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>> Make me earn it.

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It's wonderful to be here.
What Indira didn't tell you is that

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this lecture series used
to be called The Last Lecture.

4
00:00:31,680 --> 00:00:35,117
If you had one last lecture to give
before you died, what would it be?

5
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I thought, damn, I finally nailed
the venue, and they renamed it.

6
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So in case there's anybody who wandered
in and doesn't know the back story.

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My dad always taught me when there's
an elephant in the room, introduce them.

8
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If you look at my CT scans, there are
approximately 10 tumors in my liver,

9
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and the doctors told me 3-6
months of good health left.

10
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That was a month ago,
so you can do the math.

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I have some of the best doctors in

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the world. Microphone's not working?

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Then I'll just have to talk louder.

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Is that good? So that is what it is.

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We can't change it, and we just have to
decide how we're going to respond to that.

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We cannot change the cards we are
dealt, just how we play the hand.

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If I don't seem as depressed or morose
as I should be, sorry to disappoint you.

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And I assure you, I am not in denial.

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It's not like I'm not
aware of what's going on.

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My family, my three kids,
my wife, we just decamped.

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We bought a lovely house in Chesapeake,
Virginia near Norfolk,

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and we're doing that because
that's a better place for

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the family to be down the road.

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And the other thing is, I am
in phenomenally good health right now.

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It is the greatest thing of cognitive
dissonance you will ever see is the fact

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that I am in really good shape.

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In fact, I'm in better
shape than most of you.

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So anybody who wants to cry or pity
me can come down and do a few of those,

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and then you may pity me.

30
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So what we're not talking about today.

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We're not talking about cancer, because
I spent a lot of time talking about that,

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and I'm really not interested.

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If you have any herbal supplements
or remedies, please stay away from me.

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And we're not going to talk about
things that are even more important than

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achieving your childhood dreams.

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We're not going to talk about
my wife, we're not to talk to

37
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my kids because I'm good,
but I'm not good enough to

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talk about that without tearing up.

39
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So we're just going
to take that off the table.

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That's much more important.
And we're not going to talk

41
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about spirituality and religion.

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Although I will tell you that I have
experienced a deathbed conversion.

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I just bought a Macintosh.

44
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Now, I knew I'd get 9%
of the audience with that.

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So what is today's talk about then?

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It's about my childhood dreams
and how I've achieved them.

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I've been very fortunate that way.

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How I believe I've been able
to enable the dreams of others.

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And to some degree,
lessons learned. I'm a professor.

50
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There should be some lessons
learned and how you can

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use the stuff you hear today
to achieve your dreams or

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enable the dreams of others.
And as you get older, you may find that

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enabling the dreams of others
thing is even more fun.

54
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So, what were my childhood dreams?

55
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Well, I had a really good childhood.

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No kidding around. I was going
back through the family archives,

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and what was really amazing was I
couldn't find any pictures of me as a kid

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where I wasn't smiling.
And that was just a very gratifying thing.

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There was our dog.

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And there I actually have
a picture of me dreaming.

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And I did a lot of that.
There was a lot of "wake up!"

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And it was an easy time to dream.

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I was born in 1960. When you're
8- or 9-years-old, and you look at

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the TV set and men are landing
on the moon, anything is possible.

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And that's something we should not lose
sight of is that the inspiration and

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the permission to dream is huge.

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So what were my childhood dreams?

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You may not agree with this list,
but I was there.

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Being in zero gravity, playing
in the National Football League,

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authoring an article
in the World Book Encyclopedia.

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I guess you can tell the nerds early.

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Being Captain Kirk, anybody here have
that childhood dream? Not at CMU, no.

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I wanted to become one of the
guys who won the big stuffed

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animals in the amusement park, and I
wanted to be an Imagineer with Disney.

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These are not sorted
in any particular order,

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although I think they do get harder,
except for maybe the first one.

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So being in zero gravity. Now,
it's important to have specific dreams.

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I did not dream of being an astronaut,
because when I was a little kid,

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I wore glasses, and they told me,

80
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astronauts can't have
glasses, and I was like,

81
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I didn't really want the whole astronaut
gig. I just wanted the floating.

82
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And as a child, Prototype 0.0.

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But that didn't work so well.
And it turns out that NASA has

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something called the vomit comet
that they use to train the astronauts.

85
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And this thing does parabolic arcs.

86
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And at the top of each arc, you get about
25 seconds where you're ballistic and you

87
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get a rough equivalent
of weightlessness for about 25 seconds.

88
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And there is a program where college
students can submit proposals,

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and if they win the competition,
they get to fly.

90
00:05:58,580 --> 00:06:01,817
And I thought that was really cool, and we
had a team and we put a team together,

91
00:06:01,900 --> 00:06:03,237
and they won and they got to fly.

92
00:06:03,320 --> 00:06:06,077
And I was all excited cause
I was going to go with them.

93
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And then I hit the first brick wall
because they made it very clear that

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under no circumstances were faculty
members allowed to fly with the teams.

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I know, I was heartbroken.
I was like, but I worked so hard.

96
00:06:23,800 --> 00:06:26,657
And so I read the literature
very carefully,

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and it turns out that NASA, it's part
of their outreach and publicity program.

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And it turns out that these students
were allowed to bring a local media

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journalist from their hometown.

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And -- Randy Pausch, web journalist --

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It's really easy to get a press pass.

102
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So I called up the guys
at NASA and I said,

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I need to know where
to fax some documents.

104
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And they said, what documents
are you going to fax us.

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I said, my resignation
as the faculty advisor,

106
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and my application as the journalist.

107
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And he said, that's a little
transparent, don't you think?

108
00:07:08,370 --> 00:07:11,567
And I said, yeah,
but our project is virtual reality,

109
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and we're going to bring down
a whole bunch of VR headsets,

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and all the students from all
the teams are going to experience it,

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and all those other real journalists
are going to get to film it.

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Jim Polly's going, ha, you bastard, yes.

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And the guy said, here's the fax number.

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And indeed, we kept
our end of the bargain.

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And that's one of the themes that
you'll hear later on the talk is have

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something to bring to the table,
because that will make you more welcome.

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And if you're curious about
what zero gravity looks like,

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hopefully the sound will be working here.

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>> It's on. >> Go get them,
Mazzi. This is fantastic.

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It's just amazing. It's nothing like
I expected. We're having a great.

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>> Here I am. >> I don't
think any of us [inaudible].

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00:08:04,840 --> 00:08:07,600
This is awesome.

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You got one, [inaudible] Mazzi.

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>> [inaudible],
got a ball for you [inaudible].

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>> You do pay the piper at the bottom.

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So childhood dream number 1, check.

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Let's talk about football. My dream was
to play in the National Football League.

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And most of you don't know that - no,

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I did not make it to the
National Football League.

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But I probably got more from
that dream and not accomplishing

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it than I got from any
of the ones that I did accomplish.

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I had a coach. I signed
up when I was 9-years-old.

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I was the smallest kid
in the league by far.

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And I had a coach Jim
Graham, who was 6'4".

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He had played linebacker at Penn State.

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He was just this hulk of a guy,
and he was old school. Really old school.

137
00:09:05,100 --> 00:09:07,117
He thought the forward
pass was a trick play.

138
00:09:07,200 --> 00:09:11,667
And he showed up
for practice the first day.

139
00:09:11,750 --> 00:09:15,107
And, this big hulking guy,
we were all scared to death of him.

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And he hadn't brought any footballs.

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How are we going to have
practice without any footballs?

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And one of the other kids said,
excuse me, coach, but there's no football.

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And Coach Graham said, right, how many
men are on a football field at time?

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So we said 11, on a team 22.
And Coach Graham said, and

145
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how many people are touching
the football at any given time?

146
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One of them. And he said, right.

147
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So we're gonna work on what
those other 21 guys are doing.

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00:09:41,570 --> 00:09:44,927
And that's a really good story because

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it's all about fundamentals.
You've got to get the fundamentals down,

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because otherwise, the fancy
stuff isn't going to work.

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00:09:52,410 --> 00:09:55,627
And the other Jim Graham story I have
is there was one practice where he just

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rode me all practice. You're doing
this wrong, you're doing this wrong.

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00:09:58,610 --> 00:09:59,767
Go back and do it again. You owe me.

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You're doing pushups after practice.

155
00:10:01,450 --> 00:10:04,727
And when it was all over, one of the other
assistant coaches came over and said,

156
00:10:04,810 --> 00:10:07,327
Coach Graham rode you
pretty hard, didn't he?

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00:10:07,410 --> 00:10:11,747
He said, that's a good thing.
He said, when you're screwing up

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and nobody's saying anything to you
anymore, that means they gave up.

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And that's a lesson that stuck with me.

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My whole life is that when you
see yourself doing something badly,

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and nobody's bothering to tell you
anymore, that's a very bad place to be.

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Your critics are your ones telling
you they still love you and care.

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After Coach Graham had
another coach, Coach Setliff,

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and he taught me a lot about
the power of enthusiasm.

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He did this one thing where only for one
play at a time, he would put people in at

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the most horrifically
wrong position for them.

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All the short guys would become receivers.

168
00:10:45,950 --> 00:10:50,197
It was just laughable,
but we only went in for one play.

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And boy, the other team just
never knew what hit them.

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Because when you're only doing
it for one play and you're just

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not where you're supposed to be,
and freedom's just another word

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for nothing left to lose,
boy, are you going to clean

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00:11:00,370 --> 00:11:01,937
somebody's clock for that one play.

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00:11:02,020 --> 00:11:03,947
And that kind of enthusiasm was great.

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00:11:04,030 --> 00:11:07,397
And to this day, I am most
comfortable on a football field.

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00:11:07,480 --> 00:11:11,607
It's just one of those things
where if I'm working a hard problem,

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people will see me wandering
the halls with one of these things.

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And that's just because
when you do something young

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00:11:17,570 --> 00:11:19,967
enough and you train for it,
it just becomes a part of you.

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00:11:20,050 --> 00:11:22,667
And I'm very glad that football
was a part of my life.

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00:11:22,750 --> 00:11:25,927
And if I didn't get the dream
of playing in the NFL, that's okay.

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00:11:26,010 --> 00:11:29,747
I probably got stuff more valuable because
looking at what's going on in the NFL,

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00:11:29,830 --> 00:11:32,770
I'm not sure those guys are
doing so great right now.

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And so one of the expressions I learned
at electronic arts, which I love,

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which pertains to this is experience
is what you get when you

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00:11:40,310 --> 00:11:44,677
didn't get what you wanted.
And I think that's absolutely lovely.

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00:11:44,760 --> 00:11:49,097
And the other thing about football
is we send our kids out to play football,

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00:11:49,180 --> 00:11:50,977
or soccer, or swimming, or whatever it is.

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00:11:51,060 --> 00:11:52,997
And it's the first example
of what I'm going to call

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00:11:53,080 --> 00:11:54,477
a head fake or indirect learning.

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00:11:54,560 --> 00:11:56,377
We actually don't want
our kids to learn football.

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00:11:56,460 --> 00:11:59,037
It's really nice that I have
a wonderful three point stance,

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00:11:59,120 --> 00:12:01,517
and that know how to do a chop
block and all this kind of stuff.

194
00:12:01,600 --> 00:12:04,937
But we send our kids out to learn
much more important things,

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00:12:05,020 --> 00:12:08,687
teamwork, sportsmanship,
perseverance, etc.

196
00:12:08,770 --> 00:12:13,297
And these kinds of head fake
learnings are absolutely important,

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00:12:13,380 --> 00:12:16,517
and you should keep your eye out
for them because they're everywhere.

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00:12:16,600 --> 00:12:20,157
A simple one, being an author
in the World Book encyclopedia.

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00:12:20,240 --> 00:12:23,537
When I was a kid, we had the World
Book encyclopedia on the shelf,

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00:12:23,620 --> 00:12:26,990
for the freshmen, this is paper.

201
00:12:28,540 --> 00:12:32,620
We used to have these things called books.

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00:12:33,060 --> 00:12:37,497
And after I had become somewhat
of an authority on virtual reality,

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00:12:37,580 --> 00:12:40,257
but not like a really important one,
so I was at the level of people

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00:12:40,340 --> 00:12:44,597
the World Book would badger.
They called me up, and I wrote an article,

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00:12:44,680 --> 00:12:48,177
and this is Caitlyn Kelleher.
And there's an article,

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00:12:48,260 --> 00:12:51,057
if you go to your local library where
they still have copies of the World Book.

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00:12:51,140 --> 00:12:53,497
Look under V, for virtual
reality, and there it is.

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00:12:53,580 --> 00:12:58,077
And all I have to say is that having
been selected to be an author

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00:12:58,160 --> 00:13:01,737
in the World Book Encyclopedia,
I now believe that Wikipedia

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00:13:01,820 --> 00:13:04,697
is a perfectly fine source
for your information because I know what

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00:13:04,780 --> 00:13:07,417
the quality control
is for real encyclopedias.

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00:13:07,500 --> 00:13:12,340
They let me in. Next one.

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00:13:16,860 --> 00:13:19,157
At a certain point, you just realize

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00:13:19,240 --> 00:13:21,297
there's some things you're not going
to do, so maybe you just want to

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00:13:21,380 --> 00:13:23,307
stand close to the people.

216
00:13:23,390 --> 00:13:29,367
And my god,

217
00:13:29,450 --> 00:13:32,290
what a role model for young people.

218
00:13:33,260 --> 00:13:35,657
This is everything you want to be.

219
00:13:35,740 --> 00:13:39,727
And what I learned that carried me
forward in leadership later is that

220
00:13:39,810 --> 00:13:41,247
he wasn't the smartest guy on the ship.

221
00:13:41,330 --> 00:13:45,277
Spock was pretty smart, and McCoy was
the doctor and Scotty was the engineer,

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00:13:45,360 --> 00:13:49,917
and you go, and what skill set did he
have to get on this damn thing and run it?

