Foundations Reflection
What are three new things you have learnt about yourself and your ego due to the core learning?
- I noticed that I feel good when understanding concepts or doing exercises come easy.
- I noticed that I would feel quite low and think I was quite inept whenever I ran into extra difficult or unclear material. Especially when it comes to writing, and researching, old anxious mental grooves are triggered.
- Learning about and keeping in mind concepts of the growth mindset has helped decrease the emotional rollercoaster from facing difficulty.
What are the role of values, empathy, and self-awareness in learning and programming?
Our values are part of who we are. We bring our values to everything in life, including learning and programming. They shape what we do, how we do what we do, and how we work with others. It's important to understand your own values so you know what you're bringing to the table when working with others.
Empathy is an important component of emotional intelligence, which affects how you manage yourself and how you work with others. In my perspective, informed by nonviolent communication and mindfulness knowledge, workshops, and personal practices, empathy helps us find ease and understanding in difficult situations, and helps us have more harmonious relationships, professionally and personlaly. In learning, empathy can be used to find relief when the learning is difficult. In programming, empathy can be used with teammates and when you get stuck.
Self-awareness is another important component of emotional intelligence. With self-awareness, you can see your strengths and limitations and act wisely with this information, you can see the effect of your thoughts, words and actions on yourself and others, you can break ineffective patterns of thinking, speaking, and behaving. In learning, self-awareness can help us understand how we learn best. In programming, self-awareness can help us work more effectively by noticing when we need a break, noticing what is working and not working for us, and noticing our effect on others.
What has surprised you the most about the core learning?
I was surprised by how good it was. I ended up feeling quite inspired by the learning on the growth mindset. Particularly, from Carol Dweck's TED Talk, where she says a boy wrote to her saying he had put effort into and so improved every part of his life. This changed my perspective to think of putting in effort as fun, and something to look forward to because it will lead to desirable results. However, I'm still working on remembering to see cultivating healthy habits as something that I can put effort into, and when I do, I will reap amazing results.
What were the most challenging aspects of the core learning?
Attempting to meditate every day. Especially in the first days of establishing or reestablishing the habit. On these days, it feels like such a drag, I don't want to do it, but I also come out feeling more at peace and settled.
Why do you think we, a programming school, are spending so much time focusing on core learning in a web development Bootcamp course?
I think Dev Academy is spending so much time focusing on core learning because it creates more successful web developers. Core skills are meta-skills that determine how well you work in general. Also, employers are looking for web developers with great human skills.
Does the time you spent studying core learning here feel like a waste of time? Should you have just used that time to practise programming instead? Justify your answer.
No, it doesn't feel like a waste of time, and no I don't think I should have instead used this time to practise programming. Firstly, I really like developing myself. Secondly, learning about the growth mindset has helped me through some difficulties during Foundations, and to have more fun working harder and working more, since I now see effort as promising and rewarding.