w( l) vwas 100 million units for The Sims. [laughter] Not that big numbers matter to Electronic Arts.
+ t" a( s, X E$ Z; G[laughter]
* C/ f/ T( Z8 @: G5 y" c2 fI don’t see any empty seats anywhere, which is a good thing, which means I just won a bet from+ F" g5 Y. ]4 f
Randy as a matter of fact. Depending upon who’s version of the story you hear, he either owes me4 m ?7 i' N' H9 y
20 dollars or his new Volkswagen. [laughter] So, I’ll take the car.
& _- C1 l# k: H0 M0 l5 F fIt’s a pleasure to be here, thank you very much. I’m going to start by covering Randy’s academic& r; b- K2 {" Y2 W$ S* U, k( f$ t
credentials. It’s a little bizarre for me to be standing here at Carnegie Mellon, which is a school I7 s0 l5 p5 }3 p; s' D6 d) i" Z9 ~9 ~
couldn’t get into no matter how much I contributed to this institution. [laughter] But, no really, I’m
) g6 R& x7 E7 x9 Anot kidding! You all think, oh gosh he’s humble. Really, no, I’m not humble at all. Very average SAT
) z$ h) X! m' j, F, B. oscores, you know, right in the middle of my high school class of 900. Anyway, Randy. Randy earned1 X1 J4 x1 M( E
– it really pisses me off that Randy’s so smart—actually I called him, we decided about, what, four
+ p v7 a4 V4 a# Y; a8 v) ^! iweeks, ago and we heard the news went from bad to horrific. It was on a Wednesday night and I
8 |! K+ c t, I4 C* a, u' ^said look – we have two choices. We can play this really straight and very emotional , or we can go
4 S! `8 n8 `5 `* O( O) Z2 G, tto dark humor. And for those of you who know Randy well, he was like oh, dark humor! So I called
7 D6 Y( {0 i7 p7 o0 S& |him the next day and I was like, dude you can’t die. And he’s like, what do you mean? And I said,
. l. c9 b$ s2 u ^7 Hwell, when you die, the average of IQ of Seabolt’s friends is going to like drop 50 points. [laughter] To9 u2 V Q; ]1 S
which he responded, we need to find you some smarter friends. [laughter] So you’re all smart
- P1 O0 X" q% T: ~% P: gbecause you’re here, so if you want to be my friend, I’ll be over in a corner of the reception room.8 H/ _! Y. ?: u5 h) E3 N9 E
Randy earned his undergraduate degree in Computer Science at Brown in 1982. His Ph.D. in CS from# C7 N7 N7 ?2 |& s* k0 x3 E/ j
Carnegie Mellon in 1988 and taught at the University of Virginia where he was granted tenure a year
7 z) i1 o! Q* r* _early. He joined the Carnegie Mellon faculty in 1997 with appointments in the CS, HCI and Design5 F: n& v9 v' c$ C
departments. He has authored or co-authored five books and over 60 reviewed journal and s3 \0 r' b& u
conference proceeding articles, none of which I would understand. With Don Marinelli, he founded
$ x5 {- c) E. Z# F8 xthe Entertainment Technology Center, which quickly became the gold standard organization for4 E8 K" j, p2 j9 ?& \9 p# d2 @
training artists and engineers to work together. It is my view and the view of our company,
: [5 S3 a/ Z d5 UElectronic Arts, that the ETC is the interactive program by which all others in the world are judged.
+ S: E) T; b/ {! M1 \8 E& DI met Randy in the Spring of 2004, and when I look back it’s sort of hard to imagine it’s only been
5 V6 ]' B- k' `0 e" e0 hthree years given the depth of our friendship. The ETC already had a very strong relationship with3 b, z5 Z$ \: K4 W& i6 u
EA and with Randy. And Randy as he always does, for those of you who know him well, wanted to
6 R# s# C4 G% o# s5 s0 Elearn more, with his own eyes, about how the games business works, and how games really got7 e. D% D# D/ S/ s4 ?6 o5 Y" G
made. So he spent a summer in residence at EA, and I was his primary contact point. We were in
. h% d: S- x) x8 p1 J6 Tmy view the odd couple. Randy the brilliant, charming, Carnegie educated CS professor. And me$ @4 f% Q* \9 D& s! p
who went to the University of Iowa on a wing and a prayer. We spent a lot of time together that$ n1 m! `. e' L4 Z
semester and for those of you who know Randy well, that’s a lot of turkey sandwiches on white
1 y* D2 K+ _8 [! q% L1 K0 q: Pbread with mayo. [laughter, clapping] My kids tease me about being “white.” There’s nobody more
$ u% \. w% ~' v. S“white” than Randy. [laughter] We spent an enormous amount of time together. We taught each$ L U6 e: {9 g8 s% E7 p
other about each other’s very interesting, strange cultures to the other. Academic versus the
1 }( R* @ q- C2 s1 I6 ^ Jcorporate world. And we developed a deep friendship woven together with stories about our kids,( i8 t, A) w3 c8 P6 Y) j+ B
our wives, our parents, as well as deep discussions about the paramount nature of integrity in( O: t% I! @+ }
everything you do, family first, religion, our shared joy in connecting people and ideas, and
" w/ c2 P+ j) T+ t& N7 T P" zdeploying money and influence to do good. And the importance of having a lot of laughs along the) U8 F" {9 ~, Y) c) [: N
way.% W+ E- U0 f5 @7 O
Randy’s dedication to making the world a better place is self evident to anyone who has crossed- M8 s7 d1 J, G5 O
paths with him. Whether it’s directly influencing students, creating organizations like the ETC,6 y5 D/ s g) S) @1 ?
building tools like Alice or doing what he probably does best, which is bridging cultures. As Ben
* N. I/ ]( k, U/ Y) m; V+ HGordon, EA’s Chief Creative Officer, says of Randy, even more important than Randy’s academic,% C; B! a. Y; e: t& ^2 I
philanthropic, and entrepreneurial accomplishments has been his humanity and the enthusiasm he7 @! c6 K: f5 @' H3 Q p! Y: P
brings to students and coworkers on a daily basis.
" K( B5 o- g8 z, f$ f5 ^" j- dFor those of you who know Randy, Randy brings a particular zest for life and humor, even while
+ `& V* r ^) C0 V, |+ o1 Y3 W1 g; wfacing death. To Randy, this is simply another adventure. It is my great honor to introduce Dylan,; u- o, S; E+ i- T( c
Logan and Chloe’s dad, Jai’s husband, and my very dear friend, Dr. Randy Pausch. [applause]0 a! s! s0 W$ ^9 J/ w2 f! c3 x" P. b
Randy Pausch:
) ^) w$ D6 Z) _" [" ?' V, v[responding to a standing ovation] Make me earn it. [laughter]; y" o2 G( }. S' _3 @% ]
It’s wonderful to be here. What Indira didn’t tell you is that this lecture series used to be called the6 d8 _* L9 L& i3 o: R7 W4 i
Last Lecture. If you had one last lecture to give before you died, what would it be? I thought, damn,
# Z7 m& J; b) h' {- `I finally nailed the venue and they renamed it. [laughter] v. q R! B2 V! q' a
So, you know, in case there’s anybody who wandered in and doesn’t know the back story, my dad
& l. q+ ?" [0 S3 Kalways taught me that when there’s an elephant in the room, introduce them. If you look at my CAT. u# P) z6 v' J% i# A+ {1 D# g* r
scans, there are approximately 10 tumors in my liver, and the doctors told me 3-6 months of good. Q7 Q9 N. C. m2 h& _/ c
health left. That was a month ago, so you can do the math. I have some of the best doctors in the s( B2 O2 ]4 m
world. Microphone’s not working? Then I’ll just have to talk louder. [Adjusts mic] Is that good? All5 \7 }+ _3 N/ R! @3 A1 S
right. So that is what it is. We can’t change it, and we just have to decide how we’re going to
% m% t) X1 T p( I) p' o+ d0 nrespond to that. We cannot change the cards we are dealt, just how we play the hand. If I don’t7 C# n, l) s Y
seem as depressed or morose as I should be, sorry to disappoint you. [laughter] And I assure you I
! q+ F9 c Q7 x* X0 R Yam not in denial. It’s not like I’m not aware of what’s going on. My family, my three kids, my wife,% B0 z! b' m% L0 W
we just decamped. We bought a lovely house in Virginia, and we’re doing that because that’s a4 `( J7 c! p: L
better place for the family to be, down the road. And the other thing is I am in phenomenally good
; }' V6 k/ R) Q; `0 W7 J8 lhealth right now. I mean it’s the greatest thing of cognitive dissonance you will ever see is the fact' |/ }% m, v8 q: \ r
that I am in really good shape. In fact, I am in better shape than most of you. [Randy gets on the
0 {" W% N( q# d" e, Z" N1 t; zground and starts doing pushups] [Applause] So anybody who wants to cry or pity me can down and
/ ]5 q9 r! C/ a" udo a few of those, and then you may pity me. [laughter]
# F+ A9 ? e4 s; kAll right, so what we’re not talking about today, we are not talking about cancer, because I spent a
# g6 e( e6 `, x$ a# J3 Hlot of time talking about that and I’m really not interested. If you have any herbal supplements or( R& Y: [ Q% ^' {% X/ V
remedies, please stay away from me. [laughter] And we’re not going to talk about things that are
" T" k( v% G b6 h' Qeven more important than achieving your childhood dreams. We’re not going to talk about my wife,) {, S/ p: Z& c, ]
we’re not talking about my kids. Because I’m good, but I’m not good enough to talk about that
' p- W2 k9 B) K( Dwithout tearing up. So, we’re just going to take that off the table. That’s much more important.
) R1 ~# j7 q! V) r' WAnd we’re not going to talk about spirituality and religion, although I will tell you that I have4 Y, k& L4 i. l' ?
achieved a deathbed conversion. [dramatic pause] … I just bought a Macintosh. [laughter and
: }: ~3 H S0 |/ L- Z" Lclapping] Now I knew I’d get 9% of the audience with that … All right, so what is today’s talk about
5 W h7 }+ L- H" b5 h$ ?then? It’s about my childhood dreams and how I have achieved them. I’ve been very fortunate that
4 M: T# p9 |+ J& k1 V5 i& _. M# xway. How I believe I’ve been able to enable the dreams of others, and to some degree, lessons
& k, y i6 x7 S; Dlearned. I’m a professor, there should be some lessons learned and how you can use the stuff you
3 i& I* I( Q2 g0 u5 M* v# Qhear today to achieve your dreams or enable the dreams of others. And as you get older, you may
, J5 s3 ~% E0 D8 W1 a. _7 y6 Zfind that “enabling the dreams of others” thing is even more fun. h4 A* H- U5 H# _4 o
So what were my childhood dreams? Well, you know, I had a really good childhood. I mean, no/ v: `2 U4 h) g* m7 b9 N2 W& o! J
kidding around. I was going back through the family archives, and what was really amazing was, I
" n" M. N0 Z) Wcouldn’t find any pictures of me as a kid where I wasn’t smiling. And that was just a very gratifying
' H6 S$ D. i C9 \ t$ kthing. There was our dog, right? Aww, thank you. And there I actually have a picture of me
3 \, O% x0 {! w8 U" T5 C6 [0 cdreaming. I did a lot of that. You know, there’s a lot of wake up’s! I was born in 1960. When you q3 r' w( D/ w, U
are 8 or 9 years old and you look at the TV set, men are landing on the moon, anything’s possible.5 R- {1 r9 v+ x% e1 K5 m& w" t
And that’s something we should not lose sight of, is that the inspiration and the permission to
+ e5 s+ H. l/ S2 Q" u/ gdream is huge.
: ]- T. G! n9 s$ j8 {, O& [7 v" m5 c" `So what were my childhood dreams? You may not agree with this list, but I was there. [laughter]- ~# I) ^, q4 ]! [ l" e" x$ k- P
Being in zero gravity, playing in the National Football League, authoring an article in the World Book
5 s8 A( D: J, \Encyclopedia – I guess you can tell the nerds early. [laughter] Being Captain Kirk, anybody here have
- Y) {3 ^ X- V( m8 d8 }! K. F" Othat childhood dream? Not at CMU, nooooo. I wanted to become one of the guys who won the big
5 ~5 r, |" F" @+ U. a8 _8 B' lstuffed animals in the amusement park, and I wanted to be an Imagineer with Disney. These are not4 I1 `' u. ~ _" G% b- ?
sorted in any particular order, although I think they do get harder, except for maybe the first one.# y7 O6 W0 p& q( d. \9 ?
OK, so being in zero gravity. Now it’s important to have specific dreams. I did not dream of being an: ?7 I) l: Q) G& Y% R3 {
astronaut, because when I was a little kid, I wore glasses and they told me oh, astronauts can’t have
. f3 E% L( N+ T% z0 I( X4 d& pglasses. And I was like, mmm, I didn’t really want the whole astronaut gig, I just wanted the floating.
% P/ ]0 R% r+ h# Q$ nSo, and as a child [laughter], prototype 0.0. [slide shown of Randy as a child lying in floatingformation- g. \! Z6 Q# k- r# x* v2 T; t
on a table top] But that didn’t work so well, and it turns out that NASA has something( J5 Z* i2 m# n3 I" N8 X( E5 f
called the Vomit Comet that they used to train the astronauts. And this thing does parabolic arcs,
, y$ x# o/ M% `4 t- n4 yand at the top of each arc you get about 25 seconds where you’re ballistic and you get about, a ?, l$ K3 w4 d/ A9 ]
rough equivalent of weightlessness for about 25 seconds. And there is a program where college
& w* c; {2 G& x: W% Astudents can submit proposals and if they win the competition, they get to fly. And I thought that
# k* T7 g, K& R9 j8 \# u4 v; Owas really cool, and we had a team and we put a team together and they won and they got to fly.7 d1 t% o) I7 N7 k. U
And I was all excited because I was going to go with them. And then I hit the first brick wall, because3 R! a/ X# P( g `8 X2 C3 V H
they made it very clear that under no circumstances were faculty members allowed to fly with the
* L' ]8 `& }7 i- z' m r+ [teams. I know, I was heartbroken. I was like, I worked so hard! And so I read the literature very
" t4 x7 I) x; ]; K8 M# E. U3 `carefully and it turns out that NASA, it’s part of their outreach and publicity program, and it turns
! \5 c8 G9 c. }out that the students were allowed to bring a local media journalist from their home town.
