Book of the Year

"We cannot change the cards we are dealt, just how we play the hand."
--Randy Pausch

"A lot of professors give talks titled "The Last Lecture". Maybe you've seen one. It has become a common exercise on college campuses. Professors are asked to consider their demise and to ruminate on what matters most to them. And while they speak, audiences can't help but mull the same question: What wisdom would we impart to the world if we knew it was our last chance? If we had to vanish tomorrow, what would we want as our legacy?"

When Randy Pausch, a computer science professor at Carnegie Mellon, was asked to give this lecture, he had already been diagnosed with what would be fatal pancreatic cancer. But the talk he gave--"Really Achieving Your Childhood Dreams"--wasn't about dying. It was about the importance of overcoming obstacles, of enabling the dreams of others, of seizing every moment (because "time is all you have...and you may find one day that you have less than you think"). It was about what is really important when facing any challenge. It was about living.