Sprint 5 - Core Blog

Reflecting on Core

What are three new things I have learned about myself and my ego as a result of the Core learning?

Over the course of the Core learning exercises during Foundations I gained a great deal of knowledge about my own approach to learning. I wasn’t particularly successful with regularly journalling reflections at the end of each day, however I found that being open to noticing how I was responding to certain situations was really valuable. I noticed, a lot, that I am great at comparing myself to others and feeling inadequate about my abilities. I found the Foundations Slack channel to be both a blessing and a curse in this regard. Whilst it is a hub of support and community I noticed that my approach to learning was likely to be affected by seeing others in my cohort well ahead of my own progress. I’d start to rush and diminish the quality of my own learning in order to produce more. It wasn’t until Sprint 4 that I became aware of this and started to forcibly try to focus on the quality of my own learning.

“Comparison is the thief of joy.” - Teddy Roosevelt

I found that I was more confident being vulnerable with others than I had previously thought I was capable of. In the past this is something that I would definitely have shied away from. The combination of reflecting on difficult moments in written reflections, speaking to peers about challenges faced, and the supportive environment that EDA fosters have all helped me to feel more comfortable sharing when I’m struggling. I’m trying to change my mindset to view this as a strength as I think if I can be more open with others then that’s a positive thing.

There were many opportunities during Foundations to notice times where I would exhibit behaviours that would lean towards more of a fixed mindset. I think this is the mindset I have exhibited for much of my adult life. Whilst I have some prior knowledge of growth and fixed mindsets it has been rewarding to have an opportunity to really try and focus in on doing my best to try and cultivate some more growth mindset practices. I think I can now more clearly see a pathway to change to become someone with more growth mindset attributes than fixed.

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

In learning I think these things all help you to get the most out of your learning experience. They can guide and direct you, prompt reflection and help you to improve the effectiveness of your learning. Empathy and compassion are useful to help you to become a better colleague and more generally, better person. Programming is a challenging subject where a lot of time seems to be spent dealing with problems in the code. It can be easy to get into a negative headspace when you repeatedly come up against many small failures and so Core has been helpful for reframing failures as opportunities and will make us all in to better programmers.

What surprised me the most about Core learning?

I found that I really engaged with the end of task and end of sprint reflections. I also got a lot out of the Listening and Looping exercises that we did during Core.

What were the most challenging aspects of the Core learning for me?

I found it difficult to continue practicing certain things, like mindfulness meditation and journalling. I’ve heard and read about how these two things, as an example, can have a significant positive effect on you but despite this I haven’t yet been able to keep up the practice.

Why do I think EDA, a programming school, is spending so much time focusing on Core learning in a web development bootcamp course?

It’s about creating better people, more employable people who are more likely to fit into a company culture once this course concludes and we set about interviewing for jobs. Both technical programming abilities and the skills taught in Core are helping to create well-rounded candidates for companies out there in the market.

Does the time I spent studying Core learning feel like a waste of time? Would it have been better to spend that time practicing programming instead?

Not at all, I think it has helped to improve my programming.