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Randy Pausch put it best: "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." I

by aneesh 18y ago

Randy Pausch put it best: "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." If you haven't heard this phrase, you really should watch his "Last Lecture": http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ji5_MqicxSo http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ji5_MqicxSo

vlad 18y ago
Many years prior to his "Last Lecture", Randy was Pausch was first famous for his Time Management lecture. I posted the video here 8 days ago. http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=459095 http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=459095
- adamsmith 18y ago
  Watching it now. It seems like a breakage that the video didn't get voted higher!
tsally 18y ago
The Last Lecture is absolutely worth watching (and reading, there is a book). Just as a note for those who haven't seen it yet, Randy was rejected from Carnegie Mellon when applying there for graduate school. He was also rejected when he applied to be an Imagineer with Disney. Eventually he ended up getting his PhD from CMU and was offered a job as an Imagineer. You'll have to watch/read the Last Lecture to find out exactly how all of it went down :-).
- froo 18y ago
  Another similar story is about John Lasseter (one of the founding members of Pixar, who is also responsible for drawing the BSD daemon) was fired from Disney after trying to introduce 3D technology into their animation pipeline. He never gave up and after a brief stint at Lucasfilm went onto founding Pixar with Ed Catmull and Steve Jobs. Disney ended up purchasing Pixar in 2006 for about $7.4 billion
wallflower 18y ago
The interesting thing about Pausch's last lecture is I've met people who don't normally go for self-discovery, self-help type motivational materials who have really identified with it/recommend it to their friends. My boss even has the book. I think most motivational content is a scam because it is heavily tilted/skewed in favor of positive-only (e.g. don't talk about real failures). Randy Pausch wasn't trying to make a motivational speech - he was trying to deliver an important message (to his kids). He was real and passionate.

by aneesh 18y ago

vlad 18y ago

Many years prior to his "Last Lecture", Randy was Pausch was first famous for his Time Management lecture. I posted the video here 8 days ago. http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=459095 http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=459095

adamsmith 18y ago
Watching it now. It seems like a breakage that the video didn't get voted higher!

tsally 18y ago

The Last Lecture is absolutely worth watching (and reading, there is a book). Just as a note for those who haven't seen it yet, Randy was rejected from Carnegie Mellon when applying there for graduate school. He was also rejected when he applied to be an Imagineer with Disney. Eventually he ended up getting his PhD from CMU and was offered a job as an Imagineer. You'll have to watch/read the Last Lecture to find out exactly how all of it went down :-).

froo 18y ago
Another similar story is about John Lasseter (one of the founding members of Pixar, who is also responsible for drawing the BSD daemon) was fired from Disney after trying to introduce 3D technology into their animation pipeline. He never gave up and after a brief stint at Lucasfilm went onto founding Pixar with Ed Catmull and Steve Jobs. Disney ended up purchasing Pixar in 2006 for about $7.4 billion

wallflower 18y ago

The interesting thing about Pausch's last lecture is I've met people who don't normally go for self-discovery, self-help type motivational materials who have really identified with it/recommend it to their friends. My boss even has the book. I think most motivational content is a scam because it is heavily tilted/skewed in favor of positive-only (e.g. don't talk about real failures). Randy Pausch wasn't trying to make a motivational speech - he was trying to deliver an important message (to his kids). He was real and passionate.