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Foundations Reflection

10th February 2025


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

The first thing is sort of not trying to always figure things out on my own, there is always help out there who can push me, nothing to be ashamed of. Another that I haven't really experienced yet but have seen in the discord, is that constructive criticism helps out so much. It’s more good than bad when people point out that something is wrong, instead of just putting a face on and not admitting it. The final one is that I believe I'm quite smart and understand things quite well, so when I came into the course I expected to not fly through it but to understand it quite a lot easier than others may. That expectation got shut down quite quickly which is good.



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

Values guide ethical decision-making, motivation, and teamwork. They help programmers write secure, maintainable, and responsible code. Empathy improves collaboration and user-focused design. It helps developers understand user needs, create accessible software, and work effectively in teams. Self-awareness enables continuous learning, debugging, and skill improvement. It helps programmers recognize weaknesses, seek feedback, and develop a growth mindset. By integrating these three, programmers build better software, collaborate effectively, and grow as lifelong learners.



What has surprised you the most about the Human Skills learning?

How much the importance of Human Skills is in coding/developing. Like I've heard said many times, coding is openly portrayed as only 50% of the workload. The other 50% is the ability to work effectively with your peers.



What were the most challenging aspects of Human Skills learning?

It would be that there are so many different aspects that go into Human Skills. I would call myself a good people person, but there are really so many more levels that go into it.



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

Like I previously stated a couple questions ago, people skills are widely regarded as an extreme positive in coding.



Does the time you spent studying Human Skills learning here feel like a waste of time? Should you have just used that time to practise programming instead? Justify your answer.

I believe that we spent maybe a bit too long on the human skills aspect, but I do definitely believe it's important. Helps us improve on skills not just in coding but in everyday life.




@ Callum Bromley 2025