223
00:13:50,000 --> 00:13:53,117
And clearly, there's this
skill set called leadership.

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00:13:53,200 --> 00:13:56,597
And whether or not you like
the series, there's no doubt that

225
00:13:56,680 --> 00:13:59,017
there was a lot to be learned
about how to lead people by

226
00:13:59,100 --> 00:14:05,290
watching this guy in action.
And he just had the coolest damn toys.

227
00:14:05,840 --> 00:14:11,367
My god, I just thought it was fascinating

228
00:14:11,450 --> 00:14:16,430
as a kid that he had this thing,
and he could talk to the ship with it.

229
00:14:17,130 --> 00:14:19,947
I just thought that was just spectacular.

230
00:14:20,030 --> 00:14:26,827
And, of course, now I own one,
and it's taller. So that's kinda cool.

231
00:14:26,910 --> 00:14:32,780
So I got to achieve this dream.

232
00:14:33,340 --> 00:14:39,157
James T. Kirk, his alter ego,
William Shatner wrote a book,

233
00:14:39,240 --> 00:14:40,857
which I think was actually
a pretty cool book.

234
00:14:40,940 --> 00:14:45,557
It was with Chip Walter, who is a
Pittsburgh based author who's quite good.

235
00:14:45,640 --> 00:14:49,517
And they wrote a book on basically the
Science of Star Trek, What Has Come True.

236
00:14:49,600 --> 00:14:53,157
And they went around to top places around
the country and looked at various things,

237
00:14:53,240 --> 00:14:55,517
and they came here to study
our virtual reality center.

238
00:14:55,600 --> 00:14:58,537
And so we built a virtual reality for him.

239
00:14:58,620 --> 00:15:01,997
It looks something like that.
We put it in, put it to red alert.

240
00:15:02,080 --> 00:15:04,577
He was a very good sport.
It's not like he saw that one coming.

241
00:15:04,660 --> 00:15:10,117
>> [LAUGHTER]. >> And it's really

242
00:15:10,200 --> 00:15:13,337
cool to meet your boyhood idol.

243
00:15:13,420 --> 00:15:17,407
But it's even cooler when
he comes to you to see

244
00:15:17,490 --> 00:15:21,457
what cool stuff you're doing
in your lab. [LAUGHTER].

245
00:15:21,540 --> 00:15:27,820
That was just a great moment.
Winning stuffed animals.

246
00:15:28,760 --> 00:15:32,047
This may seem mundane to you,
but when you're a little kid, you see

247
00:15:32,130 --> 00:15:34,117
the big buff guys walking
around in an amusement park,

248
00:15:34,200 --> 00:15:38,247
and they got all these big stuffed
animals, And this is my lovely wife.

249
00:15:38,330 --> 00:15:42,937
And I have a lot of pictures
of stuffed animals I've won. [LAUGHTER].

250
00:15:43,020 --> 00:15:46,017
That's my dad posing with one that I won.

251
00:15:46,100 --> 00:15:50,447
I've won a lot of these animals.
[LAUGHTER] There's my dad.

252
00:15:50,530 --> 00:15:51,487
He did win that one to

253
00:15:51,570 --> 00:15:58,570
his credit. [LAUGHTER] And this

254
00:16:00,900 --> 00:16:02,797
was just a big part of my
life in my family's life.

255
00:16:02,880 --> 00:16:08,767
But can hear the cynics. In this age
of digitally manipulated things.

256
00:16:08,850 --> 00:16:12,127
Maybe those bears really aren't
in the picture with me. [LAUGHTER]

257
00:16:12,210 --> 00:16:15,457
Or maybe I paid somebody five
bucks to take a picture in

258
00:16:15,540 --> 00:16:17,087
the theme park next to the bear.

259
00:16:17,170 --> 00:16:20,667
And I said, how in this age
of cynicism can I convince people?

260
00:16:20,750 --> 00:16:24,147
And I said, I know.
I can show them the bears.

261
00:16:24,230 --> 00:16:31,230
[LAUGHTER][APPLAUSE].

262
00:16:33,200 --> 00:16:37,090
Just put them right there.
You just put them back against the wall.

263
00:16:42,530 --> 00:16:48,337
Thanks, honey. [LAUGHTER].

264
00:16:48,420 --> 00:16:52,927
So, here's some bears.
We didn't have quite enough room in

265
00:16:53,010 --> 00:16:55,067
the moving truck down to Chesapeake.

266
00:16:55,150 --> 00:16:59,297
And anybody who'd like a little
piece of me at the end of this,

267
00:16:59,380 --> 00:17:02,380
feel free to come up
first come, first served.

268
00:17:02,660 --> 00:17:05,767
My next one. Being an Imagineer.

269
00:17:05,850 --> 00:17:10,447
This was the hard one.
Believe me, getting to zero gravity is

270
00:17:10,530 --> 00:17:12,667
easier than becoming an Imagineer.

271
00:17:12,750 --> 00:17:16,927
When I was a kid, I was eight years old,
and our family took a trip cross

272
00:17:17,010 --> 00:17:20,007
country to see Disneyland.
And if you ever seen

273
00:17:20,090 --> 00:17:24,037
the movie National Lampoon's vacation,
it was a lot like that. [LAUGHTER].

274
00:17:24,120 --> 00:17:30,387
Because there's a quest.
And these are real vintage photographs.

275
00:17:30,470 --> 00:17:35,157
And there I am in front of the castle.

276
00:17:35,240 --> 00:17:38,207
And there I am and for those
of you who are into foreshadowing,

277
00:17:38,290 --> 00:17:41,787
this is the Alice Ride. [LAUGHTER].

278
00:17:41,870 --> 00:17:47,027
And I just thought this was just
the coolest environment I've ever been in.

279
00:17:47,110 --> 00:17:48,837
And instead of saying, Gee,
I want to experience this,

280
00:17:48,920 --> 00:17:51,107
I said, I want to make stuff like this.

281
00:17:51,190 --> 00:17:55,147
And so I bided my time, and then
I graduated with my Ph.D. from

282
00:17:55,230 --> 00:17:58,157
Carnegie Mellon thinking that meant
me infinitely qualified to do anything.

283
00:17:58,240 --> 00:18:01,447
And I dashed off my letters of application
to Walt Disney Imagineering,

284
00:18:01,530 --> 00:18:03,757
and they sent me some
of the damn nicest go to

285
00:18:03,840 --> 00:18:09,277
hell letters I've ever gotten. [LAUGHTER].

286
00:18:09,360 --> 00:18:12,487
We have carefully reviewed
your application, and presently,

287
00:18:12,570 --> 00:18:15,697
we do not have any positions
available which require

288
00:18:15,780 --> 00:18:17,917
your particular qualifications.

289
00:18:18,000 --> 00:18:19,837
Now, think about the fact
that you're getting

290
00:18:19,920 --> 00:18:24,967
this from a place that's famous for guys
who sweep the streets. [LAUGHTER].

291
00:18:25,050 --> 00:18:27,267
So that was a bit of a setback.

292
00:18:27,350 --> 00:18:31,677
But remember, the brick
walls are there for a reason.

293
00:18:31,760 --> 00:18:33,757
The brick walls are not
there to keep us out.

294
00:18:33,840 --> 00:18:36,217
The brick walls are
there to give us a chance

295
00:18:36,300 --> 00:18:40,777
to show how badly we want something,
because the brick walls are there to stop

296
00:18:40,860 --> 00:18:43,237
the people who don't want it badly enough.

297
00:18:43,320 --> 00:18:49,387
They're there to stop
the other people. [LAUGHTER].

298
00:18:49,470 --> 00:18:52,747
Fast forward to 1991, we did a system
back at University of Virginia called

299
00:18:52,830 --> 00:18:58,417
Virtual Reality on $5 a day. Just one
of those unbelievable spectacular things.

300
00:18:58,500 --> 00:19:02,087
I was so scared back in those
days as a junior academic.

301
00:19:02,170 --> 00:19:04,467
Jim Foley's here, and I
just love to tell the story.

302
00:19:04,550 --> 00:19:06,937
He knew my undergraduate
advisor, Andy Van Dam.

303
00:19:07,020 --> 00:19:09,447
And I'm at my first conference,
and I'm just scared to death.

304
00:19:09,530 --> 00:19:12,757
And this icon in the user
Interface Community

305
00:19:12,840 --> 00:19:15,577
walks up to me and just out of nowhere,
just gives me this huge bear hug,

306
00:19:15,660 --> 00:19:17,887
and he says, That was from Andy.

307
00:19:17,970 --> 00:19:21,587
And that was when I thought,
ok, maybe I can make it.

308
00:19:21,670 --> 00:19:27,127
Maybe I do belong. And a similar story is
that this was just this unbelievable hit

309
00:19:27,210 --> 00:19:28,567
because at the time,
everybody needed a half a

310
00:19:28,650 --> 00:19:31,567
million dollars to do virtual reality,
and everybody felt frustrated.

311
00:19:31,650 --> 00:19:33,827
And we literally hacked
together a system for about

312
00:19:33,910 --> 00:19:37,027
$5,000 in parts and made
a working VR system.

313
00:19:37,110 --> 00:19:38,227
And people were just like, oh my god.

314
00:19:38,310 --> 00:19:40,207
It's like the Hewlett
Packard garage thing.

315
00:19:40,290 --> 00:19:44,087
This is so awesome. And so I'm giving
this talk and the room has just gone wild.

316
00:19:44,170 --> 00:19:47,527
And during the Q&A a guy named Tom
Furness, who was one of the big names

317
00:19:47,610 --> 00:19:50,787
in virtual reality at the time, he goes up
to the microphone and introduces himself.

318
00:19:50,870 --> 00:19:53,017
I didn't know what he looked like,
but I sure as hell knew the name.

319
00:19:53,100 --> 00:19:57,757
And he asked a question. And I was like,
I'm sorry. Did you say you're Tom Furness?

320
00:19:57,840 --> 00:20:01,337
He said, yes, I said, then I would
love to answer your question, but first,

321
00:20:01,420 --> 00:20:05,407
will you have lunch
with me tomorrow? [LAUGHTER]

322
00:20:05,490 --> 00:20:07,937
And there's a lot in that little moment.

323
00:20:08,020 --> 00:20:11,787
There's a lot of humility,
but also asking a person where he

324
00:20:11,870 --> 00:20:18,870
can't possibly say no. [LAUGHTER].

325
00:20:19,770 --> 00:20:22,597
And so imagineering,
a couple of years later,

326
00:20:22,680 --> 00:20:24,097
was working on a virtual reality project.

327
00:20:24,180 --> 00:20:27,037
This was top secret.
They were denying the existence of

328
00:20:27,120 --> 00:20:31,077
a virtual reality attraction after
the time that the Publicity Department

329
00:20:31,160 --> 00:20:32,877
was running the TV commercials.

330
00:20:32,960 --> 00:20:36,057
So imagineering really
had nailed this one tight.

331
00:20:36,140 --> 00:20:39,967
And it was the Aladdin attraction
where you would fly a magic carpet.

332
00:20:40,050 --> 00:20:43,837
And the head mounted display,
sometimes known as Gator vision.

333
00:20:43,920 --> 00:20:49,197
And so I had an in.
As soon as the project had just,

334
00:20:49,280 --> 00:20:50,807
they started running the TV commercials.

335
00:20:50,890 --> 00:20:54,427
And I had been asked to brief
the Secretary of Defense

336
00:20:54,510 --> 00:20:55,607
on the state of virtual reality.

337
00:20:55,690 --> 00:21:00,857
Fred Brooks and I had been asked
to brief the Secretary of Defense.

338
00:21:00,940 --> 00:21:06,047
And that gave me an excuse.
So I called them up.

339
00:21:06,130 --> 00:21:07,327
I called the imagineering
and I said, look,

340
00:21:07,410 --> 00:21:08,827
I'm briefing the Secretary of Defense.

341
00:21:08,910 --> 00:21:11,077
I'd like some materials on what
you have, because it's one of

342
00:21:11,160 --> 00:21:12,487
the bestVR systems in the world.

343
00:21:12,570 --> 00:21:15,097
And they kind of pushed back and I said,
look, is all this patriotism stuff

344
00:21:15,180 --> 00:21:17,170
in the parks a farce?

345
00:21:19,310 --> 00:21:23,077
They said, this is so
new the PR department

346
00:21:23,160 --> 00:21:24,297
doesn't have any footage for you.

347
00:21:24,380 --> 00:21:25,957
So I'm going to have
to connect you straight

348
00:21:26,040 --> 00:21:27,747
through to the team who did the work.

349
00:21:27,830 --> 00:21:32,517
Jackpot. So I find myself on the
phone with a guy named Jon Snoddy,

350
00:21:32,600 --> 00:21:36,047
who is one of the most
impressive guys I have ever met.

351
00:21:36,130 --> 00:21:38,317
And he was the guy running this team,
and it's not surprising they

352
00:21:38,400 --> 00:21:42,067
had done impressive things.
And so he sent me some stuff.

353
00:21:42,150 --> 00:21:44,917
We talked briefly, sent me some stuff and
I said, I'm going to be out in the area

354
00:21:45,000 --> 00:21:48,157
for a conference shortly, would you
like to get together to have lunch.

355
00:21:48,240 --> 00:21:51,577
Translation. I'm going
to lie to you and say that

356
00:21:51,660 --> 00:21:54,377
I have an excuse to be in the area,
so I don't look too anxious.

357
00:21:54,460 --> 00:21:56,857
But I would go to Neptune
to have a lunch with

358
00:21:56,940 --> 00:22:01,537
you. [LAUGHTER] And so Jon said, sure.

359
00:22:01,620 --> 00:22:07,267
And I spent something
like 80 hours talking with

360
00:22:07,350 --> 00:22:10,327
all the VR experts in the world,
saying, if you had access to

361
00:22:10,410 --> 00:22:13,907
this unbelievable project,
what would you ask?