5 ^0 e: {5 x( \9 ^% Y% _[laughter] And, [deep voice] Randy Pausch, web journalist. [regular voice] It’s really easy to get a; ` I: t8 l4 f0 F) j" V {9 H
press pass! [laughter] So I called up the guys at NASA and I said, I need to know where to fax some1 D; K# }" v3 @7 @% h
documents. And they said, what documents are you going to fax us? And I said my resignation as) T4 ]( f" Q: y( K9 ^; L
the faculty advisor and my application as the journalist. And he said, that’s a little transparent, don’t
$ T# S% w5 }1 D0 h L3 O" |you think? And I said, yeah, but our project is virtual reality, and we’re going to bring down a whole- \6 a$ b* T2 i- ~/ w
bunch of VR headsets and all the students from all the teams are going to experience it and all those
; e) ^7 l- P% f: vother real journalists are going to get to film it. Jim Foley’s [who is nodding in the audience] going
7 |" ~7 j2 K5 v! W. V: i0 G9 Joh you bastard, yes. And the guy said, here’s the fax number. So, indeed, we kept our end of the
, R) O R, w8 e t% m$ z5 g7 Dbargain, and that’s one of the themes that you’ll hear later on in the talk, is have something to bring
: k2 F1 T3 R5 P- nto the table, right, because that will make you more welcome. And if you’re curious about what& Z/ C- l4 Q9 q5 O. p7 Y
zero gravity looks like, hopefully the sound will be working here. [slide shows videotape from9 o1 e$ A% B' ?3 }
Randy’s zero gravity experience] There I am. [laughter] You do pay the piper at the bottom. [laugher,7 \; C$ ]* u9 Q7 N: u4 K6 C% |
as the people in the video crash to the floor of the plane on the video] So, childhood dream number1 n+ F, W5 @" D% M9 l. }( h% W( v
one, check.
+ a d6 S# Y6 ^- w& eOK, let’s talk about football. My dream was to play in the National Football League. And most of# h' w# H, G2 X5 L" \3 e5 ? N
you don’t know that I actually – no. [laughter] No, I did not make it to the National Football League,
; U; X$ x" s. m' ? z3 Q2 q* hbut I probably got more from that dream and not accomplishing it than I got from any of the ones- u' G; r. m3 V# l( B" J4 p9 S
that I did accomplish. I had a coach, I signed up when I was nine years old. I was the smallest kid in
, ~! N8 B( _7 @3 y: x4 l" Gthe league, by far. And I had a coach, Jim Graham, who was six-foot-four, he had played linebacker. C' l' q5 K: c, K1 |2 E" O0 u8 D) l
at Penn State. He was just this hulk of a guy and he was old school. And I mean really old school.
( E# k, v3 q5 ^5 A/ rLike he thought the forward pass was a trick play. [laughter] And he showed up for practice the first
6 ~" E9 h& Z( kday, and you know, there’s big hulking guy, we were all scared to death of him. And he hadn’t9 y/ d2 J9 \# n# F& c: J
brought any footballs. How are we going to have practice without any footballs? And one of the
; z8 B5 M" ?9 cother kids said, excuse me coach, but there’s no football. And Coach Graham said, right, how many
* A" e* C3 T8 M. Y4 ymen are on a football field at a time? Eleven on a team, twenty-two. Coach Graham said, all right,1 V" i0 }- e) v0 a
and how many people are touching the football at any given time? One of them. And he said, right,
" L9 p' I+ b# b) z" W* e4 B1 Mso we’re going to work on what those other twenty-one guys are doing. And that’s a really good/ ^; W" B3 ] }8 N6 L3 B
story because it’s all about fundamentals. Fundamentals, fundamentals, fundamentals. You’ve got
4 w* o7 E# ~3 Zto get the fundamentals down because otherwise the fancy stuff isn’t going to work. And the other0 D5 ]' ~( ]1 U" b% T
Jim Graham story I have is there was one practice where he just rode me all practice. You’re doing) K. }: ^ ?( m% I( D3 x7 ~
this wrong, you’re doing this wrong, go back and do it again, you owe me, you’re doing push-ups
! f7 L9 b. D/ Z7 hafter practice. And when it was all over, one of the other assistant coaches came over and said,
; g0 A3 m/ A6 z4 h* V& z r7 b; Oyeah, Coach Graham rode you pretty hard, didn’t he? I said, yeah. He said, that’s a good thing. He; B4 o. }( n1 X9 p$ t: A0 z4 K
said, when you’re screwing up and nobody’s saying anything to you anymore, that means they gave
* t7 k& H) j0 @up. And that’s a lesson that stuck with me my whole life. Is that when you see yourself doing# N# ] t7 S- i6 F; r6 @) r' g; V: K
something badly and nobody’s bothering to tell you anymore, that’s a very bad place to be. Your/ J X: D0 _9 |
critics are your ones telling you they still love you and care. H" j5 ?% b2 l" S
After Coach Graham, I had another coach, Coach Setliff, and he taught me a lot about the power of
/ u8 s: `- ~- k: ^/ F0 I, denthusiasm. He did this one thing where only for one play at a time he would put people in at like
6 h7 b, Q' t- F$ b2 X! X" `the most horrifically wrong position for them. Like all the short guys would become receivers, right?
6 ^/ W; E3 Y( x3 {7 T9 FIt was just laughable. But we only went in for one play, right? And boy, the other team just never' |8 r- i* b* f- g
knew what hit ‘em them. Because when you’re only doing it for one play and you’re just not where
1 A8 z) Z" X0 r6 pyou’re supposed to be, and freedom’s just another word for nothing left to lose, boy are you going: Q' L7 `; O! q/ [
to clean somebody’s clock for that one play. And that kind of enthusiasm was great. And to this
/ S7 @% J+ l: L3 v$ cday, I am most comfortable on a football field. I mean, it’s just one of those things where, you. t b/ i' q/ s, z7 }* q8 m! e |
know, [pulls out a football] if I’m working a hard problem, people will see me wandering the halls" d/ o& R0 v5 S! ~4 z
with one of these things, and that’s just because, you know, when you do something young enough; n% h: }* S' {
and you train for it, it just becomes a part of you. And I’m very glad that football was a part of my
4 _9 i( M8 y) F1 O$ ?7 Rlife. And if I didn’t get the dream of playing in the NFL, that’s OK. I’ve probably got stuff more! E# Y* @' {" {# x) S9 B$ T
valuable. Because looking at what’s going on in the NFL, I’m not sure those guys are doing so great
* W: ]& x( ]; e* I% C" Y7 a5 Cright now.
, G5 [, R1 F! Y# w) F+ A2 QOK, and so one of the expressions I learned at Electronic Arts, which I love, which pertains to this, is
+ J% O$ J/ H; Nexperience is what you get when you didn’t get what you wanted. And I think that’s absolutely
8 _! L; ~7 z; z- S/ }! \( J* Wlovely. And the other thing about football is we send our kids out to play football or soccer or4 ~0 Q* t$ Z, ?3 |' v7 l. ]
swimming or whatever it is, and it’s the first example of what I’m going to call a head fake, or
' z1 ]* ? M, o0 \6 v3 jindirect learning. We actually don’t want our kids to learn football. I mean, yeah, it’s really nice that- P4 [7 e# ]; d
I have a wonderful three-point stance and that I know how to do a chop block and all this kind of
4 ?* ?9 b# v+ r5 c" gstuff. But we send our kids out to learn much more important things. Teamwork, sportsmanship,
9 G7 s( d. F$ b0 m7 z' Rperseverance, etcetera, etcetera. And these kinds of head fake learning are absolutely important.
( S2 j2 D3 a0 B, M! s2 v5 {And you should keep your eye out for them because they’re everywhere.) J; \; | r: r5 K; R) N8 x( s3 ?
All right. A simple one, being an author in the World Book Encyclopedia. When I was a kid, we had
; b0 n. \' `- |! h, x) w# kthe World Book Encyclopedia on the shelf. For the freshman, this is paper. … We used to have these" o, B- R" P6 m: ?, P3 w) u6 h
things called books. [laughter] And after I had become somewhat of an authority on virtual reality,3 m% w9 S8 y1 L5 r- |7 C
but not like a really important one, so I was at the level of people the World Book would badger.7 T; }9 h9 D4 ?& d% ?3 ]
They called me up and I wrote an article, and this is Caitlin Kelleher [shows slide of Caitlin wearing
+ n9 P: t& k: G! n8 d8 yvirtual reality headset manipulating a 3D world], and there’s an article if you go to your local library- N1 z: u. s6 c' w1 |' \, h" Y5 R
where they still have copies of the World Book. Look under V for Virtual Reality, and there it is. And
3 t# i1 a4 ?) E& R2 `all I have to say is that having been selected to be an author in the World Book Encyclopedia, I now
6 O9 l; { {: L- s; obelieve that Wikipedia is a perfectly fine source for your information because I know what the% d7 z3 V/ _0 p/ V7 R
quality control is for real encyclopedias. They let me in.% t) c; ~) q6 H9 Y' i% G; ~
All right, next one. [laughter] [shows slide “Being like Meeting Captain Kirk”] At a certain point you& z2 T# t/ x" p. F. `( R( s3 y
just realize there are some things you are not going to do, so maybe you just want to stand close to
; R( Y/ ]7 G& d1 {- lthe people. And I mean, my god, what a role model for young people. [laughter] [shows slide of
* {* R. v( A/ j, [) z/ j2 ]Captain Kirk sitting at his control station on the Starship Enterprise] I mean, this is everything you9 B" B' C4 q6 q
want to be, and what I learned that carried me forward in leadership later is that, you know, he- f) l* `- l7 m
wasn’t the smartest guy on the ship. I mean, Spock was pretty smart and McCoy was the doctor and
3 Q/ I3 Y' H. m: q }4 t; \Scotty was the engineer. And you sort of go, and what skill set did he have to get on this damn thing& n) i& f) X, N2 k
and run it? And, you know, clearly there is this skill set called leadership, and, you know, whether or, g0 |+ M, H4 w; L/ ~3 Z9 Z
not you like the series, there’s no doubt that there was a lot to be learned about how to lead people/ s f1 v3 T$ S$ j8 C" I6 N
by watching this guy in action. And he just had the coolest damn toys! [laughter] [shows slide of4 F) Q2 P3 J8 x8 }8 r/ O9 T
Star Trek gadgets] I mean, my god, I just thought it was fascinating as a kid that he had this thing" j. p+ r: s" P+ v- t o
[Takes out Star Trek Communicator] and he could talk to the ship with it. I just thought that was just
: D4 o) V; L3 ospectacular, and of course now I own one and it’s smaller. [takes out cell phone] So that’s kind of
: M2 c2 x. R5 qcool.6 s8 |$ ^, n6 I) L# |# s! F
So I got to achieve this dream. James T. Kirk, and his alter ego William Shatner, wrote a book, which) F8 n8 G. W _7 }/ W. A% Q3 `0 W: T+ `, f
I think was actually a pretty cool book. It was with Chip Walter who is a Pittsburgh- based author) T; t" l' |8 ]" J
who is quite good, and they wrote a book on basically the science of Star Trek, you know, what has
8 V% r1 e( H! g, [& I5 W1 {: Mcome true. And they went around to the top places around the country and looked at various things
4 \0 D8 @$ {) g y) O2 N* iand they came here to study our virtual reality setup. And so we build a virtual reality for him, it Z9 ^: D6 q/ O1 P8 F* y
looks something like that. [shows slide of virtual Star Trek bridge from the 1960’s TV show] We put it* P# M4 ^* B, @" U6 s4 u
in, put it to red alert. He was a very good sport. [sarcastically] It’s not like he saw that one coming.
- ^* m5 R6 ?$ U* \1 S[laughter] And it’s really cool to meet your boyhood idol, but it’s even cooler when he comes to you
: _7 D# k: O9 ^0 \" K/ f' F( N+ nto see what cool stuff you’re doing in your lab. And that was just a great moment. g* ] N: s9 l7 H$ \. i
All right, winning stuffed animals. This may seem mundane to you, but when you’re a little kid and
; L$ E7 A J, s( Byou see the big buff guys walking around the amusement park and they’ve got all these big stuffed/ b) F0 u& a, @/ P$ Z, ^2 H( `
animals, right? And this is my lovely wife, and I have a lot of pictures of stuffed animals I’ve won./ k) Q: A, ?4 u
[laughter] [shows slides of several large stuffed animals] That’s my dad posing with one that I won.
, P% f( ?. ~4 _- ]2 v, Z& B! tI’ve won a lot of these animals. There’s my dad, he did win that one, to his credit. And this was just
8 }6 ^. l+ B5 Y/ q+ x) v3 L% U9 I, ta big part of my life and my family’s life. But you know, I can hear the cynics. In this age of digitally
' b& G* K5 Q, R/ n0 ]manipulated images, maybe those bears really aren’t in the pictures with me, or maybe I paid
7 N; m& N4 U, C1 Y7 N4 {) [+ _somebody five bucks to take a picture in the theme park next to the bear. And I said, how, in this$ J; N& s5 h% s( P& C. ?
age of cynicism can I convince people? And I said, I know, I can show them the bears! Bring them
, q( g) A4 j4 W& S7 T0 eout. [several large stuffed animals are brought onto the stage] [laughter and clapping] Just put them
! k% d) N: i# i$ u- K0 \% b6 |1 uback against the wall.1 D2 P; r7 `/ L' E$ M i# J
Jai Pausch (Randy’s wife):2 _" @8 r3 T: `& A
It’s hard to hear you. [adjusts Randy’s microphone]
+ _. A1 Z [! i! ZRandy Pausch:
8 L/ A; @/ N+ y/ xThanks honey. [laughter] So here are some bears. We didn’t have quite enough room in the moving
. Z) z0 l5 R2 G; G; U y2 Itruck, and anybody who would like a little piece of me at the end of this, feel free to come up and
. G* h; ^( `. a! ltake a bear, first come, first served.
8 S, i# f0 o) x0 gAll right, my next one. Being an Imagineer. This was the hard one. Believe me, getting to zero. n# o' D2 P; Y8 V; L
gravity is easier than becoming an Imagineer. When I was a kid, I was eight years old and our family
. _3 g7 {4 n1 N8 j& L1 \took a trip cross-country to see Disneyland. And if you’ve ever seen the movie National Lampoon’s4 K% P( g* z* y, q
Vacation, it was a lot like that! [laughter] It was a quest. [shows slides of family at Disneyland] And( x" @2 N0 u: _* m }
these are real vintage photographs, and there I am in front of the castle. And there I am, and for: L7 d' `* g! U$ T- d
those of you who are into foreshadowing, this is the Alice ride. [laughter] And I just thought this was4 L; v! p. K, ?* E7 s1 A( x
just the coolest environment I had ever been in, and instead of saying, gee, I want to experience this,
% ?" U0 \/ U; D$ W# b$ X: mI said, I want to make stuff like this. And so I bided my time and then I graduated with my Ph.D.
) u9 P& }6 f( Z2 o: q6 [/ Q# F- xfrom Carnegie Mellon, thinking that meant me infinitely qualified to do anything. And I dashed off- `$ K' R, p6 U- Y0 Q
my letters of applications to Walt Disney Imagineering, and they sent me some of the damned nicest
7 S( Q& ^' S4 X: D: g4 Lgo-to-hell letters I have ever gotten. [laughter] I mean it was just, we have carefully reviewed your8 y4 f7 Z* q) Y# _
application and presently we do not have any positions available which require your particular
# K4 T# P1 f, h4 bqualifications. Now think about the fact that you’re getting this from a place that’s famous for guys0 A' H" @4 R+ Q; e6 }% b1 c1 i
who sweep the street. [laughter] So that was a bit of a setback. But remember, the brick walls are1 s8 w: Z* P0 d. K7 w" Y8 C* A& ^
there for a reason. The brick walls are not there to keep us out. The brick walls are there to give us8 g" q/ q' a1 U5 k% c
a chance to show how badly we want something. Because the brick walls are there to stop the
' I/ E0 @) b, d, z; v2 R3 b* zpeople who don’t want it badly enough. They’re there to stop the other people.
