Randy Pausch_卡内基梅隆大学演讲--真正实现你的梦想

Randy Pausch_卡内基梅隆大学演讲--真正实现你的梦想 2007.9.18     星期二

Randy Pausch’s Last Lecture: Really Achieving Your Childhood Dreams Given at Carnegie Mellon University Tuesday, September 18, 2007  McConomy Auditorium

For more information, see  www.randypausch.com 

© Copyright Randy Pausch, 20071

演讲原文

主持人Indira

Hi. Welcome. It’s my pleasure to introduce you to the first of our new university’s lectures titled Journeys – lectures in which members of our community will share with us reflections and insights on their personal and professional journeys. Today’s Journey’s lecture as you all know is by Professor Randy Pausch. The next one is on Monday, September 24th by Professor Roberta Klatzky.

 

To introduce Professor Randy Pausch, our first Journeys speaker, I would like to introduce Randy’s friend and colleague, Steve Seabolt. Steve has been at Electronic Arts for six years and is the Vice President of Global Brand Development for The Sims label at Electronic Arts. As you all know, The Sims is one of the most, if not the most successful PC games in the world, with sales approaching over $100,000,000. Prior to that, Steve was the Vice President for Strategic Marketing and Education at EA, bridging academia and Electronic Arts. His goal was to work with academics so there was an effective educational pathway for kids with building games as their dreams. It was in that role that Randy and Steve became colleagues and friends. Before Electronic Arts, Steve was the worldwide Ad Director for Time Magazine and CEO of Sunset Publishing, which is a very favorite magazine in the Southwest, and as CEO there, one of the things he started was school tours, because like Randy he shares a passion for inspiring kids of all ages to share their excitement for science and technology.

So to introduce Randy, his friend Steve Seabolt. Steve?[Applause]☆

 

Steve

Steve Seabolt, Vice President of Worldwide Publishing and Marketing for Electonic Arts (EA):

Thank you very much. I don’t mean to sound ungracious by correcting you, but given that our PR people are probably watching this on webcast, I’d catch heck if I went home and didn’t say that it was 100 million units for The Sims. [laughter] J Not that big numbers matter to Electronic Arts. [laughter] J

 

I don’t see any empty seats anywhere, which is a good thing, which means I just won a bet from Randy as a matter of fact. Depending upon who’s version of the story you hear, he either owes me 20 dollars or his new Volkswagen. [laughter] J So, I’ll take the car.

 

It’s a pleasure to be here, thank you very much. I’m going to start by covering Randy’s academic credentials. It’s a little bizarre for me to be standing here at Carnegie Mellon, which is a school I couldn’t get into no matter how much I contributed to this institution. [laughter]J But, no really, I’m not kidding! You all think, oh gosh he’s humble. Really, no, I’m not humble at all. Very average SAT scores, you know, right in the middle of my high school class of 900. Anyway, Randy. Randy earned -it really pisses me off that Randy’s so smart—actually I called him, we decided about, what, four weeks, ago and we heard the news went from bad to horrific. It was on a Wednesday night and I said look – we have two choices. We can play this really straight and very emotional , or we can go to dark humor. And for those of you who know Randy well, he was like oh, dark humor! So I called him the next day and I was like, dude you can’t die. And he’s like, what do you mean? And I said, well, when you die, the average of IQ of Seabolt’s friends is going to like drop 50 points. [laughter]J To which he responded, we need to find you some smarter friends. [laughter]J So you’re all smart because you’re here, so if you want to be my friend, I’ll be over in a corner of the reception room.

 

Randy earned his undergraduate degree in Computer Science at Brown in 1982. His Ph.D. in CS from Carnegie Mellon in 1988 and taught at the University of Virginia where he was granted tenure a year early. He joined the Carnegie Mellon faculty in 1997 with appointments in the CS, HCI and Design departments. He has authored or co-authored five books and over 60 reviewed journal and conference proceeding articles, none of which I would understand. With Don Marinelli, he founded the Entertainment Technology Center, which quickly became the gold standard organization for training artists and engineers to work together. It is my view and the view of our company, Electronic Arts, that the ETC is the interactive program by which all others in the world are judged.

 

I met Randy in the Spring of 2004, and when I look back it’s sort of hard to imagine it’s only been three years given the depth of our friendship. The ETC already had a very strong relationship with EA and with Randy. And Randy as he always does, for those of you who know him well, wanted to learn more, with his own eyes, about how the games business works, and how games really got made. So he spent a summer in residence at EA, and I was his primary contact point. We were in my view the odd couple. Randy the brilliant, charming, Carnegie educated CS professor. And me who went to the University of Iowa on a wing and a prayer. We spent a lot of time together that semester and for those of you who know Randy well, that’s a lot of turkey sandwiches on white bread with mayo. [laughter, clapping] My kids tease me about being “white.” There’s nobody more “white” than Randy. [laughter]J We spent an enormous amount of time together. We taught each other about each other’s very interesting, strange cultures to the other. Academic versus the corporate world. And we developed a deep friendship woven together with stories about our kids, our wives, our parents, as well as deep discussions about the paramount nature of integrity in everything you do, family first, religion, our shared joy in connecting people and ideas, and deploying money and influence to do good. And the importance of having a lot of laughs along the way.

 

Randy’s dedication to making the world a better place is self evident to anyone who has crossed paths with him. Whether it’s directly influencing students, creating organizations like the ETC, building tools like Alice or doing what he probably does best, which is bridging cultures. As Ben Gordon, EA’s Chief Creative Officer, says of Randy, even more important than Randy’s academic, philanthropic, and entrepreneurial accomplishments has been his humanity and the enthusiasm he brings to students and coworkers on a daily basis.

 

For those of you who know Randy, Randy brings a particular zest for life and humor, even while facing death. To Randy, this is simply another adventure. It is my great honor to introduce Dylan, Logan and Chloe’s dad, Jai’s husband, and my very dear friend, Dr. Randy Pausch. [Applause]☆

Randy Pausch:

 

Randy

[responding to a standing ovation/ [əu'veiʃən]热烈欢迎；大喝采] Make me earn it. [laughter]J

It’s wonderful to be here. What Indira didn’t tell you is that this lecture series used to be called the Last Lecture. If you had one last lecture to give before you died, what would it be? I thought, damn, I finally nailed the venue and they renamed it. [laughter]J

 

So, you know, in case there’s anybody who wandered in and doesn’t know the back story, my dad always taught me that when there’s an elephant in the room, introduce them. If you look at my CAT scans, there are approximately 10 tumors in my liver, and the doctors told me 3-6 months of good health left. That was a month ago, so you can do the math. I have some of the best doctors in the world.

 

Microphone’s not working? Then I’ll just have to talk louder. [Adjusts mic] Is that good?

All right. So that is what it is. We can’t change it, and we just have to decide how we’re going to respond to that. We cannot change the cards we are dealt, just how we play the hand. If I don’t seem as depressed or morose as I should be, sorry to disappoint you. [laughter]J And I assure you I am not in denial. It’s not like I’m not aware of what’s going on. My family, my three kids, my wife, we just decamped. We bought a lovely house in Virginia, and we’re doing that because that’s a better place for the family to be, down the road. And the other thing is I am in phenomenally good health right now. I mean it’s the greatest thing of cognitive dissonance you will ever see is the fact that I am in really good shape. In fact, I am in better shape than most of you. [Randy gets on the ground and starts doing pushups] [Applause]☆ So anybody who wants to cry or pity me can down and do a few of those, and then you may pity me. [laughter]J

All right, so what we’re not talking about today, we are not talking about cancer, because I spent a lot of time talking about that and I’m really not interested. If you have any herbal supplements or remedies, please stay away from me. [laughter]J And we’re not going to talk about things that are even more important than achieving your childhood dreams. We’re not going to talk about my wife, we’re not talking about my kids. Because I’m good, but I’m not good enough to talk about that without tearing up. So, we’re just going to take that off the table. That’s much more important. And we’re not going to talk about spirituality and religion, although I will tell you that I have achieved a deathbed conversion. [dramatic pause] … I just bought a Macintosh. [laughter and clapping] Now I knew I’d get 9% of the audience with that …

All right, so what is today’s talk about then? It’s about my childhood dreams and how I have achieved them. I’ve been very fortunate that way. How I believe I’ve been able to enable the dreams of others, and to some degree, lessons learned. I’m a professor, there should be some lessons learned and how you can use the stuff you hear today to achieve your dreams or enable the dreams of others. And as you get older, you may find that “enabling the dreams of others” thing is even more fun.

 

So what were my childhood dreams? Well, you know, I had a really good childhood. I mean, no kidding around. I was going back through the family archives, and what was really amazing was, I couldn’t find any pictures of me as a kid where I wasn’t smiling. And that was just a very gratifying thing. There was our dog, right? Aww, thank you. And there I actually have a picture of me dreaming. I did a lot of that. You know, there’s a lot of wake up’s! I was born in 1960. When you are 8 or 9 years old and you look at the TV set, men are landing on the moon, anything’s possible. And that’s something we should not lose sight of, is that the inspiration and the permission to dream is huge.

 

So what were my childhood dreams? You may not agree with this list, but I was there. [laughter]J Being in zero gravity, playing in the National Football League, authoring an article in the World Book Encyclopedia – I guess you can tell the nerds early. [laughter]J Being Captain Kirk, anybody here have that childhood dream? Not at CMU, nooooo. I wanted to become one of the guys who won the big stuffed animals in the amusement park, and I wanted to be an imagineer with Disney. These are not sorted in any particular order, although I think they do get harder, except for maybe the first one.

 

OK, so being in zero gravity. Now it’s important to have specific dreams. I did not dream of being an astronaut, because when I was a little kid, I wore glasses and they told me oh, astronauts can’t have glasses. And I was like, mmm, I didn’t really want the whole astronaut gig, I just wanted the floating. So, and as a child [laughter]J, prototype 0.0. [slide shown of Randy as a child lying in floating-formation on a table top] But that didn’t work so well, and it turns out that NASA has something called the Vomit Comet that they used to train the astronauts. And this thing does parabolic arcs, and at the top of each arc you get about 25 seconds where you’re ballistic and you get about, a rough equivalent of weightlessness for about 25 seconds. And there is a program where college students can submit proposals and if they win the competition, they get to fly. And I thought that was really cool, and we had a team and we put a team together and they won and they got to fly. And I was all excited because I was going to go with them. And then I hit the first brick wall, because they made it very clear that under no circumstances were faculty members allowed to fly with the teams. I know, I was heartbroken. I was like, I worked so hard! And so I read the literature very carefully and it turns out that NASA, it’s part of their outreach and publicity program, and it turns out that the students were allowed to bring a local media journalist from their home town. [laughter]J And, [deep voice] Randy Pausch, web journalist. [regular voice] It’s really easy to get a press pass! [laughter]J So I called up the guys at NASA and I said, I need to know where to fax some documents. And they said, what documents are you going to fax us? And I said my resignation as the faculty advisor and my application as the journalist. And he said, that’s a little transparent, don’t you think? And I said, yeah, but our project is virtual reality, and we’re going to bring down a whole bunch of VR headsets and all the students from all the teams are going to experience it and all those other real journalists are going to get to film it. Jim Foley’s [who is nodding in the audience] going oh you bastard, yes. And the guy said, here’s the fax number. So, indeed, we kept our end of the bargain, and that’s one of the themes that you’ll hear later on in the talk, is have something to bring to the table, right, because that will make you more welcome. And if you’re curious about what zero gravity looks like, hopefully the sound will be working here. [slide shows videotape from Randy’s zero gravity experience] There I am. [laughter]J You do pay the piper at the bottom. [laugher, as the people in the video crash to the floor of the plane on the video] So, childhood dream number one, check.

 

OK, let’s talk about football. My dream was to play in the National Football League. And most of you don’t know that I actually – no. [laughter]J No, I did not make it to the National Football League, but I probably got more from that dream and not accomplishing it than I got from any of the ones that I did accomplish. I had a coach, I signed up when I was nine years old. I was the smallest kid in the league, by far. And I had a coach, Jim Graham, who was six-foot-four, he had played linebacker at Penn State. He was just this hulk of a guy and he was old school. And I mean really old school. Like he thought the forward pass was a trick play. [laughter]J And he showed up for practice the first day, and you know, there’s big hulking guy, we were all scared to death of him. And he hadn’t brought any footballs. How are we going to have practice without any footballs? And one of the other kids said, excuse me coach, but there’s no football. And Coach Graham said, right, how many men are on a football field at a time? Eleven on a team, twenty-two. Coach Graham said, all right, and how many people are touching the football at any given time? One of them. And he said, right, so we’re going to work on what those other twenty-one guys are doing. And that’s a really good story because it’s all about fundamentals. Fundamentals, fundamentals, fundamentals. You’ve got to get the fundamentals down because otherwise the fancy stuff isn’t going to work.

And the other Jim Graham story I have is there was one practice where he just rode me all practice. You’re doing this wrong, you’re doing this wrong, go back and do it again, you owe me, you’re doing push-ups after practice. And when it was all over, one of the other assistant coaches came over and said, yeah, Coach Graham rode you pretty hard, didn’t he? I said, yeah. He said, that’s a good thing. He said, when you’re screwing up and nobody’s saying anything to you anymore, that means they gave up. And that’s a lesson that stuck with me my whole life. Is that when you see yourself doing something badly and nobody’s bothering to tell you anymore, that’s a very bad place to be. Your critics are your ones telling you they still love you and care.

 

After Coach Graham, I had another coach, Coach Setliff, and he taught me a lot about the power of enthusiasm. He did this one thing where only for one play at a time he would put people in at like the most horrifically wrong position for them. Like all the short guys would become receivers, right? It was just laughable. But we only went in for one play, right? And boy, the other team just never knew what hit ‘em them. Because when you’re only doing it for one play and you’re just not where you’re supposed to be, and freedom’s just another word for nothing left to lose, boy are you going to clean somebody’s clock for that one play. And that kind of enthusiasm was great. And to this day, I am most comfortable on a football field. I mean, it’s just one of those things where, you know, [pulls out a football] if I’m working a hard problem, people will see me wandering the halls with one of these things, and that’s just because, you know, when you do something young enough and you train for it, it just becomes a part of you. And I’m very glad that football was a part of my life. And if I didn’t get the dream of playing in the NFL, that’s OK. I’ve probably got stuff more valuable. Because looking at what’s going on in the NFL, I’m not sure those guys are doing so great right now.

 

OK, and so one of the expression_rs I learned at Electronic Arts, which I love, which pertains to this, is experience is what you get when you didn’t get what you wanted. And I think that’s absolutely lovely. And the other thing about football is we send our kids out to play football or soccer or swimming or whatever it is, and it’s the first example of what I’m going to call a head fake, or indirect learning. We actually don’t want our kids to learn football. I mean, yeah, it’s really nice that I have a wonderful three-point stance and that I know how to do a chop block and all this kind of stuff. But we send our kids out to learn much more important things. Teamwork, sportsmanship, perseverance, etcetera, etcetera. And these kinds of head fake learning are absolutely important. And you should keep your eye out for them because they’re everywhere.

 

All right. A simple one, being an author in the World Book Encyclopedia. When I was a kid, we had the World Book Encyclopedia on the shelf. For the freshman, this is paper. … We used to have these things called books. [laughter]J And after I had become somewhat of an authority on virtual reality, but not like a really important one, so I was at the level of people the World Book would badger. They called me up and I wrote an article, and this is Caitlin Kelleher [shows slide of Caitlin wearing virtual reality headset manipulating a 3D world], and there’s an article if you go to your local library where they still have copies of the World Book. Look under V for Virtual Reality, and there it is. And all I have to say is that having been selected to be an author in the World Book Encyclopedia, I now believe that Wikipedia is a perfectly fine source for your information because I know what the quality control is for real encyclopedias. They let me in.

 

All right, next one. [laughter]J [shows slide “Being like Meeting Captain Kirk”] At a certain point you just realize there are some things you are not going to do, so maybe you just want to stand close to the people. And I mean, my god, what a role model for young people. [laughter]J [shows slide of Captain Kirk sitting at his control station on the Starship Enterprise] I mean, this is everything you want to be, and what I learned that carried me forward in leadership later is that, you know, he wasn’t the smartest guy on the ship. I mean, Spock was pretty smart and McCoy was the doctor and Scotty was the engineer. And you sort of go, and what skill set did he have to get on this damn thing and run it? And, you know, clearly there is this skill set called leadership, and, you know, whether or not you like the series, there’s no doubt that there was a lot to be learned about how to lead people by watching this guy in action. And he just had the coolest damn toys! [laughter]J [shows slide of Star Trek gadgets] I mean, my god, I just thought it was fascinating as a kid that he had this thing [Takes out Star Trek Communicator] and he could talk to the ship with it. I just thought that was just spectacular, and of course now I own one and it’s smaller. [takes out cell phone] So that’s kind of cool.

 

So I got to achieve this dream. James T. Kirk, and his alter ego William Shatner, wrote a book, which I think was actually a pretty cool book. It was with Chip Walter who is a Pittsburgh-based author who is quite good, and they wrote a book on basically the science of Star Trek, you know, what has come true. And they went around to the top places around the country and looked at various things and they came here to study our virtual reality setup. And so we build a virtual reality for him, it looks something like that. [shows slide of virtual Star Trek bridge from the 1960’s TV show] We put it in, put it to red alert. He was a very good sport. [sarcastically] It’s not like he saw that one coming. [laughter]J And it’s really cool to meet your boyhood idol, but it’s even cooler when he comes to you to see what cool stuff you’re doing in your lab. And that was just a great moment.

