Throughout my academic career I'd given some pretty good talks. But being considered the best speaker in the computer science department is like being known as the tallest of the Seven Dwarfs.
Do not tell people how to live their lives. Just tell them stories and they will figure out how those stories apply to them.
Your patience will be both appreciated and rewarded
There are respectful considerate things that can be done in life that will be appreciated by the recipient and only good things can result.
Apologies are not pass/fail.
Proper apologies have three parts: 1) What I did was wrong. 2) I feel badly that I hurt you. 3) How do I make this better?
When you're frustrated with people when they've made you angry it just may be because you haven't given them enough time.
It's interesting the secrets you decide to reveal at the end of your life.
Anything is possible and that's something we should not lose sight of. The inspiration and the permission to dream is huge.
I don't suffer from an abundance of politeness.
The questions are always more important than the answers.
If you have a question then find the answer.
Smelling a crayon takes you right back to childhood. When I need to go back in time I put it under my nose and take another hit.
Respect authority while questioning it.
I'm attempting to put myself in a bottle that will one day wash up on the beach for my children.
And even though I did not reach the NFL I sometimes think I got more from persuing that dream and not accomplishing it then I did from many of the ones I did accomplish.
The person who failed often knows how to avoid future failures.
It's hard to raise awareness of pancreatic cancer - people who get it don't live long enough.
Sometimes all you have to do is ask.
The key question to keep asking is Are you spending your time on the right things? Because time is all you have.
if you offer wisdom from a third party it seems less arrogant and more acceptable.
Put on your own oxygen mask before assisting others.
I think the only advice I can give you on how to live your life well is first off remember... it's not the things we do in life that we regret on our deathbed it is the things we do not.
Advice is very easy to give and even easier not to follow so I don't fool with it.
It's not about how to achieve your dreams it's about how to lead your life ... If you lead your life the right way the karma will take care of itself the dreams will come to you.
I've always admired people who are over-prepared.
We have a finite amount of time. Whether short or long it doesn't matter. Life is to be lived.
A good apology is like antibiotic a bad apology is like rubbing salt in the wound.
Sometimes all you have to do is ask and it can lead to all your dreams coming true.
One thing that makes it possible to be an optimist is if you have a contingency plan for when all hell breaks loose.
Time is all you have and you may find one day that you have less than you think.
Brick walls are there for a reason. They give us a chance to show how badly we want
A lot of people want a shortcut. I find the best shortcut is the long way which is basically two words: work hard.
The brick walls are there to stop the people who don't want it badly enough. They are there to stop the other people!
The best gift an educator can give to get somebody to become self-reflective.
Education best serves students by helping them be more self-reflective.
If you can find your footing between two cultures sometimes you can have the best of both worlds.
No matter how bad things are you can always make things worse. At the same time it is often within your power to make them better
Don't bail; the best pieces of gold are at the bottom of the barrel of crap.
Its important to have specific dreams. Dream Big. Dream without fear.
When you see yourself doing something badly and nobody's bothering to tell you anymore that's a very bad place to be. Your critics are the ones telling you they still love you and care.
If you want something bad enough never give up (and take a boost when offered).
I didn't know there was a dying-professor section at the bookstore.
Remember brick walls let us show our dedication. They are there to separate us from the people who don't really want to achieve their childhood dreams.
Brick walls let us prove how badly we want our dream and they stop those who don't want it enough. Brick walls let us show our dedication.
Brick walls are there for a reason. The brick walls aren't there to keep us out. The brick walls are there to show us how badly we want things.
Brick walls are there for reason. And once you get over them-- even if someone has practically had to throw you over-- it can be helpful to others to tell them how you did it.
To-Do lists help us break life into small steps.
I've said my piece. My time now is entirely focused on family.
Focus on other people not on yourself.
It's easy to be smart when you are parodying smart people.
Look for the best in everybody
We cannot change the cards we are dealt just how we play the hand. If I don't seem as depressed or morose as I should be sorry to disappoint you.
If I don't seem as depressed or morose as I should be sorry to disappoint you.
Develop a good filing system.
You can't get there alone. People have to help you and I do believe in karma. I believe in paybacks. You get people to help you by telling the truth by being earnest.
Being successful doesn't make you manage your time well. Managing your time well makes you successful!
No job should be beneath us. And if you can't(or won't) sort mail Where is the proof that you can do anything?
I don't believe in the no-win scenario
Follow your passions believe in karma and you won't have to chase your dreams they will come to you.
When we're connected to others we become better people.
We don't beat the Reaper by living longer. We beat the Reaper by living well.
