That moment will eventually come

In the process of writing the final report, I gradually realized one thing: How could I make so many things in such a short time? Moreover, as I combed through the previous work as required, I suddenly felt that everything was tied together and everything I had done seemed to become a whole. This is a feeling like in a suspense movie when the protagonist connects all the clues to discover the truth of the matter – and I felt this joy based on all the work I have done. It was an amazing feeling because I used to be an impatient person, I didn’t see the importance of the process, I just went for the result, and at the end of this class I realized that what I get at the end of a project depends on what I put in halfway through. This is the most important thing I learned in this course.

Of course, besides some abstract philosophy of life, I also learned something practical in this class – technology. I used to be a computer idiot, and now I can make a website, which is a gain I can’t even think of. But I did it! Even though I only learned some very superficial coding knowledge, I think I learned a whole new kind of thinking in the process – a very logical and scientific thinking. In the process of coding, there can’t be a single mistake, which means I can’t muddle through. Every bug-finding process is a parsing of the overall logical structure, a reinforcement of logical thinking, and I feel that this training of thinking has opened a new area of my brain and taught me a new way of looking at things.

Beyond the technical learning and thinking exercises, I think I also learned about problem solving. Throughout the project development process, I needed to find a direction that had the potential to solve a user’s pain point and make them want to pay for it. This was difficult because during my own ideation process, I had a hard time imagining the circumstances under which a user would pay. However, the project got to the end, and I realized the importance of all the tedious testing – something I couldn’t figure out, the user would tell me, the data would tell me. So, my business logic became clearer compared to the vague one at the beginning, because it was in the constant testing that I learned what the users really wanted, and they often had a better idea of what the site should be – because it was something they were willing to consume, and that was my business opportunity. So, problem solving doesn’t depend on your imagination, but on asking, testing, and verifying.

I know my project still leaves a lot to be desired and the viability of my business logic has yet to be tested, but this exercise has taught me a lot, not just in terms of knowledge, but also in terms of thinking.

Anyway, now that I’m finally done with the course, I’m going to take a break over winter break and get ready to continue learning new things next semester!

If you want to see my work, you can access my web here.