I completed another MOOC!

Couple of months ago, I decided to enrol in a Coursera Specialisation, Python for Everybody, because I’ve not overcommitted myself. The course is developed and taught by Professor Charles Severance, aka Dr Chuck, who is so passionate about education and open educational resources. He has a Coursera logo tattooed on his shoulder, he explained why in his Tedx talk (00’29”).

Yesterday, I completed the first course of the 5-course specialisation (Did I make it sounds like degustation? I have not had breakfast yet). For me, this first part is very easy because of my previous life as a web programmer, all I needed to learn is the syntax, functions, and vocabularies. In my line of work, I deal with data a lot, and automation and getting computers to do the repetitive tasks are important in a lot of things that I do: data cleansing, pattern tracking, batch processing and so on. I have picked up bits and pieces in the last couple of years, I attended Rails Girls to learn Ruby, I have tried Codecademy but never finished any of the courses. I have used various tools to create data visualisations, infographics, and crosswalk, and have been able to achieve most of what I want to do by reverse engineering, lots of Googling, asking silly questions on Stack Overflow etc.

But I’m at a point where I really want something more solid than that to reach my next goal – to create web based, data-driven apps and data visualisations. Python sounds like to cool language for this purpose, so I have been looking for learning materials and courses. I found the Uni of Michigan MOOC on Coursera and decided to do the specialisation, which will cost me $485. To me, the cost is rather modest, considering some one-day training course provided by my professional association usually costs at least half of that amount. Also, I’ve been consciously trying to fix one of my weaknesses – lack of tenacity to complete long term projects. Paying for a course is definitely an incentive for me to stick around and hopefully complete it, it’s going to be an experiment 🙂

I like the title of the MOOC and I believe everyone should learn programming. Should we just rely on professional programmers to do all the programming for us? There are apps and programs that definitely should be left for the professional programmers, but we should have a go at learning how to get the computer to do things for us. In the old days, makers can make things by learning how to build things by hand and create something physical, e.g. knitting and lego. In today’s world, if you don’t know how to program, you can’t make things in the digital world and eventually be left behind.

I have done quite a few online courses and I can’t say I enjoyed all of them. I really like Dr Chuck’s teaching style, he explains ideas very clearly in multiple ways (but you don’t feel like being talked at like a three year-old), he’s humorous and engaging. The moderators, teaching assistants and fellow students are very helpful and supportive. The MOOC is very well put together and I highly recommend anyone to take the MOOCs, the first 2 courses of the Python specialisation are free.

Aurora Institute for Emerging Leaders: My Journey

 

I attended the Aurora Institute for Emerging Leaders, held at the picturesque Q Station, Manly NSW, 25-29th May. Before I jumped on the plane to Sydney, I spent some time Googling it. There are a few papers about the Institute, but I only found one report written by past participant. Now that I have done it, I understand that it is not easy to share the things I learnt because they’re personal and involved other participants or mentors. Nonetheless, there are things that I think are worth sharing with others, so I created a version of my report back presentation I did at work 2 weeks ago and shared it here. My presentation notes are available in the Notes tab on SlideShare.

Aurora was a great experience, I am very, very grateful for the opportunity and support from my workplace. I came away with a few tools that help me to become a better communicator and collaborator. I learnt about my leadership capabilities, my strengths and areas for improvement based on the self-description and description by others profiles from the Life Styles Inventory. I had plenty of opportunities to practise how to think on my feet, manage my composure under pressure, how to deal with the different energies in a team, how to tell a story and give better presentations.

I never aspire to be the leader of an organisation, I didn’t even want to be a manager, I’m an introvert, INTP, to be exact. If I can spend the rest of my life solving complex problems, I will be quite happy. But in order for me to continue to grow professionally and personally, I need to do the hard stuff (translate: dealing with people). I saw a quote in a tweet quite a while ago, “You need to do what you need to do in order to do what you want to do”, very true. I realise I don’t need to be at the top of the rank to be a good leader. However, leadership is hard, I’m willing to work on it because I know why I want to do it.