362
00:22:13,990 --> 00:22:16,657
And then I compiled all
of that and I had to memorize it,

363
00:22:16,740 --> 00:22:18,457
which anybody knows me and knows
that I have no memory at all,

364
00:22:18,540 --> 00:22:22,257
because I couldn't go in looking
like a dweeb with Hi, question 72.

365
00:22:22,340 --> 00:22:26,277
So I went in and this
was like a two hour lunch.

366
00:22:26,360 --> 00:22:30,967
And Jon must have thought he was talking
to some phenomenal person because all

367
00:22:31,050 --> 00:22:34,987
I was doing was channeling Fred Brooks and
Ivan Sutherland and Andy Van Dam people

368
00:22:35,070 --> 00:22:37,837
like that, and Henry Fuchs.
So it's pretty easy to be

369
00:22:37,920 --> 00:22:40,567
smart when you're parroting smart people.

370
00:22:40,650 --> 00:22:43,747
And at the end of the lunch with Jon,

371
00:22:43,830 --> 00:22:46,797
I sort of as we say
in the business, made the ask.

372
00:22:46,880 --> 00:22:50,277
And I said, I have a sabbatical coming up.

373
00:22:50,360 --> 00:22:56,917
And he said, what's that? [LAUGHTER].

374
00:22:57,000 --> 00:22:59,947
The beginnings of the culture clash.

375
00:23:00,030 --> 00:23:03,907
And so I talked to him about
the possibility of coming

376
00:23:03,990 --> 00:23:09,187
there and working with him.
And he said, well, that's really good,

377
00:23:09,270 --> 00:23:12,097
except you're in the business
of telling people stuff,

378
00:23:12,180 --> 00:23:14,767
and we're in the business
of keeping secrets.

379
00:23:14,850 --> 00:23:17,867
And then what made Jon Snoddy
Jon Snoddy was, he said,

380
00:23:17,950 --> 00:23:20,757
but we'll work it out,
which I really loved.

381
00:23:20,840 --> 00:23:22,087
The other thing that I
learned from Jon Snoddy,

382
00:23:22,170 --> 00:23:25,387
I could easily do an hour-long talk just
on what have I learned from Jon Snoddy.

383
00:23:25,470 --> 00:23:28,447
One of the things he told
me was that wait long enough,

384
00:23:28,530 --> 00:23:30,457
and people will surprise and impress you.

385
00:23:30,540 --> 00:23:32,917
He said, when you're pissed off
at somebody and you're angry at them,

386
00:23:33,000 --> 00:23:35,297
you just haven't given them enough time.

387
00:23:35,380 --> 00:23:38,317
Just give them a little more time,
and they'll almost always impress you.

388
00:23:38,400 --> 00:23:41,147
And that really stuck with me.
I think he's absolutely right on that one.

389
00:23:41,230 --> 00:23:47,967
So, to make a long story short,
we negotiated a legal contract.

390
00:23:48,050 --> 00:23:51,417
It was going to be the first. Some people
referred to it as the first and last paper

391
00:23:51,500 --> 00:23:53,037
ever published by Imagineering.

392
00:23:53,120 --> 00:23:56,967
But the deal was, I go, I provide
my own funding, I go for six months.

393
00:23:57,050 --> 00:23:59,670
I work with a project, we publish a paper.

394
00:23:59,980 --> 00:24:03,000
And then we meet our villain.

395
00:24:04,180 --> 00:24:07,627
I can't be all sweetness and light,
because I have no credibility.

396
00:24:07,710 --> 00:24:10,127
Somebody's head's going to go on a stick.

397
00:24:10,210 --> 00:24:12,797
Turns out that the person who
gets his head on the stick is

398
00:24:12,880 --> 00:24:14,567
a dean back at the University of Virginia.

399
00:24:14,650 --> 00:24:15,667
His name is not important.

400
00:24:15,750 --> 00:24:22,750
Let's call him Dean Wormer. [LAUGHTER].

401
00:24:23,460 --> 00:24:25,987
And Dean Wormer has
a meeting with me where I say,

402
00:24:26,070 --> 00:24:28,867
I want to do the sabbatical thing, and
I've actually gotten the Imagineering guys

403
00:24:28,950 --> 00:24:30,857
to let an academic in, which is insane.

404
00:24:30,940 --> 00:24:33,787
If Jon hadn't gone nuts,
this would never been a possibility he is

405
00:24:33,870 --> 00:24:35,427
a very secretive organization.

406
00:24:35,510 --> 00:24:37,957
And Dean Wormer looks at the paperwork
and he says, well, says they're going to

407
00:24:38,040 --> 00:24:39,237
own your intellectual property.

408
00:24:39,320 --> 00:24:42,347
I said, we got the agreement to publish
the paper. There is no other IP.

409
00:24:42,430 --> 00:24:45,207
I don't do patentable stuff.
He says, yeah, but you might.

410
00:24:45,290 --> 00:24:48,887
So the deals off, get them
to change that little clause there.

411
00:24:48,970 --> 00:24:54,607
And then come back to me.
I was like, excuse me.

412
00:24:54,690 --> 00:24:57,877
And then I said to him, I want you
to understand how important this is.

413
00:24:57,960 --> 00:25:01,737
If we can't work this out, I'm going
to take an unpaid leave of absence,

414
00:25:01,820 --> 00:25:05,937
and I'm just going to go there,
and I'm going to do this thing.

415
00:25:06,020 --> 00:25:10,747
And he said, hey, I might
not even let you do that.

416
00:25:10,830 --> 00:25:12,757
You've got the IP in your head
already, and maybe they're going to

417
00:25:12,840 --> 00:25:13,387
suck it out of you,

418
00:25:13,470 --> 00:25:20,470
so that's not going
to fly either. [LAUGHTER].

419
00:25:21,180 --> 00:25:24,997
It's very important to know
when you're in a pissing match.

420
00:25:25,080 --> 00:25:28,707
And it's very important to get
out of it as quickly as possible.

421
00:25:28,790 --> 00:25:32,677
So I said to him, well,
let's back off on this.

422
00:25:32,760 --> 00:25:34,597
Do we think this is a good idea at all?

423
00:25:34,680 --> 00:25:36,587
He said, I have no idea
if this is a good idea.

424
00:25:36,670 --> 00:25:40,397
I was like well, ok,
we've got common ground there.

425
00:25:40,480 --> 00:25:42,787
And I said, well,
is this really your call?

426
00:25:42,870 --> 00:25:45,457
Isn't this the call of the
dean of sponsored research?

427
00:25:45,540 --> 00:25:48,067
If it's an IP issue,
and he said, yeah, that's true.

428
00:25:48,150 --> 00:25:49,797
I said, so if he's happy, you're happy?

429
00:25:49,880 --> 00:25:53,137
Then I'd be fine. [NOISE] Like Wile E.
Coyote a little. [LAUGHTER].

430
00:25:53,220 --> 00:25:54,547
And I find myself in Gene Block's office,

431
00:25:54,630 --> 00:25:56,117
who is the most fantastic
man in the world.

432
00:25:56,200 --> 00:25:58,957
And I start talking to Gene Block, and I
say, Let's start at the high level, since

433
00:25:59,040 --> 00:26:00,377
I don't want to have to back out again.

434
00:26:00,460 --> 00:26:01,267
Let's start at the high level.

435
00:26:01,350 --> 00:26:02,217
Do you think this is a good idea?

436
00:26:02,300 --> 00:26:05,217
He said, well, if you're
asking me if it's a good idea,

437
00:26:05,300 --> 00:26:06,377
I don't have very much information.

438
00:26:06,460 --> 00:26:08,677
All I know is that one of my star
faculty members is in my office,

439
00:26:08,760 --> 00:26:10,597
and he's really excited, so tell me more.

440
00:26:10,680 --> 00:26:12,787
Here's a lesson for everybody
in administration.

441
00:26:12,870 --> 00:26:15,747
They both said the same thing.

442
00:26:15,830 --> 00:26:21,407
But think about how they
said it. I don't know.

443
00:26:21,490 --> 00:26:25,117
Well, I don't have much information, but
one of my star faculty members is here,

444
00:26:25,200 --> 00:26:27,157
and he's all excited,
so I want to learn more.

445
00:26:27,240 --> 00:26:28,987
They are both ways of saying,
I don't know, but,

446
00:26:29,070 --> 00:26:31,017
boy, there's a good way and a bad way.

447
00:26:31,100 --> 00:26:34,227
So anyway, we got it all worked out.

448
00:26:34,310 --> 00:26:36,697
I went to Imagineering,
sweetness and light,

449
00:26:36,780 --> 00:26:42,757
and all's well that ends well. [LAUGHTER].

450
00:26:42,840 --> 00:26:45,760
Some brick walls are
made of flesh. [LAUGHTER].

451
00:26:46,070 --> 00:26:48,397
So I worked on the Aladdin project.

452
00:26:48,480 --> 00:26:53,387
It was absolutely spectacular,
just unbelievable.

453
00:26:53,470 --> 00:26:56,257
Here's my nephew Christopher.
This was the apparatus.

454
00:26:56,340 --> 00:26:58,607
You would sit on this
motorcycle type thing,

455
00:26:58,690 --> 00:27:03,137
and you would steer your magic carpet, and
you would put on the head mounted display.

456
00:27:03,220 --> 00:27:04,087
The head mounted display
is very interesting.

457
00:27:04,170 --> 00:27:06,757
It had two parts, and it
was a very clever design to

458
00:27:06,840 --> 00:27:08,167
get throughput through, the only part that

459
00:27:08,250 --> 00:27:10,717
touched the guests head was this little
cap, and everything else clicked onto

460
00:27:10,800 --> 00:27:11,807
it, all the expensive hardware.

461
00:27:11,890 --> 00:27:15,487
So you could replicate the caps because
they were basically free to manufacture.

462
00:27:15,570 --> 00:27:20,800
And this is what I really did,
as I was a cap cleaner during this matter.

463
00:27:22,010 --> 00:27:27,727
I loved Imagineering.
It was just a spectacular place.

464
00:27:27,810 --> 00:27:29,737
Everything that I had dreamed.

465
00:27:29,820 --> 00:27:33,037
I loved the model shop. People
crawling around on things the size of

466
00:27:33,120 --> 00:27:35,677
this room that are just
big physical models.

467
00:27:35,760 --> 00:27:39,617
It was just an incredible place
to walk around and be inspired.

468
00:27:39,700 --> 00:27:43,207
I'm always reminded when I went there,
and people said, do you think

469
00:27:43,290 --> 00:27:44,767
the expectations are too high?

470
00:27:44,850 --> 00:27:47,117
And I said, you ever see the movie
Charlie and the Chocolate Factory?

471
00:27:47,200 --> 00:27:50,017
Willie Wonka and the Chocolate Factory,
where Gene Wilder says to the little boy

472
00:27:50,100 --> 00:27:51,547
Charlie he's about to give
him the chocolate factory.

473
00:27:51,630 --> 00:27:54,637
He says, well, Charlie,
did anybody ever tell you the story of

474
00:27:54,720 --> 00:27:58,537
the little boy who suddenly
got everything he ever wanted?

475
00:27:58,620 --> 00:28:03,027
Charlie's eyes get like saucers,
and he says, no, What happened to him?

476
00:28:03,110 --> 00:28:08,857
Gene Wilder says, he lived
happily ever after. [LAUGHTER].

477
00:28:08,940 --> 00:28:11,347
So working on the Aladdin VR,
I described it as a once in

478
00:28:11,430 --> 00:28:14,457
every five years opportunity,
and I stand by that assessment.

479
00:28:14,540 --> 00:28:17,767
It forever changed me.
It wasn't just that it was good work

480
00:28:17,850 --> 00:28:22,537
and I got to be a part of it. But it
got me into the place of working with

481
00:28:22,620 --> 00:28:25,747
real people and real HCI
user interface issues.

482
00:28:25,830 --> 00:28:29,677
Most HCI people live in this fantasy
world of white collar laborers with

483
00:28:29,760 --> 00:28:33,877
Ph.D.s and master's degrees. And until
you've got ice cream spilled on you,

484
00:28:33,960 --> 00:28:39,157
you're not doing field work. And more
than anything else from Jon Snoddy,

485
00:28:39,240 --> 00:28:41,517
I learned how to put artists
and engineers together.

486
00:28:41,600 --> 00:28:43,357
And that's been the real legacy.

487
00:28:43,440 --> 00:28:46,637
We published a paper,
just a nice academic cultural scandal.

488
00:28:46,720 --> 00:28:48,787
When we wrote the paper,
the guys at Imagineering said,

489
00:28:48,870 --> 00:28:51,067
well, let's do a nice, big picture.

490
00:28:51,150 --> 00:28:54,277
Like you would in a magazine.
And the Siggraph Committee,

491
00:28:54,360 --> 00:28:56,627
which accepted the paper,
was like this big scandal.

492
00:28:56,710 --> 00:28:57,937
Are they allowed to do that? [LAUGHTER].

493
00:28:58,020 --> 00:29:04,867
There was no rule.
So we published the paper,

494
00:29:04,950 --> 00:29:07,687
and amazingly, since then,
there's a tradition of Siggraph papers

495
00:29:07,770 --> 00:29:10,027
having colored figures on the first page.

496
00:29:10,110 --> 00:29:12,517
So I've changed the world in a small way.

497
00:29:12,600 --> 00:29:18,547
[LAUGHTER]. And then at the end of my six
months, they came to me and they said,

498
00:29:18,630 --> 00:29:20,197
you want to do it for real?

499
00:29:20,280 --> 00:29:27,280
You can stay. [LAUGHTER]. And I said, no.

500
00:29:29,190 --> 00:29:31,807
One of the only times in my life
I have surprised my father.

501
00:29:31,890 --> 00:29:36,717
He was like, you what?
He said, since you were,

502
00:29:36,800 --> 00:29:39,820
all you wanted,
and now they got it in there.