7 s0 {4 T6 z8 p( w; U! aAll right, fast forward to 1991. We did a system back at the University of Virginia called Virtual
. `' ~4 o% u0 F4 YReality on Five Dollars a Day. Just one of those unbelievable spectacular things. I was so scared* D l* `( f- e1 k
back in those days as a junior academic. Jim Foley’s here, and I just love to tell this story. He knew
+ S* B1 ~6 k0 xmy undergraduate advisor, Andy Van Dam, and I’m at my first conference and I’m just scared to
6 b# |4 f: M' r9 O Ideath. And this icon in the user interface community walks up to me and just out of nowhere just$ I/ o" b% J. p' b8 M3 X
gives me this huge bear hug and he says, that was from Andy. And that was when I thought, ok,6 j1 t9 S5 \% ]8 r7 J3 {
maybe I can make it. Maybe I do belong. And a similar story is that this was just this unbelievable
/ z8 W2 c, W2 j5 _8 g( t0 q% @ Vhit because at the time, everybody needed a half a million [dollars] to do virtual reality. And9 Y" V& J' H: x9 K/ W
everybody felt frustrated. And we literally hacked together a system for about five thousand dollars
$ X' n$ A* K) Ein parts and made a working VR system. And people were just like, oh my god, you know, the7 v$ L# k( q2 h5 s/ _# F+ ?
Hewlett Packard garage thing. This is so awesome. And so I’m giving this talk and the room has just
8 P3 v2 p1 K- w/ Tgone wild, and during the Q and A, a guy named Tom Furness, who was one of the big names in
! n) o6 h) N0 l z1 l, L% I% Bvirtual reality at the time, he goes up to the microphone and he introduces himself. I didn’t know
2 ]' W' V& C; q# F2 Jwhat he looked like but I sure as hell knew the name. And he asked a question. And I was like, I’m9 @) v: N' R4 V. w
sorry did you say you were Tom Furness? And he said yes. I said, then I would love to answer your
' L2 l: o. y) a$ |question, but first, will you have lunch with me tomorrow? [laughter] And there’s a lot in that little0 K5 J6 t' Q. q' ?* d; r+ V N
moment, there’s a lot of humility but also asking a person where he can’t possibly say no. [laughter]
* H* t4 E2 b3 c# Z& i. QAnd so Imagineering a couple of years later was working on a virtual reality project. This was top
% C6 c l( M! d. f3 y7 ^6 nsecret. They were denying the existence of a virtual reality attraction after the time that the3 v; `! W$ o6 U$ K2 J; A
publicity department was running the TV commercials. So Imagineering really had nailed this one
~/ z) \) x/ G& B3 n5 ?! c3 dtight. And it was the Aladdin attraction where you would fly a magic carpet, and the head mounted
: b( w7 ]8 N! o) g- edisplay, sometimes known as gator vision. And so I had an in. As soon as the project had just, you/ P2 E: J8 X9 S$ B# B; S8 j& h
know they start running the TV commercials, and I had been asked to brief the Secretary of Defense/ f$ J* E/ W6 s/ W/ _& _" d
on the state of virtual reality. OK, Fred Brooks and I had been asked to brief the Secretary of) Z+ e# ? J: w; a& }8 F8 _$ ]
Defense, and that gave me an excuse. So I called them. I called Imagineering and I said, look, I’m
/ {9 j7 C A; f. \1 |" ]briefing the Secretary of Defense. I’d like some materials on what you have because it’s one of the3 P( Y2 t% O* n; M; Y2 B
best VR systems in the world. And they kind of pushed back. And I said, look, is all this patriotism
. b5 v! U( v& r: M' Qstuff in the parks a farce? And they’re like, hmm, ok. [laughter] But they said this is so new the PR2 ?2 r5 E- u3 U! i5 }
department doesn’t have any footage for you, so I’m going to have to connect you straight through
$ a7 k' U7 C! B( c8 ]4 h4 lto the team who did the work. Jackpot! So I find myself on the phone with a guy named Jon Snoddy7 e2 v' [' r( X/ a7 X! _1 P. D
who is one of the most impressive guys I have ever met, and he was the guy running this team, and# X/ Q4 F- ^, e! ~
it’s not surprising they had done impressive things. And so he sent me some stuff, we talked briefly5 F+ O% m) a: B* d
and he sent me some stuff, and I said, hey, I’m going to be out in the area for a conference shortly,
- O4 n0 S' h/ Kwould you like to get together and have lunch? Translation: I’m going to lie to you and say that I. H: q8 h# x' ?8 z
have an excuse to be in the area so I don’t look too anxious, but I would go to Neptune to have; \( N: j3 v* |& \
lunch with you! [laughter] And so Jon said sure, and I spent something like 80 hours talking with all/ M( V* @! o. R6 D& j5 R/ p! x
the VR experts in the world, saying if you had access to this one unbelievable project, what would
7 T S8 l( G5 e- a: ayou ask? And then I compiled all of that and I had to memorize it, which anybody that knows me
2 W+ V8 p7 ? w2 E* cknows that I have no memory at all, because I couldn’t go in looking like a dweeb with, you know, [in( |# f5 j) p. K7 e8 s: @
dweeby voice] Hi, Question 72. So, I went in, and this was like a two hour lunch, and Jon must have
R) J; A' @" h8 Vthought he was talking to some phenomenal person, because all I was doing was channeling Fred3 \$ w3 a4 U; j* v4 x. X9 i6 e; y- z
Brooks and Ivan Sutherland and Andy Van Dam and people like that. And Henry Fuchs. So it’s pretty+ J( |+ b& N2 G
easy to be smart when you’re parroting smart people. And at the end of the lunch with Jon, I sort" i$ Z8 p# E& U/ o
of, as we say in the business, made “the ask.” And I said, you know, I have a sabbatical coming up.! O' R- n, m, V8 Z. _' I- G
And he said, what’s that? [laughter] The beginnings of the culture clash. And so I talked with him, M2 W+ V5 c4 ^& p" D$ v
about the possibility of coming there and working with him. And he said, well that’s really good
8 R1 |* H, @( z) lexcept, you know, you’re in the business of telling people stuff and we’re in the business of keeping
- p% D8 G0 F) f+ Z9 l1 dsecrets. And then what made Jon Snoddy Jon Snoddy was he said, but we’ll work it out, which I
; B0 u5 `! T8 C' d F% @, Preally loved. The other thing that I learned from Jon Snoddy – I could do easily an hour long talk just& H* H( S( y0 C- W4 v' @
on what have I learned from Jon Snoddy. One of the things he told me was that wait long enough4 S; @, ~1 @: B. r2 R: E; k% K( [
and people will surprise and impress you. He said, when you’re pissed off at somebody and you’re
0 |# ?3 A$ I) ^9 `% f/ h6 mangry at them, you just haven’t given them enough time. Just give them a little more time and
! D* Z; i! |! Q* Bthey’ll almost always impress you. And that really stuck with me. I think he’s absolutely right on3 i, }, f5 V8 j4 B3 f
that one. So to make a long story short, we negotiated a legal contract. It was going to be the first –
& v3 w6 U2 T) e+ m+ w7 ]3 ~some people referred to it as the first and last paper ever published by Imagineering. That the deal
; }7 g! k* U: owas I go, I provide my own funding, I go for six months, I work with a project, we publish a paper.
p8 W8 U) N# s; g7 CAnd then we meet our villain. [shows slide of a picture of a former dean of Randy’s] I can’t be all# F6 {4 J6 E4 I, ?$ Z
sweetness and light, because I have no credibility. Somebody’s head’s going to go on a stick. Turns
: z2 m5 P" `. Hout that the person who gets his head on a stick is a dean back at the University of Virginia. His
0 j3 u) ^" F1 v& Ename is not important. Let’s call him Dean Wormer. [laughter] And Dean Wormer has a meeting: V5 z5 |! a5 c; Y- F1 ~# G2 c* ?* v
with me where I say I want to do this sabbatical thing and I’ve actually got the Imagineering guys to
( q; F; M3 x' t7 T; zlet an academic in, which is insane. I mean if Jon hadn’t gone nuts, this would never have been a
/ l8 ~$ D! N8 kpossibility. This is a very secretive organization. And Dean Wormer looks at the paperwork and he0 I) u6 V( |6 v6 O/ [# I$ A3 F$ o
says, well it says they’re going to own your intellectual property. And I said, yeah, we got the6 [ e6 O$ ~- B2 C. F1 v
agreement to publish the paper. There is no other IP. I don’t do patentable stuff. And says, yeah,5 E$ c4 R6 f1 g" y
but you might. And so deal’s off. Just go and get them to change that little clause there and then
4 ]! Z: U8 l% B! C9 z3 bcome back to me. I’m like, excuse me? And then I said to him, I want you to understand how
# R! y, d: A3 t) a; E" ~) dimportant this is. If we can’t work this out, I’m going to take an unpaid leave of absence and I’m just
, }% B; y2 |: I6 U( P) j; hgoing to go there and I’m going to do this thing. And he said, hey, I might not even let you do that. I
# s7 b8 ?7 _' \2 Imean you’ve got the IP in your head already and maybe they’re going to suck it out of you, so that’s- o0 n# ?3 f- T$ T7 l
not going to fly either. [laughter] It’s very important to know when you’re in a pissing match. And4 \3 e/ C- `. k+ Z+ s$ M: Y
it’s very important to get out of it as quickly as possible. So I said to him, well, let’s back off on this.
. `% n) K* X* w7 ADo we think this is a good idea at all? He said, I have no idea if this is a good idea. I was like,, e2 x9 c3 S& r8 T# @; V6 F* H
[sarcastically] OK, well we’ve got common ground there. Then I said, well is this really your call?9 Y, a* V8 J5 i
Isn’t this the call of the Dean of Sponsored Research if it’s an IP issue? And he said, yeah, that’s true.
' r, H* y+ U* v; i. rI said, but so if he’s happy you’re happy? [So he says] Yeah, then I’d be fine. Whoosh! Like Wile E.( \% [8 t. P' ~) `- `
Coyote, I’m gone in a big ball of dust. And I find myself in Gene Block’s office, who is the most' i; R, @2 D' C
fantastic man in the world. And I start talking to Gene Block and I say let’s start at the high level,/ v: c. t; y8 Y7 s& B
since I don’t want to have to back out again. So let’s start at the high level. Do you think this is a
8 H7 u p. g* t* Ogood idea? He said, well if you’re asking me if it’s a good idea, I don’t have very much information.
1 {% D& ^5 x1 g2 v, G5 u; dAll I know is that one of my star faculty members is in my office and he’s really excited, so tell me
+ ]; N5 s: ^3 H. ]7 rmore. Here’s a lesson for everybody in administration. They both said the same thing. But think
( D# j$ t4 H# m# V8 C) o' O6 ~about how they said it, right? [In a loud, barking voice] I don’t know! [In a pleasant voice] Well, I
3 T7 t8 V9 H- J# U5 w! Cdon’t have much information, but one of my start faculty members is here and he’s all excited so I
. C( L: E* E- f9 p+ ]7 n7 Rwant to learn more. They’re both ways of saying I don’t know, but boy there’s a good way and a bad
% [. d1 F& E3 S5 lway. So anyway, we got it all worked out. I went to Imagineering. Sweetness and light. And all’s
% g, z& I: y) Ewell that ends well.
, T$ W' T8 ^" { i6 K# n: ^Some brick walls are made of flesh. So I worked on the Aladdin Project. It was absolutely
( G, j/ h- W: p* @& W) mspectacular, I mean just unbelievable. Here’s my nephew Christopher. [Shows slide of Christopher
- q& D2 Q6 k( d! c: T1 ion Aladdin apparatus] This was the apparatus. You would sit on this sort of motorcycle-type thing.% H' i! ~1 c# c3 n) X, R
And you would steer your magic carpet and you would put on the head-mounted display. The headmounted8 Z8 t* K" h5 E& i9 D* n
display is very interesting because it had two parts, and it was a very clever design. To get( }- x% B$ l2 h+ X+ [' y
throughput up, the only part that touched the guest’s head was this little cap and everything else
% b% J# k; h* @- G; q- Nclicked onto it – all the expensive hardware. So you could replicate the caps because they were
. N1 }+ z/ b o: M* n5 E: L/ R! R8 l, Hbasically free to manufacture. [Showing slide of Randy cleaning a cap] And this is what I really did is9 Q- k" l0 p) ~
I was a cap cleaner during the sabbatical. [laughter] I loved Imagineering. It was just a spectacular- f: ?# U4 D7 j& ?+ t9 j
place. Just spectacular. Everything that I had dreamed. I loved the model shop. People crawling% I/ X- ^! N f8 q. K3 ~: b
around on things the size of this room that are just big physical models. It was just an incredible5 Y9 n, g: u; X2 g2 }7 ]
place to walk around and be inspired. I’m always reminded of when I went there and people said,2 \. i+ L1 ^$ G/ M4 s6 }
do you think your expectations are too high? And I said, you ever see the movie Charlie and the1 g8 |: ?) O% ]! i& r
Chocolate Factory? Willy Wonka and The Chocolate Factory? Where Gene Wilder says to the little; \+ u; }' A" D& `2 T n* f
boy Charlie, he’s about to give him the chocolate factory. He says “Well Charlie, did anybody ever5 T4 J" x0 b4 I- \9 L7 _/ ?; C
tell you the story of the little boy who suddenly got everything he ever wanted?” Charlie’s eyes get
) J+ k2 R% ~+ w+ Y, olike saucers and he says, “No, what happened to him?” Gene Wilder says, “He lived happily ever
9 B9 B2 H% g7 m4 ~after.” [laughter]6 t* }6 A, H! M; ?3 U I
OK, so working on the Aladdin VR, I described it as a once in every five careers opportunity, and I
) Z- W0 F# [( l. M& _stand by that assessment. And it forever changed me. It wasn’t just that it was good work and I got
3 B1 r; I! L$ \2 j' \( `/ K5 N% Mto be a part of it. But it got me into the place of working with real people and real HCI user interface( k3 H4 V g# V, [
issues. Most HCI people live in this fantasy world of white collar laborers with Ph.D.s and masters6 k: W" l% o$ p5 e! V1 E$ Q
degrees. And you know, until you got ice cream spilled on you, you’re not doing field work. And
: L q$ W+ t1 r2 a) ]more than anything else, from Jon Snoddy I learned how to put artists and engineers together, and
. f+ E' }' S) }& X% D) [that’s been the real legacy.
( H! w, m+ N% Q! Y7 Y( \1 e ZWe published a paper. Just a nice academic cultural scandal. When we wrote the paper, the guys at
7 S6 b; F5 G- eImagineering said, well let’s do a nice big picture. Like you would in a magazine. [Showing slide of+ G( E W% ?2 a" p5 ~1 r1 n
first page of the paper, with a photo at the top that spans two columns]. And the SIGGRAPH1 W l3 ^2 S) v
committee, which accepted the paper, it was like this big scandal. Are they allowed to do that?