Based on the feedback and what I learnt from Aurora, I’m working on a development plan, it will take a while because I’m still reading up on the things that I want to learn more about. Until I have a plan, I keep reminding myself what I said I’d do on the last day of Aurora, I need to 1). improve my people skill, and 2). become more visible. I have done a few things differently since Aurora:

• My slides for the above report back presentation don’t have much text, I used pictures as visual tool to help me connect with my audience. I didn’t hide behind the lectern, I took time to pause and watched the reactions of my audience, I even cracked a couple of jokes (and they laughed, they’re very nice people). I gave another presentation at a postgraduate conference last week using a similar approach, and received great feedback from the organisers. That definitely made me feel more confident, I used to finish presentations as quickly as I can, as I don’t want to take up too much time and I don’t like all the attention.
• A few weeks ago, I was on a panel at a research symposium attended by librarians from all 5 University Libraries in WA, there weren’t much discussion or hard questions but I presented something that I wouldn’t normally say in a forum like that. It’s the infamous imposter syndrome, who wants to hear my opinions anyway, what if they don’t like my idea and think I’m stupid? So-and-so can definitely do a better job than me, etc…
• I started to voice my opinions even I know nothing will change in the short term, I stopped worrying whether my boss is going to like what I say/not say in meetings.
• I started to try different ways to show my colleagues that I’m interested in them as a person, not just about work. Facts and figures are important, but it’s a lot easier if you can win their hearts first. This doesn’t come naturally with me, I’m not confident I can ever nail this, but I will continue to try.

It may not sound difficult to most people, but all of the above still make me uncomfortable. I grew up in an environment which I got rewarded for being quiet, thoughtful, and good. I was taught the sayings from The Analects of Confucius at primary school, “食不語、寢不言” (He did not chat while eating, and did not talk after retiring). Believe it or not, when we’re little, my parents were very strict, nobody spoke a word during family dinner (not anymore, of course!). Even now I have lived in Australia longer than I lived in Hong Kong, it is deeply ingrained and I find quite difficult to change. I feel that Aurora gave me the strength and a very good reason to try these things, I’m not going to become a totally different person, I will still embrace my culture and diversity I bring to my workplace, but I will (slowly but surely) become a better version of me.

18 days ago I quitted Facebook, what have I missed?

The crap shared by people that I don’t really care about.

I did miss some immediate updates on my sister-in-law’s new job, my dear friend’s son got an awesome new haircut, another friend’s daughter turned 6 months, my cousin’s ongoing knee injury etc.

Instead, I’ve spent more time to talk about things that I have missed at my weekly FaceTime catch up with mum, I message friends more frequently and connect with them privately, rather than via a like button and shallow, public conversation.

I mentioned how I planned to manage any withdrawal symptoms in my previous post, but I didn’t miss it at all. I didn’t deactivate my account, I asked for it to be permanently deleted.

Why didn’t I do this sooner?

Facebook, I’m gonna quit you.

#blogjune day 30

I’m not a big Facebook fan. I was, when it first came out, it’s a better option than Friendster and myspace, wasn’t it? I always wanted to close my account as 90% of the stuff I either don’t care, don’t want to read, or it’s just irritating. Like those stupid people (some primary schoolmates that I never called friends in real life) who actually commented and liked some pixelated pictures with caption “like this photo and type 5 in the comment and watch what happens!”. Seriously people!

The other 10% is family stuff and things shared by people who I actually care about, these people are all over the world and they are the only reason I look at Facebook these days. As we are all slowly moving away from Facebook to good old emails and other messaging apps, the incentive is gone and I think I should quit.

To manage the withdrawal symptoms, I’m going to start with deleting the Facebook app from my mobile devices, I seldom login to Facebook on my laptop anyway. So the account is still there and I can look at it if I want to. And perhaps one day I can just delete the account! Edit: I have permanently deleted my Facebook account last night, the link was not easy to find!

Guess this is a good way to wrap up another #blogjune!

Do I need another hobby?