503
00:29:40,160 --> 00:29:42,857
There was a bottle
of Maalox in my desk drawer.

504
00:29:42,940 --> 00:29:45,397
Be careful what you wish for.
It was a particularly stressful place.

505
00:29:45,480 --> 00:29:49,657
Imagineering in general is actually not
so Maalox laden, but the lab I was in,

506
00:29:49,740 --> 00:29:54,507
Jon left in the middle.
And it was a lot like the Soviet Union.

507
00:29:54,590 --> 00:29:56,977
It was a little dicy for a while.

508
00:29:57,060 --> 00:30:01,567
But it worked out okay. And if they
had said, stay here or never walk in

509
00:30:01,650 --> 00:30:03,697
the building again, I would have done it.

510
00:30:03,780 --> 00:30:06,907
I would have walked away from tenure,
I would have just done it.

511
00:30:06,990 --> 00:30:09,937
But they made it easy on me. They said
you can have your cake and eat it too,

512
00:30:10,020 --> 00:30:12,967
and I basically become a day
a week consultant for Imagineering,

513
00:30:13,050 --> 00:30:14,587
and I did that for about 10 years.

514
00:30:14,670 --> 00:30:18,287
And that's one of the reasons
you should all become professors.

515
00:30:18,370 --> 00:30:20,967
Because you can have
your cake and eat it too.

516
00:30:21,050 --> 00:30:24,967
I went on and consulted
on things like Disney Quest.

517
00:30:25,050 --> 00:30:26,887
So there was the virtual Jungle Cruise.

518
00:30:26,970 --> 00:30:29,847
And the best interactive
experience, I think ever done,

519
00:30:29,930 --> 00:30:31,767
and Jesse Schell gets the credit for this.

520
00:30:31,850 --> 00:30:36,247
Pirates of the Caribbean.
Wonderful at Disney Quest.

521
00:30:36,330 --> 00:30:38,147
And so those are my childhood dreams.

522
00:30:38,230 --> 00:30:41,207
And that's pretty good.
I felt good about that.

523
00:30:41,290 --> 00:30:45,847
So then the question becomes, how can
I enable the childhood dreams of others?

524
00:30:45,930 --> 00:30:49,027
And again, boy,
am I glad I became a professor.

525
00:30:49,110 --> 00:30:53,250
What better place
to enable childhood dreams?

526
00:30:54,200 --> 00:30:56,257
Maybe you're working at EA, I don't know.

527
00:30:56,340 --> 00:30:58,660
That probably is a good close second.

528
00:31:02,420 --> 00:31:08,077
This started in a very concrete
realization that I could do this because

529
00:31:08,160 --> 00:31:10,637
a young man named Tommy Burnett,
when I was at the University of Virginia,

530
00:31:10,720 --> 00:31:14,917
came to me was interested in joining
my research group, and we talked about it,

531
00:31:15,000 --> 00:31:16,767
and he said, and I have a childhood dream.

532
00:31:16,850 --> 00:31:20,407
Well, it gets pretty easy
to recognize them when they tell you.

533
00:31:20,490 --> 00:31:23,017
And I said, Yes, Tommy,
what is your childhood dream?

534
00:31:23,100 --> 00:31:26,170
He said, I want to work
on the next Star Wars film.

535
00:31:27,220 --> 00:31:30,597
Now, you got to remember
the timing on this. Where is Tommy?

536
00:31:30,680 --> 00:31:34,590
Tommy is here today? What year would
this have been? Your sophomore year?

537
00:31:35,470 --> 00:31:37,407
>> [BACKGROUND]. >> Are you
breaking anything back there,

538
00:31:37,490 --> 00:31:42,967
young man? So in 1993.
And I said to Tommy, you know they're

539
00:31:43,050 --> 00:31:46,780
probably not going
to make those next movies.

540
00:31:50,450 --> 00:31:55,240
And he said, no, they are.

541
00:31:58,310 --> 00:32:02,467
And Tommy worked with me
for a number of years as an

542
00:32:02,550 --> 00:32:05,867
undergraduate and then as a staff member,
and then when I moved to Carnegie Mellon,

543
00:32:05,950 --> 00:32:10,397
every single member of my team came
from Virginia to Carnegie Mellon,

544
00:32:10,480 --> 00:32:13,577
except for Tommy because
he got a better offer.

545
00:32:13,660 --> 00:32:18,820
And he did indeed work
on all three of those films.

546
00:32:19,370 --> 00:32:24,617
And then I said, Well, that's nice, but,
one at a time is kind of inefficient.

547
00:32:24,700 --> 00:32:27,447
People who know me know
that I'm an efficiency freak.

548
00:32:27,530 --> 00:32:29,707
So I said, can I do this in mass?

549
00:32:29,790 --> 00:32:33,097
Can I get people turned in such
a way that they can be turned

550
00:32:33,180 --> 00:32:37,747
onto their childhood dreams? And I came
to Carnegie Mellon and I created a course

551
00:32:37,830 --> 00:32:38,837
called Building Virtual World.

552
00:32:38,920 --> 00:32:43,207
It's a very simple course. How many
people have ever been to any of the shows?

553
00:32:43,290 --> 00:32:46,837
Some of you have an idea, for those
of you don't, the course is very simple.

554
00:32:46,920 --> 00:32:50,677
There are 50 students drawn from all the
different departments of the university.

555
00:32:50,760 --> 00:32:56,047
There are randomly chosen
teams, four people per team,

556
00:32:56,130 --> 00:32:57,857
and they change every project.

557
00:32:57,940 --> 00:33:01,807
A project only lasts two weeks,
so you do something, you make something,

558
00:33:01,890 --> 00:33:05,317
you show something, then I shuffle
the teams, you get three new playmates,

559
00:33:05,400 --> 00:33:09,057
and you do it again. And it's
every two weeks, and so you do

560
00:33:09,140 --> 00:33:11,187
five projects during the semester.

561
00:33:11,270 --> 00:33:16,867
The first year we taught this course,
it is impossible to describe how much of

562
00:33:16,950 --> 00:33:20,407
a tiger by the tail we had.
I was just running the course

563
00:33:20,490 --> 00:33:22,017
because I wanted to see if we could do it.

564
00:33:22,100 --> 00:33:24,697
We had just learned how to do
texture mapping on 3D graphics,

565
00:33:24,780 --> 00:33:27,787
and we could make stuff that looked
half decent, but we were running on

566
00:33:27,870 --> 00:33:30,907
really weak computers
by current standards.

567
00:33:30,990 --> 00:33:32,447
But I said, I'll give it a try.

568
00:33:32,530 --> 00:33:35,097
And at my new university, I made
a couple of phone calls and I said,

569
00:33:35,180 --> 00:33:37,167
I want to cross list this course
to get all other people,

570
00:33:37,250 --> 00:33:40,637
and within 24 hours it was cross
listed in five departments.

571
00:33:40,720 --> 00:33:44,937
I love this university.
It's the most amazing place.

572
00:33:45,020 --> 00:33:47,257
And I said the kids said,
well, what content do we make?

573
00:33:47,340 --> 00:33:50,437
I said, hell, I don't know.
You make whatever you want.

574
00:33:50,520 --> 00:33:54,337
Two rules: no shooting
violence and no pornography.

575
00:33:54,420 --> 00:34:00,400
Not because I'm opposed to those in
particular, but, that's been done with VR.

576
00:34:01,370 --> 00:34:05,947
And you'd be amazed how many 19-year-old
boys are completely out of ideas

577
00:34:06,030 --> 00:34:08,140
when you take those off the table.

578
00:34:12,260 --> 00:34:15,257
Anyway, so I taught the course.

579
00:34:15,340 --> 00:34:18,637
The first assignment, I gave it to them,
they came back in two weeks,

580
00:34:18,720 --> 00:34:25,097
and they just blew me away. The work
was so beyond literally my imagination,

581
00:34:25,180 --> 00:34:29,467
because I copied the process from
Imagineerings VR Lab, but I had no idea

582
00:34:29,550 --> 00:34:32,287
what they could or couldn't do
with it as undergraduates because

583
00:34:32,370 --> 00:34:35,287
their tools were weaker. And they
came back in the first assignment,

584
00:34:35,370 --> 00:34:38,277
and they did something that was so
spectacular that I literally,

585
00:34:38,360 --> 00:34:42,697
10 years as a professor I had no idea
what to do next. So I called up my mentor.

586
00:34:42,780 --> 00:34:48,397
I called up Andy Van Dam. And I said,
Andy, I just gave a two week assignment,

587
00:34:48,480 --> 00:34:51,127
and they came back and did stuff
that if I'd given them a whole semester,

588
00:34:51,210 --> 00:34:52,527
I would have given them all A's.

589
00:34:52,610 --> 00:34:55,480
Sensei, what do I do?

590
00:34:56,090 --> 00:35:02,777
And Andy thought for a minute and he
said, you go back into class tomorrow,

591
00:35:02,860 --> 00:35:06,097
and you look them in the eye and you
say, guys, that was pretty good,

592
00:35:06,180 --> 00:35:08,320
but I know you can do better.

593
00:35:11,240 --> 00:35:14,507
And that was exactly the right
advice, because what he said was,

594
00:35:14,590 --> 00:35:17,977
you obviously don't know
where the bar should be,

595
00:35:18,060 --> 00:35:22,507
and you're only going to do them
a disservice by putting it anywhere.

596
00:35:22,590 --> 00:35:28,177
And boy, was that good advice,
because they just kept going.

597
00:35:28,260 --> 00:35:31,747
And during that semester,
it became this underground thing.

598
00:35:31,830 --> 00:35:38,107
I'd walk into a class with 50 students in
it, and there were 95 people in the room.

599
00:35:38,190 --> 00:35:41,317
Because it was the day
we were showing work and

600
00:35:41,400 --> 00:35:44,577
people's roommates
and friends and parents.

601
00:35:44,660 --> 00:35:47,657
I'd never had parents
come to class before.

602
00:35:47,740 --> 00:35:50,307
It was flattering and somewhat scary.

603
00:35:50,390 --> 00:35:54,877
And so it snowballed and we had this
bizarre thing of, we got to share this.

604
00:35:54,960 --> 00:35:57,597
If there's anything I've been
raised to do, it's to share.

605
00:35:57,680 --> 00:35:59,467
And I said, we got to show this semester.

606
00:35:59,550 --> 00:36:02,177
We got to have a big show.
And we booked this room, McConomy,

607
00:36:02,260 --> 00:36:04,627
I have a lot of good memories
in this room, And we booked it not

608
00:36:04,710 --> 00:36:06,487
because we thought we could
fill it, but because it had

609
00:36:06,570 --> 00:36:12,427
the only AV setup that would work, because
this was a zoo, computers and everything.

610
00:36:12,510 --> 00:36:16,057
And then we filled it.
And we more than filled it.

611
00:36:16,140 --> 00:36:17,707
We had people standing in the aisle.

612
00:36:17,790 --> 00:36:20,797
I will never forget the dean
at the time Jim Morris was sitting on

613
00:36:20,880 --> 00:36:25,467
the stage right about there.
We had to scoot him out of the way.

614
00:36:25,550 --> 00:36:29,467
And the energy in the room was like
nothing I had ever experienced before.

615
00:36:29,550 --> 00:36:34,327
And President Jerry Cohon,
was there and he sensed the same thing.

616
00:36:34,410 --> 00:36:37,477
He later described it as like
an Ohio State football pep rally,

617
00:36:37,560 --> 00:36:43,057
except for academics. And he came over
and he asked exactly the right question.

618
00:36:43,140 --> 00:36:47,047
He said before you start, he said, I
got to know, where are these people from?

619
00:36:47,130 --> 00:36:49,117
He said, the audience.
What departments are they from?

620
00:36:49,200 --> 00:36:51,717
And we polled them and it
was all the departments.

621
00:36:51,800 --> 00:36:54,697
And I felt very good because
I had just come to campus.

622
00:36:54,780 --> 00:36:58,687
He had just come to campus,
and my new boss had seen in

623
00:36:58,770 --> 00:37:03,157
a very corporeal way that this is the
university that puts everybody together.

624
00:37:03,240 --> 00:37:06,667
And that made me feel just tremendous.

625
00:37:06,750 --> 00:37:08,527
So we did this campus- wide exhibition.

626
00:37:08,610 --> 00:37:12,397
People performed down here. They were
in costume, and we project just like this,

627
00:37:12,480 --> 00:37:13,897
and you can see what's going on.

628
00:37:13,980 --> 00:37:16,077
You can see what they're
seeing in the head mount.

629
00:37:16,160 --> 00:37:20,867
There's a lot of big props,
so there's a guy whitewater rafting.

630
00:37:20,950 --> 00:37:27,727
This is then ET. And yes, I did tell them

631
00:37:27,810 --> 00:37:30,717
if they didn't do the shot of the kids
biking across the moon, I would fail him.

632
00:37:30,800 --> 00:37:37,800
That is a true story. So I

633
00:37:38,670 --> 00:37:39,907
thought I'd show you just one world.

634
00:37:39,990 --> 00:37:42,547
And if we get the lights down,
if that's at all possible?

635
00:37:42,630 --> 00:37:47,680
No. That means no.
We'll just do our best then.

636
00:37:49,970 --> 00:37:56,830
>> Hello, there. I'm lonely.
Make me a new world.

637
00:39:24,800 --> 00:39:26,987
>> Now, they're going
to turn this on its head.

638
00:39:27,070 --> 00:39:32,157
Watch closely. The world doesn't want
to go on to the next thing in the show.

639
00:39:32,240 --> 00:39:35,800
So she's ready to move on, and it's not.

640
00:39:40,700 --> 00:39:45,527
>> What are you doing? >> [BACKGROUND].

641
00:39:45,610 --> 00:39:48,817
>> But there are so many
other worlds that have to go.

642
00:39:48,900 --> 00:39:52,870
>> But our world is the best world.

643
00:40:00,170 --> 00:40:03,280
>> I'm going to shut you down.

