Thinking and Learning = Dumplings and Soy Sauce?

"FREE YOUR MIIIIIIND. THE REST WILL FOLLOW"

This exercise is all about connecting with my inner Gregorc Thinking style. I'm kinda excited! So it all started a few weeks back when we had to take a quiz to dive deep into "what is our thinking style". Here's some pics of my doodlings and subsequent discovery of my Gregorc Thinking Style:

So yes. I'm what's called an Abstract Random thinker.

Here's a few points on what this means.

1. About. Abstract Random Thinkers organize information through reflection.
2. And..? We tend to thrive in unstructured, people-oriented environments (rings very true for me FACT!).
3. Another fact about us. We, the "Abstract Random thinking folk" constitute about 30% of the population.

So I've done some research into this. It's pretty interesting. Don't judge me, but have a read though here. If you're time-poor here's a quick summary of all the great and ugly points about Abstract Random thinkers:

• They are masters of unusual organization systems that nobody else can understand.
• They experience big emotional swings and are very sensitive.
• They are people oriented.
• They are very creative and divergent.
• They take being challenged personally and are likely to just "shut down".
• Best Career Choices: Marketing, the Arts and Research and Development. Hmmmm. Uh-oh..!

And here's a table that goes into this a bit further:

Chanelling this, here's (another) (very short!!) list of actionable points that I can put into play to assist with my learning here at EDA. I'm hoping to further grow this list over time.

1. "My ideas grow better with a friend" mentality. I need to embrace pair programming and not be afraid to work with others. This will help me.
2. AR's like to use their creativity. I need to allocate time to build stuff myself, be creative and learn rather than being bogged down in readings and challenges (this is really a time management thing). I'm planning on building a couple of things at the end of phase 0 when we have 2 weeks revision time.

MY COMMENTS ON GROWTH/FIXED MINDSET

Here's some short and sharp comments, in no particular order on how my thinking and learning style can be shaped into ultimately passing EDA bootcamp:

1. Embrace the challenge. Feeling challenged is all about learning and being negative is counter-productive to this. Yes I feel like a lemon a lot of the time but attitude is key for tough times and the right one is a positive one.
2. If I want to be a front-end designer... I need to put the effort in. Time and effort lead to the path to mastery, as worded so well by Carol S. Dweck, That's what I want to be. So all these hours, all these king-sized block of chocolates and caramel sundaes and McNuggets. Totes worth it in the end.(must keep up the running though. JavaScript is not going to win and make me fat!)
3. Strong mind. I have to stop feeling like I want to give in and die everytime I hit an intensely hard challenge. I have found myself over the last week jumping in and out of this space - moreso the recovery is definately improving and I have become so much more persistent in working through bugs etc.

Yes. This has been a pretty insightful blog and I think really valuable time given to exploring my thinking style and the impact it has on my hopeful next steps as a front-end designer. So thinking and learning = dumplings and soy sauce?
The answer for me is yes. Yes yes yes. If you're an Abstract Thinker, you'll know what I mean.