Perspective

This story was written in first person. It was based on a lecture that Randy gave to a group of students. Since he didn't have much time to live, the author dictated many of the events of his life and enlisted the help of a New York Times columnist named Jeffrey Zaslow to help write the book. Zaslow attended the Last Lecture.

As a professor of Computer Science, Human Computer Interaction, and Design at Carnegie Mellon University, Randy was very good at lecturing. He knew how to interest his audience and get a message across to them. This was why he wanted to have his Last Lecture recorded. He wanted to show his children how he could speak and have his students interact with and respond to him. He wanted to share what was most important to him. Randy knew that children benefited the most when they had...