 

All right, winning stuffed animals. This may seem mundane to you, but when you’re a little kid and you see the big buff guys walking around the amusement park and they’ve got all these big stuffed animals, right? And this is my lovely wife, and I have a lot of pictures of stuffed animals I’ve won. [laughter]J [shows slides of several large stuffed animals] That’s my dad posing with one that I won. I’ve won a lot of these animals. There’s my dad, he did win that one, to his credit. And this was just a big part of my life and my family’s life. But you know, I can hear the cynics. In this age of digitally manipulated images, maybe those bears really aren’t in the pictures with me, or maybe I paid somebody five bucks to take a picture in the theme park next to the bear. And I said, how, in this age of cynicism can I convince people? And I said, I know, I can show them the bears! Bring them out. [several large stuffed animals are brought onto the stage] [laughter and clapping] Just put them back against the wall.

Jai Pausch (Randy’s wife):It’s hard to hear you. [adjusts Randy’s microphone]

Randy Pausch:Thanks honey. [laughter]J

So here are some bears. We didn’t have quite enough room in the moving truck, and anybody who would like a little piece of me at the end of this, feel free to come up and take a bear, first come, first served.

 

All right, my next one. Being an Imagineer. This was the hard one. Believe me, getting to zero gravity is easier than becoming an Imagineer. When I was a kid, I was eight years old and our family took a trip cross-country to see Disneyland. And if you’ve ever seen the movie National Lampoon’s Vacation, it was a lot like that! [laughter]J It was a quest. [shows slides of family at Disneyland] And these are real vintage photographs, and there I am in front of the castle. And there I am, and for those of you who are into foreshadowing, this is the Alice ride. [laughter]J And I just thought this was just the coolest environment I had ever been in, and instead of saying, gee, I want to experience this, I said, I want to make stuff like this.

And so I bided my time and then I graduated with my Ph.D. from Carnegie Mellon, thinking that meant me infinitely qualified to do anything. And I dashed off my letters of applications to Walt Disney Imagineering, and they sent me some of the damned nicest go-to-hell letters I have ever gotten. [laughter]J I mean it was just, we have carefully reviewed your application and presently we do not have any positions available which require your particular qualifications. Now think about the fact that you’re getting this from a place that’s famous for guys who sweep the street. [laughter]J So that was a bit of a setback. But remember, the brick walls are there for a reason. The brick walls are not there to keep us out. The brick walls are there to give us a chance to show how badly we want something. Because the brick walls are there to stop the people who don’t want it badly enough. They’re there to stop the other people.

 

All right, fast forward to 1991. We did a system back at the University of Virginia called Virtual Reality on Five Dollars a Day. Just one of those unbelievable spectacular things. I was so scared back in those days as a junior academic. Jim Foley’s here, and I just love to tell this story. He knew my undergraduate advisor, Andy Van Dam, and I’m at my first conference and I’m just scared to death. And this icon in the user interface community walks up to me and just out of nowhere just gives me this huge bear hug and he says, that was from Andy. And that was when I thought, ok, maybe I can make it. Maybe I do belong. And a similar story is that this was just this unbelievable hit because at the time, everybody needed a half a million [dollars] to do virtual reality. And everybody felt frustrated. And we literally hacked together a system for about five thousand dollars in parts and made a working VR system. And people were just like, oh my god, you know, the Hewlett Packard garage thing.

This is so awesome. And so I’m giving this talk and the room has just gone wild, and during the Q and A, a guy named Tom Furness, who was one of the big names in virtual reality at the time, he goes up to the microphone and he introduces himself. I didn’t know what he looked like but I sure as hell knew the name. And he asked a question. And I was like, I’m sorry did you say you were Tom Furness? And he said yes. I said, then I would love to answer your question, but first, will you have lunch with me tomorrow? [laughter]J And there’s a lot in that little moment, there’s a lot of humility but also asking a person where he can’t possibly say no. [laughter]J

And so Imagineering a couple of years later was working on a virtual reality project. This was top secret. They were denying the existence of a virtual reality attraction after the time that the publicity department was running the TV commercials. So Imagineering really had nailed this one tight. And it was the Aladdin attraction where you would fly a magic carpet, and the head mounted display, sometimes known as gator vision. And so I had an in. As soon as the project had just, you know they start running the TV commercials, and I had been asked to brief the Secretary of Defense on the state of virtual reality. OK, Fred Brooks and I had been asked to brief the Secretary of Defense, and that gave me an excuse. So I called them. I called Imagineering and I said, look, I’m briefing the Secretary of Defense. I’d like some materials on what you have because it’s one of the best VR systems in the world. And they kind of pushed back. And I said, look, is all this patriotism stuff in the parks a farce? And they’re like, hmm, ok. [laughter]J But they said this is so new the PR department doesn’t have any footage for you, so I’m going to have to connect you straight through to the team who did the work.

Jackpot! So I find myself on the phone with a guy named Jon Snoddy who is one of the most impressive guys I have ever met, and he was the guy running this team, and it’s not surprising they had done impressive things. And so he sent me some stuff, we talked briefly and he sent me some stuff, and I said, hey, I’m going to be out in the area for a conference shortly, would you like to get together and have lunch? Translation: I’m going to lie to you and say that I have an excuse to be in the area so I don’t look too anxious, but I would go to Neptune to have lunch with you! [laughter]J  And so Jon said sure, and I spent something like 80 hours talking with all the VR experts in the world, saying if you had access to this one unbelievable project, what would you ask? And then I compiled all of that and I had to memorize it, which anybody that knows me knows that I have no memory at all, because I couldn’t go in looking like a dweeb with, you know, [in dweeby voice]  Hi, Question 72. So, I went in, and this was like a two hour lunch, and Jon must have thought he was talking to some phenomenal person, because all I was doing was channeling Fred Brooks and Ivan Sutherland and Andy Van Dam and people like that. And Henry Fuchs. So it’s pretty easy to be smart when you’re parroting smart people.

And at the end of the lunch with Jon, I sort of, as we say in the business, made “the ask.” And I said, you know, I have a sabbatical coming up. And he said, what’s that? [laughter]J The beginnings of the culture clash. And so I talked with him about the possibility of coming there and working with him. And he said, well that’s really good except, you know, you’re in the business of telling people stuff and we’re in the business of keeping secrets. And then what made Jon Snoddy Jon Snoddy was he said, but we’ll work it out, which I really loved. The other thing that I learned from Jon Snoddy – I could do easily an hour long talk just on what have I learned from Jon Snoddy. One of the things he told me was that wait long enough and people will surprise and impress you. He said, when you’re pissed off at somebody and you’re angry at them, you just haven’t given them enough time. Just give them a little more time and they’ll almost always impress you. And that really stuck with me. I think he’s absolutely right on that one.

So to make a long story short, we negotiated a legal contract. It was going to be the first – some people referred to it as the first and last paper ever published by Imagineering. That the deal was I go, I provide my own funding, I go for six months, I work with a project, we publish a paper. And then we meet our villain. [shows slide of a picture of a former dean of Randy’s]  I can’t be all sweetness and light, because I have no credibility. Somebody’s head’s going to go on a stick. Turns out that the person who gets his head on a stick is a dean back at the University of Virginia. His name is not important. Let’s call him Dean Wormer. [laughter]J And Dean Wormer has a meeting with me where I say I want to do this sabbatical thing and I’ve actually got the Imagineering guys to let an academic in, which is insane. I mean if Jon hadn’t gone nuts, this would never have been a possibility. This is a very secretive organization. And Dean Wormer looks at the paperwork and he says, well it says they’re going to own your intellectual property. And I said, yeah, we got the agreement to publish the paper. There is no other IP. I don’t do patentable stuff. And says, yeah, but you might. And so deal’s off. Just go and get them to change that little clause there and then come back to me. I’m like, excuse me? And then I said to him, I want you to understand how important this is. If we can’t work this out, I’m going to take an unpaid leave of absence and I’m just going to go there and I’m going to do this thing. And he said, hey, I might not even let you do that. I mean you’ve got the IP in your head already and maybe they’re going to suck it out of you, so that’s not going to fly either. [laughter]J

It’s very important to know when you’re in a pissing match. And it’s very important to get out of it as quickly as possible. So I said to him, well, let’s back off on this. Do we think this is a good idea at all? He said, I have no idea if this is a good idea. I was like, [sarcastically] OK, well we’ve got common ground there. Then I said, well is this really your call? Isn’t this the call of the Dean of Sponsored Research if it’s an IP issue? And he said, yeah, that’s true. I said, but so if he’s happy you’re happy? [So he says] Yeah, then I’d be fine. Whoosh! Like Wile E. Coyote, I’m gone in a big ball of dust. And I find myself in Gene Block’s office, who is the most fantastic man in the world. And I start talking to Gene Block and I say let’s start at the high level, since I don’t want to have to back out again. So let’s start at the high level. Do you think this is a good idea? He said, well if you’re asking me if it’s a good idea, I don’t have very much information. All I know is that one of my star faculty members is in my office and he’s really excited, so tell me more. Here’s a lesson for everybody in administration. They both said the same thing. But think about how they said it, right? [In a loud, barking voice] I don’t know! [In a pleasant voice] Well, I don’t have much information, but one of my start faculty members is here and he’s all excited so I want to learn more. They’re both ways of saying I don’t know, but boy there’s a good way and a bad way. So anyway, we got it all worked out. I went to Imagineering. Sweetness and light. And all’s well that ends well.

Some brick walls are made of flesh. So I worked on the Aladdin Project. It was absolutely spectacular, I mean just unbelievable. Here’s my nephew Christopher. [Shows slide of Christopher on Aladdin apparatus] This was the apparatus. You would sit on this sort of motorcycle-type thing. And you would steer your magic carpet and you would put on the head-mounted display. The head-mounted display is very interesting because it had two parts, and it was a very clever design. To get throughput up, the only part that touched the guest’s head was this little cap and everything else clicked onto it – all the expensive hardware. So you could replicate the caps because they were basically free to manufacture. [Showing slide of Randy cleaning a cap] And this is what I really did is I was a cap cleaner during the sabbatical. [laughter]J

I loved Imagineering. It was just a spectacular place. Just spectacular. Everything that I had dreamed. I loved the model shop. People crawling around on things the size of this room that are just big physical models. It was just an incredible place to walk around and be inspired. I’m always reminded of when I went there and people said, do you think your expectations are too high? And I said, you ever see the movie Charlie and the Chocolate Factory? Willy Wonka and The Chocolate Factory? Where Gene Wilder says to the little boy Charlie, he’s about to give him the chocolate factory. He says “Well Charlie, did anybody ever tell you the story of the little boy who suddenly got everything he ever wanted?” Charlie’s eyes get like saucers and he says, “No, what happened to him?” Gene Wilder says, “He lived happily ever after.” [laughter]J

OK, so working on the Aladdin VR, I described it as a once in every five careers opportunity, and I stand by that assessment. And it forever changed me. It wasn’t just that it was good work and I got to be a part of it. But it got me into the place of working with real people and real HCI user interface issues. Most HCI people live in this fantasy world of white collar laborers with Ph.D.s and masters degrees. And you know, until you got ice cream spilled on you, you’re not doing field work. And more than anything else, from Jon Snoddy I learned how to put artists and engineers together, and that’s been the real legacy.

We published a paper. Just a nice academic cultural scandal. When we wrote the paper, the guys at Imagineering said, well let’s do a nice big picture. Like you would in a magazine. [Showing slide of first page of the paper, with a photo at the top that spans two columns]. And the SIGGRAPH committee, which accepted the paper, it was like this big scandal. Are they allowed to do that? [laughter]J There was no rule! So we published the paper and amazingly since then there’s a tradition of SIGGRAPH papers having color figures on the first page. So I’ve changed the world in a small way. [laughter]J And then at the end of my six months, they came to me and they said, you want to do it for real? You can stay. And I said no. One of the only times in my life I have surprised my father. He was like, you’re what? He said, since you were, you know [gesturing to height of a child’s head],this is all you wanted, and now that you got it, and you’re… huh?

There was a bottle of Maalox in my desk drawer. Be careful what you wish for. It was a particularly stressful place. Imagineering in general is actually not so Maalox-laden, but the lab I was in – oh, Jon left in the middle. And it was a lot like the Soviet Union. It was a little dicey for awhile. But it worked out OK. And if they had said, stay here or never walk in the building again, I would have done it. I would have walked away from tenure, I would have just done it. But they made it easy on me. They said you can have your cake and eat it too. And I basically became a day-a-week consultant for Imagineering, and I did that for about ten years. And that’s one of the reasons you should all become professors. Because you can have your cake and eat it too.

I went and consulted on things like DisneyQuest. So there was the Virtual Jungle Cruise. And the best interactive experience I think ever done, and Jesse Schell gets the credit for this, Pirates of the Caribbean. Wonderful at DisneyQuest.

And so those are my childhood dreams. And that’s pretty good. I felt good about that. So then the question becomes, how can I enable the childhood dreams of others. And again, boy am I glad I became a professor. What better place to enable childhood dreams? Eh, maybe working at EA, I don’t know. That’d probably be a good close second. And this started in a very concrete realization that I could do this, because a young man named Tommy Burnett, when I was at the University of Virginia, came to me, was interested in joining my research group.

And we talked about it, and he said, oh, and I have a childhood dream. It gets pretty easy to recognize them when they tell you. And I said, yes, Tommy, what is your childhood dream? He said, I want to work on the next Star Wars film. Now you got to remember the timing on this. Where is Tommy, Tommy is here today. What year would this have been? Your sophomore year.

Tommy:It was around ’93.

Randy Pausch:Are you breaking anything back there young man?

OK, all right, so in 1993. And I said to Tommy, you know they’re probably not going to make those next movies. [laughter]J And he said, no, THEY ARE. And Tommy worked with me for a number of years as an undergraduate and then as a staff member, and then I moved to Carnegie Mellon, every single member of my team came from Virginia to Carnegie Mellon except for Tommy because he got a better offer. And he did indeed work on all three of those films. And then I said, well that’s nice, but you know, one at a time is kind of inefficient. And people who know me know that I’m an efficiency freak. So I said, can I do this in mass? Can I get people turned in such a way that they can be turned onto their childhood dreams? And I created a course, I came to Carnegie Mellon and I created a course called Building Virtual Worlds. It’s a very simple course.

How many people here have ever been to any of the shows? [Some people from audience raise hands] OK, so some of you have an idea. For those of you who don’t, the course is very simple. There are 50 students drawn from all the different departments of the university. There are randomly chosen teams, four people per team, and they change every project. A project only lasts two weeks, so you do something, you make something, you show something, then I shuffle the teams, you get three new playmates and you do it again. And it’s every two weeks, and so you get five projects during the semester.

The first year we taught this course, it is impossible to describe how much of a tiger by the tail we had. I was just running the course because I wanted to see if we could do it. We had just learned how to do texture mapping on 3D graphics, and we could make stuff that looked half decent. But you know, we were running on really weak computers, by current standards. But I said I’ll give it a try. And at my new university [Carnegie Mellon] I made a couple of phone calls, and I said I want to cross-list this course to get all these other people. And within 24 hours it was cross-listed in five departments. I love this university. I mean it’s the most amazing place. And the kids said, well what content do we make? I said, hell, I don’t know. You make whatever you want.

Two rules: no shooting violence and no pornography. Not because I’m opposed to those in particular, but you know, that’s been done with VR, right? [laughter]J And you’d be amazed how many 19-year-old boys are completely out of ideas when you take those off the table. [laughter and clapping]

 

Anyway, so I taught the course. The first assignment, I gave it to them, they came back in two weeks and they just blew me away. I mean the work was so beyond, literally, my imagination, because I had copied the process from Imagineering’s VR lab, but I had no idea what they could or couldn’t do with it as undergraduates, and their tools were weaker, and they came back on the first assignment, and they did something that was so spectacular that I literally didn’t, ten years as a professor and I had no idea what to do next. So I called up my mentor, and I called up Andy Van Dam. And I said, Andy, I just gave a two-week assignment, and they came back and did stuff that if I had given them a whole semester I would have given them all As. Sensei, what do I do? [laughter]J

And Andy thought for a minute and he said, you go back into class tomorrow and you look them in the eye and you say, “Guys, that was pretty good, but I know you can do better.” [laughter]J

And that was exactly the right 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. And boy was that good advice because they just kept going. And during that semester it became this underground thing. I’d walk into a class with 50 students in it and there were 95 people in the room. Because it was the day we were showing work. And people’s roommates and friends and parents – I’d never had parents come to class before! It was flattering and somewhat scary. And so it snowballed and we had this bizarre thing of, well we’ve got to share this. If there’s anything I’ve been raised to do, it’s to share, and I said, we’ve got to show this at the end of the semester. We’ve got to have a big show. And we booked this room, McConomy.

I have a lot of good memories in this room. And we booked it not because we thought we could fill it, but because it had the only AV setup that would work, because this was a zoo. Computers and everything. And then we filled it. And we more than filled it. We had people standing in the aisle. I will never forget the dean at the time, Jim Morris was sitting on the stage right about there. We had to kind of scoot him out of the way. And the energy in the room was like nothing I had ever experienced before. And President Cohen, Jerry Cohen was there, and he sensed the same thing. He later described it as like an Ohio State football pep rally. Except for academics. And he came over and he asked exactly the right question. He said, before you start, he said, where are these people from? He said, the audience, what departments are they from? And we polled them and it was all the departments. And I felt very good because I had just come to campus, he had just come to campus, and my new boss had seen in a very corporal way that this is the university that puts everybody together. And that made me feel just tremendous.

So we did this campus-wide exhibition. People performed down here. They’re in costume, and we project just like this and you can see what’s going on. You can see what they’re seeing in the head mount. There’s a lot of big props, so there’s a guy white water rafting. [shows slides of a BVW show] This is Ben in E.T. And yes, I did tell them if they didn’t do the shot of the kids biking across the moon I would fail him. That is a true story. And I thought I’d show you just one world, and if we can get the lights down if that’s at all possible. No, ok, that means no. All right. All right we’ll just do our best then. [Shows “Hello.world” world done in the BVW class, audience applauds at the end.] It was an unusual course. With some of the most brilliant, creative students from all across the campus. It just was a joy to be involved. And they took the whole stage performance aspect of this way too seriously [shows pictures of very strange costumes students wore].

