A review by maggies
The Last Lecture by Randy Pausch

emotional reflective fast-paced

3.0

This is a weird one to review because it is, ultimately, what one specific man with a terminal diagnosis wants to impart to his three children before his death. How can one rate or critique what he has to say to his children? So with that caveat…Pausch’s advice was often of a certain generation, for example: write thank you notes, work hard (aka long hours), obstacles are there to test how badly you want something. It’s probably a bit unfortunate, but I can’t identify with a lot of this advice anymore and found it of a completely different worldview than what I espouse. Had I read this book ten years ago, I probably would have enjoyed it quite a bit more. On the other hand, it was interesting just to learn about how Pausch organized his life and death and what formative lessons were for him. The memoir-like stories and vignettes earned two stars; the advice, one.
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