He could see his own death

March 03, 2025

“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.”
-Randy Pausch

There’s an early 2000’s movie called “Big Fish”. The premise of the film is the protagonist learns at a young age when he will die. Armed with this knowledge he makes the most of his life until he meets his known demise.

Great movie, go watch/rewatch it this week.

Randy Pausch went through his own “Big Fish” type story. A tenured professor at Carnegie Mellon, Pausch was diagnosed with terminal pancreatic cancer in 2006. His mortal clock didn’t have much time left, how would he spend it?

Carnegie Mellon had a lecture series called “The Last Lecture” where teachers were told to consider their demise and then share what matters most to them. With months left to live, Randy shared his true “Last Lecture” titled “Achieving Your Childhood Dreams.”

His final days preparing for the lecture were compiled into a book labeled “The Last Lecture” that has sold millions of copies worldwide.