 

And it became this campus phenomenon every year. People would line up for it. It was very flattering. And it gave kids a sense of excitement of putting on a show for people who were excited about it. And I think that that’s one of the best things you can give somebody – the chance to show them what it feels like to make other people get excited and happy. I mean that’s a tremendous gift. We always try to involve the audience. Whether it was people with glow sticks or batting a beach ball around… or driving [shows photo of audience members leaning in their seats to steer a car]. This is really cool. This technology actually got used at the Spiderman 3 premiere in L.A., so the audience was controlling something on the screen, so that’s kind of nice. And I don’t have a class picture from every year, but I dredged all the ones that I do have, and all I can say is that what a privilege and an honor it was to teach that course for something like ten years.

And all good things come to an end. And I stopped teaching that course about a year ago. People always ask me what was my favorite moment. I don’t know if you could have a favorite moment. But boy there is one I’ll never forget. This was a world with, I believe a roller skating ninja. And one of the rules was that we perform these things live and they all had to really work. And the moment it stopped working, we went to your backup videotape. And this was very embarrassing. [Shows image of Roller Ninja world presentation] So we have this ninja on stage and he’s doing this roller skating thing and the world, it did not crash gently. Whoosh. And I come out, and I believe it was Steve, Audia, wasn’t it? Where is he? OK, where is Steve? Ah, my man. Steve Audia. And talk about quick on your feet. I say, Steve, I’m sorry but your world has crashed and we’re going to go to videotape. And he pulls out his ninja sword and says, I am dishonored! Whaaa! And just drops!

[applause and laughter] And so I think it’s very telling that my very favorite moment in ten years of this high technology course was a brilliant ad lib. And then when the videotape is done and the lights come up, he’s lying there lifeless and his teammates drag him off! [laughter]J It really was a fantastic moment.

 

And the course was all about bonding. People used to say, you know, what’s going to make for a good world? I said, I can’t tell you beforehand, but right before they present it I can tell you if the world’s good just by the body language. If they’re standing close to each other, the world is good.

 

And BVW was a pioneering course [Randy puts on vest with arrows poking out of the back], and I won’t bore you with all the details, but it wasn’t easy to do, and I was given this when I stepped down from the ETC and I think it’s emblematic. If you’re going to do anything that pioneering you will get those arrows in the back, and you just have to put up with it. I mean everything that could go wrong did go wrong. But at the end of the day, a whole lot of people had a whole lot of fun. When you’ve had something for ten years that you hold so precious, it’s the toughest thing in the world to hand it over. And the only advice I can give you is, find somebody better than you to hand it to. And that’s what I did. There was this kid at the VR studios way back when, and you didn’t have to spend very long in Jesse Schell’s orbit to go, the force is strong in this one. And one of my greatest – my two greatest accomplishments I think for Carnegie Mellon was that I got Jessica Hodgins and Jesse Schell to come here and join our faculty. And I was thrilled when I could hand this over to Jesse, and to no one’s surprise, he has really taken it up to the next notch. And the course is in more than good hands – it’s in better hands. But it was just one course. And then we really took it up a notch. And we created what I would call the dream fulfillment factory.

Don Marinelli and I got together and with the university’s blessing and encouragement, we made this thing out of whole cloth that was absolutely insane. Should never have been tried. All the sane universities didn’t go near this kind of stuff. Creating a tremendous opportunistic void. So the Entertainment Technology Center was all about artists and technologists working in small teams to make things. It was a two-year professional master’s degree. And Don and I were two kindred spirits. We’re very different – anybody who knows us knows that we are very different people. And we liked to do things in a new way, and the truth of the matter is that we are both a little uncomfortable in academia. I used to say that I am uncomfortable as an academic because I come from a long line of people who actually worked for a living, so. [Nervous laughter] I detect nervous laughter! And I want to stress, Carnegie Mellon is the only place in the world that the ETC could have happened. By far the only place. [Shows slide of Don Marinelli in tye-dyed shirt, shades and an electric guitar, sitting on a desk next to Randy, wearing nerd glasses, button-up shirt, staring at a laptop. Above their heads were the labels “Right brain/Left brain”] [laughter]J

OK, this picture was Don’s idea, OK? And we like to refer to this picture as Don Marinelli on guitar and Randy Pausch on keyboards. [laughter]J But we really did play up the left brain, right brain and it worked out really well that way. [Shows slide of Don looking intense] Don is an intense guy. And Don and I shared an office, and at first it was a small office. We shared an office for six years. You know, those of you who know Don know he’s an intense guy. And you know, given my current condition, somebody was asking me … this is a terrible joke, but I’m going to use it anyway. Because I know Don will forgive me. Somebody said, given your current condition, have you thought about whether you’re going to go to heaven or hell? And I said, I don’t know, but if I’m going to hell, I’m due six years for time served! [laughter]J

I kid.

Sharing an office with Don was really like sharing an office with a tornado. There was just so much energy and you never knew which trailer was next, right? But you know something exciting was going to happen. And there was so much energy, and I do believe in giving credit where credit is due. So in my typically visual way, if Don and I were to split the success for the ETC, he clearly gets the lion’s share of it. [Shows image of a pie chart divided 70/30 (Don/Randy) ] He did the lion’s share of the work, ok, he had the lion’s share of the ideas. It was a great teamwork. I think it was a great yin and a yang, but it was more like YIN and yang. And he deserves that credit and I give it to him because the ETC is a wonderful place. And he’s now running it and he’s taking it global. We’ll talk about that in a second.

 

Describing the ETC is really hard, and I finally found a metaphor. Telling people about the ETC is like describing Cirque du Soleil if they’ve never seen it. Sooner or later you’re going to make the mistake. You’re going to say, well it’s like a circus. And then you’re dragged into this conversation about oh, how many tigers, how many lions, how many trapeze acts? And that misses the whole point. So when we say we’re a master’s degree, we’re really not like any master’s degree you’ve ever seen. Here’s the curriculum [Shows slide of ETC curriculum, listing “Project Course” as the only course each semester; audience laughs] The curriculum ended up looking like this. [shows slightly more detailed slide]. All I want to do is visually communicate to you that you do five projects in Building Virtual Worlds, then you do three more. All of your time is spent in small teams making stuff. None of that book learning thing. Don and I had no patience for the book learning thing. It’s a master’s degree. They already spent four years doing book learning. By now they should have read all the books.

 

The keys to success were that Carnegie Mellon gave us the reins. Completely gave us the reins. We had no deans to report to. We reported directly to the provost, which is great because the provost is way too busy to watch you carefully. [laughter]J We were given explicit license to break the mold. It was all project based. It was intense, it was fun, and we took field trips! Every spring semester in January, we took all 50 students in the first year class and we’d take them out to Pixar, Industrial Light and Magic, and of course when you’ve got guys like Tommy there acting as host, right, it’s pretty easy to get entrée to these places. So we did things very, very differently. The kind of projects students would do, we did a lot of what we’d call edutainment.

We developed a bunch of things with the Fire Department of New York, a network simulator for training firefighters, using video game-ish type technology to teach people useful things. That’s not bad. Companies did this strange thing. They put in writing, we promise to hire your students. I’ve got the EA and Activision ones here. I think there are now, how many, five? Drew knows I bet. [Drew Davison, head of ETC-Pittsburgh, gestures with five fingers]. So there are five written agreements. I don’t know of any other school that has this kind of written agreement with any company. And so that’s a real statement. And these are multiple year things, so they’re agreeing to hire people for summer internships that we have not admitted yet. That’s a pretty strong statement about the quality of the program. And Don, as I said, he’s now, he’s crazy. In a wonderful complimentary way. He’s doing these things where I’m like, oh my god. He’s not here tonight because he’s in Singapore because there’s going to be an ETC campus in Singapore. There’s already on in Australia and there’s going to be on in Korea. So this is becoming a global phenomenon. So I think this really speaks volumes about all the other universities. It’s really true that Carnegie Mellon is the only university that can do this. We just have to do it all over the world now.

 

One other big success about the ETC is teaching people about feedback [puts up bar chart where students are (anonymous) listed on a scale labeled “how easy to work with” ] --oh I hear the nervous laughter from the students. I had forgotten the delayed shock therapy effect of these bar charts. When you’re taking Building Virtual Worlds, every two weeks we get peer feedback. We put that all into a big spreadsheet and at the end of the semester, you had three teammates per project, five projects, that’s 15 data points, that’s statistically valid. And you get a bar chart telling you on a ranking of how easy you are to work with, where you stacked up against your peers. Boy that’s hard feedback to ignore. Some still managed. [laughter]J But for the most part, people looked at that and went, wow, I’ve got to take it up a notch. I better start thinking about what I’m saying to people in these meetings. And that is the best gift an educator can give is to get somebody to become self reflective.

 

So the ETC was wonderful, but even the ETC and even as Don scales it around the globe, it’s still very labor intensive, you know. It’s not Tommy one-at-a-time. It’s not a research group ten at a time. It’s 50 or 100 at a time per campus times four campuses. But I wanted something infinitely scalable. Scalable to the point where millions or tens of millions of people could chase their dreams with something. And you know, I guess that kind of a goal really does make me the Mad Hatter. [Puts on a Mad Hatter’s green top hat]. So Alice is a project that we worked on for a long, long time. It’s a novel way to teach computer programming. Kids make movies and games. The head fake – again, we’re back to the head fakes. 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. This thing has already been downloaded well over a million times. There are eight textbooks that have been written about it. Ten percent of U.S. colleges are using it now. And it’s not the good stuff yet. The good stuff is coming in the next version. I, like Moses, get to see the promised land, but I won’t get to set foot in it. And that’s OK, because I can see it. And the vision is clear. Millions of kids having fun while learning something hard. That’s pretty cool. I can deal with that as a legacy.

The next version’s going to come out in 2008. It’s going to be teaching the Java language if you want them to know they’re learning Java. Otherwise they’ll just think that they’re writing movie scripts. And we’re getting the characters from the bestselling PC video game in history, The Sims. And this is already working in the lab, so there’s no real technological risk. I don’t have time to thank and mention everybody in the Alice team, but I just want to say that Dennis Cosgrove is going to be building this, has been building this. He is the designer. This is his baby. And for those of you who are wondering, well, in some number of months who should I be emailing about the Alice project, where’s Wanda Dann? Oh, there you are. Stand up, let them all see you. Everybody say, Hi Wanda.

Audience: Hi, Wanda.

Randy Pausch: Send her the email. And I’ll talk a little bit more about Caitlin Kelleher, but she’s graduated with her Ph.D., and she’s at Washington University, and she’s going to be taking this up a notch and going to middle schools with it. So, grand vision and to the extent that you can live on in something, I will live on in Alice.

 

All right, so now the third part of the talk. Lessons learned. We’ve talked about my dreams. We’ve talked about helping other people enable their dreams. Somewhere along the way there’s got to be some aspect of what lets you get to achieve your dreams.

First one is the rule of parents, mentors and students. I was blessed to have been born to two incredible people. This is my mother on her 70th birthday. [Shows slide of Randy’s mom driving a race car on an amusement park race course] [laughter]J I am back here. I have just been lapped. [laughter]J This is my dad riding a roller coaster on his 80th birthday. [Shows slide of dad] And he points out that he’s not only brave, he’s talented because he did win that big bear the same day. 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.

But the best story I have about my dad – unfortunately my dad passed away a little over a year ago-and when we were going through his things, he had fought in World War II in the Battle of the Bulge, and when we were going through his things, we found out he had been awarded the Bronze Star for Valor. My mom didn’t know it. In 50 years of marriage it had just never come up.

 

My mom. [Shows picture of Randy as a young child, pulling his Mom’s hair]. Mothers are people who love even when you pull their hair. And I have two great mom stories. When I was here studying to get my Ph.D. and I was taking something called the theory qualifier, which I can definitively say is the second worst thing in my life after chemotherapy. [laughter]J And I was complaining to my mother about how hard this test was and how awful it was, and she just leaned over and she patted me on the arm and she said, we know how you feel honey, and remember when your father was your age he was fighting the Germans. [laugher] After I got my Ph.D., my mother took great relish in introducing me as, this is my son, he’s a doctor but not the kind that helps people. [laughter]J These slides are a little bit dark [meaning “hard to see”], but when I was in high school I decided to paint my bedroom. [shows slides of bedroom] I always wanted a submarine and an elevator. And the great thing about this [shows slide of quadratic formula painted on wall] [interrupted by laughter] – what can I say? And the great thing about this is they let me do it. And they didn’t get upset about it. And it’s still there. If you go to my parent’s house it’s still there. And anybody who is out there who is a parent, if your kids want to paint their bedroom, as a favor to me let them do it. It’ll be OK. Don’t worry about resale value on the house.

Other people who help us besides our parents: our teachers, our mentors, our friends, our colleagues. God, what is there to say about Andy Van Dam? When I was a freshman at Brown, he was on leave. And all I heard about was this Andy Van Dam. He was like a mythical creature. Like a centaur, but like a really pissed off centaur. And everybody was like really sad that he was gone, but kind of more relaxed? And I found out why. Because I started working for Andy. I was a teaching assistant for him as a sophomore. And I was quite an arrogant young man. And I came in to some office hours and of course it was nine o’clock at night and Andy was there at office hours, which is your first clue as to what kind of professor he was. And I come bounding in and you know, I’m just I’m going to save the world. There’re all these kids waiting for help, da da, da da, da da, da da, da da. And afterwards, Andy literally Dutch-uncled – he’s Dutch, right? He Dutch-uncled me. And he put his arm around my shoulders and we went for a little walk and he said, Randy, it’s such a shame that people perceive you as so arrogant. Because it’s going to limit what you’re going to be able to accomplish in life. What a hell of a way to word “you’re being a jerk.” [laughter]J Right? He doesn’t say you’re a jerk. He says people are perceiving you this way and he says the downside is it’s going to limit what you’re going to be able to accomplish.

When I got to know Andy better, the beatings became more direct, but. [laughter]J I could tell you Andy stories for a month, but the one I will tell you is that when it came time to start thinking about what to do about graduating from Brown, it had never occurred to me in a million years to go to graduate school. Just out of my imagination. It wasn’t the kind of thing people from my family did. We got, say, what do you call them? …. jobs. And Andy said, no, don’t go do that. Go get a Ph.D. Become a professor. And I said, why? And he said, because you’re such a good salesman that any company that gets you is going to use you as a salesman. And you might as well be selling something worthwhile like education. [long pause, looks directly at Andy van Dam] Thanks.

 

Andy was my first boss, so to speak. I was lucky enough to have a lot of bosses. [shows slide of various bosses] That red circle is way off. Al is over here. [laughter]J I don’t know what the hell happened there. He’s probably watching this on the webcast going, my god he’s targeting and he still can’t aim! [laughter]J I don’t want to say much about the great bosses I’ve had except that they were great. And I know a lot of people in the world that have had bad bosses, and I haven’t had to endure that experience and I’m very grateful to all the people that I ever had to have worked for. They have just been incredible.

But it’s not just our bosses, we learn from our students. I think the best head fake of all time comes from Caitlin Kelleher. Excuse me, Doctor Caitlin Kelleher, who just finished up here and is starting at Washington University, and she looked at Alice when it was an easier way to learn to program, and she said, yeah, but why is that fun? I was like, ‘cause uh, I’m a compulsive male…I like to make the little toy soldiers move around by my command, and that’s fun. She’s like, hmm. And she was the one who said, no, we’ll just approach it all as a storytelling activity. And she’s done wonderful work showing that, particularly with middle school girls, if you present it as a storytelling activity, they’re perfectly willing to learn how to write computer software. So all-time best head fake award goes to Caitlin Kelleher’s dissertation.

President Cohen, when I told him I was going to do this talk, he said, please tell them about having fun, because that’s what I remember you for. And I said, I can do that, but it’s kind of like a fish talking about the importance of water. I mean I don’t know how to not have fun. I’m dying and I’m having fun. And I’m going to keep having fun every day I have left. Because there’s no other way to play it.

 

 

So my next piece of advice is, you just have to decide if you’re a Tigger or and Eeyore. [shows slide with an image of Tigger and Eeyore with the phrase “Decide if you’re Tigger or Eeyore”] I think I’m clear where I stand on the great Tigger/Eeyore debate. [laughter]J Never lose the childlike wonder. It’s just too important. It’s what drives us.

Help others. Denny Proffitt knows more about helping other people. He’s forgotten more than I’ll ever know. He’s taught me by example how to run a group, how to care about people. M.K. Haley – I have a theory that people who come from large families are better people because they’ve just had to learn to get along. M.K. Haley comes from a family with 20 kids. [audience collectively “aaahs”] Yeah. Unbelievable. And she always says it’s kind of fun to do the impossible. When I first got to Imagineering, she was one of the people who dressed me down, and she said, I understand you’ve joined the Aladdin Project. What can you do? And I said, well I’m a tenured professor of computer science. And she said, well that’s very nice Professor Boy, but that’s not what I asked. I said what can you do? [laughter]J

And you know I mentioned sort of my working class roots. We keep what is valuable to us, what we cherish. And I’ve kept my [high school] letterman’s jacket all these years. [Puts on letterman’s jacket] I used to like wearing it in grad school, and one of my friends, Jessica Hodgins would say, why do you wear this letterman’s jacket? And I looked around at all the non-athletic guys around me who were much smarter than me. And I said, because I can. [laughter]J And so she thought that was a real hoot so one year she made for me this little Raggedy Randy doll. [takes out Raggedy Randy] [laughter]J He’s got a little letterman’s jacket too. That’s my all-time favorite. It’s the perfect gift for the egomaniac in your life.

So, I’ve met so many wonderful people along the way. Loyalty is a two way street.

