The Last Lecture

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.