9 m' I( L) k2 S9 _6 l% k$ |[laughter] There was no rule! So we published the paper and amazingly since then there’s a2 `- _2 Z9 B& d* g3 m4 h
tradition of SIGGRAPH papers having color figures on the first page. So I’ve changed the world in a
4 H- [3 Q4 m! {5 A ^& n" hsmall way. [laughter] And then at the end of my six months, they came to me and they said, you
" j- C: r+ Z: t+ Ewant to do it for real? You can stay. And I said no. One of the only times in my life I have surprised
4 ]; |0 J" j) D& w* y1 Cmy father. He was like, you’re what? He said, since you were, you know [gesturing to height of a& D$ X; z1 g+ U9 w6 n$ F! j W( x4 Z W
child’s head],this is all you wanted, and now that you got it, and you’re… huh? There was a bottle of
$ h( e* D# t. H) a4 [% U3 [Maalox in my desk drawer. Be careful what you wish for. It was a particularly stressful place.
8 q( s- Z( k1 U& v9 o f; hImagineering in general is actually not so Maalox-laden, but the lab I was in – oh, Jon left in the
. r; z: J: w! w. O$ l" zmiddle. And it was a lot like the Soviet Union. It was a little dicey for awhile. But it worked out OK.3 A( |. p$ e4 T: [1 G. S3 [) ~/ ~
And if they had said, stay here or never walk in the building again, I would have done it. I would
9 I# M$ ~- m' C) F+ Whave walked away from tenure, I would have just done it. But they made it easy on me. They said- U0 w }: }1 o9 Q/ M D
you can have your cake and eat it too. And I basically became a day-a-week consultant for
6 l* e% ]# _, [: x9 uImagineering, and I did that for about ten years. And that’s one of the reasons you should all
9 C- z. e% ^. a2 Sbecome professors. Because you can have your cake and eat it too.( n0 F" x- h& Q8 T$ k) F3 k7 H6 ]
I went and consulted on things like DisneyQuest. So there was the Virtual Jungle Cruise. And the: d0 H( _* r7 @6 R
best interactive experience I think ever done, and Jesse Schell gets the credit for this, Pirates of the
7 H, F) O" L, G: `! @7 FCaribbean. Wonderful at DisneyQuest.
# k( V6 @2 W/ |* n1 K% X0 fAnd so those are my childhood dreams. And that’s pretty good. I felt good about that. So then the
# N/ F9 H4 K* o0 W- Bquestion becomes, how can I enable the childhood dreams of others. And again, boy am I glad I
0 l @8 @0 f h! C1 M3 H+ F2 ubecame a professor. What better place to enable childhood dreams? Eh, maybe working at EA, I
- d, ~ ~9 V% |/ B1 g! N: edon’t know. That’d probably be a good close second. And this started in a very concrete realization* m* `% A) t$ E8 ?/ p- a4 v0 z
that I could do this, because a young man named Tommy Burnett, when I was at the University of
* O% `* o+ X' {6 ]' k3 cVirginia, came to me, was interested in joining my research group. And we talked about it, and he% s- U3 v8 t }& T, I! T, v3 u4 i
said, oh, and I have a childhood dream. It gets pretty easy to recognize them when they tell you." }, K# O7 g" v0 S" [
And I said, yes, Tommy, what is your childhood dream? He said, I want to work on the next Star
" q# f9 ~, \- Y* m) `( r& xWars film. Now you got to remember the timing on this. Where is Tommy, Tommy is here today.
7 t5 x& y6 W4 a& YWhat year would this have been? Your sophomore year.
6 D$ @& C7 P6 Q4 jTommy:$ v; J: [+ x7 m6 f$ C
It was around ’93.
& U# `& r% ^4 a6 j$ V; R7 zRandy Pausch:8 x* B5 F+ P5 z# C( M) u8 Y
Are you breaking anything back there young man? OK, all right, so in 1993. And I said to Tommy,5 @& d6 S8 _( e- v5 i
you know they’re probably not going to make those next movies. [laughter] And he said, no, THEY% j! O( @% w8 z1 {+ j) j
ARE. And Tommy worked with me for a number of years as an undergraduate and then as a staff
, X6 X3 C& K' v* g, o+ P; N( D# rmember, and then I moved to Carnegie Mellon, every single member of my team came from Virginia" I" Q2 E* U% ] C7 e
to Carnegie Mellon except for Tommy because he got a better offer. And he did indeed work on all8 i) q) U9 f8 z+ }
three of those films. And then I said, well that’s nice, but you know, one at a time is kind of9 @+ Y% B" G# H8 p% j
inefficient. And people who know me know that I’m an efficiency freak. So I said, can I do this in
# Z, m; h) ?- }) n$ f. e$ g6 \mass? Can I get people turned in such a way that they can be turned onto their childhood dreams?
' W# z& u. C( z4 FAnd I created a course, I came to Carnegie Mellon and I created a course called Building Virtual
. V5 Y f6 ~/ l3 j. h# V t" jWorlds. It’s a very simple course. How many people here have ever been to any of the shows?4 q4 {# B1 {) I4 o( N, N
[Some people from audience raise hands] OK, so some of you have an idea. For those of you who
: k, G5 j) w. j( Udon’t, the course is very simple. There are 50 students drawn from all the different departments of
) [6 r1 G+ a- w' Y4 }% D& ?the university. There are randomly chosen teams, four people per team, and they change every6 p/ d5 ?8 P0 S* U4 K
project. A project only lasts two weeks, so you do something, you make something, you show
& w; U2 y+ T- y( O" wsomething, then I shuffle the teams, you get three new playmates and you do it again. And it’s
a' F0 ~+ @9 u" d ]6 l& Y$ Wevery two weeks, and so you get five projects during the semester. The first year we taught this
$ k. E X$ i3 B- D9 ccourse, it is impossible to describe how much of a tiger by the tail we had. I was just running the8 T5 Y3 e% h4 U/ g; _
course because I wanted to see if we could do it. We had just learned how to do texture mapping! m/ f4 ?, J5 J# q
on 3D graphics, and we could make stuff that looked half decent. But you know, we were running' C$ C% D f5 q0 D$ b k2 A' t9 `
on really weak computers, by current standards. But I said I’ll give it a try. And at my new university8 h4 k& T) J/ [: A; ]! M7 S! t
[Carnegie Mellon] I made a couple of phone calls, and I said I want to cross-list this course to get all' p8 ^/ t1 Y$ J5 Z
these other people. And within 24 hours it was cross-listed in five departments. I love this8 n7 A1 m& P8 a0 e7 X$ r- f3 x6 n- m
university. I mean it’s the most amazing place. And the kids said, well what content do we make? I& E5 R4 p" R7 N% j) S; x* B4 Z
said, hell, I don’t know. You make whatever you want. Two rules: no shooting violence and no
4 |: ]% c0 g! ^4 dpornography. Not because I’m opposed to those in particular, but you know, that’s been done with
/ w$ J& d5 c$ L; w& r. P' mVR, right? [laughter] And you’d be amazed how many 19-year-old boys are completely out of ideas1 @1 t5 J/ W) G; p" u
when you take those off the table. [laughter and clapping]
% w2 O! ?: w. b% `# rAnyway, so I taught the course. The first assignment, I gave it to them, they came back in two
/ ]4 D) ~0 H. j+ K: S8 A3 Q& F6 ?5 s) zweeks and they just blew me away. I mean the work was so beyond, literally, my imagination,2 ]" s- s1 h ^1 i* T8 ^+ E
because I had copied the process from Imagineering’s VR lab, but I had no idea what they could or- c: e% R0 l6 X1 P+ m+ \/ [
couldn’t do with it as undergraduates, and their tools were weaker, and they came back on the first
- S4 D- k7 s) k3 l9 J' oassignment, and they did something that was so spectacular that I literally didn’t, ten years as a7 x6 Z5 b/ q. k$ }
professor and I had no idea what to do next. So I called up my mentor, and I called up Andy Van7 ^- d4 C' @; L$ z7 w$ g! J
Dam. And I said, Andy, I just gave a two-week assignment, and they came back and did stuff that if I
' l- Y# }8 w8 W* c7 q2 n B( N3 zhad given them a whole semester I would have given them all As. Sensei, what do I do? [laughter]( u6 I/ S! c r! I. K" k
And Andy thought for a minute and he said, you go back into class tomorrow and you look them in
+ L2 C3 G: F# y8 hthe eye and you say, “Guys, that was pretty good, but I know you can do better.” [laughter] And that/ T- }3 O* [) M" [" v3 q8 P0 o# Q
was exactly the right advice. Because what he said was, you obviously don’t know where the bar: M7 N" f0 P/ Z) L* a
should be, and you’re only going to do them a disservice by putting it anywhere. And boy was that8 R/ a" u/ s9 k6 }$ n
good advice because they just kept going. And during that semester it became this underground
# r5 d& m c; u G9 R- uthing. I’d walk into a class with 50 students in it and there were 95 people in the room. Because it2 S8 L/ y9 e% m6 t2 j/ Q
was the day we were showing work. And people’s roommates and friends and parents – I’d never9 m: A$ p7 a/ U- V3 C1 }6 A7 {, A
had parents come to class before! It was flattering and somewhat scary. And so it snowballed and
- c9 h6 i' n5 q7 R# Fwe had this bizarre thing of, well we’ve got to share this. If there’s anything I’ve been raised to do,
. S( W' l0 C2 f* l$ U7 j) j* Eit’s to share, and I said, we’ve got to show this at the end of the semester. We’ve got to have a big8 D0 S" _, O$ o3 U% r v
show. And we booked this room, McConomy. I have a lot of good memories in this room. And we
/ |, h; e" j4 Ibooked it not because we thought we could fill it, but because it had the only AV setup that would
- C9 {$ a! \4 F" z8 Wwork, because this was a zoo. Computers and everything. And then we filled it. And we more than
( Q. M, n, `) H, Q! e P2 {; E& _) X: nfilled it. We had people standing in the aisle. I will never forget the dean at the time, Jim Morris
( e& M. r* A S% E5 @- a/ V8 Dwas sitting on the stage right about there. We had to kind of scoot him out of the way. And the
1 n R# K( S' e0 n5 penergy in the room was like nothing I had ever experienced before. And President Cohen, Jerry
. Y! }( [% ~& b( R; iCohen was there, and he sensed the same thing. He later described it as like an Ohio State football
/ S0 L/ ?, U; E2 ipep rally. Except for academics. And he came over and he asked exactly the right question. He$ s% K$ E- C0 X9 s! N: ? B
said, before you start, he said, where are these people from? He said, the audience, what
! B/ v8 w1 A* r. X/ Ddepartments are they from? And we polled them and it was all the departments. And I felt very2 y' ^7 J$ d: J& s
good because I had just come to campus, he had just come to campus, and my new boss had seen in0 N1 Q6 H% Z' ?$ O+ M Q3 S& c
a very corporal way that this is the university that puts everybody together. And that made me feel: F, M) S# l' }( z
just tremendous.
8 s" d9 {- F( ?( J9 CSo we did this campus-wide exhibition. People performed down here. They’re in costume, and we) Q; o1 S, }6 D
project just like this and you can see what’s going on. You can see what they’re seeing in the head8 m/ D# ~% D% L4 E( o
mount. There’s a lot of big props, so there’s a guy white water rafting. [shows slides of a BVW show]& `0 n) N9 Z+ T# r/ H7 H
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, V2 b2 ~: b' T! P+ r( m
moon I would fail him. That is a true story. And I thought I’d show you just one world, and if we can9 M% P5 i- P$ u( g2 ]" g
get the lights down if that’s at all possible. No, ok, that means no. All right. All right we’ll just do1 V. Y8 O) S5 {) f: |$ i
our best then. [Shows “Hello.world” world done in the BVW class, audience applauds at the end.] It
8 I- Z* o$ @: o+ E( Q" xwas an unusual course. With some of the most brilliant, creative students from all across the
3 B% V$ ~$ d; [' h" hcampus. It just was a joy to be involved. And they took the whole stage performance aspect of this4 f+ h6 D+ P! o' I$ ?$ P# A1 n
way too seriously [shows pictures of very strange costumes students wore]. And it became this
+ v- P' [& D [/ a- V& T" v* ~campus phenomenon every year. People would line up for it. It was very flattering. And it gave kids! K8 c5 N1 R( r4 r: H9 Y1 ^7 H% r
a sense of excitement of putting on a show for people who were excited about it. And I think that
/ N) Q. y" K- S, h5 Pthat’s one of the best things you can give somebody – the chance to show them what it feels like to
( z) C6 {: ^' _" A8 E- emake other people get excited and happy. I mean that’s a tremendous gift. We always try to
* f& G/ g% ] h% \) W9 qinvolve the audience. Whether it was people with glow sticks or batting a beach ball around… or! F" y; i/ R8 c5 e
driving [shows photo of audience members leaning in their seats to steer a car]. This is really cool.
: U0 \# }2 ?$ QThis technology actually got used at the Spiderman 3 premiere in L.A., so the audience was0 l( r# y9 d& N. G, d9 h, b
controlling something on the screen, so that’s kind of nice. And I don’t have a class picture from l M# B( i! E# n
every year, but I dredged all the ones that I do have, and all I can say is that what a privilege and an
5 L5 V- C: W: B. r3 P% p& G* V' Shonor it was to teach that course for something like ten years.6 W. B+ F" P. N# t5 j( a; z! E' X3 K
And all good things come to an end. And I stopped teaching that course about a year ago. People- d8 q9 R; |: @' x: i, @, @
always ask me what was my favorite moment. I don’t know if you could have a favorite moment.
; m; F X8 l' f, C3 VBut boy there is one I’ll never forget. This was a world with, I believe a roller skating ninja. And one
+ V% O9 t$ A Z: V1 u. Oof the rules was that we perform these things live and they all had to really work. And the moment
6 m5 s6 O/ \$ X7 e8 Z7 Fit stopped working, we went to your backup videotape. And this was very embarrassing. [Shows
( i8 k4 f6 v2 m1 Mimage of Roller Ninja world presentation] So we have this ninja on stage and he’s doing this roller
# [$ g6 ^1 g- x3 Kskating thing and the world, it did not crash gently. Whoosh. And I come out, and I believe it was
0 q1 U% v$ X8 y' KSteve, Audia, wasn’t it? Where is he? OK, where is Steve? Ah, my man. Steve Audia. And talk
, R- l7 U/ ^. U( x) Aabout quick on your feet. I say, Steve, I’m sorry but your world has crashed and we’re going to go to
# E5 ~4 L5 W: ~9 q9 m4 ~& r' Gvideotape. And he pulls out his ninja sword and says, I am dishonored! Whaaa! And just drops!1 J& k* s* k+ _6 h+ C; m
[applause and laughter] And so I think it’s very telling that my very favorite moment in ten years of; m f& h& D2 H
this high technology course was a brilliant ad lib. And then when the videotape is done and the
* R$ |, m/ D1 G q0 q6 r D ^lights come up, he’s lying there lifeless and his teammates drag him off! [laughter] It really was a! z; O( ~5 Z/ m9 X$ [
fantastic moment.