There was a young man named Dennis Cosgrove at the University of Virginia, and when he was a young man, let’s just say things happened. And I found myself talking to a dean. No, not that dean. And anyway, this dean really had it in for Dennis, and I could never figure out why because Dennis was a fine fellow. But for some reason this Dean really had it in for him. And I ended up basically saying, no, I vouch for Dennis. And the guy says, you’re not even tenured yet and you’re telling me you’re going to vouch for this sophomore or junior or whatever? I think he was a junior at the time. I said, yeah, I’m going to vouch for him because I believe in him. And the dean said, and I’m going to remember this when your tenure case comes up. And I said, deal. I went back to talk to Dennis and I said, I would really appreciate you… that would be good. But loyalty is a two-way street. That was god knows how many years ago, but that’s the same Dennis Cosgrove who’s carrying Alice forward. He’s been with me all these years. And if we only had one person to send in a space probe to meet an alien species, I’m picking Dennis. [laughter]J

You can’t give a talk at Carnegie Mellon without acknowledging one very special person. And that would be Sharon Burks. I joked with her, I said, well look, if you’re retiring, it’s just not worth living anymore. Sharon is so wonderful it’s beyond description, and for all of us who have been helped by her, it’s just indescribable. I love this picture because it puts here together with Syl, and Syl is great because Syl gave the best piece of advice pound-for-pound that I have ever heard. And I think all young ladies should hear this. Syl said, it took me a long time but I’ve finally figured it out. When it comes to men that are romantically interested in you, it’s really simple. Just ignore everything they say and only pay attention to what they do. It’s that simple. It’s that easy. And I thought back to my bachelor days and I said, damn. [laughter]J

Never give up. I didn’t get into Brown University. I was on the wait list. I called them up and they eventually decided that it was getting really annoying to have me call everyday so they let me in. At Carnegie Mellon I didn’t get into graduate school. Andy had mentored me. He said, go to graduate school, you’re going to Carnegie Mellon. All my good students go to Carnegie Mellon. Yeah, you know what’s coming. And so he said, you’re going to go to Carnegie Mellon no problem. What he had kind of forgotten was that the difficulty of getting to the top Ph.D. program in the country had really gone up. And he also didn’t know I was going to tank my GRE’s because he believed in me. Which, based on my board scores was a really stupid idea.

And so I didn’t get into Carnegie Mellon. No one knows this.Till today I’m telling the story. I was declined admission to Carnegie Mellon. And I was a bit of an obnoxious little kid. I went into Andy’s office and I dropped the rejection letter on his desk. And I said, I just want you to know what your letter of recommendation goes for at Carnegie Mellon. [laughter]J

And before the letter had hit his desk, his hand was on the phone and he said, I will fix this. [laughter]J And I said, no no no, I don’t want to do it that way. That’s not the way I was raised. [In a sad voice] Maybe some other graduate schools will see fit to admit me. [laughter]J And he said, look, Carnegie Mellon’s where you’re going to be. He said, I’ll tell you what,  I’ll make you a deal. Go visit the other schools. Because I did get into all the other schools. He said, go visit the other schools and if you really don’t feel comfortable at any of them, then will you let me call Nico? Nico being Nico Habermann [the head of Carnegie Mellon’s Computer Science Dept.] and I said, OK deal. I went to the other schools. Without naming them by name --[in a coughing voice] Berkeley, Cornell. They managed to be so unwelcoming that I found myself saying to Andy, you know, I’m going to get a job. And he said, no, you’re not. And he picked up the phone and he talked in Dutch. [laughter]J

And he hung up the phone and he said, Nico says if you’re serious, be in his office tomorrow morning at eight a.m. And for those of you who know Nico, this is really scary. So I’m in Nico Habermann’s office the next morning at eight a.m. and he’s talking with me, and frankly I don’t think he’s that keen on this meeting. I don’t think he’s that keen at all. And he says, Randy, why are we here? And I said, because Andy phoned you? Heh-heh. [laughter]J

And I said, well, since you admitted me, I have won a fellowship. The Office of Naval Research is a very prestigious fellowship. I’ve won this fellowship and that wasn’t in my file when I applied. And Nico said, a fellowship, money, we have plenty of money. That was back then. He said, we have plenty of money. Why do you think having a fellowship makes any difference to us? And he looked at me. There are moments that change your life. And ten years later if you know in retrospect it was one of those moments, you’re blessed. But to know it at the moment ….

with Nico staring through your soul. [laughter]J And I said, I didn’t mean to imply anything about the money. It’s just that it was an honor. There were only 15 given nationwide. And I did think it was an honor that would be something that would be meritorious. And I apologize if that was presumptuous. And he smiled. And that was good.

So. How do you get people to help you? You can’t get there alone. People have to help you and I do believe in karma. I believe in paybacks. You get people to help you by telling the truth. Being earnest. I’ll take an earnest person over a hip person every day, because hip is short term. Earnest is long term.

Apologize when you screw up and focus on other people, not on yourself. And I thought, how do I possibly make a concrete example of that? [Speaking to stage hand] Do we have a concrete example of focusing on somebody else over there? Could we bring it out?

[Speaking to audience] See, yesterday was my wife’s birthday. If there was ever a time I might be entitled to have the focus on me, it might be the last lecture. But no, I feel very badly that my wife didn’t really get a proper birthday, and I thought it would be very nice if 500 people— [an oversized birthday cake is wheeled onto the stage] [Applause]☆ Happy—

Everyone:…birthday to you [Randy: her name is Jai], happy birthday to you. Happy birthday dear Jai, happy birthday to you! [Applause]☆

[Jai walks on stage, teary-eyed. She walks with Randy to the cake. Randy: You gotta blow it out. The audience goes quiet. Jai blows out the candle on the cake. Randy: All right. Massive applause.]

Randy Pausch:

And now you all have an extra reason to come to the reception. [laughter]J Remember brick walls let us show our dedication. They are there to separate us from the people who don’t really want to achieve their childhood dreams. Don’t bail. The best of the gold’s at the bottom of barrels of crap. [Shows slide of Steve Seabolt next to a picture of The Sims] [laughter]J

What Steve didn’t tell you was the big sabbatical at EA, I had been there for 48 hours and they loved the ETC, we were the best, we were the favorites, and then somebody pulled me aside and said, oh, by the way, we’re about to give eight million dollars to USC to build a program just like yours. We’re hoping you can help them get it off the ground. [laughter]J And then Steve came along and said, they said what? Oh god. And to quote a famous man, I will fix this. And he did. Steve has been an incredible partner. And we have a great relationship, personal and professional. And he has certainly been point man on getting a gaming asset to help teach millions of kids and that’s just incredible. But, you know, it certainly would have been reasonable for me to leave 48 hours after that sabbatical, but it wouldn’t have been the right thing to do, and when you do the right thing, good stuff has a way of happening.

Get a feedback loop and listen to it. Your feedback loop can be this dorky spreadsheet thing I did, or it can just be one great man who tells you what you need to hear. The hard part is the listening to it.

Anybody can get chewed out. It’s the rare person who says, oh my god, you were right. As opposed to, no wait, the real reason is… We’ve all heard that. When people give you feedback, cherish it and use it.

Show gratitude. When I got tenure I took all of my research team down to Disneyworld for a week. And one of the other professors at Virginia said, how can you do that? I said these people just busted their ass and got me the best job in the world for life. How could I not do that?

 

Don’t complain. Just work harder. [shows slide of Jackie Robinson, the first black major league baseball player] That’s a picture of Jackie Robinson. It was in his contract not to complain, even when the fans spit on him.

Be good at something, it makes you valuable.

Work hard. I got tenure a year early as Steve mentioned. Junior faculty members used to say to me, wow, you got tenure early. What’s your secret? I said, it’s pretty simple. Call my any Friday night in my office at ten o’clock and I’ll tell you.

 

Find the best in everybody. One of the things that Jon Snoddy as I said told me, is that you might have to wait a long time, sometimes years, but people will show you their good side. Just keep waiting no matter how long it takes. No one is all evil. Everybody has a good side, just keep waiting, it will come out.

And be prepared. Luck is truly where preparation meets opportunity.

 

So today’s talk was about my childhood dreams, enabling the dreams of others, and some lessons learned. But did you figure out the head fake? [dramatic pause] It’s not about how to achieve your dreams. It’s about how to lead your life. If you lead your life the right way, the karma will take care of itself. The dreams will come to you.

Have you figured out the second head fake? The talk’s not for you, it’s for my kids. Thank you all,

good night.

[applause; standing ovation for 90 seconds; Randy brings Jai onto the stage and they take a bow; they sit down in their seats; standing ovation continues for another minute]

 

Randy Bryant:

Thank you everyone. I’d like to thank all of you for coming. This really means a lot I know to Randy. He had this theory even up to yesterday that there wouldn’t be anyone in the room.After CS50…

 

Randy Bryant:

I know. I’m the other Randy. That’s been my role here for the past 10 years ever since Randy Pausch came here on the faculty. And what I mean by that is, I introduce myself. I’m Randy Bryant from Computer Science. They go, oh, Randy from CS. You’re the one that does all that cool stuff of building virtual worlds and teaching children how to program. And I go, no, no, sorry. That’s the other Randy. I’m the wrong one. Sorry, I’m just like a dull nerd. [laughter]J So, but I’m very pleased today to be able to sort of run a brief series of ways in which we want to recognize Randy for his contributions he’s made to Carnegie Mellon, to computer science and to the world at large. So we have a few – it will be a brief program. We have a few people I’ll be bringing up one after the other. I’m sort of the MC here. So first I’d like to introduce who you’ve already met, Steve Seabolt from Electronic Arts. [Applause]☆

 

Steve Seabolt:

My family wondered whether or not I would make it through the introduction. [voice starts to crack up] And I did that but I might not do so well now. So bear with me.

As Randy mentioned, he and I, Carnegie Mellon and Electronic Arts share a particular passion about nurturing young girls and trying to encourage young girls to stay with math and stay with science. Every geek in the world shouldn’t be a guy. You know, it’s such a twist of fate that there’s so many people that are worried about off-shoring, and at the same time companies are forced to off-shore, there are fewer and fewer students entering computer science. And the number of women entering computer science just keeps dropping like a rock. There are way too few Caitlins in this world. And Caitlin, we need so many more of you. And with that in mind, Electronic Arts has endowed a scholarship fund. It’s the Randy Pausch endowed scholarship fund, established in 2007 by EA. In honor of Randy’s leadership and contribution to education, computer science, digital entertainment, and his commitment to women in technology. This scholarship will be awarded annually to a female undergraduate CMU student who demonstrates excellence in computer science and a passion in the pursuit of a career in video games. Randy, we’re so honored to do this in your name. [Applause]☆

 

Randy Bryant:

Next I’d like to introduce Jim Foley. He’s on the faculty at Georgia Tech and he’s here representing the ACM Special Interest Group in Computer Human Interaction. Jim. [Applause]☆

 

Jim Foley:

[motions to Randy Pausch to come on stage; gives him a hug] That was for Jim. [Applause]☆

ACM, the Association for Computing Machinery is a group of about 100,000 computing professionals. One of their special areas of interest is computer human interaction.

A few weeks ago, someone who’s a very good friend of Randy’s wrote a citation which was endorsed by a number of people and went to the executive committee of SIGCHI, which on behalf of the SIGCHI membership, has authorized this special presentation. The citation was written by Ben Schneiderman and worked on then by Jenny Preese and Ben Peterson, and endorsed by a whole bunch of your friends and now from the executive committee. So let me read to you the citation. Special award for professional contributions. Randy Pausch’s innovative work has spanned several disciplines and has inspired both mature researchers and a generation of students. His deep technical competence, choice of imaginative projects and visionary thinking are always combined with energy and passion. We’ve seen that. From his early work on the simple user interface toolkit to his current work on 3D Alice programming language, he has shown that innovative tool design enables broad participation in programming, especially by women and minorities. Randy Pausch has vigorous commitment to engaging students at every level by compelling and intellectually rigorous projects, and his appealing lecture style for a role-model for every teacher and lecture. Yes, yes yes. [voice starts to crack up] His work has helped make team project experiences and educational computing research more common and respected. As a National Science Foundation Presidential Young Investigator, a Lilly Teaching Foundation Teaching Fellow, co-founder of the CMU ET Center and consultant for Disney Imagineering and EA, Randy’s done pioneering work in combining computing interface design and emotionally rich experiences. For these and many other contributions, the ACM SIGCHI executive council is proud to present to Randy Pausch a special award for professional contributions.

[Applause]☆ [Randy comes back on stage to receive award]

 

Randy Bryant:

Thank you, Jim. Next I’d like to introduce Jerry Cohen, the President of Carnegie Mellon University. [Applause]☆

 

Jerry Cohen:

Thank you other Randy. [Tries to move Randy Pausch’s bag of props to the side of the podium] You know you’re traveling heavy, buddy.

Many of us have been thinking about and talking about how we can recognize you on this campus in a way that is lasting and fitting in terms of what you meant to this university. A lot of people are involved in this. You thought the provost wasn’t paying attention all those years. [laughter]J Actually, one of the ways we’re going to remember you is this $50,000 bill for stuffed animals. $47,862.32 for pizza. You’ve made great contributions, Randy, we really appreciate it. [laughter]J One thing we could not do, regrettably, is figure out a way to capture the kind of person that you are. You’re humanity, what you’ve meant to us as a colleague, as a teacher. As a student. And as a friend. There’s just no way to capture that. There is our memories, however. And there is a way to remember you every day, as people walk this campus. So we’ve come up with an idea. You’ve done great things for this campus and for computer science and for the world. Surely Alice will live on. But the one we’re going to focus on right now is what you’ve done to connect computer science with the arts. It was remarkable, it was stunning. It’s had enormous impact, and it will last, I daresay forever. So to recognize that, we are going to do the following. Good job, other Randy. [laughter, as Randy Bryant gets the projector to show the next slide] In order to effect this, we had to build a building. [Shows slide of mockup of Gates building] A hundred million dollar building which will allow us to do the following. You’ll note, by the way, to orient people. So the Purnell Center for the Arts is the home of the School of Drama. That modern looking new thing, half of which has a green roof, is the new Gates Center for Computer Science. And we had long planned to connect these two physically, both to allow people to get down from the cut to lower campus, and you have to admit it carries tremendous symbolic importance. Well on behalf of the Board of Trustees of Carnegie Mellon and on behalf of the entire university, I’m pleased to announce today that the bridge connecting these two will be known as the Randy Pausch Memorial Footbridge. [shows slide of mockup of bridge] [Applause]☆ Now actually based on your talk today we’re thinking now about putting up a brick wall up at either end, and let students see what they can do with it. [laughter]J Randy, there’ll be a generation of students and faculty to come here who will not know you, but they will cross that bridge, they will see your name, and they’ll ask those of us who did know you. And we will tell them that unfortunately they were not able to experience the man, but they are surely experiencing the impact of the man. Randy, thank you for all that you’ve done for Carnegie Mellon. We’re going to miss you. [Applause]☆ [Randy walks on stage and gives Jerry a hug]

 

 

 

Randy Bryant:

So every good show needs a closing act, and so to do that I’ll invite Andy Van Dam. [Applause]☆

 

 

Andy Van Dam:

Oh how I love having the last word. [Applause]☆ But to have to go on after that fabulous show, I don’t know whether that was good planning. Well I started in Brown in 1965 and it has been my pleasure and great joy not just to teach thousands of undergraduates and some graduates, but also to work one-on-one with a couple hundred of them. And over 35 have followed me into teaching I’m proud to say. Out of those best and brightest it was very clear that Randy would stand out. He showed great promise early on and a passion about our field and about helping others that you’ve seen amply demonstrated today. It was matched by fierce determination and by persistence in the face of all brick wall odds. And you’ve heard a lot about that and seen that demonstrated as he fights this terrible disease. Like the elephant’s child, however, he was filled with satiable curiosity, you remember that. And what happened to the elephant’s child, he got spanked by all of his relations, and you’ve heard some of that. He was brash, he had an irrepressible, raucous sense of humor, which led to the fantastic showmanship that you saw today. He was self-assured, occasionally to the point of outright cockiness. And stubborn as a mule. And I’m a Dutchman and I know from stubbornness. The kind way to say it is he had an exceedingly strong inner compass, and you’ve seen that demonstrated over and over again. Now, having been accused of many such traits myself, I rather thought of them as features, not bugs. [laughter]J Having had to learn English the hard way, I was a fanatic about getting students to speak and write correct English from the get-go. And Randy the mouth had no problem with that. But he did have one problem. And I’m having a problem with my machine here, here we go. [gets slide to project on screen]. And that was another part of my fanaticism which dealt with having American students learn about foreign cultures. And specifically about food cultures, and more specifically yet, about Chinese food culture. So I would take my students to this wonderful Chinese restaurant where they cooked off the menu using a Chinese menu. And I tried to get Randy to sample this. But would Mr. White Bread touch that stuff? [laughter]J Absolutely not. And worse, he refused to learn to eat with chopsticks. I was chairman at the time and I said, Randy, you know, I’m not going to let you graduate if you don’t learn to eat with chopsticks! [laughter]J It’s a requirement, didn’t you see that? He of course didn’t believe that. And so it came time for graduation and I handed him his diploma. And this was the picture one of my friends took. [Shows slide of Brown University commencement, 1982, Randy dressed in his cap and gown, opening his diploma, his mouth wide open in surprise] And what you see is Randy opening his diploma to show it to his parents, and there was an autographed copy of the menu in Chinese and no diploma. [laughter, applause] It was one of the few times I got the better of him, I have to confess. Well here we are today, all of us, and hundreds and hundreds of people all over the country, I dare say all over the world, participating in this great event to celebrate you and your life. Randy is the person, the Mensch, as we say in Yiddish. Your manifold accomplishments as a model academic, especially as a mentor to your students. Your Disneyland expeditions not only were unique but they are legendary. You have more than fulfilled the terms of Brown University Charter, which are: to discharge the offices of life with usefulness and reputation. Your utter devotion to your family and your career are exemplary, and continue unabated as you cope with the immensity of your situation. You exemplify undaunted courage and grace under pressure. The most terrible pressure one can imagine. Randy, you have been and you will continue to be a role model for us. [Voice starts cracking up] Thank you so much for all you have done for us. And to allow us to tell you privately and in such a public way how much we admire, honor, and indeed love you. [Applause]☆

