the book is called “the last lecture” by randy pausch. a computer scientist and a professor at carnegie mellon who died from pancreatic cancer.
pg.40
have something to bring to the table, because that will make you more welcome
pg.43
you’ve got to get the fundamentals down, because otherwise the fancy stuff is not going to work
pg.44
you’re screwing up and nobody says anything to you anymore, that means they’ve given up on you. when you see yourself doing something badly and nobody’s bothering to tell you anymore, that’s a bad place to be. you may not want to hear it, but your critics are often the ones telling you they still love you and care about you, and want to make you better.
pg.52
man who knew what he didn’t know, was perfectly willing to admit it, and didn’t want to leave until he understood.
pg.86
brick walls are there for a reason. they give us a chance to show how badly we want something.
pg.93
automobiles are there to get you from point A to point B. they are utilitarian devices, not expressions of social status.
pg.94
not everything needs to be fixed.
pg.95
no matter how bad things are, you can always make things worse. at the same time, it is often within your power to make them better.
pg.100
we recognized that there were things we could do that might help the outcome in positive ways.
pg.115
time must be explicitly managed, like money. you can always change your plan, if you have one. ask yourself: are you spending your time on the right things? develop a good filing system
pg. 118
time is all you have. and you may find one day that you have less than you think
pg.119
this: i wanted to help students learn how to judge themselves the only way any of us can improve — as coach graham taught me — is if we develop a real ability to assess ourselves. if we can’t accurately do that, how can we tell if we’re going better or worse?
pg.120
we professors play the roles of trainers, giving people access to the equipment (books, labs, our expertise) and after that, it is our job to be demanding. We need to make sure that our students are exerting themselves. we need to praise them when they deserve it and to tell them honestly when they have it in them to work harder. most importantly, we need to let them know how to judge for themselves how they’re coming along.
pg. 145
i’ve always believed that if you took onetenth the energy you put into complaining and applied it to solving the problem, you’d be surprised by how well things can work out.
pg.146
there are no better role models than people like jackie robinson and sandy blatt. the message in their stories is this: complaining does not work as a strategy. we all have finite time and energy. any time we spend whining is unlikely to help us achieve our goals. and it won’t make us happier.