full circle

as wonderful as cs3216 is, i personally can't claim that it has had a revolutionary life-changing impact on me.  i can't claim any credit for this though.  great as prof ben is, so were my past teachers.  i have been blessed with great teachers in my primary school and secondary school (not JC) days.  moreover, i don't want to overemphasize the impact on cs3216 because i really don't think this should be the end or peak of my experiences in universities, seeing how i'm still in year 1.

that is not to say i've learnt nothing.  through the module, prof ben has encouraged many mindset changes, reinforced past lessons, and provided food for thought and call to actions for the future.  i find it hard to narrow down X things i've learn without repeating what has been said time and time again by prof ben, my classmates or my other blog posts, so i decided to share some key thoughts i had over the past sem.  its going to be a little messy.

if there was an award for least number of meetings during cs3216, it'll probably be me.  I had 2 meetings for Who is the Monkey? and Facebook Seminar each, and 3 meetings for Drag and Drop Search and Prince of Persia each.  since i don't have to stay behind after every lesson to be in a meeting, i've had plenty of time to be a kay-poh (busybody). thanks to my tolerant classmates, i've been allowed to shamelessly plant myself in their meetings.

being the guest members leaves me with no real stakehold on any issue.  it was then interesting to observe the tendencies that different people have on view points and arguments.  not that you can't do this during your own meetings, but believe me, its different when its not your project.  like the saying goes, 旁观者清.  i can almost definitively say that i've learnt just as much from being a kay-poh as from my own nightless hours.

so one of my first thoughts on working in a group is to say less, listen first, then think more.  of course, this is not a one size for all solution.  someone people think and listen too much, but don't say anything.  but generally, I think the above works for team leaders (who generally are more out-spoken and opiniated).  possibly.

i forgot where i heard/read this from - you have two ears, but only one mouth.  what you can say and what you can hear is inversely related.  the more you want to say, the more you'll not be able to get new insights.  not speaking is not enough, because you need to listen.  if you're too full of your own thoughts, even if you say nothing, you won't absorb anything from others.  and let's face it, nobody likes not being listened to. so it'll be nice to let your team mates know that you're listening.  incidentally, my brother just came back from his MAS scholarship interview, and was told that he should have thought more before speaking. so there.

when opportunities are offered to you, you jolly well grab it, cos its not gonna wait for you.  eldwin wrote kind words about me.  the truth is, i've seen too many opportunities fly past me through the years.  this lesson was taught to me quite a long time ago, just not followed for just as long a time.  in fact, i was almost about to do the same in this module, had it not been the timely encouragement/reminder of Reuben.  And it wasn't some long speech.  It was just a simple "Just go speak to him la. Go, now."  After that, the "grab opportunity" switch was kinda flipped.  So yup, I can't take credit for this really. Thanks, Reuben.  in general, university is a great time for such opportunities.  more so in cs3216, where effort has been made to bring these people to us.

Which brings me to my next point.  There's actually a lot you can learn from each other.  The class is not short of people who are talented in their own right.  Interacting with each other, you get to know each others experiences, successes, and even failures.  (Flame Shield Up) Its even easier to learn from others' mistakes than your own.  Why?  Because often, you tend to be slightly blind towards your own shortcomings.  When you look at others, you'll be slightly more open.  You'll keep in mind that you won't make that mistake.  Right?

Wrong. Interestingly, you may possibly go one full circle and then make the same mistake yourself.  So the real point here is that, you really can't be too stubborn towards yourself, and you have to be ready to fail quick and fail fast.  If anything, this is THE lesson I've learnt.  Its weird, because it goes against everything that we've learnt in school, academically at least.  the interesting thing about failing yourself is that you will have felt the pain for yourself. the pain could by you not listening, or simply because its something new that will be added unto your experience.  for the former no matter how many times people give you a certain advice, it may fall on deaf ears until you see it for yourself.  for the latter, in the world of evolving platforms, things are extremely dynamic, and you pretty much figure out what works and what doesnt along the way.

Before i start rambling, I'm going to end off after sharing a few additional random thoughts.

i've come a full circle from my first post, and i'll first like to use this picture again.

the more you know, the more you know you don't know.

having dabbled in education and coaching, when i actually look through the whole semester, you really can't help but notice the effort and careful thought put into designing the module such that it achieves it aims.  from requirements such as blogging, reports, pitching, to getting external speakers and even classmates to come to the module to help broaden the perspectives of the students.

i suddenly recalled what one of my teachers sent the class in an email.

life's full of adversities.  we keep thinking of when things will get better, but the fact is there is no better time to be happy than now, because life is a journey, not a destination.

i means its great that everyone is on a high now. but its really more important what happens after this module has ended.  my greatest wish for all my classmates (and myself) is that when NUS, life or work returns to the drone it was before CS3216, we remember that all CS3216 did was to show us what we were capable of if we put our mind, heart and soul into chasing our dreams.  the profs, classmates, and environment shouldn't matter.  i believe all my classmates are capable of this.  i hope to be able to do so too :)

and on that note, i'd like to thank prof ben for staying so late all the time, putting us in front of his own children and wife, our tutors who have been working so hard being the scenes to ensure everything has ran smoothly, my group mates who have endured my incapabilities, and my classmates who've put up with my flame wars :P

the end......or not ;)