Core Reflection

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

• I am lowkey shy - I didn’t realize until week 2 that I have the tendency to shy away from posting or participating if I am mentally intimidated. I have realized it is my own race and pace. Everyone is here for their own betterment, just like me.


• Meditation. I guess I always saw meditation as like “nap time” when they used to implement it in highschool, I never realized how much it could actually help the mind and slow everything down.


• Journaling. Like meditation, I just saw it as a “oh if I have to” or “for the credits” but throughout the sprints, I have been journaling everyday, it really helps get the thoughts off my mind and allows me to not get so distracted. I have learned a lot during these core exercises.

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

I think that all 3 relate to eachother, they all contribute to how a decision may be made, processing thoughts and feelings. However, for the purpose of the question:

• Values: Are our Kawa, our non-negotiables. The things that shape our "why"


• Empathy: Helps us fully understand others and allows us to communicate properly with someone and hopefully build rapport easily which is essential


• Self-Awareness: Having the ability to recognise thoughts, feelings and emotions. Having the ability to acknowledge a problem, think of solutions and take accountability when they need to be actioned.

What has surprised you the most about the core learning?

I didn't really have any expectations but it would be the amount of variety have discovered and learned so far. Mindfulness, problem solving techniques and how they relate to the “Web Dev path”.

What were the most challenging aspects of the core learning?

Self reflection.
Especially week 1. (Identity, Values, and Strengths ) Just because it forced me to actually think about “me”. I had always kind of thought I was self aware but that exercise really challenged me.
At the time I was feeling good but nervous because reality kicked in “Student life” vs “Employed life”. But then I remembered, we don’t grow in comfort.

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

Because the core values that we explore and discover give people substance. It gives them the ability to self regulate, be empathetic and gives them the skills to be able to build rapport and be able to “people” if they decide to go into higher positions.
I say this because the best people I have worked with have been able to do both. They were great problem solvers/thinkers and they are well rounded.
Oh and I think, with this career path, it is going to be a constant mental challenge, so we need to be able to set ourselves up for success mentally.

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. Because then it would make EDA like every other education provider. I was surprised that there are students who attend solely for the chance to have this experience when they are already educated on web development or aspects and obtain computer science degrees. It shows that there is something special about having that in the curriculum. As an all round beginner, I believe that it has been a great addition to the learning journey because it has given me some “coping mechanisms” like fixed vs growth mindset.