In this blog entry, I will be talking about my experience in learning core aspects during my studies at Dev Academy so far.
One thing I learned is that, before Dev Academy, I wasted too much time due to overvaluing technical knowledge over planning. Recently, I've been learning about how to write code following a process. Before that however I would always just jump straight into writing the solution and perfecting it all in go with no prior planning, because of confidence about my technical knowledge. However this was why I made many mistakes and why I take too much time to write solutions.
Another thing I learned was that I'm too harsh on myself at times. I always felt dumb and unaccomplished whenever I wasn't managing to make things work no matter how much time and effort I put in, especially when I was at university. But having learned about things like the growth mindset and neuroplasticity, I feel that I truly am capable of growth and improvement as a person, but I just need to change the way I approach things, such as taking things one step at a time rather than shoot for the end goal.
One last thing I learned was that time management is my pitfall. At university, they'd always just hand us large assignments without suggestion on how we should manage our times. If Dev Academy did not teach me things like timeboxing, I feel I would not be meeting the deadlines I have met so far.
In learning and programming, it is easy to lose control of workload, time, relationships, and your own health. But values, empathy and self-awareness can prevent this. Values give you direction in terms of making important, independent decisions and setting standards for yourself and the people around you. Empathy sustains healthy relationships with the people around you, creating great learning progress and a stable working environment. Self-awareness means you keep in check with yourself, what you're doing right or doing wrong, so that you do not end up burning out and getting frustrated.
Seeing results from all the core skills suggested. People have always told me to manage my work and time better, but I did not see any success because I did not know how to do that. When I finally learned how to in core skills, I saw how much easier and more manageable things became, which really surprised me.
Exploring my own values, which were overall honesty, patience and empathy. I am quite an anxious person and find it hard at times to find a solid grounding in my own values.
Having gone through hell at university, I see exactly why Dev Academy focuses so much on core learning. In a traditional learning environment, it seems as if things like grades and assignments are always singled out as the priority, and you either do well because you're intelligent, or you do bad because you're dumb. This is especially true with programming as it can get incredibly difficult and tiresome. Dev Academy teaches core skills so that people know how to manage their work and time, which means that even the less experienced or intelligent people are able to catch up and not burn out. The old me would think that practicing programming repeatedly would make me a successful programmer, and that these core skills are a waste of time. But that is not true at all. At the end of the day, core skills should always be prioritised. I am an incredibly motivated and hard-working person, and feel that if I stay true to that, and apply the core skills that I have learned, I will be successful.