[standing ovation]

 

各位，欢迎来到这里这是我的荣幸向各位介绍本校第一次“旅程”系列演讲在这系列的演讲中，我们的教师将会分享...在他们职业或人生旅程中的思绪或经验。各位应该知道，今天的“旅程”演讲是由Randy Pausch教授所主讲，下一次是9月24日周一，由Roberta Klatzky教授主讲

 

要介绍我们第一位讲者Randy Pausch教授，容我请Randy的好友与同僚Steve Seabolt上台  Steve在美国艺电任职六年担任“模拟人生”系列全球品牌发展副总裁诸位都知道“模拟人生”系列堪称史上最成功的计算机游戏之一，销售量突破一亿套（朱注：此处原文为十万套，口误）在那之前，Steve是艺电的教育策略副总裁，担任艺电和学术界之间的桥梁，他的目标是和学术界合作，建立合理的教育规划，为那些以设计游戏为梦想的孩子们铺路在这段期间，Randy和Steve成为好友和同事，在加入美国艺电之前，Steve是时代杂志的全球广告总监，以及在美国西南部很受欢迎的日落杂志总裁，在他任职总裁期间，他开始举办学校的巡回，因为他和Randy一样，热衷于启发孩子分享对科学与科技的热情

 

让我们邀请Randy的好友，Steve Seabolt来介绍他！

 

 

 

多谢各位，我实在不想无礼的纠正您，但我们的公关多半在网络上看现场转播，如果我现在不纠正说明“模拟人生”卖了一亿套，我回家就惨了，当然我们艺电不在乎这些惊人数字啦

 

我没看到有任何空位，这是件好事，因为我刚赢了一场和Randy的打赌。我们两人有不同的故事版本，所以我可能赢了二十元或是一辆福斯汽车

我想还是车比较好

 

多谢各位，很荣幸可以来此，我想就用介绍Randy的学术成就开始好了

对我来说，站在卡内基美隆大学台上真是有点奇怪，因为这是所我进不了的学校，不管我捐了多少钱都进不了这里。不，真的，我不是开玩笑。你们都会说这家伙真谦虚，不，我一点也没客气，我的SAT分数普通，在900名高中同学间排名中间，算了，来谈Randy吧，Randy这么聪明真是让我生气啊！事实上，大概四周之前，我们听说了状况从坏转为极糟，那是个周三晚上，我说：我们有两个选择，我们可以直接用超感性方法呈现，或者是我们可以来场黑色幽默，认识Randy的人都知道，他一定选黑色幽默。第二天我打去说：老大，你不能死啊，他说：为什么啊？我说：如果你死了...我朋友的平均智商就会下降50啊！他则说那就要帮你找些聪明的朋友了，在这里的各位都是聪明人，如果各位想当我朋友，我会在角落的接待室。

 

 

Randy 1982年，在Brown大学获得信息科学学士学位，1988年则是在卡内基美隆大学获得信息科学博士学位，他在维吉尼亚大学任教，并提前一年获得终身聘，1997年前来卡内基美隆大学担任教职，任教于信息科学、人机互动研究所和设计系，他撰写或共同撰写了五本书和六十份学术论文、会议论文，这些显然我都不会看得懂。他和Don Marinelli共同创办娱乐科技中心，很快就成为训练工程师，和艺术家共同合作的顶尖机构，我和艺电都认为娱乐科技中心的互动课程足以领先全球。

 

 

我和Randy在2004年春天碰面，当我回想时，很难想像这仅过了三年的时间，我们就可以建立这么深厚的友谊，娱乐科技中心已和艺电与Randy关系密切，对那些熟识Randy的人来说，Randy总是想要学习更多的事物，用他自己的双眼了解游戏业界如何运作，游戏如何制作，所以他花了一个夏天长驻在艺电，我是他的主要联络人，在我看来，我们的组合十分奇特

Randy是个聪明，有魅力的卡内基美隆大学教授，我则是勉强才得以挤身Iowa大学，我们一起共度许多时间，如果各位熟知Randy的话，那就是很多个白火鸡肉，夹白面包配上蛋黄酱，我孩子老是爱笑我口味简单，但这方面没人可以比得过Randy，我们当真是度过了许多时光...我们教会对方各自的特殊背景和文化，学术研究和商业公司，我们的友情至为深刻，我们共同分享孩子、妻子和双亲的故事

我们也讨论了万物的自然之理

不论我们作什么，一切应以家人优先，宗教，以及我们都同样，喜欢连结人和理念的的兴趣，运用金钱以及影响力来做好事，以及在这所有过程中笑着完成一切

 

Randy想要让这个世界变得更好，所有认识和遇过他的人都很清楚这一点不管是他直接教导过的学生，所创造像是娱乐科技中心的组织，所设计像是ALICE的工具，或是他作的最好的：文化沟通，艺电的创意主管Ben Gordon曾经这么说Randy：唯一能比Randy在学术、在公益、在创业上成就更令人佩服的事情：是他每天带给学生和同事的人文关怀和热情

 

 

对那些熟识Randy的人，他热爱生命，笑脸迎人，即使面对死神也不改其志，对Randy来说，这只不过是另一场冒险，这是我至高的荣幸，为各位介绍，Dylan、Logan与Chloe之父、Jai之夫，与我最亲爱的好友 Randy Pausch博士！

 

 

看来我得多努力让你们佩服了！（某人：你已经做到了！）

很高興能來到這裡！Indira沒告訴你們的是：這個系列演講原先叫做「人生的最後一堂課」。如果你死前還可以再教「最後一堂課」，你會想要說什麼？我想：可惡，好不容易我終於符合資格，結果他們卻把名字給改了！

 

如果有人剛走進來，不知道為啥要辦這場演講，我老爹經常說，如果房內有什麼很明顯，別忘記先介紹它。如果你們看看我的CAT掃瞄結果，會看到我的肝臟內大概有十個腫瘤。我的醫生告訴我大概還有三到六個月可活，那大概是一個月之前，諸位可以自己算算看。我的醫生可算得上是世界最好的。

麥克風聲音不清楚？搞不好我只能大聲點說話，這樣可以嗎？

世事就是如此，我們不能改變，我們只能決定要如何回應。我們不能決定人生拿到什麼牌，但我們能決定如何打好手上的牌。如果我看起來沒像你們想像的憂鬱和軟弱，真抱歉讓大家失望了。我保證我不是在自欺欺人，我並非渾然不知現在的狀況。我家人、妻子和孩子剛在維吉尼亞 Norfork落戶，買了棟漂亮屋子。我們這樣做是因為一家人住在那比較好。事實上我真的相當精力充沛！我保證這是各位看過最驚人的認知失調！我現在身體狀況好得不得了！事實上，我體力比在座的大部分人都要好！任何想要哭泣或是可憐我的人先下來作幾個伏地挺身再說吧！

 

 

好的，我們今天不談什麼呢？我們不談癌症；因為我已經花了很多時間在上面，懶得多談了。如果你有任何草藥或是偏方，請不要靠近我。們也不討論比達成兒時夢想更重要的事，我們不談我妻子，也不談我的孩子們。我雖然很堅強，但卻不可能笑著談這兩件事。我們先把這兩件更重要的事情拿開不談。我們也不談靈性和宗教，但我會告訴你我所經歷的死前皈依。我剛買了台麥金塔電腦（果然眾多喜愛高科技的阿宅歡聲雷動）。我本來想只有9%的觀眾會鼓掌...

 

 

那我們今天要談的是什麼呢？我的兒時夢想，以及如何達成它們，我在這方面很幸運，以及如何啟發他人的夢想以及人生所學到的課題。畢竟我是個教授，應該會學到一些以及如何利用你今天聽到的來達成你的夢想，或是啟發他人的夢想。隨著你年歲漸長，你將會發現「啟發他人的夢想」更有成就感。

 

我的兒時夢想是什麼呢？我當小孩時過的相當愉快，我可不是在開玩笑。我回去找家族相本，發現自己每張照片都在笑，而那真的讓我很感謝父母，那是我們家的狗，喔，謝謝你...你看，我甚至有一張作白日夢的照片，我還經常這樣做呢！經常有人得叫我醒過來。我生在1960年，那是個很適合作夢的年代。你九歲時透過電視看到人類登陸月球，一切都變得有可能了。還有我們絕不該忘記...容許夢想和它所帶來的啟發力量極為巨大。

 

 

那麼我的兒時夢想是什麼呢？你或許不同意這清單，但這可是我的夢：體驗無重力、參與美國美式足球聯盟、在世界百科全書裡面撰文（看來書呆子從小就有跡象）、變成柯克艦長。在座的各位有任何人跟我一樣嗎？看來本校這種人不多。我想要成為在主題樂園裡贏得超大動物玩偶的人，我想要擔任迪士尼的想像力工程師。這並沒什麼特別順序，但我想確實越來越困難，或許只有第一個例外。

 

體驗無重力生活。能夠擁有清楚夢想很重要。我當初並沒有夢想成為太空人，因為小時候我戴眼鏡，他們說戴眼鏡不能當太空人。我並不想當太空人，我只是想要體驗漂浮的感覺。這孩子就是我...漂浮型態0.0版，不過效果似乎不太好。後來我發現美國太空總署有個訓練太空人的「嘔吐慧星」計畫這個系統會用拋物線弧度飛行，在拋物線的頂點，你會獲得約莫25秒...25秒的無重力狀態。而他們有個讓大學生投稿的計畫，若他們贏了比賽，就可以參與飛行。我想這很酷，找了一群學生贏了比賽，獲得飛行的機會。

 

我超興奮的，因為我想跟他們一起去，然後我遇到了第一個阻礙，因為他們很清楚的規定：無論如何，教師都不准一起參與飛行。我知道的時候心都碎了：天哪，我那麼努力...所以，我很仔細的閱讀所有的規範，因為太空總署把這當作公關和推廣活動。所以，這些學生被允許帶一名當地的記者來參加。Randy Pausch，網路記者駕到！要弄到份記者證真的很容易！於是我打給太空總署，問他們要傳真資料到哪裡？他們說你要傳真什麼資料？我不再擔任教師顧問的說明和媒體訪問的申請書。他說：你不會覺得這有點太明顯了嗎？是呀，但我們的計畫是虛擬實境，我們將會把資料記錄在VR頭盔中，所有團隊的所有學生都可以體驗，甚至真正的記者都可以拍攝下來。（Jim Foley果然在點頭說：你這傢伙！）

那人說：請傳真到這裡來。最後我們也遵守了承諾。這也是等下我們會提到的，你必須替整個環境增加價值，這樣人們才會更歡迎你。如果你對於無重力的狀況感到好奇，（看看聲音是否正常... ）你看我來了！你最後還是要付出代價的。孩提夢想第一條，完成！

 

 

 

 

 

 

來談談足球吧，我的夢想是在美國足球聯盟比賽，所以我真的曾經.... （沒啦，開玩笑的）沒有，我並沒有真的獲選入美國足球聯盟，但我沒達成這夢想可能反而獲得更多，甚至比那些完成的夢想還讓我學到更多。當我九歲參加附近的聯盟時，我是最矮的小朋友，我那時的教練...我的教練是 Jim Graham 六呎四吋高，在賓州大學打過校隊邊衛，他不但虎背熊腰，而且是超級老派的教練，真正的復古派教練。他連前傳都認為不是美式足球的正道。第一天練習的時候他來到現場，一個彪形大漢出現在面前，大家都嚇死了，而且他根本沒帶任何足球過來。沒有足球我們要怎麼練習？

有個孩子就說了：抱歉，教練，可是你沒帶足球來耶？ Graham 教練說：沒錯，球場上一次有多少人？（一隊有十一個人，兩隊有二十二個人。）Graham 教練又問了：一次有多少人可以碰到那顆球？（只有一個人。）好，那我們今天練習的是其他二十一人作的事。這是個很好的故事，一切都要從基礎做起。基礎、基礎、基礎、基礎！我們必須先把基礎打好，不然進階的部分就發揮不了效用。

 

另一個關於Jim Graham的故事則是...某場練習他盯我盯的很兇…你這裡作錯，那裡作錯，再來一次，你欠我的，練習完作伏地挺身。當這一切結束之後，助理教練走過來：Graham 教練操你操的很兇。我說：沒錯。他說：這是件好事。因為當你搞砸，卻沒人願意責備你時，這代表他們放棄了。我這輩子都不會忘記這個教訓。如果發現你作錯某件事情，卻沒人願意批評，這是個非常糟糕的狀況。批評的人是在告訴你，他們還在乎你，還愛你。

 

 

在 Graham 教練之後，Setliff 教練接手，他教我很多關於對事物熱愛的重要性。他經常這麼做：每場比賽會有一次...他會刻意把選手安排到最不適合的位置去，像是所有的矮子跑去當接球員，好笑極了。但我們只會在一場球中的一次進攻這樣做。天哪，另一個球隊根本不知道如何應付！因為當你只在這一次進攻中站到不同的位置時，正因別無選擇，所以反而獲得更大的自由。這樣的感覺足以在那次進攻中擊垮對手，這樣的熱情真是太棒了。直到今天，我在足球場上還是最自在的。

如果我試圖解決某個困難的問題，其他人會看見我拿著足球在走廊漫步。當你在極年輕時受訓作某件事情，它就會成為你人生的一部份。我很高興美式足球成為我人生的一部份。即使我無法如願投身美國足球聯盟，那也無妨，因為我獲得了更珍貴的東西。因為看看現在的美國足球聯盟，我不禁有點懷疑他們表現是否真的夠好。

 

 

我在美商藝電學到一件事情，我最愛的一句話：「經驗是在你無法獲得想要之物時才會學到」。我很愛這句話。另外關於我們送孩子去學足球、學游泳等等...我習慣稱這個為隱藏的真相，或是間接學習。事實上我們並不是真的想要孩子去學足球，我是說：雖然學會衝刺姿勢、截球很不錯，但我們其實是希望孩子去學更重要的事情：團隊合作、運動家精神、不屈不撓等等。這些隱藏著的真相所學到的東西極為重要。你最好注意這一切，因為它隱藏在各個角落。

 

 

 

那麼有關在世界百科全書裡面寫作呢？我們書架上有世界百科全書。喔，我要提醒一下新生，這是紙作的；我們以前有種紙作的東西叫作書。在我成為虛擬實境的權威之後，但不是那種真正重要的權威，所以世界百科全書可以找我寫文章。他們打電話問我是否可以寫文章。這位是 Caitlin Kelleher，如果你現在去有收藏世界百科全書的圖書館，找V字下的虛擬實境。我只能說...能被選中撰寫百科全書...我現在相信維基百科可被當作可信的資料來源，因為我知道真正百科全書編輯的品管如何，因為他們竟然讓我加入。

 

 

 

下一個：變成科克艦長→（改成）見到科克艦長。在人生中的某些時刻，你會發現有些事情作不到，只要見到就很棒了。天哪，這對年輕人來說真是個好模範，這根本就是男人的終極夢想。我後來從中學到了領導力的關鍵是：他並不是星艦企業號上。最聰明的人，史巴克就比他聰明；麥考伊是醫生、史考特負責輪機；他到底擁有什麼能力才能掌管整艘船？顯然這種能力就是領導力。不管你喜不喜歡這個影集，毫無疑問的，看此人演戲可以學到很多領導概念。而且你看他有多少超酷的玩具，天哪！我小時候一直覺得他有這個很好玩，然後他還可以用來跟星艦聯絡，我真是覺得那太棒了！現在我有了一個功能接近的行動電話，只是體積更小了，這樣真的很酷，我終於達成這個夢想。

 

 

 

 

James T Kirk 和扮演他的演員 William Shatner 寫了一本書，是和Pittsburgh 的作者 Chip Walter 合寫的相當酷的書，他們合寫一本「Star Trek之科學」，描述影片中哪些想像成真了。他們訪問全國各頂尖單位，因此來到我們這裡研究虛擬實境的技術，所以我們替他建造了一個虛擬實境。看起來像是這樣，我們還偷偷打開紅色警戒。這很好玩，因為他應該根本沒料到這件事！能遇到你孩提時的偶像真棒，但如果他是來看你在實驗室作的東西有多酷時，那感覺更是棒極了。那真是我生命中重要的一刻。

 

 

 

贏得填充動物玩偶，這對你來說也許很普通。但你還是小孩的時候，總是會看到那些壯漢抱一堆玩偶在樂園裡走來走去。這是我美麗的妻子。我有一大堆和贏來的填充娃娃合照的照片：那是我爹搶著和我贏來的玩偶合照。我真的贏過很多這種玩偶，不過這次這隻是他贏來的。這是我和我家人生命中很重要的部分。但你知道，我可以聽見那些批評者說啦：在這個數位合成的時代中，也許那些布偶熊是合成的，或者我付錢給別人在熊旁邊拍照。在這個憤世嫉俗的年代中，我要如何說服人們？我想到了，我可以把這些熊帶給你們看！把它們靠牆放好！

 

 

(Randy之妻Jai) 親愛的，聽不太清楚你講的話，

多謝你啦，親愛的。

這裡有些填充布偶，我們去契沙皮克灣時搬家卡車不太夠大。任何在演講結束後想要分享我人生的人，上來拿吧，不要客氣，先搶先贏唷！

 

 

下一個：擔任想像力工程師。（朱註：此字乃由 Imagine 想像力和Engineer 工程師結合，是迪士尼樂園體系專屬的研究單位。）這是困難的一個夢想。相信我，體驗無重力要比擔任想像力工程師簡單。當我八歲時，我家人帶我們橫越美國去看迪士尼樂園。如果你看過National Lampoon's Vacation這部電影，我們的度假就像那樣一樣，那可真是場冒險。這可是年份久遠的照片：我在那邊，站在城堡前，對那些知道後來發展的人，這很有趣，這是愛麗斯漫遊的旅程（朱註：後來Randy開發的軟體。）我想這是我去過最酷的地方了，我不只想要體驗這一切，我想要作出這樣的東西，所以我耐心的等待。