4 f& y1 I: S8 s; i2 Z2 F, O" `And the course was all about bonding. People used to say, you know, what’s going to make for a( V0 f1 a q) ]# `) b
good world? I said, I can’t tell you beforehand, but right before they present it I can tell you if the S. a/ G3 a# k! ^) _4 a
world’s good just by the body language. If they’re standing close to each other, the world is good.
7 r Z! b, `$ lAnd BVW was a pioneering course [Randy puts on vest with arrows poking out of the back], and I+ @% D+ P1 w( m$ ^) x5 p: i
won’t bore you with all the details, but it wasn’t easy to do, and I was given this when I stepped. B' u9 T. L" Q. p" B% y4 S! w
down from the ETC and I think it’s emblematic. If you’re going to do anything that pioneering you' T/ z' U$ K5 j
will get those arrows in the back, and you just have to put up with it. I mean everything that could
5 ^* H# G- t! N/ D) ^) kgo wrong did go wrong. But at the end of the day, a whole lot of people had a whole lot of fun.) Y) u9 U& Z3 e" A% r/ w
When you’ve had something for ten years that you hold so precious, it’s the toughest thing in the$ ?# D! ?. z' T0 Z6 B$ l4 o; o3 t
world to hand it over. And the only advice I can give you is, find somebody better than you to hand# h2 R6 t9 w' b" [- i
it to. And that’s what I did. There was this kid at the VR studios way back when, and you didn’t have
9 g$ ~' T/ w' O* kto spend very long in Jesse Schell’s orbit to go, the force is strong in this one. And one of my
- q5 c/ V8 J8 t4 u5 |3 X% mgreatest – my two greatest accomplishments I think for Carnegie Mellon was that I got Jessica
) s& r9 ^8 {& P* xHodgins and Jesse Schell to come here and join our faculty. And I was thrilled when I could hand this3 \7 c1 R4 K3 }6 M8 T3 Y& s
over to Jesse, and to no one’s surprise, he has really taken it up to the next notch. And the course is4 y' ?4 \$ w1 E
in more than good hands – it’s in better hands. But it was just one course. And then we really took/ P3 d$ U9 s4 V2 O+ h
it up a notch. And we created what I would call the dream fulfillment factory. Don Marinelli and I
. v* ?: |5 X( O- Xgot together and with the university’s blessing and encouragement, we made this thing out of whole4 s6 R9 x8 x3 b J- y) w
cloth that was absolutely insane. Should never have been tried. All the sane universities didn’t go4 X8 k v5 P' T. ^5 C) c6 i' M( R
near this kind of stuff. Creating a tremendous opportunistic void. So the Entertainment Technology
, H" l% `4 h/ l7 G; p7 fCenter was all about artists and technologists working in small teams to make things. It was a twoyear
" b8 E9 g2 m% P, [; ?. ?* jprofessional master’s degree. And Don and I were two kindred spirits. We’re very different –5 [9 ^: d: a2 o4 u- _# i1 [7 c
anybody who knows us knows that we are very different people. And we liked to do things in a new
% |. o, t4 @# P7 j0 vway, and the truth of the matter is that we are both a little uncomfortable in academia. I used to+ ~9 x# a9 L2 ?
say that I am uncomfortable as an academic because I come from a long line of people who actually
1 b2 I8 W2 i; {0 h. S" Hworked for a living, so. [Nervous laughter] I detect nervous laughter! And I want to stress, Carnegie. U6 h+ n( N$ z% f6 d; ~
Mellon is the only place in the world that the ETC could have happened. By far the only place.
0 D! _$ o% j' H. P: X n7 f- m[Shows slide of Don Marinelli in tye-dyed shirt, shades and an electric guitar, sitting on a desk next3 h5 k9 w& i# Q$ `) s/ L# |" j
to Randy, wearing nerd glasses, button-up shirt, staring at a laptop. Above their heads were the
' i; a. N3 s: G6 U9 U$ f1 c* Ylabels “Right brain/Left brain”] [laughter] OK, this picture was Don’s idea, OK? And we like to refer3 d' P2 _3 B1 q. R* X" X& y% j2 @+ }8 \+ o
to this picture as Don Marinelli on guitar and Randy Pausch on keyboards. [laughter] But we really/ S$ x. T1 W4 D' X: ^. C% H: y& }
did play up the left brain, right brain and it worked out really well that way. [Shows slide of Don0 K n% Y8 I3 b' t+ w
looking intense] Don is an intense guy. And Don and I shared an office, and at first it was a small9 w( t+ _: w |' k H
office. We shared an office for six years. You know, those of you who know Don know he’s an
. J& s6 C7 [( V) ]intense guy. And you know, given my current condition, somebody was asking me … this is a
$ A& ]5 p# l1 I9 i; Zterrible joke, but I’m going to use it anyway. Because I know Don will forgive me. Somebody said,$ Z0 U0 c0 t- [8 {% p3 O, N! g
given your current condition, have you thought about whether you’re going to go to heaven or hell?. ]; U _0 x" r( v/ x
And I said, I don’t know, but if I’m going to hell, I’m due six years for time served! [laughter] I kid.5 B; l- _* F0 @3 |7 n$ u9 i
Sharing an office with Don was really like sharing an office with a tornado. There was just so much
- c& q. t* O5 Q5 f( T9 O' }energy and you never knew which trailer was next, right? But you know something exciting was
# T; q0 @0 C% u; Cgoing to happen. And there was so much energy, and I do believe in giving credit where credit is
# {9 L) F: q+ Z* {( t+ Q" {" jdue. So in my typically visual way, if Don and I were to split the success for the ETC, he clearly gets
4 j! f, n; I$ b+ Kthe lion’s share of it. [Shows image of a pie chart divided 70/30 (Don/Randy) ] He did the lion’s share
! O" y8 Y0 `! d5 X0 J. k5 Y9 }of the work, ok, he had the lion’s share of the ideas. It was a great teamwork. I think it was a great
2 k q% U( R, B) ^" J# @yin and a yang, but it was more like YIN and yang. And he deserves that credit and I give it to him# Y, {2 D0 h6 \5 l) }' h
because the ETC is a wonderful place. And he’s now running it and he’s taking it global. We’ll talk+ ^/ F5 t: Z# ^8 G( F
about that in a second.
$ I+ M6 Y d' t% _; |, tDescribing the ETC is really hard, and I finally found a metaphor. Telling people about the ETC is like. u4 B6 Q0 h. ?; c1 I1 n8 }
describing Cirque du Soleil if they’ve never seen it. Sooner or later you’re going to make the4 k. {1 ~0 t0 O' |$ C
mistake. You’re going to say, well it’s like a circus. And then you’re dragged into this conversation
3 ~5 M/ S2 i9 J& v- q v3 Kabout oh, how many tigers, how many lions, how many trapeze acts? And that misses the whole5 Z+ r- q5 }% E+ U' ~4 d8 i
point. So when we say we’re a master’s degree, we’re really not like any master’s degree you’ve3 C* E4 J( M6 Y9 h; D" F3 L' c7 y
ever seen. Here’s the curriculum [Shows slide of ETC curriculum, listing “Project Course” as the only
/ l, q' v9 l3 G A- a6 zcourse each semester; audience laughs] The curriculum ended up looking like this. [shows slightly/ J M' [" X9 _' ?; @1 f8 r: b( H2 Y
more detailed slide]. All I want to do is visually communicate to you that you do five projects in
" x+ |) B" U/ B$ I$ `$ E$ ~: M. DBuilding Virtual Worlds, then you do three more. All of your time is spent in small teams making
8 z* U, h8 k" i# ^stuff. None of that book learning thing. Don and I had no patience for the book learning thing. It’s
7 F* ~9 M8 v, y3 l3 y- {1 Ea master’s degree. They already spent four years doing book learning. By now they should have
8 {& a/ c( E+ h& E x( W5 o8 Tread all the books.
2 t7 [4 }' z, x& u" v1 H8 ^) bThe keys to success were that Carnegie Mellon gave us the reins. Completely gave us the reins. We3 F- {" A$ P& U: s: N* \0 Z
had no deans to report to. We reported directly to the provost, which is great because the provost
; ?, j# K* B/ L! O% I/ m$ H. v/ ^is way too busy to watch you carefully. [laughter] We were given explicit license to break the mold.
! D8 e( s- B z7 D! T# B3 k4 YIt was all project based. It was intense, it was fun, and we took field trips! Every spring semester in
' x+ R) m- m/ F3 OJanuary, we took all 50 students in the first year class and we’d take them out to Pixar, Industrial% M$ _7 f0 t- Z
Light and Magic, and of course when you’ve got guys like Tommy there acting as host, right, it’s
3 W% X, v& D% R' V- v& vpretty easy to get entrée to these places. So we did things very, very differently. The kind of
5 @) o* c$ \7 i/ }0 H3 c/ ^projects students would do, we did a lot of what we’d call edutainment.
+ G3 Y3 f) n& _0 o0 X' WWe developed a bunch of things with the Fire Department of New York, a network simulator for: @6 S! x$ j% q% V/ O6 O% Y
training firefighters, using video game-ish type technology to teach people useful things. That’s not
. t( {. r4 f/ z E1 Gbad. Companies did this strange thing. They put in writing, we promise to hire your students. I’ve
' o$ m$ J/ P- j' `got the EA and Activision ones here. I think there are now, how many, five? Drew knows I bet.) r6 Q4 c1 H9 g- J1 _5 S
[Drew Davison, head of ETC-Pittsburgh, gestures with five fingers]. So there are five written: w+ l9 N6 ~# t/ i$ G- t8 S
agreements. I don’t know of any other school that has this kind of written agreement with any, a5 ?+ ?% {9 J% U
company. And so that’s a real statement. And these are multiple year things, so they’re agreeing to* B& y J& ^9 b, n
hire people for summer internships that we have not admitted yet. That’s a pretty strong statement5 L" y5 m* C7 D" y1 S7 \' {
about the quality of the program. And Don, as I said, he’s now, he’s crazy. In a wonderful; S0 K' S* K/ [
complimentary way. He’s doing these things where I’m like, oh my god. He’s not here tonight% O" Y, s+ T6 ^# P' _, |1 Z
because he’s in Singapore because there’s going to be an ETC campus in Singapore. There’s already
* Y* p5 ^: R0 F# }on in Australia and there’s going to be on in Korea. So this is becoming a global phenomenon. So I
" U, v$ L/ W& [" P/ M7 H7 Athink this really speaks volumes about all the other universities. It’s really true that Carnegie Mellon
! W( b: A$ ^4 l4 b* ?$ k- fis the only university that can do this. We just have to do it all over the world now.
7 y& H9 L) T0 Y; u6 E$ v( oOne other big success about the ETC is teaching people about feedback [puts up bar chart where
! n& v2 R# L5 mstudents are (anonymous) listed on a scale labeled “how easy to work with” ] -- oh I hear the9 \/ {! _1 Y6 b; H1 ]& |
nervous laughter from the students. I had forgotten the delayed shock therapy effect of these bar0 d- n/ x9 }# u) _
charts. When you’re taking Building Virtual Worlds, every two weeks we get peer feedback. We put5 x, d, H3 O# ` f: F3 p' L# x
that all into a big spreadsheet and at the end of the semester, you had three teammates per project,# i# N8 O# R* B
five projects, that’s 15 data points, that’s statistically valid. And you get a bar chart telling you on a: T& r3 B% l% w0 {0 _! Q( k2 Z
ranking of how easy you are to work with, where you stacked up against your peers. Boy that’s hard8 B1 M b+ V9 i1 R7 ~4 t7 W
feedback to ignore. Some still managed. [laughter] But for the most part, people looked at that and$ t$ o' q) ]' I) ~8 l" c' V; n
went, wow, I’ve got to take it up a notch. I better start thinking about what I’m saying to people in3 Q* N' z1 F# S" v% [+ X0 \
these meetings. And that is the best gift an educator can give is to get somebody to become self) v k9 p g f5 y- p3 u
reflective.
$ D. Q3 u+ c! ?3 o" l. n; N' ySo the ETC was wonderful, but even the ETC and even as Don scales it around the globe, it’s still very& _; B3 C7 ], P( I; Y1 m
labor intensive, you know. It’s not Tommy one-at-a-time. It’s not a research group ten at a time.
; U$ M/ n0 s9 C/ g3 z& jIt’s 50 or 100 at a time per campus times four campuses. But I wanted something infinitely scalable.$ y4 b0 }* H( p5 N7 `
Scalable to the point where millions or tens of millions of people could chase their dreams with
) ^: C& p; |( s! \something. And you know, I guess that kind of a goal really does make me the Mad Hatter. [Puts on
; X0 ~1 P0 m; A c. j/ d" Ja Mad Hatter’s green top hat]. So Alice is a project that we worked on for a long, long time. It’s a, r9 t2 h$ J1 L- l
novel way to teach computer programming. Kids make movies and games. The head fake – again,5 T$ t$ w% `0 I9 C& ^
we’re back to the head fakes. The best way to teach somebody something is to have them think% j5 e& s; Y" O I8 ?& j2 E" ^' f
they’re learning something else. I’ve done it my whole career. And the head fake here is that
: U- Q# J1 |% ^, Ythey’re learning to program but they just think they’re making movies and video games. This thing
4 m( Q* A4 V! ~9 m; S$ ohas already been downloaded well over a million times. There are eight textbooks that have been
* H8 A ]2 G$ q5 kwritten about it. Ten percent of U.S. colleges are using it now. And it’s not the good stuff yet. The
) ?% v) ?1 Y1 Vgood stuff is coming in the next version. I, like Moses, get to see the promised land, but I won’t get: ^! \& ]5 `( I: [, A- T9 E
to set foot in it. And that’s OK, because I can see it. And the vision is clear. Millions of kids having
, |0 w, E) s3 k6 }) tfun while learning something hard. That’s pretty cool. I can deal with that as a legacy. The next
; o1 ~$ U! t8 v3 E' [4 pversion’s going to come out in 2008. It’s going to be teaching the Java language if you want them to
4 j7 z3 U; L- e0 Nknow they’re learning Java. Otherwise they’ll just think that they’re writing movie scripts. And1 ?9 Z/ U: F3 u* Z4 |% }8 ?
we’re getting the characters from the bestselling PC video game in history, The Sims. And this is
4 q1 \5 d8 y* l! f' K' Halready working in the lab, so there’s no real technological risk. I don’t have time to thank and
$ D1 R1 Y; I* i3 f: Tmention everybody in the Alice team, but I just want to say that Dennis Cosgrove is going to be6 e S- t) F7 K
building this, has been building this. He is the designer. This is his baby. And for those of you who: B: e; ^' W0 \- B
are wondering, well, in some number of months who should I be emailing about the Alice project,
8 O3 E9 `8 `+ Q( ?; j3 rwhere’s Wanda Dann? Oh, there you are. Stand up, let them all see you. Everybody say, Hi Wanda.
2 N9 ~8 f& Y$ Z; M# ~Audience:
/ K0 q: \0 m2 k) j2 lHi, Wanda.
