3216: To 7f80 0000 and beyond

Wow it's already Saturday. I've spent the most restful three days of... while maybe not my life, at least my NUS life. After the first assignment for 3216 was due, I couldn't recall ever sleeping that much for a really long while, but three 12-hour long naps in the same number of days really takes the cake.

Excluding a certain field of mathematics, this has been a very fruitful year. At the risk (and with no intention) of sounding elitist, a lot of us would have probably picked up in this time what might take more than a year to teach. Everyone probably had a different way of learning; some started flame wars, some contributed many (, many, many) articles and videos that served as interesting learning points, some grit their teeth and jumped into the deep, cold waters of the unknown.

Personally, I learnt most not from the experiences themselves, but the people that contributed to them. And that is one of my greatest takeaways: People matter. One example is being, and having, teammates. Certain people get disliked in a team. Sometimes it's their conflict resolution (or lack thereof), for others their (perceived) arrogance, and yet others, while rare in 3216, do (close to) nothing, and continue in that state unless acted upon by a net external force. Others bring value to whichever team they're in, learning on the job if need be. Why is there such a difference? I believe the source of the difference originates not from one's skill set or your background, but rather one's willingness to learn and participate.

Of course, teammates are not the only people in the world. People you meet and talk to in your life can share experiences and thoughts so astute, yet so simple that you wonder why you never realised them before. I like Prof's account of how he took a canteen stall operator to lunch to find out, among other things, why he was still serving customers personally. Also, as the repeatedly-quoted Chewy from Microsoft stressed, people are not like you. Everyone has their own story, their own worldview. If we could just ask the right questions, listen in the right way, we can learn something new from practically everyone.

Secondly, communication is *very* important. Fortunately for me, all three of my project groups were made out of people who were willing to sit down and discuss our differences in opinion and direction. Some groups had members who kept their disagreements to themselves, or in a probably worse move, aired their grievances for all to hear. Maybe it works for them, maybe it didn't, but I think it's not generally a good idea to publicly attack your own teammates, indirectly or directly, regardless of how right you may be.

Finally, and perhaps most importantly, is the famous quote from a short, agile, and originally puppet powered Jedi Master in The Empire Strikes Back: "Do or do not, there is no try". A few months before matriculating last year, I attended the Special Semester briefing by SoC's Undergraduate Dean, A/P Khoo Siau Cheng. Towards the end, he mentioned that a group called CVWO lets students apply their technical knowledge to benefit voluntary welfare organisations by making programs for them. I thought, "Hey, that's really cool! I want to be part of it!" Almost immediately, I began wondering if I was up to the task, having (close to) zero proper training in programming. So I shelved that idea. During CS1101S last year, we had prof's ex-students and CVWO members presenting CVWO to us again. And again I wondered if I was capable. Now, thanks in large to 3216, I'm more confident, if not in my technical abilities, but in my ability to learn the ropes quickly and effectively enough to be of use to the team.

Thus, our 3216 journey comes to some sort of an end. Many projects are still continuing on, ours included. This end is really more like a new chapter, rather than the conclusion of the book. My thanks to all the people I've worked with, and not just as teammates. One of my most vivid memories, interestingly, is of me and Angad playing Wii Sports at 4am while Wang Chen looked on, presumably amused at our antics. As this module draws to a close, it's now time for me to begin studying, as opposed to revising, for *gasp* other modules. Time to start working on that certain field of mathematics...