終於從卡內基美隆畢業，我想這裡的博士學位應該沒什麼作不到的吧？（譯註：該校資科系可說是全美第一）。於是我就把我的求職函寄給迪士尼，他們卻回了一封我看過措辭最禮貌的「滾吧」回函。我是說，這實在是太... 「我們仔細閱讀過你的申請信，目前我們沒有任何特別需要你專長的職位。」想想看，這是以卡通人物掃地知名的公司，那可是個不小的打擊。但請記住，阻擋你的障礙必有其原因！這道牆並不是為了阻止我們，這道牆讓我們有機會展現自己有多想達到這目標，這道牆是為了阻止那些不夠渴望的人，它們是為了阻擋那些不夠熱愛的人而存在的。

 

 

快轉到1991年。我們在維吉尼亞大學作了一個每天五元美金的虛擬實境系統，是一個棒極了的東西。在我剛進入學術界的那段日子我很害怕。Jim Foley在這裡，有個很好的故事。他認識我大學部的導師Andy Van Dam。我當時正出席我的第一次學術會議，害怕的要死。人群中走出一個使用者介面的社群名人，他緊緊的抱住我，說這是Andy交代的。那時我想，也許我可以撐過去，也許我真的屬於這裡。另一個類似的故事是：這產品真的很受歡迎，因為那時人們需要花五十萬美金才能作虛擬真實，每個人都覺得很沮喪。我們湊了五千美金的零件作出一套可以運作的虛擬系統來，人們的反應是：太棒了，就像是HP當年在車庫創辦一樣棒呆啦！

 

我那次演講大受聽眾歡迎；在提問的階段，當時虛擬界的名人Tom Furness...他走上來接過麥克風自我介紹。我聽過他的名字，但我沒看過他的長相，然後他開始問問題；然後我問：你說你是Tom Furness嗎？他說沒錯。「我很樂意回答你的問題，但你願意明天和我共進午餐嗎？」那些片段的時光很珍貴，有很多尷尬時刻，但還包括在對方不能拒絕時提出邀請。

 

幾年之後，迪士尼想像工程開始規劃一個虛擬實境計畫，這可是最高機密。即使在公關部門開始播廣告之後，他們還是否認有虛擬實境遊戲的存在，想像工程對這個計畫可說是守口如瓶，那是你可以乘坐魔毯的阿拉丁神燈旅程，玩者戴著頭戴式顯示器。所以我有了個機會，而他們正好開始播放廣告影片，而我正好被邀請簡報虛擬實境的進展給國防部長看。Fred Brooks 和我被邀請去向國防部長簡報，這給了我一個藉口，所以我就打電話給迪士尼的想像工程，告訴他們我要向國防部長簡報，希望能夠從他們那世界最好的系統中收集資料。他們相當遲疑；我說：難道遊樂園裡面鼓吹的愛國主義都是騙人的嗎？他們想了想之後說：好吧，這技術新到公關部門沒有影片可以給你，所以我得讓你直接和進行這計畫的團隊聯絡。

 

 

賺到啦！於是我和 John Snoddy 通了電話，他是我遇過最棒的人之一，他也是這團隊的負責人，毫無疑問的他作了很驚人的事情。所以他寄了些資料給我，談了幾分鐘，我說我不久之後就要到那附近開會，你願意跟我一起吃午餐嗎？翻譯之後就是：我必須騙你說我要去附近開會，避免我看起來太飢渴，但我就算到冥王星也要和你吃飯。

約翰說好啊。我花了大概八十小時跟全世界的頂尖虛擬實境專家詢問：問他們如果你有機會參與這樣驚人的計畫，你會想問什麼？我把它們全都整理起來並背下來，大家都知道我記憶超差的，因為我總不能像個呆子一樣看著筆記本：

嗨，讓我問第七十二個問題。於是我就去了。那是個兩小時的午餐，約翰一定以為他在跟超厲害的人吃飯，因為我只是轉述 Fred Brooks、Ivan Sutherland、Andy Van Dam、Henry Fuchs等人的話而已。當你只是模仿聰明人時，看起來都蠻聰明的。

在午餐結束後，我開口問了「大哉問」。我說，我剛好有個帶薪休假。他說，那是什麼？這就是學術界和商業界的文化衝擊。我提到了去那邊和他一起工作的可能，他說這很好啊，只是...你的工作是把事情說出去，而我們的工作則是保密。Jon Snoddy的專長就出現了：我們會想辦法解決的！我最愛他這一點了。另一件我從Jon Snoddy身上學到的則是...光是講我從Jon Snoddy，身上學到什麼就可以講一小時。他告訴我：只要等的夠久，每個人都可以讓你讚佩的。如果你生某人的氣，你只不過是沒給他們足夠時間而已；只要給予足夠時間，他們絕對會讓你驚訝的。我想這是我學到很重要的一件事，我認為他說的沒錯。

 

 

長話短說，我們討論出了一個合約，據說是想像力工程第一篇，也是最後一篇的論文；條件是我去，我自籌經費，我和他們合作六個月，然後出版論文，然後我們遇到了魔王。

我實在不擅長說好話和誇獎人，有人要倒大楣了，要倒楣的人是維吉尼亞大學的某個院長。他的名字不重要，我們就叫他蟲蟲院長好了。蟲蟲院長準備和我開會討論帶薪休假，而我竟然可以說服想像工程讓學者參與，這太瘋狂了。要不是John瘋了，這絕不可能發生，他們是極端保密的團隊。蟲蟲院長說：合約上寫了他們擁有你的智慧財產權。（我們主要是針對出版的論文，不會有其他智財權牽扯進去，我不作可以申請專利的東西。）他說：但你有可能會作。他說：不准，叫他們改了這部分再來找我。我說：你說什麼？我希望你能夠瞭解這有多重要，如果我們搞不定這件事，我就一毛錢不拿，請假去參與。我如果要去誰也擋不住我。他說：我可能也不能准你這樣做，你腦袋裡面搞不好已經有點子，他們會把它弄出來，這樣還是不行。

 

 

 

如果兩個人開始賭氣：你最好早點發現，而且最好趕快脫身。所以我說：蟲蟲，讓我們各退一步吧！我們認為這是個好主意嗎？他說我不知道這是不是好點子。我說，好，這點上面我們想法一樣，這真的是你的責任嗎？還是應該由研究贊助主任來判斷？是他的問題，如果他沒問題你就OKAY嗎？是，那我就沒意見了。我馬上飛奔離去，然後我就到Gene Block的辦公室來了。他是這世界上最棒的人了，所以我就跟Gene Block說了，我們先從最高層談起，免得我又要再來。我們從最上面開始講起吧，你覺得這是好主意嗎？他說：如果你問我這是不是好點子，我沒有足夠的情報來判斷，我只知道有個明星教授非常興奮的在我辦公室多告訴我一些吧。這是給所有行政職的人的教訓：他們講的話其實都一樣，但說的方法卻截然不同。我不知道！！！我沒有足夠的情報來判斷，我只知道有個明星教授非常興奮的在我辦公室，所以我想更瞭解。他們都說不知道，但說的方法好壞卻有天壤之別。我們解決了所有問題，我投入了想像工程，好事也有了好結局。

 

 

有些阻礙是由血肉之軀所構成的，所以我就參與了阿拉丁計畫。這真是棒極了的一個計畫，棒到讓人難以相信。這是我外甥Christopher，參觀者會坐在這個像是機車的裝置上，你可以駕駛你的魔毯，你會帶上頭戴顯示器，那很有趣，分成兩個部分，是很聰明的設計。簡單的說，接觸頭部的只有帽子，其他的昂貴儀器都是安裝在帽子上的，所以你可以很簡單的複製那帽子，基本上製作成本可說是免費。我在那時真正的工作其實是擦帽子。

 

 

 

我真喜歡遊樂園的想像工程，那地方真是太棒了，就像我夢想的一樣，太棒了！我喜歡模型房，人們在裡面製作等比例縮小的真實模型，光是在裡面漫步就可獲得無窮啟發。我一直記得去那邊時，人們會問：你會不會覺得自己期待太高了？我會問說，你看過電影巧克力工廠嗎？Gene Wilder 對那即將獲得巧克力工廠的查理說：查理啊，有人告訴過你那個突然實現一切夢想小孩的故事嗎？查理眼睛睜得跟盤子一樣大，他說：沒聽過，後來怎麼樣了？Gene Wilder說：他從此就過著幸福快樂的生活了。

 

 

參與阿拉丁計畫是五輩子才有一次的機會，我至今還是這麼認為永遠改變了我，不單純是因為可以參與這麼好的工作，但它讓我真的和群眾貼近，實際參與人機互動的應用。大多數的人機互動研究者都住在白領階級的象牙塔裡，身邊都是碩士、博士，在你被冰淇淋弄得滿身都是之前，你不算真的親自體驗實務。我更從John Snoddy身上學到最重要的事，如何讓藝術家和工程師一起合作，那才是我獲得的傳承。

我們出版了一份論文，還發生了很有趣的文化衝擊事件。當我們寫論文的時候，想像工程的人說要弄一張漂亮的大圖，就像是雜誌一樣。接受這篇論文的 SIGGRAPH 委員會難以置信：他們真的能夠放圖嗎？實際上也沒規定不行啊！所以我們就出版了那篇論文。從那之後，SIGGRAPH的傳統就變成在第一頁放上彩色圖片。我在這個小地方改變了世界。

 

在六個月工作期限最後他們來找我。你想要真的進入想像工程團隊嗎？你可以留下來。我拒絕了！這是我這輩子唯一一次讓我老爸吃驚。他說：你怎麼會這樣做？他說：你這個那個的時候，後來立下這個那個志願，結果你怎麼會這個那個...

我的抽屜裡隨時有一罐胃藥。要小心夢想成真的時候！那裡的壓力很大的，想像工程團隊本身並非壓力沈重，但我待的那個研究室有John啊！很像當年的蘇聯把大家都操的很凶，但最後還是沒問題的。如果他們說：留下來，不然就再也不准踏入此地一步，我會留下來的。我會放棄終身聘就這麼做，但他們沒有逼我作決定，他們說你可以魚與熊掌兼得。所以此後十年，我就成為想像工程一週一日的顧問。所以你們才應該都成為教授，因為這樣你就可以魚與熊掌兼得。

 

我顧問的迪士尼工作有叢林冒險，我認為最棒的互動體驗。是Jesse Schell負責的這個加勒比海海盜，棒極了的迪士尼歷險。

 

這些是我孩提時代的夢想，很棒，我感覺很好，所以問題變成：我要如何啟發其他人的兒時夢想；再強調一次，我超高興可以成為教授的還有什麼別的地方比這裡更適合啟發孩提夢想？也許在美商藝電工作算第二名吧。我在某個契機後才發現自己可以做到這件事，因為當我還在維吉尼亞大學時，有個叫做Tommy Burnett的年輕人來找我，說他有興趣加入我的研究團隊。

我們深談了一陣子，他說：我有個孩提時的夢想！當他們告訴你時就很容易發現了對吧。我問啦，Tommy，你的孩提夢想是什麼？我想要參與下一部星際大戰電影的製作，你必須記得這是一段時間以前。Tommy在哪？今天在嗎？你大二的時候是哪一年？

大概是1993年左右，

年輕人，你有沒有又弄壞什麼東西？

1993年。我說：Tommy，星際大戰很可能不會拍續集。他說，不，一定會的。（露出被原力附身樣）Tommy 大學時和我合作了很多年，後來變成我們的工作伙伴。當我轉到卡內基美隆大學時，團隊內的每個人都跟著一起過來了，只有Tommy 例外，因為他找到更好的工作，而他真的如願參與星戰前傳三部曲的工作（朱註：幹的好，這才是男子漢！）我說這樣確實很好，但一次一個實在太沒效率了。認識我的人都知道我是效率狂，所以我就想，我有可能大量複製這作法嗎？我能夠讓人們做好，實現孩提夢想的準備嗎？我到卡內基美隆大學開了一門課叫做「建造虛擬世界」。這是個很簡單的課程。

有多少人參與過展示秀？你們之中有些人知道狀況。對那些不清楚的人：這門課很簡單，有五十個學生從校內各個科系過來，四個人隨機組成一隊，每個專題都必須換一次組合，一個專題只有兩週的時間。所以在你完成、展示之後，我們又會重新洗牌，你又有三個新隊友，然後一切又重新開始，每兩週一次，整學期有五個專題。

 

 

我們第一年教這門課的時候，很難從部分看到全面性的成果。我第一次教這門課時只是希望看看能否做到。我們才剛學會如何在立體模型上貼材質，我們剛可以作出勉強像樣的東西來。以現今的標準來看，我們用的電腦運算速度很慢，但我願意冒次險。剛到本校我想嘗試看看，打幾通電話，我想要讓大家可以跨系選修。一天之內，五個系就把這個課列了上去。我真愛這所學校，這真是讓人驚豔的地方。學生們問說：我們要作什麼？我其實也不知道：你們想作什麼都可以！

 

只有兩個規定：不能有暴力和色情，並不是因為我特別反對這些，因為這些早就在虛擬實境裡做過了。當這兩項可能被拿走之後，你會意外發現有多少十九歲少男徬徨無助。

 

總之我教了這堂課。第一次作業他們準時在兩週內交齊，成果真讓我驚訝！那些作品真的超乎我的想像！因為我從想像工程的虛擬研究室模仿這流程，但我不知道這些大學生能做到多少，而且他們的工具弱多了。他們交回來的第一次作業棒到..即使當了十年教授後，我都不知該怎麼辦。於是我打電話給我的導師，我打給Andy Van Dam：Andy我剛給了一個兩週的作業，他們交回來的東西好到...如果他們是用一學期作的，我也會給他們A。老師，我該怎麼辦？

 

Andy 考慮了片刻，他說：你明天回到課堂上，看著他們的雙眼說：各位，這相當不錯，但我知道你們可以作的更好。

這忠告真是對極了！因為他的意思其實是：你顯然不知道標準應該在哪裡，你定下任何的標準都是幫他們倒忙，這忠告真的太好了，因為他們真的就這麼不斷進步。在那學期，這變成某種地下流行。我走進五十人的班級，卻發現擠了九十五人，因為那是我們成果展示的日子，他們的室友、朋友和雙親都來了！我以前從來不會有父母來上我課的！讓我有點驕傲，卻又有點害怕，這就像雪球一樣越滾越大，讓我們想要分享。我自小就被教導要分享，我們學期末展示的時候一定得大搞一場！我們預定了這講廳，

 

 

我對這裡有很好的回憶，我們預定的原因不是以為可以擠滿它，而是因為它是唯一多媒體設備可以運作的教室，因為這裡以前很亂，各種各樣的電腦等等。沒想到我們竟然大爆滿，有人站在走道。我永遠不會忘記當時院長Jim Morris就坐在舞台上的這個角落，我們還得把他趕開那位置。講廳內充滿了我從未體驗過的活力。Jerry Cohen校長也在，他也感受到了同樣的氣氛。他稍後描述這就像是Ohio州的足球遊行一樣，只是參加的都是學者而已。他來這邊直接就問了關鍵問題：在你開始之前，我一定得知道，這些人是哪裡來的？我們問觀眾是從哪來的？我們投票舉手發現他們來自於各科系。我認為這太好了。因為我才剛到學校，他也是。我老闆用他的角度來看這事，這是個讓大家可以團結在一起的大學，這讓我覺得棒極了。

 

於是我們作了全校性發表會，學生在這邊表演，穿著道具服，我們把內容投影在這裡。你們可以看到他們在頭盔內看到的景象：有很多各種各樣的道具，這傢伙在激流泛舟，這是Ben和「外星人」片段。我的確警告他們，如果不做騎車飛過月亮的畫面就會被當，我是認真的。我展示給各位看的是... （我展示這個給各位，可能的話把燈調暗。這表示不可以，那我們就盡力吧，你好呀，我好寂寞，造個世界給我吧，造些樹給我吧（朱註：哇！真是超棒的！）仔細注意，他們準備用影帶切換。這個世界不想讓下一個表演上台，她已經準備好交棒了，但它卻沒有，你在幹嘛呀？我在這個世界裡，但還有很多其他的世界要展示啊，但我們的世界最棒了。（等等，啊啊...我們得把你關掉了控制中心，刪除檔案。不要控制，不要刪除！啊啊啊，我被剝皮了...我們愛你... ）

這是個很不尋常的課程，有許多來自各系所，最聰明有創造力的學生參與能參與真是讓人很高興，而且他們把這舞台上的表演看得太認真了些。這變成每年學校的重頭戲，人們願意大排長龍等待，讓我們覺得受寵若驚。讓孩子們有機會能體驗為那些期待的人表演的興奮與刺激，這是你能給他們的最好禮物，讓他們知道給別人帶來快樂與期待的感覺。這是個很大的禮物。我們總是希望能讓觀眾參與，拿著螢光棒亂耍、丟海灘球或者是開車。這真的很酷，這技術甚至在蜘蛛人三洛杉磯首映中派上用場，讓觀眾可以控制畫面上的東西。我沒有每一年的全班合照，這些是我手上有的照片。我只能說，教這門課十年真是莫大的榮幸。

 

萬事萬物終有尾聲，一年之前我不再教那門課。人們總是會問我有沒有最喜歡的時刻，我不知道人生是否真有這種時刻，但天哪，我有個永難忘懷的經驗。這應該是個溜冰忍者，有個規則是我們現場執行這些程式，必須要成功才行，一旦它失效時，就會切換到你的備用影帶，這會讓你覺得很尷尬。舞台上有這些忍者在溜冰，突然之間就當機了，轟的一聲！我記得應該是Steve Audia，對吧？他在哪？啊，就是你，Steve Audia。說到手腳靈活，我說Steve真抱歉，你的世界當機了，我們得要播放影帶了。他拔出忍者刀，大喊說：我蒙羞了，嚇啊！就這麼倒在地上。

