It's the end of my first semester in university, and coincidentally, the end of the year. Lots of shit has happened since school started, but I'm back.
This'll mainly be about what I've learnt during the semester.
Academic
I went into university on 14th August 2023. Even though I expected it to be difficult, this really blew my expectations out of the water. I learnt alot alot of things, but it was really tough.
I took the following modules
- CS2030S - Programming Methodology II
- CS1231S - Discrete Structures
- MA1521 - Calculus for Computing
- MA1522 - Linear Algebra
- UTW1001T - How Rich Should Anyone Be?
- IS2238 - Economics of IT and AI
Last 2 modules were I'll say the only modules I did not have a crazy deal of trouble with. The first four were heavy hitters. I don't think they're meant to be this taxing on a student, but put together, their workload really crushed me.
For anything academic, I'll say that one thing that really developed was a deeper appreciation for Mathematics. I'm not good at it at all, but it really does seem like a world to explore. I'll have to wait and see if it's something I'm interested in pursuing, thiough highly unlikely.
Personal
I took away many many personal lessons. I'm not one to go too in-depth in such things so I'll list them out and hope my future self can remember exactly why I put them here.
- Never talk about your plans
- Connections = Opportunities
- Selling is the best skill you can have, the only thing that changes is what you sell
- If you can't beat the guy with 2x more talent than you, you'll have to work 2x harder
- All men are creatures of habit
- Creativity comes with iterations, never through "lightbulb moments"
- Knowing how to manage human relations is way more important than any technical skill
- Rest to go further, and to learn at a faster pace
- Meeting people from all industries keeps you humble and broadens your interests
- Not everyone actually knows what they want to do. It's fine to explore as long as the fields interest you
- Time management is the best way for the average man to outdo his peers
- You create your own opportunities, never wait for them to find you
- Never forget how important family time is
- Watch your appetite (Not the appetite for food)
Literally put these together on the fly, but I believe these are the main things I genuinely did learn this semester. That's alot of life lessons for 13 weeks.
Others
Some updates on the "work" side, I managed to pick up a couple of fullstack projects and right now, software development is my main skill for anything tech. I'm probably going to start detaching from it abit. Currently moving onto abit more data science and machine learning. It seems like something fun, so I hope to use the rest of my winter break to explore it.
Many, many more things are coming and I can't wait to keep it going.