I’ve written previously about Randy Pausch , the now-famous Carnegie Mellon computer science professor whose videotaped “Last Lecture” is a hit on the Internet and WHICH YOU ABSOLUTELY SHOULD SEE. Pausch gave his Last Lecture at an unusually young age, 48, because he was dying of pancreatic cancer and had only a few months to live. His lecture, on how to achieve your childhood dreams, contained much useful information, but it is really his courageous joy and vital energy in the face of a crushing personal fate – he will leave behind a wife and three young children – that inspired me and countless others.

I found out about Pausch’s Last Lecture from an article in the Wall Street Journal, which has now, about eight months later, published a follow-up article . I tried posting some excerpts but they are heartfelt and personal and don’t really work out of context; please check out the original.

Pausch’s lecture is now also available as a book. For more information, check out his blog .