If your kids want to paint their bedrooms as a favor to me let 'em do it.
Anybody out there who is a parent if your kids want to paint their bedrooms as a favor to me let them do it. It'll be OK.
Fuel your kids' dreams. Sometimes that means letting them stay up past their bedtimes.
Often think of the worst-case scenario the "Eaten By Wolves" factor.
Take Time Out. It's not a real vacation if you're reading email or calling in for messages.
You can always change you plan but only if you have one.
There's nothing about my life that I would have changed.
We keep what is valuable to us what we cherish.
Get a feedback loop and listen to it... When people give you feedback cherish it and use it.
Anybody can get chewed out. It's the rare person who says oh my god you were right. As opposed to no wait the reason is... We've all heard that
Never lose the child like wonder. It's just too important. It's what drives us. Help others.
If you're going to have childhood dreams you should have great parents who let you pursue them and express your creativity
It's a thrill to fulfill your own childhood dreams but as you get older you may find that enabling the dreams of others is even more fun.
Never lose the childlike wonder. Show gratitude... Don't complain; just work harder... Never give up.
Are you a fun-loving Tigger or a sad-sack Eeyore? Pick a camp. I think it's clear where I stand on the great Tigger/Eeyore debate!
I am dying soon and I am choosing to have fun today tomorrow and every other day I have left.
Educators shouldn't be afraid of cliches. You know why? Because kids don't know most of them! They're a new audience. And they're inspired by cliches.
We can't change it. We have to decide how we'll respond.
A coach yells at the kid he thinks can improve but the coach will not yell at the kid who he/she knows won't.
Time is the only commodity that matters.
Everyone has to contribute to the common good. To not do so can be described in one word: selfish.
Don't complain; just work harder.
I feel like I'm waiting on something that isn't going to happen Don't complain; just work harder.
Complaining does not work as a strategy.
Earnestness is highly underestimated. It comes from the core while hip is trying to impress you on the surface.
All my adult life I've felt drawn to ask long-married couples how they were able to stay together. All of them said the same thing: "We worked hard at it.
until you got ice cream spilled on you you're not doing field work
We cannot change the cards we are dealt just how we play the hand.
We cannot change the cards we are dealt just how we play the game.
You can't control the cards you're dealt just how you play the hand.
Success is measured in months for me. When my health fails it will fail quickly. Tumors grow on an exponential curve.
somehow with the passage of time and the dealines that life imposes surrending became the right thing to do
Better to fail spectacularly than do something mediocre.
I'm sorry. It's my fault. How do I make it right?
When men are romantically interested in you it's really simple. Just ignore everything they say and only pay attention to what they do.
Believe nothing a man tells you and everything he shows you"....(Taken from a farewell video from a dying father to his infant daughter on dating)
When you do the right thing good stuff has a way of happening.
The size of your audience doesn't matter. What's important is that your audience is listening.
He had high hopes for society and though his hopes were too often dashed he remained a raging optimist.
Just because you're in the driver's seat doesn't mean you have to run people over.
I'm dying and I'm having fun.
You will need to find your passion. Don't give up on finding it because then all you're doing is waiting for the Reaper.
It's not helpful if we spend every day dreading tomorrow ~Jai
One key factor in the downward spiral in our educational system is that there is too much stroking and too little real feedback.
You just have to decide if you're a Tigger or an Eeyore.
Never make a decision until you have to.
It is not the things we do in life that we regret on our death bed. It is the things we do not.
Go out and do for others what somebody did for you.
Not everything needs to be fixed
There's a lot of talk these days about giving children self-esteem. It's not something you can give; it's something they have to build.
Never ever underestimate the importance of having fun.
We need to make sure our students are exerting themselves. We need to praise them when they deserve it and to tell them honestly when they have it in them to work harder
Time must be explicitly managed like money.
We've placed a lot of emphasis in this country on the idea of people's rights. That's how it should be but it makes no sense to talk about rights without also talking about responsibilities.
I've never understood pity and self-pity as an emotion.
I'll take an earnest person over a hip person every day because hip is short term. Earnest is long term.
When there's an elephant in the room introduce him.
Chemo days make me tired though it's hard to say that's because of the chemo when you have kids who have inherited their dad's usual energy level.
Engineering isn't about perfect solutions; it's about doing the best you can with limited resources.
Wait long enough and people will surprise and impress you.
Sometimes you can't pay it back so you just have to pay it forward.
We don't beat the reaper by living longer we beat the reaper by living well and living fully.
