Never, ever underestimate the importance of having fun.
I'm a professor - there should be some lessons learned - and how you can use the stuff you hear today to enable your dreams or enable the dreams of others. And as you get older you may find that enabling-the-dreams-of-others thing is even more fun.
Interpretation
What this quote means
The quote emphasizes the importance of teaching and supporting others in achieving their dreams, highlighting that such acts can be more fulfilling over time.
Randy Pausch, a professor, reflects on the dual role of education: teaching not only to impart knowledge but also to inspire others to pursue their dreams. He suggests that as one ages, the joy derived from facilitating the aspirations of others can become more significant than merely focusing on one's own goals, pointing to a deeper gratification found in supporting communal growth and success.
Themes
In practice
Example use cases
In a graduation speech, educators can inspire students by sharing this quote to highlight the value of collaboration.
More from Randy Pausch
All quotes →I'm attempting to put myself in a bottle that will one day wash up on the beach for my children.
It's hard to raise awareness of pancreatic cancer - people who get it don't live long enough.
Brick walls are there for a reason. They give us a chance to show how badly we want
Cancer didn't change me at all. I know lots of people talk about the life revelation. I didn't have that.
I think that we all stand on the dartboard of life. Roughly 30,000 people a year are going to catch a dart labeled pancreatic cancer, and that's unfortunate. It's not what I would have chosen. But I in no way feel like I deserved it.
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Teaching's hard! You need different skills: positive reinforcement, keeping students from getting bored, commanding their attention in a certain way.
How do we redefine education so that 30-50 percent of inner-city children do not drop out of school, thus ensuring that millions will end up in prison?
I read Carver. Julio Cortazar. Amis's essays. Baldwin. Lorrie Moore. Capote. Saramago. Larkin. Wodehouse. Anything, anything at all, that doesn't sound like me.
Tell them stories. They need the truth you must tell them true stories, and everything will be well, just tell them stories.
You must write every single day of your life... You must lurk in libraries and climb the stacks like ladders to sniff books like perfumes and wear books like hats upon your crazy heads... may you be in love every day for the next 20,000 days. And out of that love, remake a world.
I say to the grownups, if you want to deny evolution and live in your world, that's completely inconsistent with the world we observe, that's fine. But don't make your kids do it. Because we need them. We need scientifically literate voters and taxpayers for the future. We need engineers that can build stuff and solve problems.