The Last Lecture, by Randy Pausch

This week's Positive Sign Thursday word is "Earnest" which means (in my own words, anyway), being a man or woman of sincere conviction, of behaving in a way that aligns with one's moral compass and character. Or, as David Goggins recently said, "The truly successful people in life have learned one thing - and it might be the greatest separator between average and becoming nuclear!!! - and that is learning to do when you don't want to do!"

This word has become an unintended theme in my recent readings, starting with the story of Earnest Shackelton (how great of a name is that!!!) and his journey throughout the South Pole. Before that, was Randy Pausch, a Carnegie Mellon professor who was diagnosed with cancer and, with only months left to live, gave his Last Lecture. He then turned his final words into a book, which Mrs. Vielleux was kind enough to recommend.

Below are a few of my favorite quotes from the book.

“Have something to bring to the table, because that will make you more welcome” (pg. 33).

“When you’re screwing up and nobody says anything to you anymore, that means they’ve given up on you” (pg. 37).

“There’s a lot of talk these days about giving children self-esteem. It’s not something you can give; its’ something they have to build . . . you give them something they cant do, they work hard until they find they can do it, and you just keep repeating the process” (pg. 37).

Kirk (from the Starship Enterprise) “was the ultimate example of a man who knew what he didn’t know, was perfectly willing to admit it, and didn’t want to leave until he understood. That’s heroic to me” (pg. 45).

“I don’t believe in the no-win scenario” - Kirk (pg. 46).

“The brick walls are there for a reason. They’re not there to keep us out. The brick walls are there to give us a chance to show how badly we want something” (pg 52).

“It’s such a shame that people perceive you as being so arrogant, because it’s going to limit what you’re going to be able to accomplish in life” (pg 68).

“No matter how bad things are, you can always make things worse” (pg 88).

“It’s a thrill to fulfill your own childhood dreams, but as you get older, you may find that enabling the dreams of others is even more fun” (pg. 115).

“Complaining does not work as a strategy. We all have finite time and energy. Any time we spend whining is unlikely to help us achieve our goals. And it won’t make us happier” (pg 139).

“When you’re frustrated with people, when they’ve made you angry, it just may be because you haven’t given them enough time . . . in the end, people will show you their good side. Almost everybody has a good side. Just keep waiting. It will come out” (pg 143)

“Whether you think you can or can’t, you’re right” (pg. 147).

Rocky didn’t care if he won the fight, “He just didn’t want to get knocked out” . . . “It’s not how hard you hit. It’s how hard you get hit . . . and keep moving forward” (pg 147).

“Experience is what you get when you didn’t get what you wanted. And experience is often the most valuable thing you have to offer” (pg 149).

Grade: A

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The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks, by Rebecca Skloot

I was told by many to read this book. That it would be a great read, a difficult read, and one worth my time.

It was okay, I thought. But that doesn’t mean it wasn’t worth reading. If nothing else, these quotes - like nuggets found in the cold Northern rivers, were worth the effort to find.

“Many scientists believed that since patients were treated for free in the public wards, it was fair to use them as research subjects as a form of payment” (pg 30).

“When I saw those toenails I nearly fainted. I thought, Oh jeez, she’s a real person. I started imagining her sitting in her bathroom paining those toenails, and it hit me for the first time that those cells we’d been working with all this time and sending all over the world, they came from a live woman. I’d never thought of it that way” (pg. 91).

“Black scientists and technicians, many of them women, used cells from a black woman to help save the lives of millions of Americans, most of them white” (pg 97).

“The worst thing you can do to a sick person is close the door and forget about him” (pg 276).

Grade: C+

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Farsighted: How We Make the Decisions that Matter the Most, by Steven Johnson

“Think about the long list of skills we teach high school students: how to factor quadratic equations; how to diagram the cell cycle; how to write a good topic sentence. Or we teach skills with a more vocational goal: computer programming, or some kind of mechanical expertise. Yet you will almost never see a course devoted to the art of and science of decision-making, despite the fact that the ability to make informed and creative decisions is a skill that applies to every aspect of our lives” (pg 13).

“When we look back at the tragectory of our lives, and of history itself, I think most of us would agree that the decisions that ultimately matter the most do no - or at least should not - rely heavily on instincts and intuition to do their calculations. They’re decisions that require slow thinking, not fast. While they are no doubt influenced by the emotional shortcuts of our gut reactions, they rely on deliberative thought, not instant responses” (pg 15).

Complex decisions . . .

force us to predict the future
often involve conflicting objectives
harbor undiscovered options
are vulnerable to failures of collective intelligence (pg 26-28)

“Our minds naturally gravitate to narrowband interpretations, compressing the full spectrum down into one dominant slice. Cognitive scientists sometimes call the anchoring. When facing a decision that involves multiple, independent variables, people have a tendency to pick one “anchor” variable and make their decision based on that element” (pg 44).

“The power of diversity is so strong that it appears to apply even when the diverse perspectives being added to the group have no relevant exprtise to the case at hand . . . Just the presence of difference appears to make a difference . . . diversity trumps ability” (pg 53).

“Storytellers suffer from confirmation bias and overconfidence just like the rest of us. Our brains naturally project outcomes that conform to the way we think the world words. To avoid those pitfalls, you need to trick your mind into entertaining alternative narratives, plot lines that might undermine your assumptions, not confirm them” (pg 118).

“Hard choices are often hard because they impact other people’s lives in meaningful ways, and so our ability to imagine that impact - to think through the emotional and material consequences from someone else’s perspective - turns out to be an essential talent” (pg 122).

Grade: B

At times I had to remind myself to keep reading, that not all information worth learning is entertaining, and that there should be at least a few nuggets available. And indeed there were. I just wish it was a bit more inspirational in the process.