He spoke at my CS commencement right before he passed, was inspiring then and continues to inspire to this day. Coincidentally this is the book of the week in my book club so I've been re-reading it.
The Last Lecture book can be read as a series of short stories and often I just pick it up and read one quick section. My favorite is where he argued with his mother about his name. Yes, his name. He didn't like Randolph and protested, especially by being burdened by an extra "olph" <joke about a bout a computer scientist named Rand here>. Their negotiation ended with "R." but when his mother would send letters addressed to him at college as "Randolph' he would mail it back, unopened, marked "no such person at this address". As he got older, he recognized that "I'm so appreciative of my mother on so many fronts that if she wants to burden me with an unnecessary "olph" whenever she's around, I'm more than happy to put up with it. Life's too short. Somehow, with the passage of time, and the deadlines that life imposes, surrendering became the right thing to do."
The Last Lecture book can be read as a series of short stories and often I just pick it up and read one quick section. My favorite is where he argued with his mother about his name. Yes, his name. He didn't like Randolph and protested, especially by being burdened by an extra "olph" <joke about a bout a computer scientist named Rand here>. Their negotiation ended with "R." but when his mother would send letters addressed to him at college as "Randolph' he would mail it back, unopened, marked "no such person at this address". As he got older, he recognized that "I'm so appreciative of my mother on so many fronts that if she wants to burden me with an unnecessary "olph" whenever she's around, I'm more than happy to put up with it. Life's too short. Somehow, with the passage of time, and the deadlines that life imposes, surrendering became the right thing to do."