# n6 \: x% m7 C4 ^Randy Pausch:
8 Y4 o( D# I' m0 ?5 SSend her the email. And I’ll talk a little bit more about Caitlin Kelleher, but she’s graduated with her
: v: m' R% N4 C* @Ph.D., and she’s at Washington University, and she’s going to be taking this up a notch and going to
. x$ ?5 x; Y" i, {+ l$ o1 r4 f; Bmiddle schools with it. So, grand vision and to the extent that you can live on in something, I will/ A) l% t. W$ E# B; F* v
live on in Alice.
" n! |' r8 L& @; B8 i# X: wAll right, so now the third part of the talk. Lessons learned. We’ve talked about my dreams. We’ve
7 z- p0 F. ~) ~9 italked about helping other people enable their dreams. Somewhere along the way there’s got to be
% ~/ H; O2 I$ h8 ^& z5 X4 Gsome aspect of what lets you get to achieve your dreams. First one is the rule of parents, mentors
2 v' L6 N5 o+ @: P( l, Wand students. I was blessed to have been born to two incredible people. This is my mother on her
% j i& `( s; i2 u8 n% N5 D0 ]70th birthday. [Shows slide of Randy’s mom driving a race car on an amusement park race course]: I4 V/ r h ?3 F# ~/ p
[laughter] I am back here. I have just been lapped. [laughter] This is my dad riding a roller coaster
; N2 v& z5 I- K+ a6 N0 X9 B+ r" o. fon his 80th birthday. [Shows slide of dad] And he points out that he’s not only brave, he’s talented
3 t9 ~& Z, K: J) A* D9 `8 ^0 N obecause he did win that big bear the same day. My dad was so full of life, anything with him was an F# \- Y. r8 s8 F& p
adventure. [Shows picture of his Dad holding a brown paper bag.] I don’t know what’s in that bag,1 Z; D( v- |; m7 h; r
but I know it’s cool. My dad dressed up as Santa Claus, but he also did very, very significant things7 P+ J6 X) j- d
to help lots of people. This is a dormitory in Thailand that my mom and dad underwrote. And every
$ V% U" V. |) q2 X! s5 yyear about 30 students get to go to school who wouldn’t have otherwise. This is something my wife
( L1 \; ^3 _5 @5 ^3 jand I have also been involved in heavily. And these are the kind of things that I think everybody/ s' r" B- h3 F% X% B$ E* M
ought to be doing. Helping others.
% L3 t$ k U8 F! bBut the best story I have about my dad – unfortunately my dad passed away a little over a year ago( U7 g% i8 v1 P. I+ o1 v1 b0 [
– and when we were going through his things, he had fought in World War II in the Battle of the
+ |4 j0 J7 ^/ T+ ?Bulge, and when we were going through his things, we found out he had been awarded the Bronze
4 o1 ?8 i; ^. }# VStar for Valor. My mom didn’t know it. In 50 years of marriage it had just never come up.
" N) t& Z# A6 |% xMy mom. [Shows picture of Randy as a young child, pulling his Mom’s hair]. Mothers are people
& M" u+ Q1 e7 ~4 [who love even when you pull their hair. And I have two great mom stories. When I was here0 f1 w) n, \' W8 J% _2 u/ T' i/ U
studying to get my Ph.D. and I was taking something called the theory qualifier, which I can N' P d% i; K @$ H3 B5 y
definitively say is the second worst thing in my life after chemotherapy. [laughter] And I was e+ y3 {/ i. u; _5 u
complaining to my mother about how hard this test was and how awful it was, and she just leaned
6 e/ B/ i6 M1 L6 Yover and she patted me on the arm and she said, we know how you feel honey, and remember when
6 Z. x) B2 ?: W0 b4 F/ ~5 p' o* Ryour father was your age he was fighting the Germans. [laugher] After I got my Ph.D., my mother! K" U7 e1 u+ `
took great relish in introducing me as, this is my son, he’s a doctor but not the kind that helps people., J$ x- ^: O3 j. L( s
[laughter] These slides are a little bit dark [meaning “hard to see”], but when I was in high school I$ ?. _, z! U9 [- N( O+ O9 \
decided to paint my bedroom. [shows slides of bedroom] I always wanted a submarine and an
A4 P9 [: u7 T$ |" T. u3 Lelevator. And the great thing about this [shows slide of quadratic formula painted on wall]
1 A6 Q/ g5 @9 B" c[interrupted by laughter] – what can I say? And the great thing about this is they let me do it. And
: w: A# C5 Y/ ~/ [; c$ W# T# Kthey didn’t get upset about it. And it’s still there. If you go to my parent’s house it’s still there. And
, o8 p5 J- j: k, Q# U+ }anybody who is out there who is a parent, if your kids want to paint their bedroom, as a favor to me! \1 r, g O: N7 D/ x$ S
let them do it. It’ll be OK. Don’t worry about resale value on the house.
2 o4 r- K' g: w5 g( x: sOther people who help us besides our parents: our teachers, our mentors, our friends, our
4 a, }! e) S# v0 l0 s( c, Lcolleagues. God, what is there to say about Andy Van Dam? When I was a freshman at Brown, he
1 O ?3 u! G2 w' Dwas on leave. And all I heard about was this Andy Van Dam. He was like a mythical creature. Like a7 y8 O8 y' L P% o6 F1 }7 y% x" `
centaur, but like a really pissed off centaur. And everybody was like really sad that he was gone, but# {) @* m4 s1 S! |1 q; ^; u
kind of more relaxed? And I found out why. Because I started working for Andy. I was a teaching- o4 Y% M( f* x! v) e
assistant for him as a sophomore. And I was quite an arrogant young man. And I came in to some
3 I/ A( @6 E# ]8 toffice hours and of course it was nine o’clock at night and Andy was there at office hours, which is
q3 B% A3 ^9 M( Q+ |# u8 S6 iyour first clue as to what kind of professor he was. And I come bounding in and you know, I’m just
7 o2 x2 g$ I: y" `1 t! rI’m going to save the world. There’re all these kids waiting for help, da da, da da, da da, da da, da% Y9 N& \* t9 k: a8 m G* J3 P2 ^
da. And afterwards, Andy literally Dutch-uncled – he’s Dutch, right? He Dutch-uncled me. And he
7 {" H3 g* c- g1 X6 ?8 jput his arm around my shoulders and we went for a little walk and he said, Randy, it’s such a shame* o6 V# f: J$ B: g0 X9 A
that people perceive you as so arrogant. Because it’s going to limit what you’re going to be able to
6 g" F+ k0 c7 ]6 ^ ]1 J! qaccomplish in life. What a hell of a way to word “you’re being a jerk.” [laughter] Right? He doesn’t( P+ S7 A# n: M( A* A6 a& Q3 b' B
say you’re a jerk. He says people are perceiving you this way and he says the downside is it’s going) ^ `( E% \* I# r& m
to limit what you’re going to be able to accomplish.
8 a. w( I- X, N2 u- \+ FWhen I got to know Andy better, the beatings became more direct, but. [laughter] I could tell you2 z8 t0 R: k/ X3 M2 H8 ]
Andy stories for a month, but the one I will tell you is that when it came time to start thinking about
# @% e; y* _- S+ u0 s) Bwhat to do about graduating from Brown, it had never occurred to me in a million years to go to; a6 M$ D" s8 ~6 U6 X7 S% ]
graduate school. Just out of my imagination. It wasn’t the kind of thing people from my family did.; w ?+ B6 F9 {! G
We got, say, what do you call them? …. jobs. And Andy said, no, don’t go do that. Go get a Ph.D.
7 z' I3 X5 u. mBecome a professor. And I said, why? And he said, because you’re such a good salesman that any- o1 [' ?, `. Z( s
company that gets you is going to use you as a salesman. And you might as well be selling
, v6 S A; D% R+ j+ ?2 Usomething worthwhile like education. [long pause, looks directly at Andy van Dam] Thanks.$ P. ^: M5 `1 }6 ?( ~4 ?4 E( l) V
Andy was my first boss, so to speak. I was lucky enough to have a lot of bosses. [shows slide of5 ~5 {2 I& j3 a0 S& S3 D4 P# |
various bosses] That red circle is way off. Al is over here. [laughter] I don’t know what the hell9 y" R* v9 b. P( c a
happened there. He’s probably watching this on the webcast going, my god he’s targeting and he% G' ]* l# ?4 [9 j. c G
still can’t aim! [laughter] I don’t want to say much about the great bosses I’ve had except that they
1 A' U7 y0 }* E0 [8 {5 Ewere great. And I know a lot of people in the world that have had bad bosses, and I haven’t had to
* ]" ` B& [6 T4 X7 L7 V7 dendure that experience and I’m very grateful to all the people that I ever had to have worked for.
+ }' Y z2 a% J! T9 n% JThey have just been incredible.! W0 k! v* ^9 k( h$ `( ~& Q1 ]$ N, k
But it’s not just our bosses, we learn from our students. I think the best head fake of all time comes2 ]' Z; M8 @' }
from Caitlin Kelleher. Excuse me, Doctor Caitlin Kelleher, who just finished up here and is starting at
+ \4 J. {- M% Y- A) LWashington University, and she looked at Alice when it was an easier way to learn to program, and6 g9 R, E1 s! q3 J/ }; S( s/ w* W
she said, yeah, but why is that fun? I was like, ‘cause uh, I’m a compulsive male…I like to make the
; t% K z! d' ]little toy soldiers move around by my command, and that’s fun. She’s like, hmm. And she was the& U% r5 }4 E& p
one who said, no, we’ll just approach it all as a storytelling activity. And she’s done wonderful work3 J% v* w: a' Q; ?" m8 Z0 N# E
showing that, particularly with middle school girls, if you present it as a storytelling activity, they’re. s, V( q& C! u& \
P a u s c h P a g e | 19
, B" d: {2 ~! [/ v2 Eperfectly willing to learn how to write computer software. So all-time best head fake award goes to1 o+ o: U5 c/ y5 ]/ G: y
Caitlin Kelleher’s dissertation.
2 v$ \# Z+ b ]( J6 v$ H1 O/ KPresident Cohen, when I told him I was going to do this talk, he said, please tell them about having. h2 I @4 x) R3 R" J& C
fun, because that’s what I remember you for. And I said, I can do that, but it’s kind of like a fish
0 n- p' ?; Y( D8 D3 g* [. E3 z7 X" C7 |talking about the importance of water. I mean I don’t know how to not have fun. I’m dying and I’m8 q4 a8 \" U& s! n ^
having fun. And I’m going to keep having fun every day I have left. Because there’s no other way to/ a5 }$ l' {# K7 H, h1 K6 j- O
play it.) c* j8 l( k4 C7 u
So my next piece of advice is, you just have to decide if you’re a Tigger or and Eeyore. [shows slide- |+ |* J: V- _
with an image of Tigger and Eeyore with the phrase “Decide if you’re Tigger or Eeyore”] I think I’m
6 R Q) T5 j# J% C4 iclear where I stand on the great Tigger/Eeyore debate. [laughter] Never lose the childlike wonder.
; Y+ z0 g2 V8 @4 S* TIt’s just too important. It’s what drives us. Help others. Denny Proffitt knows more about helping
& t' ~. O }4 Q9 J8 P. m) I/ Z6 o4 p% Vother people. He’s forgotten more than I’ll ever know. He’s taught me by example how to run a
3 `+ L) e+ j4 |: bgroup, how to care about people. M.K. Haley – I have a theory that people who come from large" k* W# M0 P7 z4 T/ i/ s; S( f
families are better people because they’ve just had to learn to get along. M.K. Haley comes from a) o$ l7 E* _, o3 ]* ~
family with 20 kids. [audience collectively “aaahs”] Yeah. Unbelievable. And she always says it’s
& J( N# y( i4 `8 {kind of fun to do the impossible. When I first got to Imagineering, she was one of the people who
% y7 {+ y+ I$ I& a/ |& v- c( N7 [dressed me down, and she said, I understand you’ve joined the Aladdin Project. What can you do?4 E, ?/ e/ r0 k
And I said, well I’m a tenured professor of computer science. And she said, well that’s very nice" ?' c% {- p8 q# g+ B. p. D+ ]% e
Professor Boy, but that’s not what I asked. I said what can you do? [laughter]& E0 p, l1 j7 _# {9 k
And you know I mentioned sort of my working class roots. We keep what is valuable to us, what we
5 ?6 E+ O: E$ C* O+ u: V! [! Pcherish. And I’ve kept my [high school] letterman’s jacket all these years. [Puts on letterman’s) c* K$ d( ~6 C/ D7 N% @3 e
jacket] I used to like wearing it in grad school, and one of my friends, Jessica Hodgins would say, why" _ f, y: n R
do you wear this letterman’s jacket? And I looked around at all the non-athletic guys around me
- ]& s) ~/ r; `who were much smarter than me. And I said, because I can. [laughter] And so she thought that was
7 \% L7 b3 q/ j) N4 `a real hoot so one year she made for me this little Raggedy Randy doll. [takes out Raggedy Randy]$ C" V. J, x! k& J7 L8 ], @
[laughter] He’s got a little letterman’s jacket too. That’s my all-time favorite. It’s the perfect gift for/ E$ p2 \. D( Y
the egomaniac in your life. So, I’ve met so many wonderful people along the way.; _8 ~+ u% H4 V% _, q
Loyalty is a two way street. There was a young man named Dennis Cosgrove at the University of
2 Q8 B r/ D" {. ^3 X. Y7 RVirginia, and when he was a young man, let’s just say things happened. And I found myself talking( T. w" `: F7 o4 \( ^! Q
to a dean. No, not that dean. And anyway, this dean really had it in for Dennis, and I could never5 K0 b# u; S# @8 D! K# r+ @
figure out why because Dennis was a fine fellow. But for some reason this Dean really had it in for; a$ V, a9 Z2 z
him. And I ended up basically saying, no, I vouch for Dennis. And the guy says, you’re not even {* T& g5 x# r f
tenured yet and you’re telling me you’re going to vouch for this sophomore or junior or whatever? I
3 B- \ G ]+ sthink he was a junior at the time. I said, yeah, I’m going to vouch for him because I believe in him.
: H1 @1 o1 w* W6 g: Q9 |+ I! zAnd the dean said, and I’m going to remember this when your tenure case comes up. And I said,) B9 ], g% J% Q1 l8 n/ N/ v' x
deal. I went back to talk to Dennis and I said, I would really appreciate you… that would be good./ a$ b# D. e, Q- W) Q7 ?6 N
But loyalty is a two-way street. That was god knows how many years ago, but that’s the same7 O X, N$ Y1 y; o* o/ n( w" p
Dennis Cosgrove who’s carrying Alice forward. He’s been with me all these years. And if we only# J M. o% I2 V+ }& s# P' F* L
had one person to send in a space probe to meet an alien species, I’m picking Dennis. [laughter] You
, w! M; X9 Q! Z; `! f: @- T0 c8 Ncan’t give a talk at Carnegie Mellon without acknowledging one very special person. And that would U+ M( i3 Z0 E
be Sharon Burks. I joked with her, I said, well look, if you’re retiring, it’s just not worth living
5 C u' [9 }6 b* Z7 t' W# u1 s7 h4 janymore. Sharon is so wonderful it’s beyond description, and for all of us who have been helped by4 N# ]# `8 Z/ w+ X2 c) d! E# r
her, it’s just indescribable. I love this picture because it puts here together with Syl, and Syl is great& b. M- m: B; [
because Syl gave the best piece of advice pound-for-pound that I have ever heard. And I think all* a$ g0 j; a, J- i
young ladies should hear this. Syl said, it took me a long time but I’ve finally figured it out. When it4 e! m% ]# j V$ w2 R8 a# q" w
comes to men that are romantically interested in you, it’s really simple. Just ignore everything they# A$ X/ T$ p, \6 G' h( [
say and only pay attention to what they do. It’s that simple. It’s that easy. And I thought back to7 G1 S; ?9 n* ]! O! o, J H# y
my bachelor days and I said, damn. [laughter]
! `0 Q, e4 e: K, P) ^% n, ]Never give up. I didn’t get into Brown University. I was on the wait list. I called them up and they
' Y% H; w/ r: p3 n- M8 qeventually decided that it was getting really annoying to have me call everyday so they let me in. At
9 E1 }2 u- Q9 B( B' R+ C+ _: tCarnegie Mellon I didn’t get into graduate school. Andy had mentored me. He said, go to graduate- g8 f" d- T* E# P
school, you’re going to Carnegie Mellon. All my good students go to Carnegie Mellon. Yeah, you
) f) [3 y# y' Tknow what’s coming. And so he said, you’re going to go to Carnegie Mellon no problem. What he% ?4 H3 @* K2 A, Y9 L+ i: X
had kind of forgotten was that the difficulty of getting to the top Ph.D. program in the country had
0 h+ H$ x* l0 N9 H) P4 g' }really gone up. And he also didn’t know I was going to tank my GRE’s because he believed in me.
