Quotes from book
The Last Lecture

Name: The Last Lecture
Author: Randy Pausch

Randy Pausch

The Last Lecture is a New York Times best-selling book co-authored by Randy Pausch—a professor of computer science, human-computer interaction, and design at Carnegie Mellon University in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania—and Jeffrey Zaslow of the Wall Street Journal. The book speaks on a lecture Pausch gave in September 2007 entitled "Really Achieving Your Childhood Dreams".

“You obviously don't know where the bar should be, and you're only going to do a disservice by putting it anywhere.”

Randy Pausch book The Last Lecture

When Pausch spoke of "You obviously don't know where the bar should be, and you're only going to do a disservice by putting it anywhere." he was quoting the advice of Andries van Dam on challenging his students after they already completed excellent performances on their first two week assignment.
The Last Lecture (2007)
Context: What he said was: "You obviously don't know where the bar should be, and you're only going to do a disservice by putting it anywhere." And boy was that good advice. Because what he said was, you obviously don’t know where the bar should be, and you’re only going to do them a disservice by putting it anywhere.

“The best way to teach somebody something is to have them think they're learning something else.”

Randy Pausch book The Last Lecture

The Last Lecture (2007)
Context: The best way to teach somebody something is to have them think they're learning something else. I’ve done it my whole career. And the head fake here is that they’re learning to program but they just think they’re making movies and video games.

“And these are the kind of things that I think everybody ought to be doing. Helping others.”

Randy Pausch book The Last Lecture

The Last Lecture (2007)
Context: My dad was so full of life, anything with him was an adventure. [Shows picture of his Dad holding a brown paper bag] I don’t know what’s in that bag, but I know it’s cool. My dad dressed up as Santa Claus, but he also did very, very significant things to help lots of people. This is a dormitory in Thailand that my mom and dad underwrote. And every year about 30 students get to go to school who wouldn’t have otherwise. This is something my wife and I have also been involved in heavily. And these are the kind of things that I think everybody ought to be doing. Helping others.