I'm dying and I'm having fun. And I'm going to keep having fun every day I have left.
If I was able to tell my story with the passion I felt my lecture might help others find a path to fulfilling their own dreams.
Give yourself permission to dream. Fuel your kids' dreams too. Once in a while that might even mean letting them stay up past their bedtimes.
Fundamentals fundamentals fundamentals. You've got to get the fundamentals down because otherwise the fancy stuff isn't going to work.
The person who failed often knows how to avoid future failures. The person who knows only success can be more oblivious to all the pitfalls.
Let other people finish their sentences when they're talking.
If you can find an opening you can probably find a way to float through it.
I've decided to tell my kids things like: 'I love the way each of you tilted back your heads when you laughed.' I will give them specific stuff they can grasp.
Showing gratitude is one of the simplest yet most powerful things humans can do for each other.
Show gratitude. Gratitude is a simple but powerful thing.
My mother took great relish in introducing me as 'This is my son - he's a doctor but not the kind that helps people.'
Find the best in everybody. Wait long enough and people will surprise and impress you. It might even take years but people will show you their good side. Just keep waiting.
Find the best in everybody. Just keep waiting no matter how long it takes. No one is all evil. Everybody has a good side just keep waiting it will come out.
Pretty much any time I got a chance to do something cool I tried to grab for it and that's where my solace comes from.
I played in football games where you walk off the field and the scoreboard didn't end up the way you wanted. But you knew that you really did give it all. And the other team was too strong.
When you're screwing up and nobody says anything to you anymore that means they've given up on you.
It's not how hard you hit. It's how hard you get hit...and keep moving forward.
No job is beneath you. You ought to be thrilled you got a job in the mailroom And when you get there here's what you do: Be really great at sorting mail.
Look I'm going to find a way to be happy and I'd really love to be happy with you but if I can't be happy with you then I'll find a way to be happy without you.
No matter how bad things are you can always make things worse.
There's a limit to how many times you can read how great you are and what an inspiration you are but I'm not there yet.
Never underestimate the importance of having fun. I'm dying and I'm having fun. And I'm going to keep having fun every day because there's no other way to play it.
I am going to keep having fun every day I have left because there is no other way of life. You just have to decide whether you are a Tigger or an Eeyore.
If nobody ever worried about what was in other people's heads we'd all be 33 percent more effective in our lives and our jobs.
If I work hard enough there will be things I can do tomorrow that I can't do today.
You may not want to hear it but your critics are often the ones telling you they still love you and care about you and want to make you better.
The fact that fashion goes out of fashion and then comes back into fashion based solely on what a few people somewhere think they can sell well to me that's insanity.
An injured lion still wants to roar.
An injured lion wants to know if he can still roar.
Luck is indeed where preparation meets opportunity.
People are more important than things.
A parent's job is to encourage kids to develop a joy for life and a great urge to follow their own dreams. The best we can do is to help thm develop a personal set of tools for the task.
When you do something young enough and you train for it it just becomes a part of you.
Kids need to know their parents love them. Their parents don't need to be alive for that to happen.
Find the best in everybody no matter how long you have to wait for them to show it
There are more ways than one to measure profits and losses.
Want to have a short phone call with someone? Call them at 11:55 a.m. right before lunch. They'll talk fast. You may think you are interesting but you are not more interesting than lunch.
If she doesn't really love you then it's over. And if she does love you then love will win out.
People lie for lots of reasons often because it seems like a way to get what they want with less effort.
I'm a professor. I know that people in research labs can do miraculous things if they're given the resources.
I know that people in research labs can do miraculous things if they're given the resources.
If we had to vanish tomorrow what would we want as our legacy?
The best way to teach somebody something is to have them think they're learning something else.
Walls aren't put in our life to stop us they are there to test how much we really want somthing.
it make no sense to talk about rights without also talking about responsibilities
It's very important to know when you're in a pissing match. And it's very important to get out of it as quickly as possible.
I always thought every day was a gift but now I am looking for where to send the thank you note.
Believe nothing a man tells you and everything he shows you
The number one goal of teachers should be to help students learn how to learn.
I have never thought of writing as hard work but I have worked hard to find a voice.
Experience is often the most valuable thing you have to offer.
Most people who have told a lie think they got away with it "¦ when in fact they didn't
Be good at something. It makes you valuable.
Are you a Tigger or an Eyore?
If I could only give three words of advice they would be 'Tell the truth.' If I got three more words I'd add: 'All the time.'
Be good at something. It makes you valuable. Have something to bring to the table because that will make you more welcome.