644
00:40:09,260 --> 00:40:16,260
Control alt delete

645
00:40:51,050 --> 00:40:58,050
>> Don't

646
00:41:05,780 --> 00:41:11,107
control alt delete.

647
00:41:11,190 --> 00:41:13,570
>> We love you.

648
00:41:29,960 --> 00:41:36,307
>> It was an unusual course.
With some of the most brilliant,

649
00:41:36,390 --> 00:41:42,257
creative students from all across the
campus, it just was a joy to be involved.

650
00:41:42,340 --> 00:41:46,810
And they took the whole stage performance
aspect of this way too seriously.

651
00:41:48,680 --> 00:41:52,267
And it became this campus
phenomenon every year.

652
00:41:52,350 --> 00:41:56,057
People would line up for it.
It was very flattering.

653
00:41:56,140 --> 00:42:01,507
And it gave kids a chance of a sense
of excitement of putting on a show

654
00:42:01,590 --> 00:42:03,787
for people who were then excited about it.

655
00:42:03,870 --> 00:42:06,577
And I think that that's one of the
best things you can give somebody,

656
00:42:06,660 --> 00:42:10,747
the chance to show them what it
feels like to make other people get

657
00:42:10,830 --> 00:42:13,077
excited and happy,
that's a tremendous gift.

658
00:42:13,160 --> 00:42:16,447
We always tried to involve the audience,
whether it was people with glow sticks

659
00:42:16,530 --> 00:42:21,097
or batting a beach ball around
or driving. This is really cool.

660
00:42:21,180 --> 00:42:24,597
This technology actually got used
at the Spider Man 3 premiere in LA,

661
00:42:24,680 --> 00:42:28,737
so the audience was controlling
something on the screen, so that's nice.

662
00:42:28,820 --> 00:42:32,137
And I don't have a class
picture from every year,

663
00:42:32,220 --> 00:42:33,847
but I dredged all the ones that I do have.

664
00:42:33,930 --> 00:42:37,297
And all I can say is that what
a privilege and an honor it was to teach

665
00:42:37,380 --> 00:42:39,527
that course for something like 10 years.

666
00:42:39,610 --> 00:42:44,917
And all good things come to an end,
and I stopped teaching

667
00:42:45,000 --> 00:42:48,397
that course about a year ago.
People always ask me,

668
00:42:48,480 --> 00:42:51,607
what was my favorite moment? I don't
know if you could have a favorite moment,

669
00:42:51,690 --> 00:42:54,367
but boy, there's one I'll never forget.

670
00:42:54,450 --> 00:42:58,777
This was a world with,
I believe, a rollerskating ninja.

671
00:42:58,860 --> 00:43:01,597
And one of the rules was that we
performed these things live,

672
00:43:01,680 --> 00:43:04,147
and they all had to really work,
and the moment it stopped working,

673
00:43:04,230 --> 00:43:05,807
we went to your backup videotape.

674
00:43:05,890 --> 00:43:08,047
And this was very embarrassing.

675
00:43:08,130 --> 00:43:10,007
So we have this ninja on stage.

676
00:43:10,090 --> 00:43:14,667
He's doing this rollerskating thing,
and the world it did not crash gently.

677
00:43:14,750 --> 00:43:18,397
And I come out and I believe
it was Steve Audio, wasn't it?

678
00:43:18,480 --> 00:43:21,597
Is it? Where is he? Here's Steve.

679
00:43:21,680 --> 00:43:26,027
My man, Steve Audio.
And talk about quick on your feet.

680
00:43:26,110 --> 00:43:29,227
I say, Steve, I'm sorry,
but your world has crashed,

681
00:43:29,310 --> 00:43:31,237
and we're going to go to videotape.

682
00:43:31,320 --> 00:43:35,137
And he pulls out his ninja sword and says,

683
00:43:35,220 --> 00:43:38,590
I am dishonored and just drops.

684
00:43:47,900 --> 00:43:51,397
And so I think it's very telling
that my favorite moment in

685
00:43:51,480 --> 00:43:55,097
10 years of this high technology
course was a brilliant ad lib,

686
00:43:55,180 --> 00:43:57,927
and then when the videotape
was done, and the lights come up,

687
00:43:58,010 --> 00:44:01,780
he's lying there lifeless,
and his teammates drag him off.

688
00:44:02,150 --> 00:44:06,520
It was really a fantastic moment.

689
00:44:07,220 --> 00:44:10,157
And the course was all about bonding.

690
00:44:10,240 --> 00:44:12,607
People used to say, what's
going to make for a good world?

691
00:44:12,690 --> 00:44:15,247
I said, I can't tell you beforehand,
but right before they present it,

692
00:44:15,330 --> 00:44:18,217
I can tell you if the world's
good just by the body language.

693
00:44:18,300 --> 00:44:21,727
If they're standing close
to each other, the world is good.

694
00:44:21,810 --> 00:44:25,037
And BVW was a pioneering course.

695
00:44:25,120 --> 00:44:32,120
And, I won't bore you
with all the details,

696
00:44:32,400 --> 00:44:38,617
but it wasn't easy to do. And I was given
this when I stepped down from the ETC,

697
00:44:38,700 --> 00:44:42,277
and I think it's emblematic. If you're
going to do anything that's pioneering,

698
00:44:42,360 --> 00:44:45,617
you will get those arrows in the back,
and you just have to put up with it.

699
00:44:45,700 --> 00:44:49,137
Everything that could go wrong did
go wrong, but at the end of the day,

700
00:44:49,220 --> 00:44:52,347
a whole lot of people
had a whole lot of fun.

701
00:44:52,430 --> 00:44:56,987
When you've had something for 10
years that you hold so precious,

702
00:44:57,070 --> 00:45:00,137
it's the toughest thing
in the world to hand it over.

703
00:45:00,220 --> 00:45:04,627
And the only advice I can give you is find
somebody better than you to hand it

704
00:45:04,710 --> 00:45:10,947
to, and that's what I did. There was
this kid at the VR studio way back when,

705
00:45:11,030 --> 00:45:14,697
and you didn't have to spend very
long in Jesse Schell's orbit to go,

706
00:45:14,780 --> 00:45:20,617
force is strong in this one. And one
of my two greatest accomplishments,

707
00:45:20,700 --> 00:45:24,037
I think for Carnegie Mellon were that I
got Jessica Hodgins and Jesse Schell

708
00:45:24,120 --> 00:45:26,617
to come here and join our faculty,
and I was thrilled when I could

709
00:45:26,700 --> 00:45:29,227
hand this over to Jesse,
and to no one's surprise,

710
00:45:29,310 --> 00:45:31,347
he has really taken it
up to the next notch.

711
00:45:31,430 --> 00:45:34,627
And the course is in more than good hands.

712
00:45:34,710 --> 00:45:39,457
It's in better hands.
But it was just one course.

713
00:45:39,540 --> 00:45:42,727
And then we really took it up a notch.

714
00:45:42,810 --> 00:45:46,957
And we created what I would call
the Dream Fulfillment Factory.

715
00:45:47,040 --> 00:45:51,127
Don Marinelli and I got together,
and with the university's

716
00:45:51,210 --> 00:45:54,397
blessing and encouragement,
we made this thing out of

717
00:45:54,480 --> 00:45:58,897
whole cloth that was absolutely insane,
should never have been tried.

718
00:45:58,980 --> 00:46:03,467
All the sane universities didn't
go near this kind of stuff,

719
00:46:03,550 --> 00:46:07,887
creating a tremendous opportunistic void.

720
00:46:07,970 --> 00:46:10,897
So the Entertainment Technology
Center was all about artists and

721
00:46:10,980 --> 00:46:13,297
technologists working
in small teams to make things.

722
00:46:13,380 --> 00:46:16,137
It was a two-year
professional master's degree,

723
00:46:16,220 --> 00:46:19,237
and Don and I were two kindred spirits.

724
00:46:19,320 --> 00:46:23,420
We're very different. Anybody who knows
us knows that we're very different people.

725
00:46:23,600 --> 00:46:26,617
And we like to do things in a new way.

726
00:46:26,700 --> 00:46:30,007
And the truth of the matter is that we're
both a little uncomfortable in academia.

727
00:46:30,090 --> 00:46:32,347
I used to say that I'm
uncomfortable as an academic because

728
00:46:32,430 --> 00:46:35,017
I come from a long line of people
who actually worked for a living.

729
00:46:35,100 --> 00:46:42,100
So, I detect nervous laughter.

730
00:46:44,000 --> 00:46:47,347
And I want to stress Carnegie
Mellon is the only place in the world

731
00:46:47,430 --> 00:46:51,280
that the ETC could have happened,
by far, the only place.

732
00:46:54,260 --> 00:46:57,760
This picture was Don's idea.

733
00:46:58,850 --> 00:47:02,047
And we like to refer to this
picture as Don Marinelli on

734
00:47:02,130 --> 00:47:05,500
guitar and Randy Pausch on keyboard.

735
00:47:06,500 --> 00:47:09,157
But we really did play up
the left brain right brain,

736
00:47:09,240 --> 00:47:11,557
and it worked out really well that way.

737
00:47:11,640 --> 00:47:15,280
Don is an intense guy.

738
00:47:19,880 --> 00:47:24,197
And Don and I shared an office.

739
00:47:24,280 --> 00:47:26,537
And at first, it was a small office.

740
00:47:26,620 --> 00:47:30,447
We shared an office for six years.

741
00:47:30,530 --> 00:47:34,527
Now, those of you who know
Don know he's an intense guy.

742
00:47:34,610 --> 00:47:39,007
And, given my current condition, somebody
was asking me, this is a terrible joke,

743
00:47:39,090 --> 00:47:43,527
but I'm going to use it anyway
because I know Don will forgive me.

744
00:47:43,610 --> 00:47:46,027
Somebody said, given your current
condition, have you thought about

745
00:47:46,110 --> 00:47:48,347
whether you're going
to go to heaven or hell?

746
00:47:48,430 --> 00:47:51,037
And I said, I don't know,
but if I'm going to hell,

747
00:47:51,120 --> 00:47:53,770
I'll do six years for time served.

748
00:47:54,260 --> 00:47:58,927
I kid. Sharing an office
with Don was really like sharing

749
00:47:59,010 --> 00:48:02,647
an office with a tornado.
There was just so much energy,

750
00:48:02,730 --> 00:48:05,677
and you never knew which trailer was next.

751
00:48:05,760 --> 00:48:09,487
But you knew something
exciting was going to happen.

752
00:48:09,570 --> 00:48:13,687
And there was so much energy.
And I do believe in

753
00:48:13,770 --> 00:48:15,117
giving credit where credit is due.

754
00:48:15,200 --> 00:48:20,597
So in my typically visual way, if Don and
I were to split the success for the ETC,

755
00:48:20,680 --> 00:48:22,087
he clearly gets the lion's share of it.

756
00:48:22,170 --> 00:48:24,077
He did the lion's share of the work.

757
00:48:24,160 --> 00:48:25,897
He had the lion's share of the ideas.

758
00:48:25,980 --> 00:48:28,657
It was a great teamwork.
I think it was a great yin and yang,

759
00:48:28,740 --> 00:48:31,037
but it was more like Ying and Yang.

760
00:48:31,120 --> 00:48:33,877
And he deserves that credit,
and I give it to him

761
00:48:33,960 --> 00:48:36,017
because the ETC is a wonderful place.

762
00:48:36,100 --> 00:48:39,147
And, he's now running it,
and he's taking it global,

763
00:48:39,230 --> 00:48:40,447
we'll talk about that in a second.

764
00:48:40,530 --> 00:48:44,257
Describing the ETC is really hard,
and I finally found a metaphor.

765
00:48:44,340 --> 00:48:47,877
Telling people about the ETC,
is it like describing Cirque Du

766
00:48:47,960 --> 00:48:49,487
Soleil if they'd never seen it.

767
00:48:49,570 --> 00:48:51,157
Sooner orlater, you're
going to make the mistake.

768
00:48:51,240 --> 00:48:52,687
You're going to say,
Well, it's like a circus.

769
00:48:52,770 --> 00:48:55,177
And then you're dragged into this
conversation about, Oh, how many tigers?

770
00:48:55,260 --> 00:48:57,907
How many lions? How many trapeze acts?

771
00:48:57,990 --> 00:48:59,097
And that misses the whole point.

772
00:48:59,180 --> 00:49:01,537
So when we say we're a master's
degree, we're really not like

773
00:49:01,620 --> 00:49:03,157
any master's degree you've ever seen.

774
00:49:03,240 --> 00:49:05,470
Here's the curriculum.

775
00:49:10,820 --> 00:49:13,237
The curriculum ended up looking like this.

776
00:49:13,320 --> 00:49:15,187
All I want to do is visually
communicate to you that you do

777
00:49:15,270 --> 00:49:18,067
five projects in building virtual
words, then you do three more.

778
00:49:18,150 --> 00:49:21,607
All of your time is spent
in small teams making stuff.

779
00:49:21,690 --> 00:49:23,047
None of that book learning thing.

780
00:49:23,130 --> 00:49:25,347
Don and I had no patience
for the book learning thing.

781
00:49:25,430 --> 00:49:28,447
It's a master's degree. They already
spent four years doing book learning,

782
00:49:28,530 --> 00:49:31,390
by now, they should
have read all the books.

783
00:49:32,840 --> 00:49:38,217
The keys to success were that
Carnegie Mellon gave us the reins.

784
00:49:38,300 --> 00:49:41,757
Completely gave us the reins.
We had no deans to report to,

785
00:49:41,840 --> 00:49:44,287
we reported directly to the provost,
which is great because the provost is way

786
00:49:44,370 --> 00:49:46,780
too busy to watch you carefully.

787
00:49:47,030 --> 00:49:50,347
We were given explicit
license to break the mold.

788
00:49:50,430 --> 00:49:52,037
It was all project based. It was intense.