 

 

所以，在十年的尖端高科技課程中，我最喜歡的時刻竟然是個搞笑場景：當影帶播放，燈光打開時，他還是躺在那邊不動，隊友得把他抬走，那真是個精彩的片刻。

 

 

這課程其實重點是彼此之間的牽繫。人們經常會問，如何才能創造出一個好世界？我說我不能預先告訴你，但在他們簡報之前...我可以從他們的肢體語言看出這個世界夠不夠好；如果他們緊靠彼此身邊，那世界一定很好。

 

建造虛擬世界是個先導課程，我不會拿細節來煩各位，但那並不容易。我離開娛樂科技中心時，得到這個有象徵意味的禮物。如果你想要作任何先驅的工作，你一定會被暗箭攻擊，你必須接受這一切。一切會出錯的都會出錯！但最後，你還是能讓一大堆人很高興的，當你擁有極為珍貴的東西十年之久時，將它轉交給別人是世上最困難的事情。我唯一能給你的忠告就是：找個比你更好的人傳承給他，我就這麼做了。

 

很久以前有個在虛擬研究室的孩子，你不需要在Jesse Schell身邊待太久就可以知道...「此人原力甚強！」我認為我替卡內基美隆所做的最大的兩個成就分別是...是我把Jessica Hodgins和Jesse Schell介紹來本校當教師。我很高興可以把這課程傳承給Jesse。毫不意外的，他確實讓這課程更上一層樓。這課程不只是交給好人，事實上是交給更好的人，但這不過是一堂課而已，然後我們真的更上一層樓，我們創造了一個夢想實現工廠。

 

Don Marinelli和我一起合作，加上校方的鼓勵和祝福，我們從頭創造了這計畫。這是個徹底瘋狂的計畫，根本不該被執行，所有理智的學校都不會考慮這種計畫，因為他們創造出之前從未考慮過的空間。娛樂科技中心就是藝術家和工程師以小組的方式合作製作事物。這是個兩年的專業碩士課程。 Don和我是兩個截然不同的靈魂：我們差異非常大，任何認識我們兩人的人都知道我們相差甚多。我們喜歡用新的方式作事情，說實話，我們對學術界都有點不太適應。我以前經常說我不適應學術界的原因，是因為我們家族沒有人過這種不事生產的生活。（我感應到這些笑聲有點尷尬！）我必須強調，本校是全世界唯一能包容娛樂科技中心建立之處，這是唯一的地方！

 

 

 

好啦，這是Don的點子！我們說這張照片叫做Don玩吉他，Randy Pausch玩鍵盤；但我們確實扮演左右腦的角色，結果一切順利。Don是個非常專注的人，Don和我共用一間辦公室，一開始是個很小的辦公室，我們共用一間辦公室六年之久。認識Don的人知道他極度專注和努力。由於我目前的狀況，有人問我啦... 這是個很爛的笑話，但我還是要說？因為我知道Don會原諒我的…在你目前的狀況下，你想過會去天堂還是地獄嗎？我說：我不知道；但如果我去地獄，我應該要扣掉六年的時間。

 

 

開玩笑的啦。

和Don共用一個辦公室就像是和龍捲風同居一樣，他精力永遠旺盛，你永遠不知道他下一步要幹啥，但你知道馬上就會發生驚喜的事情！他的精力充沛的不得了，我相信應該要給予他名實相符的誇讚。用我擅長的影像呈現方式，如果Don和我要分攤教育科技中心成功的功勞，他一定是付出最多的，因為他付出確實最多，他提出了最多的點子。這也是個很好的團隊合作，就像是陰陽互補一樣；但他的陰比較多，我的陽比較少。他真的居功厥偉，我會這樣稱讚他是因為娛樂科技中心是個很棒的地方，他現在沒有直接負責，而是讓它走向國際，我們稍後就會提到。

 

描述娛樂科技中心很困難，我終於找到了一個比喻：要描述娛樂科技中心，就像是對從未看過太陽馬戲團的人描述它一樣，遲早你都會搞錯，說這就像是個馬戲團一樣，然後你就會被問道：有多少隻老虎，有多少隻獅子？有多少空中特技？這就錯過了真正的重點了。當我們提到碩士學位時，我們其實和其他所有的碩士學位都不相同。這是我們的課程內容（朱註：全都是專題做到死），最後課程變成這樣。我的概念很簡單：你先作五個虛擬世界的專題，然後你再作三個。你所有的時間都在小組內作專題，我們不來看書那套。Don和我沒耐心作看書那套。這是個碩士學程，參加者在大學已經花了四年時間看書，讀碩士時應該已經把所有書看完了。

 

 

 

成功的關鍵是母校給了我們自主權，讓我們擁有完全的自主權：我們不需要向院長報告，我們直接向教務長報告。這棒極了，因為教務長太忙，根本不可能注意我們。我們獲得可以打破規則的免死金牌。這是有趣、工作量大、以專題為主的學習法，而且我們甚至還有實地考察，每年一月的時候我們都會帶五十個一年級新生踏出校園。我們會帶他們去Pixar、ILM等地。當然我們還有Tommy這樣的學長接待，所以要進入這些地方其實比想像中要簡單。

 

 

我們做事的方法非常不同，我們學生所做的很多專題，都是「寓教於樂」的方向。我們和紐約消防隊合作，用網路模擬介面訓練消防員，用電玩科技來教育人們有用的技術，至少我們作的不錯。許多公司作了奇怪的事情，他們用書面文件保證雇用我們的學生，有美商藝電、ACTIVION，總共有五個嗎？我打賭Drew應該知道有五份書面文件。我不知道任何學校和任何公司有這種協議，所以這是種相當強烈的宣言，而這些都是好幾年效期的文件；也就是說他們同意雇還沒進校門的人去該公司實習，這對我們課程的品質信任可說是相當強烈的。而Don，我不禁要讚嘆這人真是太瘋狂了，他作的事情都讓我無比讚嘆。他今晚不在這裡，因為他人在新加坡，因為他將在新加坡建立娛樂科技中心校區。目前在澳洲、在韓國都有一個，這已經成為全世界的計畫了。這對其他學校也有不小的意義，的確只有卡內基美隆大學可以這樣做。所以現在我們必須去全世界執行這計畫。

 

 

 

另一個娛樂科技中心成功的關鍵是教導學生... （喔，我聽到學生又發出尷尬的笑聲，我都忘記了這些圖表的延遲震撼效應了。）當你在製作虛擬世界時，我們每兩週會有一個同儕回饋表，我們會把它整理在一張大表格上。到了學期末，你每個專題都有三個伙伴，有五個專題，這十五個資料在統計上是有意義的。這個圖表會呈現出和你合作的難易度，以及和班上其他同學的比較。天哪，這樣的回饋很難忽略吧？雖然有些人還是視若無睹，但大多數時候人們看到這圖表時會感到驚訝：我要好好改進表現、下次開會時我要注意和隊友間的對話…這才是教育能給你最好的禮物，讓你能夠自我反省。

 

 

娛樂科技中心確實很棒，但即使Don把它擴展到全球...它依舊必須耗費很多人力。這不是一次教育一個Tommy，也不是一次十個研究小組，這是四個校區，每個校區五十到一百人，但我更希望能有個無限制擴張的計畫，足以讓百萬、千萬人追求他們的夢想。這樣的目標確實讓我看來像是愛麗斯夢遊仙境裡面的瘋狂賣帽人ALICE（愛麗斯），是個我們努力了很久的計畫，是個教導程式寫作的創新方法。孩子們學習製作電影和遊戲，但「隱藏的真相」...這裡我們又提到了隱藏的真相…教導一個人最好的方式就是讓他以為在學另外一件事，我這輩子都在這麼做。這裡「隱藏的真相」是當他們在學程式寫作時，他們以為在作電影和遊戲，這軟體已經被下載了數百萬次，有八本教科書，十分之一的美國大學在使用它，而且這還不是最好的版本，下個版本才是真正更好的版本。我就像摩西一樣，可以看到應許之地，卻無法踏足其上。沒關係的，因為我其實可以看見那未來，那景象十分的清晰：數以百萬計的兒童得以自得其樂的學習困難的事物，這才是真正酷的未來，這就是我留給這世界的傳承。

 

下一個版本將在2008年推出，教導 Java語言。除非你希望他們知道自己在學Java語言，否則他們只會以為自己在寫電影劇本。我們的角色是來自於暢銷遊戲「模擬人生」，而這一切在研究室裡面都已經可以運作，所以並沒有任何真正的技術挑戰。我沒有足夠的時間感謝所有ALICE團隊的成員，但我必須要說Dennis Cosgrove是主設計師，這是他的孩子。如果諸位想知道幾個月之後應該寫信問誰ALICE的問題，Wanda Dann在哪？站起來，讓大家都看見你。大家說：嗨，Wanda!

（嗨，Wanda！）

把EMAIL寄給她。我也要提一下剛從這拿到博士學位的Caitlin Kelleher，她現在在華盛頓大學，準備把這計畫更上一層樓，在中學執行這個計畫。一個遠大的願景讓你可以活在某個計畫中，ALICE將會繼承我的遺志繼續活下去。

 

 

好的，本演講第三部分：我所學到的教訓。我們已經談過我的夢想，我們也談過幫助他人實現夢想；在這中間，一定是學到某些事情才讓你達成夢想。

第一個是導師、父母和學生的規範。我極為幸運，可以成為兩個棒極了的人物的子女。這是家母慶祝七十歲生日時的樣子。我在後面，剛被超越了一整圈。這是我老爹，他在八十歲生日時坐雲霄飛車，他證明自己不只勇敢，還很厲害，因為他在同一天贏得那隻熊。我老爹活力充沛，每件事對他都是個冒險。我不知道他袋子裡有什麼，但我知道那很酷。我老爹打扮成聖誕老人，但他也作了很多幫助許多人的重要工作。這是由我爸媽所募款建造一座在泰國的宿舍，每年會有三十名學生得以上學。若無此宿舍他們就沒這機會。我和我妻子也作了不少事情，這是我認為所有人都該作的事：幫助他人。

 

 

但有關我老爹最棒的事情是...我老爹一年多前過世了。當我們在檢查他的遺物時，我們發現他曾在二戰時的突出部之役中作戰，我們發現他曾獲英勇銅星勳章，但我媽卻不知道，他在五十年的婚姻中從未提及這件事。（BW註：突出部之役應為Battle of the Bulge, 二次世界大戰末期--德國最後反撲的坦克大決戰）

要談到家母了。媽媽就是當你拉她們頭髮時還會愛你的人。我有兩個很棒的老媽故事。當我在這邊攻讀博士學位時，我必須要考方法論，我可以說這是人生中僅次於化療的糟糕事。我對我老媽抱怨這考試有多麼難、有多糟糕。她只是靜靜的傾聽，然後拍拍我的肩膀：我們明白你的感受，但你爸跟你一樣大的時候，他必須冒著生命危險和德國人作戰。當我獲得博士學位之後，家母很高興的對人介紹我：他是我兒子，他有博士學位，但不是能幫助人的那種醫學學位。（朱註：Doctor同時表示醫生和博士，此處代表他老媽覺得博士又治不了病，沒啥了不起）這投影片有點暗…但當我讀高中時，我決定要繪製自己的臥室，我畫了潛水艇、電梯。棒的是...我能說什麼呢？最棒的是他們讓我放手去作，而且不因為這樣生氣，到現在還保存著它們。如果你到我爸媽的房子去，這些塗鴉還在。如果你們已經當了爸媽，而孩子想要在臥室亂畫...就當是幫我一個忙，讓他們儘管畫，不會有問題的，別擔心賣房子的時候會折價。

 

 

還有其他幫助我們的人、老師、導師、朋友和同僚們。

天哪，關於Andy Van Dam還有什麼可說的呢？當我在Brown大學讀一年級時，他正好休長假。我一直聽說這個Andy Van Dam，他就像某個神話中的生物一樣，就像半人馬一樣，像個生氣的半人馬。每個人覺得他不在都有點哀傷，但好像都鬆了一口氣？我後來在擔任他助教時就知道為什麼了。我那時是個相當桀驁不馴的年輕人，我在他的辦公時間去找他，而且那是晚上九點，Andy還在。這是你瞭解這位教授作風的第一個線索。我衝了進去，我好像要拯救世界，大喊著很多孩子需要幫助。Andy對我就像荷蘭人一樣直言無諱，這傢伙真的是荷蘭人對吧，他對我直言無諱。他勾著我的肩膀一起散步：他說：Randy，真可惜人們認為你桀驁不馴，因為這將會限制你未來能夠成就的尺度。用這樣的方法說：「你真是個混蛋」，實在太聰明了。他沒有說你是個混蛋，他說人們這樣看待你，他說這糟糕之處是將限制你未來成就。

 

 

當我跟Andy更熟之後，他的批評就更直接了。我可以說Andy的故事，說整整一個月。但我要告訴你的故事是：當我開始思考從Brown畢業之後要作什麼時，我從沒想到過要去讀研究所，我根本無法想像這狀況。我家族裡面沒人會這樣做，我們通常都會...怎麼說呢？我們通常都會去工作...Andy卻說，不，別這麼做！當教授吧！我問：為什麼？他說：因為...因為你超級擅長推銷，任何公司雇用你之後都會把你當成業務員。你為什麼不賣些值得的東西呢？像是教育！多謝你！Andy可說是我的第一任老闆，我很幸運可以有很多老闆。

 

（那個紅圈圈太遠了，Al在這邊...不知道發生什麼怪事...orz..他可能在看網路轉播，而且發現我的瞄準能力...現在竟然還是瞄不準！）除了這些老闆都很棒之外，我不想多說他們有多棒。我認識很多人遇過壞老闆，我沒有這種經驗。所以我很感謝那些曾經當我上司的人，他們真是太棒了。除了老闆之外，我們也從學生身上學到很多。我想最好的「隱藏真相」，是來自於我學生Caitlin Kelleher。Caitlin Kelleher博士，是博士唷！她剛完成此地的博士學位，在華盛頓大學任教，她看著ALICE計畫，問了：「是啊，但這哪裡好玩呢？」我說：因為我是個愛指揮的男性，喜歡指揮小兵兵到處走，所以我覺得很好玩。她說：嗯嗯...是她表示，ALICE應該是種說故事的方式，她作的研究特別針對學校的女孩。如果你把這過程以說故事的方式呈現，他們很樂意學習程式的寫作。最好的「隱藏真相」要獻給Caitlin Kelleher的論文。

 

 

 

Cohen校長。當我告訴他我要作這場演講時，拜託你告訴他們怎麼找樂子，因為我對你印象最深刻的就是擅長找樂子。我說：我可以作，但這就像是魚說水有多重要一樣，我不知道如何不快樂過生活。我都快死了，但我依然很快樂。剩下的人生中，每一天我都要繼續快樂過生活，因為這是我唯一知道的方法。

 

下一個忠告是...你必須要決定自己要當跳跳虎，還是唉唷驢。我想我很清楚展現自己是支持哪一方的，永遠不要失去孩提的天真。它會驅策我們，因此重要性難以言喻。

 

幫助他人。Denny Proffitt更清楚如何幫助別人。他忘記的比我知道的還多，他教導我如何帶領一個團隊，如何關懷別人。M.K. Haley，我有個理論：大家庭的成員多半是好人，因為他們必須學習如何和人相處。M.K. Haley來自於有二十個小孩的家庭！沒錯，真是難以置信。她也認為達成不可能的任務很有趣。當我到想像工程去的時候，她是第一個給我下馬威的人：我知道你參與了阿拉丁計畫，你可以作什麼？我說，我是個有終身聘的資科教授。她說，這位教授弟弟，這很好，但我不是問你這個，我是問你能作什麼？

 

我之前提到過我的勞工階級背景，我們會把珍惜的東西都留下來。我把我高中的運動隊夾克留了這麼多年，我在研究所的時候很喜歡穿它。我朋友Jessica Hodgins會問：你為什麼老是穿著這高中的運動夾克？我看著身邊那些比我聰明，卻沒有運動細胞的人，因為我夠資格。她認為這實在太臭屁了，所以某年她作了一個破爛Randy娃娃給我，他也有一個高中運動外套，這是我最喜歡的禮物。這是送給你生命中自大狂的好禮物。

 

 

我這輩子遇過非常多好人，忠誠是投桃報李的。

維吉尼亞大學有個年輕人叫做Dennis Cosgrove。當他還是個年輕人的時候，這麼說吧，發生了一些事，我最後必須和某個院長談話。那個院長...不，不是之前說過的那個…那院長非常討厭 Dennis，我一直搞不清楚為什麼，因為Dennis是個好人，但由於某些原因，院長極不喜歡他。最後我必須說：我為Dennis擔保。那人說，你甚至還沒拿到終身聘，而你竟然說你願意為這個大學生擔保？我說是的，我替他擔保是因為我相信他。院長說，當你的終身聘案子提出時，我會記住這件事的。我說，成交！我回去找Dennis說，我希望你可以...這樣會比較好。但忠誠是禮尚往來的。那已經不知道是多少年之前了，但就是這個Dennis Cosgrove現在領著ALICE計畫持續向前。這麼多年以來他都和我在一起，如果我們必須派一個人去接觸外星人，我會選擇Dennis。

任何人在卡內基美隆演講，都必須要感謝一個很特別的人就是Sharon Burks。我對她開玩笑說：如果你要退休，我也活不下去了。Sharon的好無法用言語來形容。對所有受過她幫助的人，她的好真是言語難以形容。我愛用這個照片因為Sil也在裡面。Sil也是個很棒的人，因為Sil的忠誠建言是貨真價實的至理名言，我想所有的年輕女性都應該聽清楚。Sil說，我花了很多時間後，終於明白：當男人為你著迷時，其實邏輯很簡單，忽略所有他們講的話，只需注意他們所作所為即可。就這麼簡單，就這麼容易。當我回想我單身漢的日子時早知道就好了！