$ X* e/ j" H% f B; H! w7 y4 qWhich, based on my board scores was a really stupid idea. And so I didn’t get into Carnegie Mellon.: J8 l" P. C! e" C9 V" v% s
No one knows this. ‘Til today I’m telling the story. I was declined admission to Carnegie Mellon.% c$ e8 f8 A1 w8 y: s
And I was a bit of an obnoxious little kid. I went into Andy’s office and I dropped the rejection letter7 W f3 Q# f8 U' ^# Y3 K) {. O1 `
on his desk. And I said, I just want you to know what your letter of recommendation goes for at3 i) \2 w, C; M( @6 ]# a( ^/ j3 b
Carnegie Mellon. [laughter] And before the letter had hit his desk, his hand was on the phone and
+ q* E) G% j* p: x- R- @5 She said, I will fix this. [laughter] And I said, no no no, I don’t want to do it that way. That’s not the
) G, ]" G- B: G' gway I was raised. [In a sad voice] Maybe some other graduate schools will see fit to admit me.; I+ m! P2 [& V( |0 p! g
[laughter] And he said, look, Carnegie Mellon’s where you’re going to be. He said, I’ll tell you what,! p& M4 A3 E% h* A7 `# {
I’ll make you a deal. Go visit the other schools. Because I did get into all the other schools. He said,
/ D2 G: A) I% K" Z4 ^, a' Ygo visit the other schools and if you really don’t feel comfortable at any of them, then will you let me+ p, ?8 I A4 g
call Nico? Nico being Nico Habermann [the head of Carnegie Mellon’s Computer Science Dept.] and
$ f+ V7 {$ T% k+ v! C: O- i0 JI said, OK deal. I went to the other schools. Without naming them by name -- [in a coughing voice]
+ ~8 M- d2 I+ m- @ ?4 u7 I( LBerkeley, Cornell. They managed to be so unwelcoming that I found myself saying to Andy, you
4 a' ~& ^0 H+ O3 u) Eknow, I’m going to get a job. And he said, no, you’re not. And he picked up the phone and he talked
2 V3 L" Y6 J% Z0 I! ?1 D* Zin Dutch. [laughter] And he hung up the phone and he said, Nico says if you’re serious, be in his3 \/ G3 v& m6 ]9 E$ z
office tomorrow morning at eight a.m. And for those of you who know Nico, this is really scary. So
" u" ~9 C! V# v2 B5 dI’m in Nico Habermann’s office the next morning at eight a.m. and he’s talking with me, and frankly I4 Q [% r [6 Z/ m$ t( I7 x( P/ N
don’t think he’s that keen on this meeting. I don’t think he’s that keen at all. And he says, Randy,
" c1 o$ f7 K# s6 R: Ywhy are we here? And I said, because Andy phoned you? Heh-heh. [laughter] And I said, well, since
Q* B0 t* O& D; J" _+ myou admitted me, I have won a fellowship. The Office of Naval Research is a very prestigious$ ^3 O! H9 ^3 }; q, k
fellowship. I’ve won this fellowship and that wasn’t in my file when I applied. And Nico said, a5 D! b- f8 A* |% W
fellowship, money, we have plenty of money. That was back then. He said, we have plenty of. ^6 Z. }0 ~; u2 U j
money. Why do you think having a fellowship makes any difference to us? And he looked at me.
; e) R! r, o7 F7 {% {$ ~5 IThere are moments that change your life. And ten years later if you know in retrospect it was one of
* r1 c5 D: q# @* T: s4 Pthose moments, you’re blessed. But to know it at the moment …. with Nico staring through your
1 x6 U u* O& ]+ g* J1 tP a u s c h P a g e | 21
" x, `* _" R3 k: c; hsoul. [laughter] And I said, I didn’t mean to imply anything about the money. It’s just that it was an
2 {9 R8 e" ~9 d% X* _+ chonor. There were only 15 given nationwide. And I did think it was an honor that would be2 R# d/ m- }1 V2 y
something that would be meritorious. And I apologize if that was presumptuous. And he smiled.
* A/ G0 |' b8 G& @: iAnd that was good.3 w: S' A! y" x+ R8 T, B! ^1 r
So. How do you get people to help you? You can’t get there alone. People have to help you and I/ q4 S9 T7 b7 Z4 ~; ~5 a
do believe in karma. I believe in paybacks. You get people to help you by telling the truth. Being
3 _" V' F2 z9 f' {4 W5 Zearnest. I’ll take an earnest person over a hip person every day, because hip is short term. Earnest5 j8 F1 r" X5 [5 y3 ^/ ]: d
is long term.2 t0 w! L; T$ U. s
Apologize when you screw up and focus on other people, not on yourself. And I thought, how do I) X8 T3 U6 N4 G) J
possibly make a concrete example of that? [Speaking to stage hand] Do we have a concrete
8 E7 K3 r3 K# T' yexample of focusing on somebody else over there? Could we bring it out? [Speaking to audience]* j4 e& ~( k8 G
See, yesterday was my wife’s birthday. If there was ever a time I might be entitled to have the focus
$ p7 y+ }" F+ |; G" m# Won me, it might be the last lecture. But no, I feel very badly that my wife didn’t really get a proper9 I% l; j( l( g9 c2 a% T
birthday, and I thought it would be very nice if 500 people— [an oversized birthday cake is wheeled
5 D7 ~% g/ n# l, X- f$ i5 f7 ^onto the stage] [applause] Happy—
) k$ i2 }% E* t' f- J/ |9 ?Everyone:. ~' q; @" O* S, M- S: k
…birthday to you [Randy: her name is Jai], happy birthday to you. Happy birthday dear Jai, happy
2 S" V ]; w6 \% `birthday to you! [applause]* E0 b: b7 c% s. C: M" t
[Jai walks on stage, teary-eyed. She walks with Randy to the cake. Randy: You gotta blow it out. The
`5 I ~% `. p* q! g8 Saudience goes quiet. Jai blows out the candle on the cake. Randy: All right. Massive applause.]
& f6 s; f# N; p$ j& e0 S) s. [Randy Pausch:
9 f" r- J" | _/ G# \9 k+ LAnd now you all have an extra reason to come to the reception. [laughter] Remember brick walls let
8 F: f: Q! p3 o6 y8 f1 U. [6 \# {us show our dedication. They are there to separate us from the people who don’t really want to1 u; W; e1 _% r
achieve their childhood dreams. Don’t bail. The best of the gold’s at the bottom of barrels of crap.6 P- o8 J& I0 E k( d, {
[Shows slide of Steve Seabolt next to a picture of The Sims] [laughter] What Steve didn’t tell you was7 U+ f6 B, U) y2 K, A
the big sabbatical at EA, I had been there for 48 hours and they loved the ETC, we were the best, we9 u. e. e! a ` Z$ n5 W! ~* h1 J
were the favorites, and then somebody pulled me aside and said, oh, by the way, we’re about to
. Y. i6 E# S/ n* S) T9 bgive eight million dollars to USC to build a program just like yours. We’re hoping you can help them
8 j* K7 O# b; ~& H) e/ y( g; Lget it off the ground. [laughter] And then Steve came along and said, they said what? Oh god. And( u1 |# n& I! u2 }& l0 g2 u$ b, S
to quote a famous man, I will fix this. And he did. Steve has been an incredible partner. And we
+ F+ F5 Y. X; s/ E5 |; A& v% shave a great relationship, personal and professional. And he has certainly been point man on
1 z* @/ G; \& Y& u2 Q, Dgetting a gaming asset to help teach millions of kids and that’s just incredible. But, you know, it
( J8 d, e) K) q4 L8 Ocertainly would have been reasonable for me to leave 48 hours after that sabbatical, but it wouldn’t- _7 M A0 t9 S/ k7 c5 b
have been the right thing to do, and when you do the right thing, good stuff has a way of happening.
6 l9 U( V( q: `- u; d' ~ u! XGet a feedback loop and listen to it. Your feedback loop can be this dorky spreadsheet thing I did, or, P/ [5 K/ n/ u
it can just be one great man who tells you what you need to hear. The hard part is the listening to it.7 f1 c1 n$ c# H' P6 v* `, G
P a u s c h P a g e | 22
/ n% A: A* a& e, dAnybody can get chewed out. It’s the rare person who says, oh my god, you were right. As opposed3 n, A( o) w7 m; ?
to, no wait, the real reason is… We’ve all heard that. When people give you feedback, cherish it and
. K4 r, N2 ]* o5 Y7 _* Ruse it.6 Z, ^1 ?' e! @$ y
Show gratitude. When I got tenure I took all of my research team down to Disneyworld for a week.
" H+ y4 d+ U4 j- EAnd one of the other professors at Virginia said, how can you do that? I said these people just
7 G& W! d" g6 G$ x/ F9 vbusted their ass and got me the best job in the world for life. How could I not do that?1 z- k( i9 r! p3 d; @
Don’t complain. Just work harder. [shows slide of Jackie Robinson, the first black major league
, V- h ]" y& l V' f2 bbaseball player] That’s a picture of Jackie Robinson. It was in his contract not to complain, even& q. e. ]4 l$ Y6 ~- o
when the fans spit on him.
+ `2 O9 ^/ ^$ H, iBe good at something, it makes you valuable.
; `, _8 J% I( s2 p* ?Work hard. I got tenure a year early as Steve mentioned. Junior faculty members used to say to me,2 ^. o5 _) K' H: ?2 M
wow, you got tenure early. What’s your secret? I said, it’s pretty simple. Call my any Friday night in# l# r# Y5 L: I: D& v
my office at ten o’clock and I’ll tell you.! ?7 U' ~; c E' L1 o
Find the best in everybody. One of the things that Jon Snoddy as I said told me, is that you might- j8 ~( ~: {# e7 n* t! ]
have to wait a long time, sometimes years, but people will show you their good side. Just keep
0 S w4 a1 [7 I1 C1 Q% Cwaiting no matter how long it takes. No one is all evil. Everybody has a good side, just keep waiting,/ w" O6 X7 w; D( [4 J9 m
it will come out.* h, ~4 O1 x \) J4 W: h, j
And be prepared. Luck is truly where preparation meets opportunity.
5 e* C& K, K0 S) V" w( mSo today’s talk was about my childhood dreams, enabling the dreams of others, and some lessons
, p' ]5 D- j6 |' ^learned. But did you figure out the head fake? [dramatic pause] It’s not about how to achieve your
0 [( r* P/ z. u, |dreams. It’s about how to lead your life. If you lead your life the right way, the karma will take care% l) T. v, v& C; R' @( J
of itself. The dreams will come to you.
) B: |* v8 \" ?! oHave you figured out the second head fake? The talk’s not for you, it’s for my kids. Thank you all,
2 x% o% \$ B7 ugood night.
" j0 d& \3 [0 H5 Y" d[applause; standing ovation for 90 seconds; Randy brings Jai onto the stage and they take a bow; they sit( d+ N" }* S( i6 P# C
down in their seats; standing ovation continues for another minute]: A9 _% H. n: e4 d* g
Randy Bryant:
% w- o# S0 m5 a# o fThank you everyone. I’d like to thank all of you for coming. This really means a lot I know to Randy.
) n9 u$ o$ V8 X) w' b$ nHe had this theory even up to yesterday that there wouldn’t be anyone in the room.
