阅读报告 - The Last Lecture

UPDATED
(on 22nd October 2008 5.25pm)
OK, here's what I have promised. Thanks for the wait.
I have added the English version behind this post.
~Enjoy reading, everyone ;) ~

前面

后面

其实呢，我是阅读了Ida的部落格后，就开始对这本书产生兴趣。所以就跑到了大学附近的JUSCO里的那间MPH找一找这本书。哈哈，结果，轻而易举得便找到了。这本书似乎也在等着它的主人吧，已经厌倦了躺在书架上的日子了，迫不及待想投进我的怀抱里。呵呵。

对了，这本书是英文版的，今年才出炉的。呵呵。在还没开始前，我要事先说明，以下的每一个中文字体都是我从这本英文书翻译的。若有什么差错或语法上的问题，请您多多指教。

From left: Randy Pausch, Jeffrey Zaslow (the writer)

它是关于兰迪（Randy Pausch），一位年轻的电脑系的博士。当医生告诉他的寿命只剩下半年罢了，故事便从这儿开始蔓延下去。兰迪有两个选择。第一个是呆在家里或医院里，等着时间慢慢渡过，并慢慢享受着最后的人生。但是，兰迪却选择了第二个选择，那就是继续他的教书生涯，并把他的每份精力都投资在教学生涯上。这种这种舍己为人的精神值得大家多多学习。

Dr Randy giving a lecture

这本书分为六个部分：

1. The Last Lecture
2. Really Achieving Your Childhood Dreams
3. Adventures...and Lessons Learned
4. Enabling the Dreams of Others
5. It's About How to Live Your Life
6. Final Remarks

Randy Pausch's Family

前面的部分大多数是关于兰迪的个人经验，其中记载了兰迪的童年梦、中学生涯、大学生涯、爱情篇等。当中，有许许多多的很强的词句如：

经验是你当你得不到你所要的东西

"Experience is what you get when you didn't get what you wanted"

运气是当筹备工作遇到时机
"Luck is what happens when preparation meets opportunity"

当你认为你可以或不可以，你是对的
"When you think you can or can't, you're right"

兰迪也分享了许多个人经验，如：

1. 当你要表达一件难听的事情时，尽量少用“不”的字眼或一些较负面的词汇或句子，而是尽量以婉转的方式表达。兰迪给了许多很棒的例子，如"The park is open until 8pm"来代替"The park closes at 8pm"。第一句回比较正面（带给顾客一些希望），而第二个句子则比较负面（让顾客觉得那个公园8点事就会干人走）。
2. 勇敢地去编制大大的梦想。兰迪给了人类第一次登上月亮的故事。当时的人们，有些认为这是白费金钱的；兰迪却认为这个超越当时想象能力的登月计划可以引导更多更大的未来计划。
3. 不要唠叨，更加努力就行了。唠叨并不能解决任何问题的，更不是什么上计。所以，与其浪费时间再唠叨上，不如花更多时间再做更好的计划。正所谓“临河而羡鱼，不如回家织网”。
4. 疗治疾病，不是症状。很多时候，人们只看到问题的表面，并没深入研究治病的根源。所以不能把真正的问题解决好。
5. 不要太过在意别人在想什么。其实，如果我们把那猜测别人的脑海里在想什么的时间，花在其他的方面上，哪怕只是小事件，我们肯定会更加成功的。
6. 寻找他人的最好一面。只要我们肯多等待一会儿，我们肯定能够看到别人的最好一面的。兰迪说，当你对一个人生气时，那代表你还没]给于他们足够的时间来表达自我。
7. 勇于失败。在我们的日常生活中，成功的人很多，但是失败了的人也很多。有些时候，那些曾经经历过失败过的人更加被重视。怎么说呢？让我们看看新开装的公司，他们有些时候在聘请新的高层人员时，很多时候是找来了那些曾经经历过挫折的人，因为这些人知道如何预防未来的挫折。然而，那些一生中只有成功，没有失败过的家伙，很大可能性会面对失败。
8. 一个差劲的道歉比没道歉更差。不真诚的道歉反而深损别人。真诚的道歉是良药；半真诚的道歉是在伤口上洒盐。何谓真诚的道歉呢？真诚的道歉包含了三个重要的部分，那就是：我错了、对不起我伤害了你及如何能够补偿呢？很多时候，我们忘了最重要的第三环节，忘了问该如何补偿我们的过失。
9. 说实话。兰迪的三个字：tell the truth（说实话），另外三个字：all the time（时时刻刻）。诚实不但是在道德上绝对是对的，而且很高效率。说谎只能暂时蒙住他人的眼睛，但是日子久了，谎言被拆穿后，他人肯定会牢记祝你当时的谎言，而且会四处散播你的过失。到时，你的日子肯定会很难挨过的。
10. 永不放弃。失败了一次，不代表永远失败。所谓千淘万漉虽辛苦，吹尽狂沙始到金，只要我们永不言败，肯定有肯定有那道彩虹在等待我们的。

