The Last Lecture

Nonfiction | Essay / Speech | Adult | Published in 2008

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Section 2, Chapters 8-11Chapter Summaries & Analyses

Section 2: “Really Achieving Your Childhood Dreams”

Section 2, Chapters 8-11 Summary

When Pausch was young, he had a strong connection to the World Book Encyclopedia, which was his go-to place for finding the answers to his questions. Consequently, another dream Pausch had as a kid was writing something for the World Book Encyclopedia. As he pored over the volumes his parents owned, he wondered who wrote the thousands of different entries. Fortunately, in his future, he was able to write an entry for virtual reality.

Pausch also had a great fondness for Star Trek and was especially enamored with Captain Kirk. Even though Pausch couldn’t fly on the Starship Enterprise, William Shatner did visit his virtual reality lab. To Pausch, Captain Kirk’s character had “the distilled essence of the dynamic manager, a guy who knew how to delegate, had the passion to inspire” (44). As a child Pausch wanted to be Captain Kirk; as an adult Pausch continued to admire Kirk because of his leadership skills. A line from one of the Star Trek films that Shatner wrote on an autographed photo helped frame Pausch’s approach to life: “I don’t believe in the no-win scenario” (45).

The section ends with Pausch sharing memories of visiting Disney World as a kid. He describes his determination to win stuffed animals from the game kiosks in the park as well as his deep desire to work there, designing amusement rides and so on. Just after Pausch received his PhD in computer science in 1989, he was promptly rejected from the Imagineering team at Walt Disney. In 1995 he heard they were working on a virtual reality project—a magic carpet ride a la Aladdin—and Pausch contacted them again. He was incredibly persistent and managed to get a lunch date with the project’s head Imagineer. To work on the project, Pausch applied to take a sabbatical and was granted one, despite the university dean’s attempts to deny it.

Section 2, Chapters 8-11 Analysis

This section gives further details about Pausch’s approach to accomplishing his goals, which is all about being persistent and open-minded. The description of his persistence in winning amusement park stuffed animals in Chapter 10 illustrates that, to him, “tenacity is a virtue” (48). This is also reflected in the message William Shatner wrote on the autographed photo: “I don’t believe in the no-win scenario” (45), which could be Pausch’s life motto. Even amid difficulty and failure, there is always the possibility of something positive.

This theme is further emphasized by his experience with the Disney Imagineering team, which is where Pausch introduces his brick wall metaphor. After he was initially rejected, Pausch reminded himself that “brick walls are there for a reason. They’re not there to keep us out. The brick walls are there to give us a chance to show how badly we want something” (51-52). This attitude serves him well when he is facing his cancer diagnosis later on.