 

永不放棄。我其實當初並沒申請到Brown大學，我在候補名單中。我不停打電話給他們，他們最後終於決定每天接我的電話實在太煩了，所以他們就讓我入學了。我也沒申請到卡內基美隆的研究所，我的導師Andy 跟我說：如你要去研究所，就去卡內基美隆，我所有的好學生都是去那邊的。你們知道會發生什麼事情的。他說，沒問題，你就去卡內基美隆，但他忘記一件事情：進入頂尖研究所的難度大幅上升了，而且他也不知道我GRE考的很爛，他還是相信我，但根據我的成績來看，這實在不是明智之舉。

 

 

直到今天這場演講，沒人知道我沒申請到卡內基美隆，我被本校拒絕了申請。我那時是個惹人厭的死孩子，我去Andy的辦公室，而且把拒絕信丟在他辦公桌上。我說：我只是想讓你知道，你的推薦信對卡內基美隆大學的效果。

那封信尚未落到桌上，他的手已經拿起電話，他說：我來處理。

我說：不不不，我不想這麼做，我家裡人不是這麼教我的，也許其他的研究所會願意收留我（泣）。他說：你就該去卡內基美隆，這樣吧，我們來打個賭（因為我其他學校都獲選），你去其他學校看看，如果你覺得其他學校都不夠好，那時再讓我打電話給Nico好嗎？Nico是Nico Habermann（卡內基美隆的資科系主任），所以我就答應他了，我去了所有的學校，我就不提他們的名字了（咳咳，柏克萊，康乃爾），沒想到我竟然完全不適應這些學校，所以我最後竟然跑去跟Andy說：你知道嗎？我還是去找個工作好了。他說，你不會的。他拿起電話，開始用荷蘭文說話。

 

他掛上電話：Nico說如果你是認真的，明早八點到他辦公室報到。對那些認識Nico的人來說，這可是很恐怖的事情。第二天早上八點，我就到了Nico Habermann的辦公室。他和我說話了：說老實話，我不認為他對這會面很有興趣，我認為他一點也不感興趣。他說...Randy，我們為什麼會在這裡？因為Andy打電話給你，嘿嘿？

在你評估過我後，我得了一個獎學金：海軍研究獎助學金，非常光榮的一個獎項。我獲得這個獎助學金，而當時寫申請書時沒寫進去。Nico說：獎助學金、預算，我們多的是（我是說當年啦）…他說：我們預算多的是，為什麼你會覺得獲得獎學金對我們有影響？他就這麼看著我。有些時刻是改變你人生的瞬間，十年之後，你回頭看去或許會知道就是那個瞬間你是幸運的，但要在那時就清楚這就是關鍵時刻。

Nico的目光穿透你的靈魂。我說：我的意思不是錢，重要的是這是個全國只給十五人的榮譽，我認為這是值得一提的榮耀，如果我太放肆了，請您見諒。Nico露出了笑容：這是很好的一件事。

 

你要如何讓人們幫助你？你不可能獨自一人完成一切，你必須要有人幫助你。我相信善有善報，我相信好心有好報。要讓他人幫助你：你必須說實話，要誠懇。一個好人和一個誠懇的人我寧願選擇誠懇，因為好人是短期的，誠懇是長遠的。當你搞砸的時候要道歉，把重點放在別人身上，而不是自己。我要怎麼找出一個合適的例子呢？各位，我們有把重點放在別人身上的好例子嗎？可以送上來嗎？

昨天是我妻子的生日，如果有任何時刻我該獲得全部的注意力...應該會是這場「人生最後的一堂課」吧？但錯了，我對妻子沒辦法好好過生日感到很遺憾，所以我認為如果五百人可以...（生命所剩無幾，還這麼替老婆著想！這才是真正男子漢！）祝你生日快樂～～她名字叫做Jai～～祝你生日快樂～～祝Jai生日快樂～～祝你生日快樂～～要吹蠟燭啦吹完了！

 

 

 

 

現在你們又多了一個理由留下來啦！還記得用來證明我們執著的障礙嗎？它們是為了區別我們和那些並不真心想完成兒時夢想的人而存在的。千萬別退縮：好酒沈甕底。

 

Steve沒有告訴你的是：在我那於美商藝電的有薪休假期間，我才到那邊四十八小時，他們愛死了娛樂科技中心：我們最好，我們最棒。有人把我拉到一邊說：喔，對了...我們正要捐給南加大八百萬美金作跟你一樣的事，我們希望你可以幫忙他們。Steve這時候跑來說：他們說了什麼？喔，天哪！容我引述一個名人的話：讓我來搞定，他的確辦到了。Steve是個棒極了的伙伴，我們在私人和公務關係上都非常的好。他也確實是利用遊戲教導數百萬孩子知識的先鋒，那真是棒極了，在那時我馬上離開是很合理的，但這就不是為所應為了。當你為所應為時，好事會找上你的，設法找個回饋的循環，傾聽那結果。

你的回饋循環可以是我那個書呆子樣的圖表，也可以是一個願意直言勸誡你的偉大人物。真正困難的地方是願意傾聽。

任何人都可能因為護短而迷失，只有極少的人能說：天哪，你是對的！大部分的人都會說：等等，是有原因的...這些我們都聽過。當人們給你回饋時，請珍惜，並且善用，要心存感激。

當我獲得終身聘的時候，我把研究室的所有人帶去迪士尼樂園一星期。一個維吉尼亞的教授說：你怎麼能這樣做？我說：這些人日以繼夜努力幫我獲得這世界上最棒工作的終身聘，我怎麼能不這樣做？

別抱怨，更努力就是了！這是棒球選手Jackie Robinson。他的合約裡載明了不抱怨，即使球迷吐他口水也不例外。

 

要有專精，這讓你更有價值。

要努力工作。我提前獲得終身聘，新老師經常問我：哇！你的秘訣到底是什麼？很簡單，週五晚上十點打到我辦公室，我就告訴你。看到每個人最好的一面。John Snoddy告訴我的其中一件事情是：有時你必須要等的夠久，可能是幾年，但人們終會展現出好的一面，請你耐心等待，不管要花多久時間，這世上沒有真正的惡人，每人都有好的一面，只要耐心等，就會看到的。

 

隨時做好準備。幸運其實只是妥善準備遇到機會而已。

 

 

今天的演講主題是我的兒時夢想：啟發他人的夢想以及我過去學到的教訓，但你看出這背後隱藏的真相了嗎？關鍵不在於如何達成夢想，而是如何無悔過人生。如果你能好好過人生，人生自會為你尋找答案，你的夢想自會實現。

你看出第二個隱藏的真相了嗎？這場演講不是為你們準備的，而是留給我孩子們的叮囑，感謝各位，晚安！

[长达一分三十秒的起立鼓掌，也是对Randy人生谢幕时那宽宏背影的致敬....]

 

 

多谢各位！我要感谢各位今晚来到此地这对Randy来说意义重大他到昨天都认为今天可能不会有人来,在上过我的CS50课之后很可能这样啊我知道啊

 

各位，我是“另一个”Randy过去十年来这都是我扮演的角色,从Randy Pausch加入我们行列之后就都这样,我的意思是...每当我介绍自己是计算机科学系的Randy Bryant时,他们会说，喔！是计算机科学系的Randy！你就是那个做很酷的事情，建造虚拟世界,还教小孩如何写程序,我都必须要说：不，不是，那不是我,抱歉，那是另一个Randy，不是我,我只是个无聊的书呆子。但我很高兴今天可以在此作简报，介绍一系列我们感谢Randy贡献的规划，他对卡内基美隆的贡献，对信息科学的贡献，以及对整个世界的贡献，有个简短的节目，我会依序介绍几个人上台，我会在此担任主持人，首先我要介绍的人各位已经见过，来自美国艺电的Steve Seabolt

 

 

我家人都很怀疑我能否撑过最前面的介绍，我撑过去了，但现在可能表现不会太好，（加油啊！）请各位见谅。

Randy提到了...他和我，卡内基美隆和美国艺电都有共同的热情希望能够培育年轻女性，希望能够鼓励年轻女性钻研数学投身科学领域，这世上的阿宅不该只有男性，命运真是难以预料，有那么多人担心境外接单，但同时又有许多公司因为雇不到国内的计算机科学毕业生而被迫转向国外，投身计算机科学领域的女性人数，一直不停的急速下降，太少像Caitlins这样的女性了，Caitlins，我们需要更多更多像你一样的人，考虑到这个状况，美国艺电决定成立一笔奖学金，由美国艺电捐赠的Randy Pausch纪念奖学金，成立于2007年，为了纪念Randy在教育、信息科学...数字娱乐以及鼓励女性参与科学的领导及贡献，这项奖学金将每年颁给一位卡内基美隆大学部女生,奖励她展现在信息科学领域的表现,以及投身游戏业界工作的热情

Randy，我们极为光荣能以此纪念你！（不要哭，不要哭啊！）

 

 

接下来我要介绍Jim Foley，他是乔治亚理工的教授,他代表的是美国计算机协会人机互动专组

 

 

这是为我自己抱的,

美国计算机协会人机互动专组,大约由十万名专业人士所组成,他们的专业兴趣之一是人机互动

数周之前，Randy的一名好友...他写了一篇申请书，由许多人签署呈交给我们的指导委员会，我们大会通过同意授给他以下特别奖项，这表扬书是由Ben Schneiderman起草Jenny Preese与Ben Peterson撰写，由你的一大群朋友背书，现在也经本会认可，容我在此宣读专业贡献特别奖，Randy Pausch之创新研究跨越许多领域，启发了资深的研究者以及整个世代的年轻学生，他对于科技的能力、对创新计划的选择，以及他有远见的思虑，总是与他人生的活力与热情结合，我们刚才都已经见证过了，从他早年的简易界面工具，到他目前的ALICE立体程序语言，他证明了创意的规划与设计，足以让女性与青少年更有意愿参与程序设计，Randy活力十足的设计创新、挑战的计划，让各种年龄层的学生得以参与，而他精彩的讲课风范，也是每个老师和课程的典范，是的，是的，是的，他的付出让团队专题合作经验，和计算器教育研究更普遍且受敬重，他获得国家科学基金会总统青年研究者奖，百合基金会教学卓著学者，卡内基美隆大学娱乐科技中心共同创办人，他也是迪斯尼想像工程、美国艺电的顾问，Randy前瞻性的研究结合了，计算机界面设计和丰富情感体验模式，为奖励其上述及众多未及详列之贡献，美国计算机协会人机互动专组很荣幸的...颁发给Randy Pausch教授特别贡献奖

（老教授不要哭啊...）

 

 

 

 

多谢Jim，下一个我要介绍的是卡内基美隆大学校长Jerry Cohen

 

 

 

多谢“另一个”Randy，“这个”Randy，你可真是带了一大包东西来演讲，

 

我们之中许多人讨论过，要如何在这校园内感谢你的贡献，而且必须要和你对本校的意义一样重要且持久，有许多人参与这个工作，你以为教务长这么多年来真的都没注意吗？事实上，一个怀念你的方法是这样的...五万美金的填充玩具、47,862.32美金的披萨。你的贡献真大，我们超级感谢你的，有件事情我们做不到，我很遗憾的是，我们根本无法忠实地传达给后世你到底是什么样的人，你的人文关怀，对我们来说，你成为我们同僚、老师的意义（感谢Randy Pausch的付出沟通了信息科学与艺术）以及你是我们的学生的意义，还有你是我们友人的意义，我们根本无法清楚描述这一切的体会，但我们还拥有对你的回忆，当人们漫步校园时，我们也找到一个方法怀念你，我们想到了一个点子。你为本校、为信息科学界，为这个世界作了伟大的贡献，ALICE将会继承你的意志，但我们所想到的是...

你对于结合信息科学和艺术的贡献，不但重要，且让人赞佩不已，拥有极大的影响力，我敢说这将会永远改变世界，为了感谢你这部分的付出，我们准备这么做，做得好，“另一个”Randy，为了要完成这计划，我们得先盖一个新建筑，一座价值一亿美金的建筑，然后我们才能做下面的计划（Purnell艺术中心）对了，你的角色将会是引导别人，Purnell艺术中心是戏剧学院的家，那个看起来新潮，在中间的绿色建筑是新的盖兹计算机科学大楼，我们已规划许久将这两栋建筑连结在一起，希望能够让学生从此处到下面的校园，你也必须承认，这有相当重要的象征意味，我谨代表卡内基美隆大学的董事会以及本校所有师生，我今日很荣幸的宣布，连结这两栋建筑的天桥将被命名为Randy Pausch纪念桥(Randy第一次流下了英雄泪)(也许他在想着有一天孩子们看到这桥的样子吧！而那时，妈妈会告诉他们，爸爸是个多伟大的人…)

根据你今天的演说，我们审慎考虑要多盖砖墙上去，两边都要盖，看看学生要怎么办。

Randy，未来还有无数个世代的学生和教师会来到此处，但他们却没有机会亲身与你相遇，但他们将会跨越那座桥，他们将会看见你隽刻其上的名字，他们将会询问我们这些认识你的人，让我们来告诉他们吧，很遗憾的是他们将无法亲炙你的风采，但他们必然会体验到你留下的遗志。

Randy，感谢你为卡内基美隆所做的一切，我们将会很想念你的。

 

 

所有精彩的表演都必须要有最后一幕，落幕前，我邀请Andy Van Dam上台，Brown大学Andries Van Dam（亦即Randy的导师）

 

 

喔，天哪，我最爱做结语了，但在那精彩的一幕后，我们还得继续演下去。我不知道怎么说，但这规划的真是好，我1965年开始进入Brown大学，我非常荣幸且高兴，不仅教导了数以千计的大学生及研究生，但也同时有机会与其中数百名面对面的合作，我很骄傲的说，有35人和我一样投身教育，在那些最聪明、最好的学生之中...Randy依然显得与众不同，他一开始就露出很大的潜力，对我们这领域的热情，和今天他所展现的：帮助别人的渴望，他有极为强烈的决心以及面对各种阻碍绝不放弃的坚持，你已经听过很多，也亲眼目睹他对抗这癌症的努力，就像童话故事中的小像一样，他充满了强烈的好奇心，你们应该还记得，而故事中的小象被许多朋友打了屁股，你们也听过了这部分的故事，他横冲直撞，有着无法压抑的强大幽默感，今日各位也从他的精彩表现中可以感受到。他对自己的自信强大到有时可说是刚愎自用，而且他和骡子一样的顽固，而我是个荷兰人，我很清楚什么叫做顽固。

说的好听一点，他内心有个极强固的罗盘，诸位也一次又一次的看见这例子，许多人指控我也拥有这许多特色，我宁愿把这些当作特殊功能，而不是缺陷。

我当初学英文的过程很艰辛，所以我极度坚持学生们，必须要从一开始就使用正确的英文，大嘴Randy对这个部分可没有任何问题，但他的确遭遇过一个挑战，而我的笔记型计算机则也有点问题，好啦，那则是我另外一个偏执的坚持，我坚持美国学生必须学习异国文化，特别是食物文化，更特别是针对中国的食物文化，于是，我会带我的学生去这家很棒的中菜餐厅，他们会用英文菜单以外的中文菜单来做菜，我试着让Randy尝尝看，但这位白面包先生愿意尝试吗？

他当然绝不低头，更糟的是，他还拒绝学习用筷子吃饭，我那时还是主席，我说啦，Randy，如果你不学着用筷子吃饭，我不会让你毕业的，你难道不懂这是个必修吗？

他当然不相信我说的话，于是，当毕业的那一刻到来，我将毕业证书递给他，这是我朋友拍的照片，你所看到的是Randy，满心欢喜的打开证书要给父母看，里面却只有一张我签名的中文菜单，并没有任何一张毕业证书，我必须说老实话，这是少数我成功让他吃亏的玩笑。

今日各位和我全都聚集在此处，我敢说全国、全世界数以千计的人们，参与这场演讲来赞佩你和你的人生，Randy是人中人，就像是意第绪语中的Mensch，你的学术成就让你成为学者的典范，特别是你对学生的启发与引导，你在迪斯尼乐园的冒险不只独特，更是我们心目中的传奇，你实践了Brown大学的校训，吾人将满载对社会的奉献，与荣誉步下人生舞台，你对于家庭和事业的付出更是足堪表率，在你人生的逆境中，你的努力依旧丝毫不减，你展现出在压力下，依旧毫不屈服的勇敢与气度，而你所承受的是人类所能想像最惨烈的压力。

Randy你现在是，未来也将继续是我们的典范，感谢你为我们所做的一切，让我们能在私下，和在这样的公开场合告诉你...我们有多么敬佩、爱你和以你为荣。

 

译注：

这个版本的翻译者朱学恒说：

其实我已经很久没有亲自翻译这么长的演讲了,其实在我的翻译之前,早就有热心网友翻译了,我在翻译这影片的期间飞了五个城市,每天只能利用晚上的时间,一字一句的听打翻译,但我是一个翻译者,我对一个英雄的最好回报,就是用我的手来亲自诠释,他这场“人生的最后一堂课”,在翻译的过程中，除了一边跟着感动之外一直有一首儿时很喜爱的歌曲飘在耳边是小虎队的《放心去飞》...放心去飞　勇敢的去追...追一切我们未完成的梦 放心去飞　勇敢的挥别 说好了这一次不掉眼泪......

仅将此翻译和歌曲献给 在曲终落幕前 带着笑容，留给我们优雅背影Randy Pausch教授 你让我们学到了含笑面对这一切的真勇气 谢谢你！

 

SkySeraph     Oct.17th,2010 HQU XiaMen China

Email：[email protected]   QQ：452728574