789
00:49:52,120 --> 00:49:54,187
It was fun, and we took field trips.

790
00:49:54,270 --> 00:49:57,607
Every spring semester
in January, we'd take all 50

791
00:49:57,690 --> 00:50:00,667
students in the first-year class, and we'd
take them out the shops like Pixar,

792
00:50:00,750 --> 00:50:02,597
we'd take them to Pixar
Industrial Lite Magic.

793
00:50:02,680 --> 00:50:06,127
And, of course, when you got guys
like Tommy there acting as host,

794
00:50:06,210 --> 00:50:08,847
it's pretty easy to get
entree to these places.

795
00:50:08,930 --> 00:50:11,827
So we did things very differently.

796
00:50:11,910 --> 00:50:16,027
The kind of project students would do we
did a lot of what we'd call edutainment.

797
00:50:16,110 --> 00:50:19,387
We developed a bunch of things
with the Fire Department of New York,

798
00:50:19,470 --> 00:50:21,237
a network simulator
for training firefighters,

799
00:50:21,320 --> 00:50:23,617
using video gamish type technology to

800
00:50:23,700 --> 00:50:26,847
teach people useful things.
That's not bad.

801
00:50:26,930 --> 00:50:28,987
Companies did this strange thing.

802
00:50:29,070 --> 00:50:32,767
They put in writing.
We promise to hire your students.

803
00:50:32,850 --> 00:50:35,257
I've got the EA and Activision ones here.

804
00:50:35,340 --> 00:50:38,057
I think there are now how many five?

805
00:50:38,140 --> 00:50:42,517
Drew knows, I bet. So there
are five written agreements.

806
00:50:42,600 --> 00:50:44,317
I don't know of any other
school that has this kind of

807
00:50:44,400 --> 00:50:45,927
written agreement with any company.

808
00:50:46,010 --> 00:50:47,677
And so that's a real statement.

809
00:50:47,760 --> 00:50:48,757
And these are multiple year things.

810
00:50:48,840 --> 00:50:50,287
So they're agreeing
to hire people for summer

811
00:50:50,370 --> 00:50:52,827
internships that we have not admitted yet.

812
00:50:52,910 --> 00:50:55,827
That's a pretty strong statement
about the quality of the program.

813
00:50:55,910 --> 00:50:59,057
And Don, as I said, he's crazy.

814
00:50:59,140 --> 00:51:01,717
I mean, in a wonderful complimentary way.

815
00:51:01,800 --> 00:51:04,677
He's doing these things
where I'm like, Oh, my god.

816
00:51:04,760 --> 00:51:08,647
He's not here tonight because he's
in Singapore because there's going to

817
00:51:08,730 --> 00:51:10,637
be an ETC campus in Singapore.

818
00:51:10,720 --> 00:51:12,937
There's already one in Australia,
and there's going to be one in Korea.

819
00:51:13,020 --> 00:51:15,017
So this is becoming a global phenomenon.

820
00:51:15,100 --> 00:51:17,827
So I think this really speaks volumes
about all the other universities.

821
00:51:17,910 --> 00:51:20,607
It's really true that Carnegie Mellon
is the only university can do this.

822
00:51:20,690 --> 00:51:24,210
We just have to do it
all over the world now.

823
00:51:24,800 --> 00:51:29,597
One of the big successes about
the ETC is teaching people about focus.

824
00:51:29,680 --> 00:51:32,560
Oh, no, I hear the nervous
laughter from the students.

825
00:51:33,590 --> 00:51:37,967
I had forgotten the delayed shock
therapy effect of these bar charts.

826
00:51:38,050 --> 00:51:41,077
When you're taking Building
Virtual Worlds, every two weeks,

827
00:51:41,160 --> 00:51:43,687
we get peer feedback, we put
that all into a big spreadsheet.

828
00:51:43,770 --> 00:51:47,317
And at the end of the semester, you've had
three teammates per project five projects,

829
00:51:47,400 --> 00:51:49,687
that's 15 data points
that's statistically valid.

830
00:51:49,770 --> 00:51:52,627
And you get a bar chart
telling you on a ranking of

831
00:51:52,710 --> 00:51:56,217
how easy you are to work with where
you stack up against your peers.

832
00:51:56,300 --> 00:51:59,617
Boy, that's hard feedback to ignore.

833
00:51:59,700 --> 00:52:06,307
Some still managed but for the most part,

834
00:52:06,390 --> 00:52:10,207
people looked at that and went,
Wow, I got to pick it up a notch.

835
00:52:10,290 --> 00:52:12,727
I better start thinking about what
I'm saying to people in these meetings.

836
00:52:12,810 --> 00:52:15,817
And that is the best gift
an educator can give is to get

837
00:52:15,900 --> 00:52:18,057
somebody to become self reflective.

838
00:52:18,140 --> 00:52:21,007
So the ETC was wonderful,
but even the ETC,

839
00:52:21,090 --> 00:52:26,707
and even as Don scales it around the
globe, it's still very labor intensive.

840
00:52:26,790 --> 00:52:30,407
It's not Tommy one at a time.
It's not a research group, 10 at a time.

841
00:52:30,490 --> 00:52:34,677
It's 50 or 100 at a time per
campus times four campuses.

842
00:52:34,760 --> 00:52:38,327
But I wanted something
infinitely scalable.

843
00:52:38,410 --> 00:52:43,027
Scalable to the point where millions
or tens of millions of people could chase

844
00:52:43,110 --> 00:52:46,837
their dreams with something.
And I guess that kind of

845
00:52:46,920 --> 00:52:49,687
a goal really does make me the Mad Hatter.

846
00:52:49,770 --> 00:52:55,737
So, Alice is a project that we've
worked on for a long, long time.

847
00:52:55,820 --> 00:52:58,477
It's a novel way to teach
computer programming.

848
00:52:58,560 --> 00:53:02,637
Kids make movies and games. The head fake.
Again, we're back to the head fakes.

849
00:53:02,720 --> 00:53:05,647
Best way to teach somebody something
is to have them think they're

850
00:53:05,730 --> 00:53:09,177
learning something else.
I've done it my whole career.

851
00:53:09,260 --> 00:53:11,077
And the head fake here is that
they're learning to program,

852
00:53:11,160 --> 00:53:13,177
but they just think they're
making movies and video games.

853
00:53:13,260 --> 00:53:15,697
This thing has already been
downloaded well over a million times.

854
00:53:15,780 --> 00:53:17,197
There are eight textbooks
written about it.

855
00:53:17,280 --> 00:53:20,117
10% of U.S. colleges are using it now.

856
00:53:20,200 --> 00:53:22,407
And it's not the good stuff yet.

857
00:53:22,490 --> 00:53:25,540
The good stuff is coming
in the next version.

858
00:53:26,630 --> 00:53:32,077
I, like Moses, get to see the Promised
Land, but I won't get to set foot in it.

859
00:53:32,160 --> 00:53:37,887
And that's okay, because I can
see it, and the vision is clear.

860
00:53:37,970 --> 00:53:43,137
Millions of kids having fun
while learning something hard.

861
00:53:43,220 --> 00:53:46,907
That's pretty cool.
I can deal with that as a legacy.

862
00:53:46,990 --> 00:53:48,907
The next version is going
to come out in 2008,

863
00:53:48,990 --> 00:53:50,977
it's going to be teaching the Java
language, if you want them to

864
00:53:51,060 --> 00:53:53,227
know they're learning Java?
Otherwise, they'll just think

865
00:53:53,310 --> 00:53:55,177
that they're writing movie scripts.

866
00:53:55,260 --> 00:54:02,167
And we're getting the characters from the
best selling PC game in history, the Sims.

867
00:54:02,250 --> 00:54:04,177
And this is all already
working in the lab.

868
00:54:04,260 --> 00:54:06,697
So there's no real technological risk.

869
00:54:06,780 --> 00:54:09,597
I don't have time to thank and mention
everybody in the Alice team,

870
00:54:09,680 --> 00:54:12,907
but I just want to say that Dennis
Cosgrove is going to be building this,

871
00:54:12,990 --> 00:54:15,577
has been building this.
He is the designer. It's his baby.

872
00:54:15,660 --> 00:54:21,097
And for those here are wondering, well,
in some number of months, who should I be

873
00:54:21,180 --> 00:54:22,267
emailing about the Alice project?

874
00:54:22,350 --> 00:54:25,347
Where's Wanda Dann? There you are.

875
00:54:25,430 --> 00:54:27,367
Stand up. Let them all see you.

876
00:54:27,450 --> 00:54:31,447
Everybody say, Hi, Wanda. >> Hi Wanda.

877
00:54:31,530 --> 00:54:36,517
>> Send her the email. And I'll talk
a little bit more about Caitlin Kelleher,

878
00:54:36,600 --> 00:54:39,997
but she's graduated with her Ph.D.
and is at Washington University,

879
00:54:40,080 --> 00:54:43,137
and she's going to be taking this up a
notch and going to middle schools with it.

880
00:54:43,220 --> 00:54:48,617
So grand vision, and, to the extent
that you can live on in something,

881
00:54:48,700 --> 00:54:53,907
I will live on in Alice. So now the third
part of the talk, lessons learned.

882
00:54:53,990 --> 00:54:55,567
And we've talked about my dreams.

883
00:54:55,650 --> 00:54:58,267
We've talked about helping other
people in living their dreams.

884
00:54:58,350 --> 00:55:00,697
Somewhere along the way,
there's got to be some aspect of

885
00:55:00,780 --> 00:55:04,097
what lets you get to achieve your dreams.

886
00:55:04,180 --> 00:55:08,347
First one is the role of parents,
mentors and students.

887
00:55:08,430 --> 00:55:13,147
I was blessed to have been
born to two incredible people.

888
00:55:13,230 --> 00:55:16,657
This is my mother on her 70th birthday.

889
00:55:16,740 --> 00:55:23,407
I am back here.
I have just been lapped. This is

890
00:55:23,490 --> 00:55:26,857
my dad riding a roller
coaster on his 80th birthday.

891
00:55:26,940 --> 00:55:32,017
And he points out that, you know, he's not
only brave, he's talented because he did

892
00:55:32,100 --> 00:55:34,480
win that big bear the same day.

893
00:55:34,970 --> 00:55:40,537
My dad was so full of life.
Anything with him was an adventure.

894
00:55:40,620 --> 00:55:43,690
I don't know what's in that bag,
but I know it's cool.

895
00:55:44,420 --> 00:55:49,057
My dad dressed up as Santa
Claus, but he also did

896
00:55:49,140 --> 00:55:53,577
very significant things
to help lots of people.

897
00:55:53,660 --> 00:55:57,307
This is a dormitory in Thailand
that my mom and dad underwrote,

898
00:55:57,390 --> 00:56:02,467
and every year, about 30 students get to
go to school who wouldn't have otherwise.

899
00:56:02,550 --> 00:56:04,847
So my wife and I have also
been involved in heavily.

900
00:56:04,930 --> 00:56:08,227
And these are the kind of things
that I think everybody ought to

901
00:56:08,310 --> 00:56:12,517
be doing helping others.
But the best story about my dad is

902
00:56:12,600 --> 00:56:14,847
unfortunately my dad passed
away a little over a year ago.

903
00:56:14,930 --> 00:56:17,407
And when we were going through
his things, he had fought in

904
00:56:17,490 --> 00:56:18,937
World War II in the Battle of the Bulge.

905
00:56:19,020 --> 00:56:21,487
And when we were going through his things,
we found out he had been awarded

906
00:56:21,570 --> 00:56:26,407
the Bronze Star for Valor.
My mom didn't know it.

907
00:56:26,490 --> 00:56:30,790
In 50 years of marriage,
it had just never come up.

908
00:56:32,240 --> 00:56:37,630
My mom. Mothers are people who love
you even when you pull their hair.

909
00:56:38,480 --> 00:56:41,407
And I have two great mom stories.

910
00:56:41,490 --> 00:56:44,287
When I was here studying to get
my Ph.D., and I was taking something

911
00:56:44,370 --> 00:56:49,447
called the theory qualifier, which I can
definitively say is the second worst thing

912
00:56:49,530 --> 00:56:51,820
in my life after chemotherapy.

913
00:56:53,990 --> 00:56:57,097
And I was complaining
to my mother about how

914
00:56:57,180 --> 00:57:00,007
hard this test was and how awful it was.

915
00:57:00,090 --> 00:57:01,987
And she just leaned over
and she patted me on the arm,

916
00:57:02,070 --> 00:57:04,537
and she said, we know how
you feel, honey, and remember,

917
00:57:04,620 --> 00:57:08,110
when your father was your age,
he was fighting the Germans.

918
00:57:13,970 --> 00:57:17,467
After I got my Ph.D.,
my mother took great relish in

919
00:57:17,550 --> 00:57:19,087
introducing me as, this is my son.

920
00:57:19,170 --> 00:57:22,510
He's a doctor, but not
the kind who helps people.

921
00:57:26,660 --> 00:57:29,827
These slides are a little bit dark,
but when I was in high school,

922
00:57:29,910 --> 00:57:31,657
I decided to paint my bedroom.

923
00:57:31,740 --> 00:57:35,137
I'd always wanted
a submarine and an elevator.

924
00:57:35,220 --> 00:57:36,607
And the great thing about

925
00:57:36,690 --> 00:57:43,690
this, What can I say?

926
00:57:44,530 --> 00:57:47,857
And the great thing about
this is they let me do it.

927
00:57:47,940 --> 00:57:51,027
And they didn't get upset
about it, and it's still there.

928
00:57:51,110 --> 00:57:53,587
If you go to my parents'
house, it's still there.

929
00:57:53,670 --> 00:57:56,707
And anybody who's out there who is a
parent, if your kids want to paint their

930
00:57:56,790 --> 00:58:01,747
bedroom, as a favor to me,
let them do it. It'll be okay.

931
00:58:01,830 --> 00:58:04,720
Don't worry about resale
value on the house.

