What are three new things you have learnt about yourself and your ego due to the core learning?

1. Self-compassion is part of self-care

Having compassion for myself is as important as having compassion for others. When other people are having self-doubt, I am quick to offer encouragement and kind words. But when the same situation happens to me, my critical inner voice would not be so kind. Instead of cirticizing myself for my shortcomings, I should learn to be more understanding and compassionate towards myself.

2. I can cultivate a growth mindset

Skills and intelligence are something that I can develop. We all have unlimited potentials and it doesn't have to stop with the genetic makeup. There are many tools and apps that I can use to help me practice mindfulness and cultivate a growth mindset.

3. Progress over perfection

Perfectionism can be an obstacle when I try to learn new things such as coding. Sometimes I want to come up with a perfect solution to a problem before I start. But this tendency will normally cause paralysis analysis. So I have slowly learned to value progress over perfection and be proud of what I have achieved.

What are the role of values, empathy, and self-awareness in learning and programming?

Values, empathy and self-awareness are important in all aspects of life, including learning and programming. Combined, they build positive culture, communities and societies. empathy helps us understand others better; and with self-awareness, we understand ourselves better.

What has surprised you the most about the core learning?

I am surprised how reflections have helped me understand myself on a deeper level. By writing down my thoughts and reflecting on them, I could almost see myself from a third person's perspective.

What were the most challenging aspects of the core learning?

Listening and Looping. It is difficult to be fully present at any given moment because the mind always wanders.

Why do you think we, a programming school, are spending so much time focusing on core learning in a web development Bootcamp course?

Core content will set the tone for the whole course. It is like to build a solid foundation before building the actual house. Learning core content will remove some of the obstacles in our way and help us become better learners overall. Core skills are what sets apart good programmers and great programmers.

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.

I enjoyed the core learning. It makes the course more interesting and I learned something new along the way. I think spending 100% on technical learning can be detrimental rather than beneficial.