Randy Pausch是美国卡内基梅隆大学的计算机科学、人机交互及设计教授。2006年9月，他被诊断患有胰腺癌。2007年9月18日，他在卡内基梅隆大学做了一场风靡全美的“最后的演讲”，根据这次演讲，他出版的“The Last Lecture”一书则成为亚马逊网站上最为畅销的书籍之一。Randy教授所传达的讯息之所以如此震撼人心，是因为他以诚恳、幽默的态度去分享他独特的经验。他谈的不是死亡，而是人生中的重要议题，包括克服障碍、实现儿时梦想、帮助别人实现梦想、把握每一个时刻……

Hints:
Disney
Jon
sabbatical
academic/entertainment
Imagineering
University of Virginia
Dean Wormer
Jai
Animal House
Before going to see him, I did 80 hours of homework. I asked all the virtual reality hotshots I knew to share their thoughts and questions about this Disney project. As a result, when I finally met Jon, he was wowed by how prepared I was. (It's easy to look smart when you're parroting smart people.) Then, at the end of the lunch, I made "the ask." "I have a sabbatical coming up," I said. "What's that?" he asked, which was my first hint of the academic/entertainment culture clash I'd be facing. After I explained the concept of sabbaticals, he thought it would be a fine idea to have me spend mine with his team. The deal was: I'd come for six months, work on a project, and publish a paper about it. I was thrilled. It was almost unheard of for Imagineering to invite an academic like me inside their secretive operation. The only problem: I needed permission from my bosses to take this kind of oddball sabbatical. Well, every Disney story needs a villain, and mine happened to be a certain dean from the University of Virginia. "Dean Wormer" (as Jai dubbed him in homage to the film Animal House) was concerned that Disney would suck all this "intellectual property" out of my head that rightfully belonged to the university. He argued against my doing it. I asked him: "Do you think this is a good idea at all?" And he said: "I have no idea if it is a good idea." He was proof that, sometimes, the most impenetrable brick walls are made of flesh.