Randy Pausch was a computer science professer at Carnegie Mellon University and the creator of the Alice software project. He graduated from Brown University with a degree in computer science and got his doctorate in computer science from Carnegie Mellon University. He was most well-known for leading the group that founded the Alice project. Alice is a software meant to allow younger kids to learn about graphics and computer programming while expanding their imagination. He was also known for a famous lecture about achieving childhood dreams. He gave the lecture right after being diagnosed with terminal cancer. Some points from his Time Management lecture that I found especially interesting are: He emphasizes screen space and how it's difficult to go back from a certain level of convenience, from three monitors to two monitors, he makes the comparison to working on a desk vs. working on the tray on an airplane. He relates it to time management as an organization tactic. Another interesting point from Randy Pausch was the value he assigns to thank you notes. He believes more people should write thank you notes but admits that the novelty of recieving thank you notes is that many people don't write thank you notes. Towards the end of the lecture he starts talking about procastination which I find to be the most relevant part of time management. Procastination is not the same as laziness but people rationalize procastination by hoping that they maybe won't have to do it, or they are afraid of failure. I liked that he made the point about making fake deadlines before real deadlines as added motivation which is something I actually do even if it's just a day or two off the deadline.
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