The Last of CS3216 : A beginning

This is the end. But this is the beginning. With different hopes and aspirations we were sitting in the First lecture of CS3216 a few months back. A bit scared, and a bit nervous, I entered the class at 6.29pm - More than half the class was already inside. Prof Ben welcomed me (lol)- "Here is the Singh of our class". Yeah, easy to remember me :)

I still remember how some people left an awesome impact at the Show and Tell session. I was about to work with the most talented group (or rather, the ones with guts to take this module) for the next 3 months over countless sleepless nights around COM1 and in some strange places (read 2am - deserted Central Forum on a broken wooden table and plastic chairs). 

The days passed, teams were formed. There was no difference in day and night. The mind was programmed to believe that no other module exists and there is no such thing as lectures. 

This Blog-Post requires me to talk about what I learnt. Yeah I will reach there soon. I can never write down whatever I have learnt from CS3216. It might kill the database of this poor Typepad or maybe my laptop keys will burn down. Its all in the head. But yeah I still can list a mere fraction of whatever would have made place in my pool.

I would rather refrain from mentioning the technical stuff that I learnt but just for a glimpse - 

FB assignment - PHP, JS, AJAX, SQL - need more practice. 

Google Wave - Flex/ActionScript in a night. 

Final Project- basics of Software Development, C#.NET with WPF. UI Design. Some crazy hardware terminology and stuff, presentation stuff. How to take the skin out of a thin strand of hair - still in progress.

Coming to rather important stuff here - 

First of all - it gave me really good friends, and maybe partners in future ventures. It brought me in touch with the most active bunch of people in NUS. It taught me that there is something better than grades. It brought me out of my own entangled web that I had built around myself during my 1st semester. It cleared up my struggle of choice of paths (though I still may not have found the right one for me, but yeah I know that I must eat all apples from my garden to find out which tree is the best).

One great thing that perhaps I had idea about earlier, got sharpened in this module - getting the helicopter view of the situation. I know there are many around me who have this in-built quality, but hard-work can substitute almost any talent :) Its about looking at the big picture. It really helps in taking the right decision.

Another point is perhaps Context Switching - see what the other person is seeing - As far as I know this one is the mother of all qualities. Looking from another person's point of view is important in any venture. You need to look from the eyes of your team-mates, you need to look from the point of your users. IT IS IMPORTANT! Even when you talk about People Matter - yeah, Context Switching comes into place. You know how to manipulate somebody's thoughts only if you can see what the other person is seeing.

The world is not Black and White. There are so many in-between shades of Grey and if you add some other color you have millions of colors there. Every situation is different, every human is different. You cannot have any kind of generalisation for any thing (yeah leave physics and maths). There is no ideal case (as we study in any Science). The real thing is the REAL WORLD. 

Prof Ben has really taught us. Yeah even though he never gave us any lecture (except the first and the last), his real lectures were outside the lecture theater. They were never during the lecture hours. I really appreciate his active nature - no sleep ... i can list loads of things here. I wonder if he has a customised keyboard that has 3 extra keys - "Facebook Share", "Buzz", "E-mail spam". :P But nevertheless, great reading stuff, and good discussions. 

I am learning how to keep my cup of learning empty. A full cup cannot accommodate anything. I have to keep my cup empty so that I can absorb all random stuff from here and there (yeah, I dont want to create a muddlehead but its good to keep my learning doors open :)) I dont know how to explain but I can see a recursive function in this thought. Learning how to keep your cup of Learning empty.

Adaptability - as i already said, life is not black and white. Whenever you start anything - one should be adaptable to any kind of changes required at any point of time. Its flexibility that matters. Set rules, but be ready to break them. Apply common sense.

Another point that I have observed is that every - i mean every person in this world carries this big red button that says - "Listen to me!" - You listen, you win the other person's heart. Its not that you dont speak, but listen. If you want something done -LISTEN. [Here this theory applies seldom to teams, but yeah it works]. But be ready with your mind's firewall as you dont have to munch on every thought that is thrown your way. But listening is a great tool. Listen to your users - the best example.

So in conclusion - 

I am trying to be as random as possible, waiting for my potential energy to reach the threshold/activation energy. Waiting for the perfect reaction. 

CS3216 is perhaps the best thing that could have happened to me. There is still a long walk (I would prefer running :P). I dont want the fire to burn-out. I dont think it can ever burn-out. Its like, when we started with CS3216, we were all thirsty for water. Prof Ben gave us some (but really less) water. It has kind of increased the thirst more and more. A little knowledge about something pushes me to learn more about it.

I am actually eagerly waiting for the holidays where I will be free from the clutches of a not-interesting-really-dumb-and-dull-nonsense module that I am studying in some corner of the library with hundreds of crammers surrounding me. GOD SAVE ME!

Comments

[Reuben Lee]

"listening is a great tool"

Fully agreed! I think listening and understanding people is such an important skill to learn.

reuben

[Dilip Joy]

Nice quenching-the-thirst analogy.

About the "not-interesting-really-dumb-and-dull-nonsense" modules - find a reason to learn them. Else you will be miserable for the entirety of your undergraduate education. I really like my major because I found interesting things in most of the modules I took (or had to take).

People in Mech hate Fluid Mechanics because according to them "the final exam is difficult". I, on the other hand, find this the most fascinating field in Mech because there are so many problems which require so much thinking that you end up confused in exam halls!

Change your outlook slightly, and I'm sure you'll do quite well!

[Angad Singh]

@Dilip- Well I am actually really passionate about my course of study and usually rock my course modules. Its just that I have a monotonous MA1506 [we have discussed this earlier] :(
You can read more about CEG here - http://www.comp.nus.edu.sg/~u0909118/ceg.html

[Joshua Ng]

MA1505 and MA1506 - haha.. the plight of many CS students. You know, my friend failed MA1505 twice, but he's a damn awesome programmer.