BOOK REVIEW: The Last Lecture, by Randy Pausch.

 “Be happy for this moment. This moment is your life.”
– Omar Khayyam (born 1048) 

There’s not much more to be said for the courage of a man facing death, with three children under the age of six and a wife who is standing by his side. Further, to share his wisdom with the world via a book - The Last Lecture - -now the country’s no. 1 bestseller — as well as a lecture which was videoed and posted on You Tube, and has gone viral. I don’t touch the man, his courage, his hard work, his pain or his fortitude.

The book, however, basically stinks. It is presented haphazardly, and to be straightforward, the advice is - what is the best way to put this? - lacking in inspiration or enlightenment.

Randy Pausch loves Disney, and as a computer science professor at Carnegie Mellon, one can understand why. He even got to cross off a line on his Bucket List - that of being an Imagineer at Disney, you know, one of those people who use computers to make some of the magic visitors see at the parks. That’s fine, and while I haven’t counted words, I will say if he gave me a buck very time he told a story about Disney, why, I’d be able to afford a very nice dinner someplace, maybe even Dinseyworld.

My point is the reader doesn’t walk away with any feeling of, oh yeah, I need to live my life that way, whether we’re walking away from Disney stories or tidbits from his classroom. Pausch has set himself up - as all writers of such books do - as a guru of sorts to dispense knowledge gleaned from a life well led and a death courageously faced. This of itself is a fine goal, and in fact one a reader of such books seeks.

Sadly, he fails.

In fact, I was surprised to read some advice which I would have expected contrary to the lessons we all need to remind ourselves of. Pausch touts himself as a master of the multitasker, the time cruncher, the man who can get lots of things done all at once and in record time (he even got his tenure earlier than anyone else has at Carnegie Mellon).

Frankly, so what?

Many writers of such books will advise you that the key lesson of dying is to live in the moment, savoring the time one has. Juggling three tasks at once doesn’t really help with that, does it?

The advice which seems agreeable enough is generally unexciting. “No job is beneath you.” “Tell the truth.” These are fine aphorisms, but really, one doesn’t need to face death to realize them. Readers want the unique perspective which such clarity of existence lends while we aren’t facing the same pain or time limits.  Pausch can’t help us.

I haven’t seen the video. Perhaps he comes across more effectively in person. Still, books need to stand on their own, and this one doesn’t.

But I’ll close again, I wish him and his family well, and I dearly hope he becomes one of the “one in a million” who survive his cancer.

– Maui Curmudegeon