超喜欢这本书，它轻而易举地激发起小我的战斗精神。呵呵。尤其是当你心情地落实或遇到什么挫折时，这本书可以成为你的救星。

其实还有更多更精彩的故事及人生原则，但是假如太多曝光在这儿的话，那就会减少了大家的读书兴趣。哈哈。有兴趣的话，去找一找吧。

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Actually I started to fell in love with this book after reading the post in Ida's blog. So, without much hesitation, I rushed to JUSCO's MPH to buy this motivation book. Haha, much to my surprise, I found it lying on the shelf with ease. Maybe this book sent me some signals to buy it. Maybe it was bored of lying there on the shelf so lonely. Maybe it really wanted to have a good owner like me(what a bullshit). For whatever reasons, I found it without any trouble and bought it back to my hostel.

This book, written by a journalist, Jeffrey Zaslow, on a really aspiring life of a young computer science professor of Carnegie Mellon University in USA. The story begins when Randy was told that he was diagnosed with critical pancreatic cancer and could utmost live a life of 6 months. Randy even counted the tumors in the X-ray photo to confirm this death sentence. Randy was left with 2 choices, the first one would be staying back at home and enjoy his life with his family while he still can. However, Randy chose the second, that is to live his life to the fullest and carry on his teaching life until the very end. His great spirit is something that everyone of us should learn in order to achieve success in our life.

This book contains of 6 major parts:

1. The Last Lecture
2. Really Achieving Your Childhood Dreams
3. Adventures...and Lessons Learned
4. Enabling the Dreams of Others
5. It's About How to Live Your Life
6. Final Remarks

The earlier parts are mainly about how Randy live his life, including his childhood life, his school life, his love and his family. There are some very interesting and ad powerful wordings like:

"Experience is what you get when you didn't get what you wanted"

"Luck is what happens when preparation meets opportunity"

"When you think you can or can't, you're right"

Randy also shared some of his life principles, such as:

1. When telling a difficult situation, avoid the usage of 'no' or any negative words. Randy gave a very good example about something a Disney park assistant would say when being ask by customers, "The park is open until 8pm". Notice that this sentence gives the customers hope. If the assistant says, "The park closes at 8pm", it would have some meaning that the park is going to chase all of the customers away by 8pm.
2. Dare to dream big. Randy gave an example of human first ever landed on the moon. Some of the people of that time thought that this moon exploring project is just a wasteful white elephant project. But, Randy did not see things like that. Instead, he knew that this big project would give boost to the future project later.
3. Lessen grumble. Grumbling would not help things work. So, instead of wasting time on complaining things, it is more advisable to make full use of this time to plan things out more properly.
4. Cure the disease, not the symptoms. Most people are blinded by the surface of a problem. They paid too much time and attention towards these minor problems and hence can't treat the real problem.
5. Do not care so much about what others thinking. As human beings, sometime, we tend to spend too much time on wondering what others are thinking about something. However, if we can make full use of this time on something else, surely, our life would be much more successful.
6. Look for the best in others. If we wait long enough, surely we would be able to see the best in everyone, regardless of how small it is. Randy mentioned that when we are angry at someone, this means that we have not given enough time for them to express themselves.
7. Be dare to fail. Lots of people have success in this world, the failed ones are a lot too. Sometime, the failed ones are even more being appreciated. How? Let's take a newly-opened company. Most of the time, the newly operating companies would hire someone who have a background of failed before as they would know what to do to avoid the same failure in the future. Whereas the ones who have yet to experience failure in life, they are the ones who would be most probably to face one in the future.
8. A halfhearted apology is worse than no apology. A sincere apology is a good medicine, whereas a halfhearted apology is more of like showering injuries with salt. So, what is a good and sincere apology? It consists of 3 main parts: 1. I was wrong 2. Sorry that I hurt you 3. How can I repent my sin? Most people forget the most important part when apologising, that is the third part.
9. Tell the truth. Three words from Randy: Tell the truth. Another three words: all the time. Being honest is not only morally correct, but it is the most efficient way in every way. Lying might be able to cover up someone's eyes for a short period of time, but once they know the truth, they would gossip about you being a liar. You would earn yourself a notorious title in no time.
10. Never give up. Failed once does not mean that you always fail. As long as we work hard towards our goals, there would always be a rainbow waiting for us.

Really love this book. The aspiring stories spurred up my fighting spirit easily.
If you are down, I would recommend you to read this book.
If you want to power up your fighting spirit, this would be a great book for you.

*Actually there are more to be written up here, but I'll leave them to you. Exposing more would only be killing your reading interest. Ok, it's time for you to grab this book in bookstore. Come on. Grab it now.