932
00:58:05,060 --> 00:58:08,017
Other people who helped
us besides our parents.

933
00:58:08,100 --> 00:58:11,057
Our teachers, our mentors,
our friends, our colleagues.

934
00:58:11,140 --> 00:58:15,077
God. What is there
to say about Andy Van Dam?

935
00:58:15,160 --> 00:58:17,847
When I was a freshman
at Brown, he was on leave.

936
00:58:17,930 --> 00:58:20,007
And all I heard about
was this Andy Van Dam.

937
00:58:20,090 --> 00:58:23,407
He was like a mythical creature,
like a centaur, but, like,

938
00:58:23,490 --> 00:58:29,407
a really pissed off centaur. And everybody
was like, really sad that he was gone,

939
00:58:29,490 --> 00:58:35,587
but kind of more relaxed.
And I found out why because

940
00:58:35,670 --> 00:58:38,707
I started working for Andy. I was a
teaching assistant for him as a sophomore.

941
00:58:38,790 --> 00:58:40,747
And I was quite an arrogant young man.

942
00:58:40,830 --> 00:58:45,067
And I came in to some office hours, and,
of course, it was nine o'clock at night,

943
00:58:45,150 --> 00:58:47,797
and Andy was there at office hours,
which is your first clue as to

944
00:58:47,880 --> 00:58:49,567
what kind of professor he was.

945
00:58:49,650 --> 00:58:53,227
And I come bounding in, and I'm
just I'm going to save the world.

946
00:58:53,310 --> 00:58:55,117
There are all these kids waiting for help.

947
00:58:55,200 --> 00:58:58,257
And afterwards,
Andy literally Dutch uncle.

948
00:58:58,340 --> 00:59:00,177
He is Dutch. He Dutch uncled me.

949
00:59:00,260 --> 00:59:01,567
And he put his arm around my shoulders.

950
00:59:01,650 --> 00:59:06,077
We went for a little walk,
and he said, Randy, it's such a shame

951
00:59:06,160 --> 00:59:10,240
that people perceive you as so arrogant.

952
00:59:10,820 --> 00:59:16,947
Because it's going to limit what you're
going to be able to accomplish in life.

953
00:59:17,030 --> 00:59:22,387
What a hell of a good way
to word you're being a jerk.

954
00:59:22,470 --> 00:59:25,387
He doesn't say you're a jerk.
He says, People are perceiving you

955
00:59:25,470 --> 00:59:27,327
this way and he says,
the downside is it's going to limit what

956
00:59:27,410 --> 00:59:30,277
you're going to be able to accomplish.

957
00:59:30,360 --> 00:59:33,777
When I got to know Andy better,
the beatings became more direct.

958
00:59:33,860 --> 00:59:39,937
But I could tell you
Andy stories for a month.

959
00:59:40,020 --> 00:59:42,037
But the one I will tell you
is that when it came time to

960
00:59:42,120 --> 00:59:44,557
start thinking about what to do
after graduating from Brown,

961
00:59:44,640 --> 00:59:47,097
it had never occurred to me in a million
years to go to graduate school,

962
00:59:47,180 --> 00:59:51,097
just out of my imagination. Wasn't the
kind of thing people from my family did.

963
00:59:51,180 --> 00:59:53,827
We got, say what do you call them... jobs.

964
00:59:53,910 --> 00:59:58,627
So Andy said, No, don't
go do that. Go get a Ph.D.

965
00:59:58,710 --> 01:00:00,597
Become a professor. I said, Why?

966
01:00:00,680 --> 01:00:06,097
He said, Because you're such
a good salesman that any company

967
01:00:06,180 --> 01:00:10,507
who gets you is going to use you
as a salesman, and you might as well be

968
01:00:10,590 --> 01:00:14,710
selling something worthwhile,
like education.

969
01:00:18,470 --> 01:00:25,077
Thanks. Andy was my first
boss, so to speak.

970
01:00:25,160 --> 01:00:28,097
I was lucky enough
to have a lot of bosses.

971
01:00:28,180 --> 01:00:31,827
That red circle was way off.
Als over here.

972
01:00:31,910 --> 01:00:34,977
I don't know what the hell happened there.

973
01:00:35,060 --> 01:00:38,347
He's probably watching us on the webcast
going, My god, he's targeting.

974
01:00:38,430 --> 01:00:44,527
And he still can't aim. I don't want
to say much about the great bosses

975
01:00:44,610 --> 01:00:46,277
I've had, except that they were great.

976
01:00:46,360 --> 01:00:49,197
And I know a lot of people
in the world have had bad bosses,

977
01:00:49,280 --> 01:00:51,157
and I haven't had
to endure that experience,

978
01:00:51,240 --> 01:00:54,127
and I'm very grateful to all of the
people that I ever had to report to.

979
01:00:54,210 --> 01:00:57,547
They've just been incredible.
But it's not just our bosses.

980
01:00:57,630 --> 01:01:00,187
We learn from our students.
I think the best head fake of

981
01:01:00,270 --> 01:01:03,310
all time come from Dr. Caitlin Kelleher.

982
01:01:04,400 --> 01:01:08,047
Who just finished up here,
starting at Washington University.

983
01:01:08,130 --> 01:01:11,407
And she looked at Alice when it
was an easier way to learn the program.

984
01:01:11,490 --> 01:01:13,487
And she said, Yeah, but, why is that fun?

985
01:01:13,570 --> 01:01:17,407
I was like, because I'm
a compulsive male, like to make

986
01:01:17,490 --> 01:01:23,277
the little toy soldiers move around by my
command and that's fun. She was like, Hmm.

987
01:01:23,360 --> 01:01:25,957
And she was the one who said,
No, we'll just approach it all

988
01:01:26,040 --> 01:01:30,557
as a storytelling activity. And she's
done wonderful work showing that,

989
01:01:30,640 --> 01:01:33,847
particularly with middle school girls, if
you present it as a storytelling activity,

990
01:01:33,930 --> 01:01:36,717
they're perfectly willing to learn
how to write computer software.

991
01:01:36,800 --> 01:01:42,850
So all time best head fake award goes
to Caitlin Kelleher's dissertation.

992
01:01:43,540 --> 01:01:47,547
President Cohon, when I told him I
was going to do this talk, he said,

993
01:01:47,630 --> 01:01:54,277
"Please tell them about having fun
because that's what I remember you for."

994
01:01:54,360 --> 01:01:57,087
And I said, "I can do that,
but it's like a fish talking about

995
01:01:57,170 --> 01:02:01,797
the importance of water."
I don't know how to not have fun.

996
01:02:01,880 --> 01:02:08,367
I'm dying and I'm having fun.
And I'm going to keep having fun every

997
01:02:08,450 --> 01:02:12,657
day I have left because
there's no other way to play it.

998
01:02:12,740 --> 01:02:17,177
So my next piece of advice is,
you just have to decide

999
01:02:17,260 --> 01:02:19,407
if you're a Tigger or you're an Eeyore.

1000
01:02:19,490 --> 01:02:24,870
I think I'm clear where I stand
on the great Tigger or Eeyore debate.

1001
01:02:26,380 --> 01:02:29,597
Never lose the child-like wonder.

1002
01:02:29,680 --> 01:02:33,467
It's just too important.
It's what drives us.

1003
01:02:33,550 --> 01:02:38,517
Help others. Denny Proffitt knows
more about helping other people.

1004
01:02:38,600 --> 01:02:40,527
He's forgotten more than I'll ever know.

1005
01:02:40,610 --> 01:02:44,717
He's taught me by example how to run
a group, how to care about people.

1006
01:02:44,800 --> 01:02:48,367
MK Haley, I have a theory that people who
come from large families are better people

1007
01:02:48,450 --> 01:02:50,077
because they've just had
to learn how to get along.

1008
01:02:50,160 --> 01:02:54,090
MK Haley comes from a family with 20 kids.

1009
01:02:55,060 --> 01:02:59,847
Unbelievable. And she always says,
it's fun to do the impossible.

1010
01:02:59,930 --> 01:03:03,147
When I first got to Imagineering, she
was one of the people who dressed me down.

1011
01:03:03,230 --> 01:03:07,307
And she said, "I understand you've joined
the Aladdin project, what can you do?"

1012
01:03:07,390 --> 01:03:10,597
And I said, "Well, I'm a tenured
professor of computer science."

1013
01:03:10,680 --> 01:03:11,937
And she said, "Well, that's very nice,

1014
01:03:12,020 --> 01:03:14,277
Professor Boy,
but that's not what I asked.

1015
01:03:14,360 --> 01:03:15,507
I said, what can you do?"

1016
01:03:15,590 --> 01:03:22,590
[LAUGHTER] And I mentioned

1017
01:03:24,740 --> 01:03:29,637
my working class roots.
We keep what is valuable to us,

1018
01:03:29,720 --> 01:03:32,727
what we cherish, and I've kept
my letterman's jacket all these years.

1019
01:03:32,810 --> 01:03:35,057
I used to like wearing it in grad school.

1020
01:03:35,140 --> 01:03:38,407
And one of my friends,
Jessica Hodgins would say,

1021
01:03:38,490 --> 01:03:40,797
"Why do you wear this letterman's jacket?"

1022
01:03:40,880 --> 01:03:43,767
And I looked around at all
the non-athletic guys around me,

1023
01:03:43,850 --> 01:03:46,347
who were much smarter than me,
and I said, "Because I can."

1024
01:03:46,430 --> 01:03:51,207
[LAUGHTER] And so she thought
that was the real hoot.

1025
01:03:51,290 --> 01:03:54,627
So one year she made for me
this little Raggedy Randy doll.

1026
01:03:54,710 --> 01:03:57,617
He's got a little letterman's jacket, too.

1027
01:03:57,700 --> 01:04:00,147
That's my all- time favorite.
It's the perfect gift for

1028
01:04:00,230 --> 01:04:02,400
the egomaniac in your life.

1029
01:04:03,580 --> 01:04:08,217
I've met so many wonderful
people along the way.

1030
01:04:08,300 --> 01:04:12,357
Loyalty is a two-way street. There
was a young man named Dennis Cosgrove

1031
01:04:12,440 --> 01:04:14,237
at the University of Virginia.

1032
01:04:14,320 --> 01:04:17,000
When he was a young man,

1033
01:04:17,410 --> 01:04:21,697
let's just say things happened.

1034
01:04:21,780 --> 01:04:25,287
And I found myself talking to a dean.

1035
01:04:25,370 --> 01:04:32,157
And the dean, no, not that dean, anyway,
this dean really had it in for Dennis,

1036
01:04:32,240 --> 01:04:34,027
and I can never figure why
because Dennis was a fine fellow.

1037
01:04:34,110 --> 01:04:36,037
But for some reason,
this dean really had it in for him.

1038
01:04:36,120 --> 01:04:38,517
And I ended up basically saying,
"No, I vouch for Dennis."

1039
01:04:38,600 --> 01:04:42,477
And the guy says, "You're not even tenured
yet, and you're telling me you're going to

1040
01:04:42,560 --> 01:04:45,357
vouch for this sophomore
or junior or whatever."

1041
01:04:45,440 --> 01:04:47,637
I think he was a junior at the time.
I said, " Yeah, I'm going to vouch for him

1042
01:04:47,720 --> 01:04:50,697
because I believe in him."
And the dean said, " And I'm going to

1043
01:04:50,780 --> 01:04:52,797
remember this when
your tenure case comes up."

1044
01:04:52,880 --> 01:04:56,447
And I said, "Deal." I went back
to talked to Dennis and I said,

1045
01:04:56,530 --> 01:04:58,860
"I would really appreciate you.

1046
01:04:59,140 --> 01:05:03,777
That would be good."
But loyalty is a two-way street. That was

1047
01:05:03,860 --> 01:05:08,037
god knows how many years ago,
but that's the same Dennis Cosgrove

1048
01:05:08,120 --> 01:05:12,137
who's carrying Alice forward.
He's been with me all these years.

1049
01:05:12,220 --> 01:05:16,317
And if we only had one person
to send in a space probe to meet

1050
01:05:16,400 --> 01:05:18,930
an alien species, I'm picking Dennis.

1051
01:05:21,010 --> 01:05:23,637
You can't give a talk
at Carnegie Mellon without

1052
01:05:23,720 --> 01:05:28,317
acknowledging one very special person,
and that would be Sharon Burks.

1053
01:05:28,400 --> 01:05:31,597
And I joked with her. I said,
"Well look, if you're retiring,

1054
01:05:31,680 --> 01:05:33,057
it's just not worth living anymore."

1055
01:05:33,140 --> 01:05:39,867
[LAUGHTER] Sharon is so wonderful,
it's beyond description.

1056
01:05:39,950 --> 01:05:43,537
And for all of us who've been helped
by her, it's just indescribable.

1057
01:05:43,620 --> 01:05:46,017
I love this picture because
it puts her together with Syl.

1058
01:05:46,100 --> 01:05:50,607
And Syl is great because Syl
gave the best piece of advice,

1059
01:05:50,690 --> 01:05:52,387
pound for pound that I have ever heard.

1060
01:05:52,470 --> 01:05:55,427
And I think all young
ladies should hear this.

1061
01:05:55,510 --> 01:05:58,907
Syl said, "It took me a long time,
but I finally figured it out.

1062
01:05:58,990 --> 01:06:03,217
When it comes to men that are
romantically interested in you,

1063
01:06:03,300 --> 01:06:06,657
it's really simple,
just ignore everything they

1064
01:06:06,740 --> 01:06:10,677
say and only pay
attention to what they do.

1065
01:06:10,760 --> 01:06:14,137
It's that simple. It's that easy."

1066
01:06:14,220 --> 01:06:19,010
And I thought back to my bachelor
days, and I said, "Damn."

1067
01:06:21,900 --> 01:06:25,907
Never give up. I didn't
get into Brown University.

