Randy Pausch was an American associate professor of Computer Science, Human-Computer Interaction and Design at Carnegie Mellon University in Pittsburgh (CMU).
While at CMU, he co-founded their Entertainment Technology Center (ETC) in 1998. The ETC is a CMU facility for post-graduate students to study skills in design, art, and technology in a two year program. People that get a degree in Entertainment Technology from this center are prepared to work in theme parks, interactive museum exhibits, website design and development, and video game creation.
Aside from this, Pausch was most well known for his final lecture which he gave in September 2007 after he was given a terminal diagnosis on his pancreatic cancer (which he was already fighting for a year) a month earlier. This lecture was titled: "Last Lecture: Really Achieving Your Childhood Dreams". It became popular on YouTube and even adopted into a book called "Last Lecture" which went on to become a New York Times best-seller.
1. Pausch kept things light-hearted with humor throughout his lecture, making sure there was no somber atmosphere created from his health situation.
2. He also made sure to bring up his undergraduate experiences so that undergarduates listening to his talk can relate to him more and take his tips more seriously.
3. He made many references to family experiences and how they related to his time management advice. This almost made it seem easier to implement into my daily life.
4. Pausch's advice on using Covey's four-quadrant approach to make to-do lists was something I had not heard of before and became intrigued to use it myself.
5. His tip on how to be more productive during breaks between classes in college by making fake classes stuck with me as it gave me a new perspective on time usage.