During this semester my eyes have been opened to different ideas, philosophies, technology, and people that I would have not thought of or known about. At the start of this class, my knowledge of technology in my head was pretty good, but in reality, I was missing a lot of knowledge that I soon figured out was going to be a journey for me through the semester.
I have always thought of myself as a tech guy. I’ve built my own programs, built my own computer, and tried to comprehend the tech world from a high-level view. Although this is true, I noticed that I haven’t learned about AI, blockchain, VC, startups, and other topics that we have learned about from Dr. Kane and the speakers over the last few months.
From class speakers, I have learned a lot about the leadership of companies, startups, culture, tech disruptions in business, and many other significant themes throughout speaker presentations. Being able to listen to the wisdom and advice from people just out of college to retired CEOs was an incredibly valuable experience that I wouldn’t be able to get anywhere else than MIST5720. My favorite takeaways from the class speakers were: growth mindset, empowering subordinates, following your passions, take risks, and to paraphrase Rich Nanda: do as little work for the same outcome. These lessons I will carry with me into the workforce and hopefully be able to be as successful in my own right as our speakers are today.
Also from speakers I have learned how to improve my questions. I have struggled in the past speaking up in front of audiences and speakers, so it was one of my goals to always ask a question which this class allowed me to do. I learned how to digest information better and ask better-formed questions to our speakers.
Learning about different tech topics, along with the overwhelming amount of information on artificial intelligence in life was interesting. The blog posts were very informative and I like to think that I came out a better-informed person due to them. Realizing the effect technology has on not just myself but the entire world, and the creative solutions to the world’s problems has opened my mind to try new things and use resources to better my life and others hopefully now and in the future.
Writing my own blogs also let me find inspiration in the content I was writing and learn more about topics that interest me. I think my favorite one I wrote was the water billboard in Peru which used technology to solve a real problem in the world. Getting to learn about these solutions again made me feel able to solve other problems for people hopefully.
Thank you everyone for being a cool group to learn with and especially thank you to Dr. Kane for its class. At first, I thought it was going to be a drag, but your ability to keep these topics fun and light-hearted made the three-hour classes very entertaining and fun, while also learning about important topics of the world today. I hope everyone can stay in touch and good luck with your future endeavors! I would recommend this class to anyone and I hope people don’t shy away from taking it. It not only improved my knowledge in a fun and inviting environment, but it also helped me as a person to boost my confidence in a professional way.
Lastly, if you guys want to stay in contact ill link my LinkedIn and Instagram, good luck everyone.
https://www.linkedin.com/in/charlie-mccollough-9594a4132
charlie_mccollough
I also enjoyed how much we were encouraged to ask good, thought-provoking questions in this class. I had the same difficulties as you did, Charlie. I didn’t like speaking up in front of people, let alone people with significant importance or authority. But something Dr. Kane said at the beginning of the semester really stuck with me. “These speakers have taken time out of their busy schedules to come to talk to you all. Do you know how to pay them back? Ask them interesting questions and give them a reason that their time with the class was worthwhile”. It may not have been precisely that, but somewhere along those lines. Great getting to know you, Charlie!
Thanks for comments about the class. I do think that the ability to learn to ask effective questions is a major benefit of this class. I plan to integrate a bit more formally in future classes.
Hey Charlie, I can also say this class gave me much insight into Venture capitalism, startups, tech, and many other sectors that we were exposed to. When being educated, I find myself susceptible to those in positions that I aim to be in sometime during my professional career. Not only do they understand the struggles, but they can communicate these obstacles to students so that we know what to look out for. Asking questions at the end of these sessions made them more informative as we were able to communicate our own misunderstandings and eventually leave class with a little more knowledge. Nice getting to know you, Charlie.
Hey Charlie! This was a great reflection and I agree with so many of the things you mentioned. Your journey and growth throughout the class is really insightful in terms of public speaking and asking questions. I was also able to learn about a variety of topics that I was not familiar with before! I am so glad that you were able to learn from the speakers with such diverse backgrounds and experiences, I am in the same boat.
Hey Charlie! I thought your post was a great recap of the entire class and I like your honesty with your growth in public speaking. I have anxiety as well when public speaking, so it was kind of gut wrenching to ask such important people questions and I often got nervous.
Hi Charlie! I liked how you mentioned how this class gave so many more options and insight into other fields in technology. I also have more of a tech background, so I enjoyed learning about AI and leadership. Great post!
Hey Charlie, loved your recap of the class. I also loved the blogs however I do remember being hesitant about them at first because I normally hate writing. But i found writing about these topics simply came easy because I was truly interested in them, and there were really no requirements for how I had to go about it.