R.I.P. Randy Pausch (1960-2008)

In late 2007 I stumbled upon a news article about a dying professor giving his "last lecture"... kind of ironic, right? Well, that "last lecture" caught fire, garnering millions of views across the internet. What he was there to discuss was how to fulfill your childhood dreams, and the lessons he had learned on his life's journey. If you haven't seen it, here it is. (1 hour, 16 minutes. Grab a snack.) If you have already seen it, it's worth watching again.



Well, Randy died yesterday (Thursday, July 24, 2008) and news of his death is making tidal waves across the internet. In fact, Pausch has had such a phenomenal impact on people that news of his death takes up 50% of the search terms on today's Google Trends, in addition to trending very high on Summize (now search.twitter.com).

So, this is my little piece of gratitude to him: Thanks, Randy, for living a great life and living just long enough to talk about it. You're an inspiration for generations to come.