I
recall
2009, the year I embarked on (another) master’s degree, as a year of multilinear
regressions, decision making under uncertainty, cost benefit analysis, and
writing up pages and pages of policy papers backed by quantitative evidence. I
was sleeping an average of four hours, six days a week.
I made sure, however, that I’d read something
different, uplifting, bizarre, at least one day each week. It was a year of Haruki Murakamis, Graham Greenes, and lots of memoirs
and biographies.
One of the books that particularly struck me that year was Randy Pausch’s “Last Lecture”. Coincidentally, Pausch was a professor at the
university where I was studying at that time and who sadly passed
away a year before. The book made such an impact on me that in the graduation speech
that I delivered at the end of 2009, I quoted from the "Last Lecture": “Brick
walls are there for a reason. And once you get over them – even if someone practically
had to throw you over – it can be helpful to others to tell them how you did it.”
I have probably re-read the book three or four
times and different parts of it resonated more strongly than others at various points
the last few years. These days, I enjoy giving a copy of the book to welcome
new hires in our organization (after all, this is the university where Pausch
used to teach). It is a beautiful memoir full of optimism despite the circumstances
under it was written, on overcoming challenges, the utter joy of doing what you
love, achieving dreams, and being true to your core. But what I treasure most about this book is that
it drives home the point of the finiteness of life and of being made acutely aware of
that finiteness.
I am not sure what our new hires do with
the book but I was immensely thrilled when one morning, I got an email from one of my favourite professors pointing
me to his book review.
(Scout’s honour, getting employees to legitimately
want to work overtime after an induction is not one of the reasons in handing out
the “Last Lecture”. But I share your sentiments Zbig, our heart is in the work.)
That was not a head fake.