" X5 z! e | u' SRandy Pausch [from seat]:& x8 a+ K- {) j3 Q( a# t- ~2 Z
After CS50…
( y3 q! D3 T" \9 mRandy Bryant:
1 o" K1 D g/ T7 q0 J8 S1 m8 N2 fI know. I’m the other Randy. That’s been my role here for the past 10 years ever since Randy1 H: Y) _% O1 O$ j
Pausch came here on the faculty. And what I mean by that is, I introduce myself. I’m Randy Bryant4 @: m1 r2 z6 g- q5 P% d
from Computer Science. They go, oh, Randy from CS. You’re the one that does all that cool stuff of2 L, H( {4 o) l1 ]3 R) C
building virtual worlds and teaching children how to program. And I go, no, no, sorry. That’s the2 e7 Q6 I4 r' v0 \6 R; I. j0 i
other Randy. I’m the wrong one. Sorry, I’m just like a dull nerd. [laughter] So, but I’m very pleased+ ?1 L0 J( X# n) r: S0 e! r
today to be able to sort of run a brief series of ways in which we want to recognize Randy for his
' E' p( p7 B. f) [) D( ucontributions he’s made to Carnegie Mellon, to computer science and to the world at large. So we. j# g g3 w/ ?- |$ g0 C
have a few – it will be a brief program. We have a few people I’ll be bringing up one after the other.) w) x1 ~3 l+ s# z4 t
I’m sort of the MC here. So first I’d like to introduce who you’ve already met, Steve Seabolt from
+ m' z6 l; w2 M( f. RElectronic Arts. [applause]
/ V9 K t( a3 v% d7 Q# u' NSteve Seabolt:
# f6 n# @5 R0 i. eMy family wondered whether or not I would make it through the introduction. [voice starts to crack" c+ |5 l8 ]0 Z2 f
up] And I did that but I might not do so well now. So bear with me. As Randy mentioned, he and I,& Z4 |3 g# a! \1 H
Carnegie Mellon and Electronic Arts share a particular passion about nurturing young girls and trying
7 y& f: B5 S9 k5 `( pto encourage young girls to stay with math and stay with science. Every geek in the world shouldn’t# u3 ?+ A4 ?: z; }" z! y
be a guy. You know, it’s such a twist of fate that there’s so many people that are worried about offshoring,
" q4 U/ P0 F$ `and at the same time companies are forced to off-shore, there are fewer and fewer
- ~! `9 L4 }; b# s& q2 Gstudents entering computer science. And the number of women entering computer science just7 t+ [. _8 c4 _! @( L# [! E
keeps dropping like a rock. There are way too few Caitlins in this world. And Caitlin, we need so/ d+ @+ b# G; l& |# K \
many more of you. And with that in mind, Electronic Arts has endowed a scholarship fund. It’s the9 }* S% h7 p2 ~, C
Randy Pausch endowed scholarship fund, established in 2007 by EA. In honor of Randy’s leadership
1 {; w x$ x: eand contribution to education, computer science, digital entertainment, and his commitment to. K& f2 d9 K6 h8 B8 C. `
women in technology. This scholarship will be awarded annually to a female undergraduate CMU
: Y$ Q- S' B# astudent who demonstrates excellence in computer science and a passion in the pursuit of a career in u9 J0 g& P8 f9 G% M- }6 S4 ]
video games. Randy, we’re so honored to do this in your name. [applause]! Z, {& X7 T/ u$ w/ k3 u) Q2 f
Randy Bryant:# g# h8 {3 j! ^0 ~7 w
Next I’d like to introduce Jim Foley. He’s on the faculty at Georgia Tech and he’s here representing
2 J$ g0 O9 {1 M" ?the ACM Special Interest Group in Computer Human Interaction. Jim. [applause]( D4 X& W. J: w) i0 v2 f0 [1 |
Jim Foley:
: ^; z( z' K% N[motions to Randy Pausch to come on stage; gives him a hug] That was for Jim. [applause] ACM, the
5 P9 C; E& |; i; n! qAssociation for Computing Machinery is a group of about 100,000 computing professionals. One of
! v; T" e' B% b. a, H9 I6 [) g! ktheir special areas of interest is computer human interaction. A few weeks ago, someone who’s a
) ]4 q* V) M: Y3 Vvery good friend of Randy’s wrote a citation which was endorsed by a number of people and went to# D6 z# q0 p8 x% I( ]' p* G
the executive committee of SIGCHI, which on behalf of the SIGCHI membership, has authorized this$ i3 O3 `0 L4 U8 r
special presentation. The citation was written by Ben Schneiderman and worked on then by Jenny
/ S* o5 A+ _( v$ kPreese and Ben Peterson, and endorsed by a whole bunch of your friends and now from the
+ V+ C( S1 M) }- j2 L* Iexecutive committee. So let me read to you the citation. Special award for professional
% k* ^5 |$ ?/ ~8 Ncontributions. Randy Pausch’s innovative work has spanned several disciplines and has inspired both
" v; ?7 A9 ]) o3 Q. |/ ]- u3 Fmature researchers and a generation of students. His deep technical competence, choice of5 j# r. x0 C3 U: ^+ n" e* v# z
imaginative projects and visionary thinking are always combined with energy and passion. We’ve9 }1 S; U! V5 E8 l
seen that. From his early work on the simple user interface toolkit to his current work on 3D Alice
' d( F* s3 e+ d5 D* Oprogramming language, he has shown that innovative tool design enables broad participation in: G+ X- s0 k* p7 r# J* ^: [3 Q% j: n
programming, especially by women and minorities. Randy Pausch has vigorous commitment to
$ x% B3 R3 r ^$ I, E. mengaging students at every level by compelling and intellectually rigorous projects, and his appealing
& d& v/ e# g) T) c8 zlecture style for a role-model for every teacher and lecture. Yes, yes yes. [voice starts to crack up]$ _7 p u1 v4 O
His work has helped make team project experiences and educational computing research more9 A, X0 g8 ?: w H5 c" h9 h. A
common and respected. As a National Science Foundation Presidential Young Investigator, a Lilly1 C. B$ B9 k2 J f
Teaching Foundation Teaching Fellow, co-founder of the CMU ET Center and consultant for Disney9 A, n/ L. ?$ T+ C1 N
Imagineering and EA, Randy’s done pioneering work in combining computing interface design and
$ M1 E& X- d4 G* `8 ?emotionally rich experiences. For these and many other contributions, the ACM SIGCHI executive) P& A/ j+ Z0 R; o
council is proud to present to Randy Pausch a special award for professional contributions.4 A- `: ^$ W3 L* x% X1 Q, ~
[applause] [Randy comes back on stage to receive award]
/ i& y4 P2 Y( X L1 NRandy Bryant:8 k# I) o. Q1 v, G
Thank you, Jim. Next I’d like to introduce Jerry Cohen, the President of Carnegie Mellon University.
. k* P( b4 |& E) a[applause]) I3 a1 O: ~) L+ p+ H' Q' \" T9 E: V Z
Jerry Cohen:
/ n+ j: y ?& B4 cThank you other Randy. [Tries to move Randy Pausch’s bag of props to the side of the podium] You
" i, S: l E# Y( s6 h: @# s' m6 Xknow you’re traveling heavy, buddy. Many of us have been thinking about and talking about how: ^" ~3 X" y+ u$ `' l6 S- q
we can recognize you on this campus in a way that is lasting and fitting in terms of what you meant
7 @+ U( J$ B5 O$ W( tto this university. A lot of people are involved in this. You thought the provost wasn’t paying4 q& r+ D# L7 m; W7 T0 l% b
attention all those years. [laughter] Actually, one of the ways we’re going to remember you is this. O' {0 b0 \/ K$ \- l
$50,000 bill for stuffed animals. $47,862.32 for pizza. You’ve made great contributions, Randy, we
: { A$ n' O2 _1 j0 greally appreciate it. [laughter] One thing we could not do, regrettably, is figure out a way to capture8 y$ d4 e. B l1 `$ t$ ~' m
the kind of person that you are. You’re humanity, what you’ve meant to us as a colleague, as a
n8 V9 {9 F4 _* steacher. As a student. And as a friend. There’s just no way to capture that. There is our memories,
% m, M: B# G% }9 {: ]however. And there is a way to remember you every day, as people walk this campus. So we’ve \; \! Y# u1 W: E
come up with an idea. You’ve done great things for this campus and for computer science and for. d3 w7 @" x+ E Q9 O: ~6 W; g
the world. Surely Alice will live on. But the one we’re going to focus on right now is what you’ve* Q0 @/ v8 L$ ?1 g7 L" i0 M
done to connect computer science with the arts. It was remarkable, it was stunning. It’s had g% ~4 q1 Q9 @6 Y7 V6 @2 f6 T
enormous impact, and it will last, I daresay forever. So to recognize that, we are going to do the9 `/ j& K* b ?
following. Good job, other Randy. [laughter, as Randy Bryant gets the projector to show the next
; q+ G9 @, |- b+ k4 t! Cslide] In order to effect this, we had to build a building. [Shows slide of mockup of Gates building] A/ u, t B$ E* e* R, [( y
hundred million dollar building which will allow us to do the following. You’ll note, by the way, to6 ]1 U* u+ g" r1 i u
orient people. So the Purnell Center for the Arts is the home of the School of Drama. That modern* f3 ]" {& X* Z- r5 \" `5 E
looking new thing, half of which has a green roof, is the new Gates Center for Computer Science.
; P, W! d; H- \/ Q6 \* x- D# p W/ E7 g5 [And we had long planned to connect these two physically, both to allow people to get down from5 m6 H( P) [" U, `" y$ O3 t: f( h
the cut to lower campus, and you have to admit it carries tremendous symbolic importance. Well
: D2 a ]) m3 S3 f, m: con behalf of the Board of Trustees of Carnegie Mellon and on behalf of the entire university, I’m: C6 V% w4 b- r; F6 Z
pleased to announce today that the bridge connecting these two will be known as the Randy Pausch" F! t7 D) o, B0 h/ H) N7 b, h
Memorial Footbridge. [shows slide of mockup of bridge] [applause] Now actually based on your talk$ g! i- I \8 ?0 I1 Y
today we’re thinking now about putting up a brick wall up at either end, and let students see what
" y( ~! z1 L6 m4 f8 Qthey can do with it. [laughter] Randy, there’ll be a generation of students and faculty to come here! O0 r( K2 C/ `1 ?" {& S
who will not know you, but they will cross that bridge, they will see your name, and they’ll ask those. Q( x- Q( z0 j4 B; m" f4 p4 s
of us who did know you. And we will tell them that unfortunately they were not able to experience3 w0 Z, i4 C6 w+ L
the man, but they are surely experiencing the impact of the man. Randy, thank you for all that
. a) x2 x' ]1 \$ x, p. M" syou’ve done for Carnegie Mellon. We’re going to miss you. [applause] [Randy walks on stage and
* l$ [# ?0 [6 t# ~& Y2 g+ P# g# z' I4 ogives Jerry a hug]) o9 t& @( A! r/ m. Y/ \
Randy Bryant:# {/ F; D R/ }% n* a/ a
So every good show needs a closing act, and so to do that I’ll invite Andy Van Dam. [applause]8 a1 p( W3 Q/ P1 u
Andy Van Dam:, U& ?% U: s2 V0 u% p
Oh how I love having the last word. [applause] But to have to go on after that fabulous show, I don’t# f4 d- o) `! _% ?" P9 U4 `' U
know whether that was good planning. Well I started in Brown in 1965 and it has been my pleasure" f: K) Y) t+ o8 l) x7 d
and great joy not just to teach thousands of undergraduates and some graduates, but also to work+ ^2 s6 _6 i z9 Y4 ?
one-on-one with a couple hundred of them. And over 35 have followed me into teaching I’m proud
# z4 u" O5 I' |- o+ m7 hto say. Out of those best and brightest it was very clear that Randy would stand out. He showed
6 D, j2 ~# o- ?great promise early on and a passion about our field and about helping others that you’ve seen
3 u. l5 @5 A9 S" aamply demonstrated today. It was matched by fierce determination and by persistence in the face' E, q* N! R( ^& S0 l3 _9 S+ I4 v: F
of all brick wall odds. And you’ve heard a lot about that and seen that demonstrated as he fights. a; o7 O* L7 O8 ^+ S# f# j
this terrible disease. Like the elephant’s child, however, he was filled with satiable curiosity, you- n5 H: M$ m) E) e$ ^' g$ W
remember that. And what happened to the elephant’s child, he got spanked by all of his relations,% O2 }9 B' v4 `) o7 Z0 P g* `, @; @
and you’ve heard some of that. He was brash, he had an irrepressible, raucous sense of humor,1 b a+ P J7 V- M
which led to the fantastic showmanship that you saw today. He was self-assured, occasionally to. F. x' u* F+ O' n' U+ t
the point of outright cockiness. And stubborn as a mule. And I’m a Dutchman and I know from
& X( q& P6 W- B" R3 Z9 m- x+ }stubbornness. The kind way to say it is he had an exceedingly strong inner compass, and you’ve
+ B0 n' [* e$ q) p7 rseen that demonstrated over and over again. Now, having been accused of many such traits myself,+ N8 \$ A+ l2 a! r3 }2 o; n: q
I rather thought of them as features, not bugs. [laughter] Having had to learn English the hard way, I
% @' O! D* h$ fwas a fanatic about getting students to speak and write correct English from the get-go. And Randy
) \& }' T8 R! `; p1 m, V5 [' C6 Kthe mouth had no problem with that. But he did have one problem. And I’m having a problem with
7 k# ?6 F$ J% W- Tmy machine here, here we go. [gets slide to project on screen]. And that was another part of my
5 t+ `6 \' @% a& _. d zfanaticism which dealt with having American students learn about foreign cultures. And specifically
& E, R7 [4 y6 ~2 p( u8 R$ [1 p* ^about food cultures, and more specifically yet, about Chinese food culture. So I would take my' Q( d* S# X- K4 e( z
students to this wonderful Chinese restaurant where they cooked off the menu using a Chinese) h# V+ i3 t1 N* `. `/ y' [ o
menu. And I tried to get Randy to sample this. But would Mr. White Bread touch that stuff?
5 k8 Y+ h0 V& M6 v$ |[laughter] Absolutely not. And worse, he refused to learn to eat with chopsticks. I was chairman at' v1 \3 L7 q! V
the time and I said, Randy, you know, I’m not going to let you graduate if you don’t learn to eat with
& t5 g5 H4 Y6 S8 Zchopsticks! [laughter] It’s a requirement, didn’t you see that? He of course didn’t believe that. And* I' o, @2 z, }# y/ d
so it came time for graduation and I handed him his diploma. And this was the picture one of my9 A& R/ x6 R1 `; Z
friends took. [Shows slide of Brown University commencement, 1982, Randy dressed in his cap and6 m5 {( U# F; W1 G: |0 }
gown, opening his diploma, his mouth wide open in surprise] And what you see is Randy opening his
* m& y: N, C8 m I3 Fdiploma to show it to his parents, and there was an autographed copy of the menu in Chinese and3 x) @# l5 L; |6 q' `
no diploma. [laughter, applause] It was one of the few times I got the better of him, I have to
# { v' R1 u0 e& O" B, qconfess. Well here we are today, all of us, and hundreds and hundreds of people all over the3 [- f- }; [; V6 ~
country, I dare say all over the world, participating in this great event to celebrate you and your life.
% L* l# N, w" c2 _: h8 cRandy is the person, the Mensch, as we say in Yiddish. Your manifold accomplishments as a model
6 X4 O% w/ P! L, k( ?: `academic, especially as a mentor to your students. Your Disneyland expeditions not only were
6 d! h% ~) M) Cunique but they are legendary. You have more than fulfilled the terms of Brown University Charter,9 V8 n$ {% F. U
which are: to discharge the offices of life with usefulness and reputation. Your utter devotion to
7 ]5 u# o8 ~ Uyour family and your career are exemplary, and continue unabated as you cope with the immensity
1 K6 s: M# F* ]) s! A1 ^6 g# A1 Qof your situation. You exemplify undaunted courage and grace under pressure. The most terrible
( c7 V3 a( Q$ X9 Z; @. M- j( Ypressure one can imagine. Randy, you have been and you will continue to be a role model for us.0 X6 R5 ~# `4 u
[Voice starts cracking up] Thank you so much for all you have done for us. And to allow us to tell" n% j* o0 f1 Z! l8 w" Z
you privately and in such a public way how much we admire, honor, and indeed love you. [applause]6 R. L; I4 B8 |6 V% ? |+ Q/ T
[standing ovation]
. R6 g6 D2 |2 J& D, h5 R# }# Y6 [3 ~" n1 S, u) D
[ 本帖最后由 billzhao 于 2008-11-16 18:02 编辑 ] |
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