1068
01:06:25,990 --> 01:06:30,477
I was on the wait list.
I called them up, and they eventually

1069
01:06:30,560 --> 01:06:33,807
decided that it was getting
really annoying to have me call

1070
01:06:33,890 --> 01:06:38,667
every day, so they let me in. At Carnegie
Mellon, I didn't get into graduate school.

1071
01:06:38,750 --> 01:06:40,407
Andy, he had mentored me.
He said, "Go to graduate school.

1072
01:06:40,490 --> 01:06:41,487
You're going to go to Carnegie Mellon.

1073
01:06:41,570 --> 01:06:46,647
All my good students go to Carnegie
Mellon, and you know what's coming."

1074
01:06:46,730 --> 01:06:49,537
And so he said, "You're going to go
to Carnegie Mellon, no problem."

1075
01:06:49,620 --> 01:06:52,557
What he had forgotten
was that the difficulty of getting

1076
01:06:52,640 --> 01:06:56,097
into the top Ph.D.
program in the country had freely gone up,

1077
01:06:56,180 --> 01:07:01,157
and he also didn't know I was going
to tank my GREs because he believed in me,

1078
01:07:01,240 --> 01:07:04,307
which based on my board scores
was a really stupid idea.

1079
01:07:04,390 --> 01:07:06,357
And so I didn't get into Carnegie Mellon.

1080
01:07:06,440 --> 01:07:08,137
No one knows this till
today I'm telling the story,

1081
01:07:08,220 --> 01:07:10,557
I was declined admission
to Carnegie Mellon.

1082
01:07:10,640 --> 01:07:15,677
And I was a bit of an
obnoxious little kid.

1083
01:07:15,760 --> 01:07:19,557
I went into Andy's office and I dropped
the rejection letter on his desk.

1084
01:07:19,640 --> 01:07:22,447
And I said, "I just want you to know
what your letter of recommendation

1085
01:07:22,530 --> 01:07:23,637
goes for at Carnegie Mellon."

1086
01:07:23,720 --> 01:07:30,720
[LAUGHTER] And before the letter

1087
01:07:33,650 --> 01:07:40,200
had hit his desk, his hand was on the
phone, and he said, "I will fix this."

1088
01:07:42,250 --> 01:07:44,967
And I said, "No.
I don't want to do it that way.

1089
01:07:45,050 --> 01:07:46,927
That's not the way I was raised.

1090
01:07:47,010 --> 01:07:50,987
Maybe some other graduate schools
we'll see fit to admit me."

1091
01:07:51,070 --> 01:07:53,307
And he said, "Look, Carnegie Mellon
is where you are going to be."

1092
01:07:53,390 --> 01:07:55,737
He said, "I tell you what, I'll make
you a deal, go visit the other schools."

1093
01:07:55,820 --> 01:07:56,907
Because I did get into the other schools.

1094
01:07:56,990 --> 01:07:59,397
He said, "Go visit the other
schools, and if you really don't

1095
01:07:59,480 --> 01:08:02,527
feel comfortable at any of them,
then well you will let me call Nico."

1096
01:08:02,610 --> 01:08:05,027
Nico being Nico Habermann.
And I said, "Okay, deal."

1097
01:08:05,110 --> 01:08:10,410
I went to the other schools without
naming them by name; Berkeley, Cornell.

1098
01:08:10,510 --> 01:08:15,087
They managed to be so unwelcoming
that I found myself saying to Andy,

1099
01:08:15,170 --> 01:08:18,027
"I'm going to go get a job."
And he said, "No, you're not."

1100
01:08:18,110 --> 01:08:21,840
And he picked up the phone,
and he talked in Dutch.

1101
01:08:23,710 --> 01:08:27,957
And he hung up the phone and he said,
"Nico says if you're serious

1102
01:08:28,040 --> 01:08:29,427
be in his office tomorrow morning at 8:00

1103
01:08:29,510 --> 01:08:35,267
A.M." And for those of you know Nico,

1104
01:08:35,350 --> 01:08:38,787
this is really scary.
So I'm in Nico Habermann's office

1105
01:08:38,870 --> 01:08:41,487
the next morning at 8:00 A.M,
and he's talking with me.

1106
01:08:41,570 --> 01:08:43,707
And frankly, I don't think
he's that keen on this meeting

1107
01:08:43,790 --> 01:08:46,017
again. I don't think
he's that keen at all.

1108
01:08:46,100 --> 01:08:50,970
And he says, "Randy, why are we here?"

1109
01:08:51,580 --> 01:08:56,010
And I said, "Because Andy phoned you."

1110
01:08:56,560 --> 01:09:02,877
And I said, "Well, since you admitted me,
I have won a fellowship."

1111
01:09:02,960 --> 01:09:06,357
The Office of Naval Research
is a very prestigious fellowship.

1112
01:09:06,440 --> 01:09:09,387
I've won this fellowship,
and that wasn't in my file when I applied.

1113
01:09:09,470 --> 01:09:15,810
And Nico said, "Fellowship money, we
have plenty of money." That was back then.

1114
01:09:16,810 --> 01:09:19,077
And he said, "We have plenty of money.

1115
01:09:19,160 --> 01:09:22,897
Why do you think having a fellowship
makes any difference to us?"

1116
01:09:22,980 --> 01:09:27,597
And he looked at me, there are moments
that change your life, and 10 years later,

1117
01:09:27,680 --> 01:09:30,517
if you know in retrospect,
it was one of those moments,

1118
01:09:30,600 --> 01:09:36,487
you're blessed, but to know
it at the moment with Nico

1119
01:09:36,570 --> 01:09:41,517
staring through your soul.
And I said, "I didn't mean to

1120
01:09:41,600 --> 01:09:42,837
imply anything about the money.

1121
01:09:42,920 --> 01:09:44,157
It's just that it was an honor.

1122
01:09:44,240 --> 01:09:45,987
There were only 15 given nationwide.

1123
01:09:46,070 --> 01:09:49,777
And I did think it was an honor that would
be something that would be meritorious.

1124
01:09:49,860 --> 01:09:53,070
And I apologize if that was presumptuous."

1125
01:09:53,170 --> 01:09:57,677
And he smiled. And that was good.

1126
01:09:57,760 --> 01:10:00,317
So how do you get people to help you?

1127
01:10:00,400 --> 01:10:03,677
You can't get there alone.
People have to help you and

1128
01:10:03,760 --> 01:10:05,767
I do believe in Karma.
I believe in paybacks.

1129
01:10:05,850 --> 01:10:08,927
You get people to help you
by telling the truth, being earnest.

1130
01:10:09,010 --> 01:10:12,147
I'll take an earnest person
over a hip person every day.

1131
01:10:12,230 --> 01:10:15,447
Because hip is short term,
earnest is long term.

1132
01:10:15,530 --> 01:10:21,297
Apologize when you screw up and focus
on other people, not on yourself.

1133
01:10:21,380 --> 01:10:26,227
And I thought, How do I possibly
make a concrete example of that?

1134
01:10:26,310 --> 01:10:28,827
Do we have a concrete example
of focusing on somebody else over there?

1135
01:10:28,910 --> 01:10:33,897
Can we bring it out?
See yesterday was my wife's birthday.

1136
01:10:33,980 --> 01:10:38,227
If there was ever a time I might
be entitled to have the focus on me,

1137
01:10:38,310 --> 01:10:42,417
it might be the last lecture,
but no, I feel very badly that

1138
01:10:42,500 --> 01:10:44,407
my wife didn't really
get a proper birthday,

1139
01:10:44,490 --> 01:10:47,007
and I thought it'd be
very nice if 500 people

1140
01:10:47,090 --> 01:10:54,090
[APPLAUSE]

1141
01:11:06,680 --> 01:11:09,507
Happy birthday to you.

1142
01:11:09,590 --> 01:11:14,007
Her name is Jay. Happy birthday to you.

1143
01:11:14,090 --> 01:11:18,107
Happy birthday dear Jay.

1144
01:11:18,190 --> 01:11:23,340
Happy birthday to you. [APPLAUSE] You

1145
01:11:30,970 --> 01:11:33,450
got to blow it out.

1146
01:11:39,910 --> 01:11:41,157
All right.

1147
01:11:41,240 --> 01:11:48,240
[APPLAUSE]

1148
01:11:51,290 --> 01:11:54,690
And now y'all have an extra
reason to come to the reception.

1149
01:11:55,960 --> 01:11:59,617
Remember brick walls let
us show our dedication.

1150
01:11:59,700 --> 01:12:03,027
They are there to separate us
from the people who don't really

1151
01:12:03,110 --> 01:12:05,247
want to achieve their childhood dreams.

1152
01:12:05,330 --> 01:12:08,757
Don't bail; the best of the gold
is at the bottom of barrels of crap.

1153
01:12:08,840 --> 01:12:15,840
[LAUGHTER] What Steve didn't

1154
01:12:18,270 --> 01:12:20,877
tell you was the big sabbatical at EA.

1155
01:12:20,960 --> 01:12:24,957
I'd been there for 48 hours
and they loved the ETC.

1156
01:12:25,040 --> 01:12:26,547
We were the best, we were the favorites.

1157
01:12:26,630 --> 01:12:30,657
And then somebody else pulled me aside and
said, "Oh, by the way, we're about to give

1158
01:12:30,740 --> 01:12:33,117
$8 million to USC to build
a program just like yours.

1159
01:12:33,200 --> 01:12:36,200
And we're hoping you could help
them get it off the ground."

1160
01:12:39,490 --> 01:12:44,337
And then Steve came along and said,
"They said what? Oh, god."

1161
01:12:44,420 --> 01:12:50,077
And to quote a famous man,
"I will fix this." And he did.

1162
01:12:50,160 --> 01:12:53,757
Steve has been an incredible partner,
and we have a great relationship

1163
01:12:53,840 --> 01:12:58,047
personal and professional,
and he has certainly been point man on

1164
01:12:58,130 --> 01:13:01,967
getting a gaming asset
to help teach millions of kids,

1165
01:13:02,050 --> 01:13:06,777
and that's just incredible.
But it certainly would have been

1166
01:13:06,860 --> 01:13:11,727
reasonable for me to leave 48 hours into
that sabbatical, but it wouldn't have

1167
01:13:11,810 --> 01:13:14,487
been the right thing to do.
And when you do the right thing,

1168
01:13:14,570 --> 01:13:16,980
good stuff has a way of happening.

1169
01:13:18,040 --> 01:13:20,947
Get a feedback loop and listen to it.

1170
01:13:21,030 --> 01:13:23,667
Your feedback loop can be
this dorky spreadsheet thing I did

1171
01:13:23,750 --> 01:13:27,027
or it can just be one great man
who tells you what you need to hear.

1172
01:13:27,110 --> 01:13:29,307
The hard part is the listening to it.

1173
01:13:29,390 --> 01:13:33,177
Anybody can get chewed out.
It's the rare person who says, "Oh,

1174
01:13:33,260 --> 01:13:35,567
my god, you were right."
As opposed to, "No, wait.

1175
01:13:35,650 --> 01:13:38,297
The real reason is." We've all heard that.

1176
01:13:38,380 --> 01:13:43,137
When people give you feedback,
cherish it and use it. Show gratitude.

1177
01:13:43,220 --> 01:13:46,587
When I got tenure, I took
all of my research team down

1178
01:13:46,670 --> 01:13:50,307
to Disney World for a week. And one
of the other professors at Virginia said,

1179
01:13:50,390 --> 01:13:54,147
"How can you do that?" And he said,
"These people just busted their a***s and

1180
01:13:54,230 --> 01:13:55,647
got me the best job in the world for life.

1181
01:13:55,730 --> 01:13:58,170
How could I not do that?"

1182
01:13:58,840 --> 01:14:02,107
Don't complain; just work harder.

1183
01:14:02,190 --> 01:14:05,787
Here's a picture of Jackie Robinson
who was in his contract not to complain,

1184
01:14:05,870 --> 01:14:08,250
even when the fans spit on him.

1185
01:14:09,670 --> 01:14:15,087
Be good at something;
it makes you valuable. Work hard.

1186
01:14:15,170 --> 01:14:17,227
I got tenure a year
earlier as Steve mentioned,

1187
01:14:17,310 --> 01:14:20,157
Junior faculty members used to say
to me, "Wow, you got tenure early,

1188
01:14:20,240 --> 01:14:23,637
what's your secret?"
And I said, "It's pretty simple.

1189
01:14:23,720 --> 01:14:27,270
Call me any Friday night in my office
at 10 o'clock and I'll tell you."

1190
01:14:27,550 --> 01:14:31,107
Find the best in everybody. One
of the things that Jon Snoddy, as I said,

1191
01:14:31,190 --> 01:14:36,447
told me is that you might have to wait
a long time, sometimes years, but people

1192
01:14:36,530 --> 01:14:38,457
will show you their good side.

1193
01:14:38,540 --> 01:14:43,197
Just keep waiting no
matter how long it takes.

1194
01:14:43,280 --> 01:14:45,957
No one is all evil.
Everybody has a good side.

1195
01:14:46,040 --> 01:14:47,757
Just keep waiting, it will come out.

1196
01:14:47,840 --> 01:14:52,307
And be prepared. Luck is truly
where preparation meets opportunity.

1197
01:14:52,390 --> 01:14:58,167
So today's talk was about my childhood
dreams, enabling the dreams of others,

1198
01:14:58,250 --> 01:15:00,840
and some lessons learned.

1199
01:15:01,540 --> 01:15:04,710
But did you figure out the head fake?

1200
01:15:06,010 --> 01:15:11,077
It's not about how to achieve your dreams,
it's about how to lead your life.

1201
01:15:11,160 --> 01:15:15,677
If you lead your life the right way,
the karma will take care of itself.

1202
01:15:15,760 --> 01:15:19,947
The dreams will come to you.
Have you figured out the second head fake?

1203
01:15:20,030 --> 01:15:26,037
This talk's not for you; it's for my kids.

1204
01:15:26,120 --> 01:15:33,120
Thank you all. Good night. [APPLAUSE]