#blogjune day 29

Of all my crafty hobbies, knitting is probably my weakest. I learned to knit at school many many moons ago, the best I can do is some no-frill scarves. I have never attempted anything else, I could do some simple patterns but the end result is always too ugly to wear. Every now and then I would pick up my knitting needles and have another go, I guess my inner Aries doesn’t want to be defeated by anything 🙂

Inspired by the knitting posts by blogjuners, I visited my local library but couldn’t find any knitting books that I like. Thank goodness for Book Depository, I ordered Debbie Stoller’s book as recommended by @bonitoclub. While I’m waiting for the book to arrive, I watched some YouTube videos and downloaded a few baby scarf and baby blanket patterns from Ravelry to start with. I like baby patterns because they can be completed quicker and there are many babies in our circle of friends right now.

The YouTube videos are very useful, I realised I have always been doing my purl stitches wrong! Ha! I’m attempting the tiny version of the scrunchable scarf, I made so many mistakes but it doesn’t look too bad so far!

Random dog photos

#blogjune day 28

Just some random pics from this morning’s walk at the park.

New neighbourhood

#blogjune day 27

morning walkie

Living in a new area means our surroundings are changing rapidly. When I walk my dogs, I would choose a different route to see what’s changed in the streets near us. Occasionally there will be opportunity to meet the families who have just moved in, people are friendly and always keen to have a chat and find out more about each other. Topics are usually around recommendation of trades, DIY tips, random rants about builders, garden ideas etc. I like to see construction sites turn into houses turn into family homes, then the joy, the stress, and the never ending jobs to complete. I quite enjoy snooping construction sites and guess what the owners are like, my predictions have been quite accurate to-date. The evening walks are even more interesting, I can smell what’s cooking inside as I past each house, some have inspired me what to cook the following week. It’s great to live in a diverse community as a lot of times the smells are unrecognisable but I have yet to have a chance to ask someone what they cooked the other night. It appear the block next to us have finally started building as I saw 4 holes in the ground, look forward to meeting our new neighbours, but first we shall endure the building noise in the next few months.

halfway mark

#blogjune day 25

6 months ago I wrote down a few goals I want to achieve in 2014, thought it’d be good to see how I’m going.

1. Become proficient in my new role

I think I’m 70% done, still more to learn but I’m confident I’m getting there soon.

2. Learn more about management, leading and building teams

I have read so much on all of the above in the past few years, but when it comes to the real thing, you will learn on the job. I found that it is important to understand my own style, set clear expectations and goals, understand the organisation’s values, and be genuinely interested in the people I’m working with. With a lot of hard work and persistence, I can build trust and good working relationship with my team.

3. Contribute one submission to a library journal

Not started. I was thinking of contributing to a particular journal, but it’s still not calling for submissions yet. I’m still hoping to start something by the end of this year.

4. Complete various ongoing side projects

I can’t remember what they are :P, two of them are still on my mind:

• compare citation data of papers that are available OA in our IR with those that were published in the same journal but not OA. (have not started!)
• an interactive data visualisation showcasing the annual growth, subject/disciplines distribution, most popular researcher and top 3 downloads, OA ratio etc. Inspired by a 2013 GovHack project, Australia In Review. (haven’t done this one, but started something different using IR data)

5. Walk 10,000 steps every day

I have stopped trying, I put on weight and my pants don’t fit anymore. I even stopped wearing my fitbit flex as it made me feel bad. I need a plan B. I’ve got a plan B, I want to train myself to get up earlier so I can walk my dogs in the morning! My colleague told me about the wake-up light alarm clock today and I have ordered it, will see if it will help me change my habit.

6. Start a herb garden

Done!

 

Caption this

#blogjune day 22

Had a busy weekend and not in the mood to write anything. Here’s a pic of a furry thing took over a 3-seater sofa, all the cushions, and his owner’s MBP.

On leadership

#blogjune Day 20

Today at work we talked about leadership and we’re asked to think of a great leader we’ve worked with and each person in the room named one trait of a great leader. The white board was full, and I believe if we go around the room again we can name more.

I have worked with a few great leaders (yes I’m lucky :)), the trait I added to the white board was a great leader knows the strength of each team member and brings out the best in them. This is one of the many traits of a great leader I most recently worked with, there are many more. She may be quiet but she’s great at building relationships and developing people, she seems to know exactly how she can just push each person (gently) outside their comfort zone, and she trusted them completely. You feel motivated and energised everyday. I’ve learned so much from her and I look up to her.

I was thinking of @jaygee35, Julia is a great leader.