My group had its first CG1413 programming meeting last Friday (120210).


What went well during the meeting?

Since my group had two C++ programmers with a commendable knowledge on programming, things went really smooth as we didn’t have to get stuck on any coding problems. As a result more time was available for planning and enhancing our design. Ideas flowed and we were able to complete the task swiftly. Personally it gave me an insight on how more experienced programmers think and I was able to pick up a few tips and tricks from them.

What went bad during the meeting?

Having two C++ programmers in our group seemed like a double edged sword to me. Though it helped speed up things, I felt that they were a little too quick for me. They always seemed two steps ahead of me in the way the think about the code and planning for it. As a result I wasn’t able to contribute much in terms of the program.

Initially for this meeting we were unable to find a suitable venue but with the help of one of our Teaching Assistants (Mr. Achudhan) we were able to find and book a proper meeting room.


My Role during the meeting:

I was tasked to prepare the agenda and take down minutes during the meeting.

Agenda:
The agenda was pretty easy to make as we had already discussed informally on what are the possible things that we need to address during the meeting pertaining to the project. Finding a template for the agenda was a problem at first but after scouring the internet for more than an hour I was able to find one.

Minutes:
In order not to forget what we had discussed, I took down the minutes as and when the points came across. When I took a look at the minutes the following day I was pretty surprised that we had actually discussed on so many points and some of them were even obscure to me. At that instant I knew how important minutes were in a meeting.

Conflict..

“Change means movement. Movement means friction. Only in the frictionless vacuum of a nonexistent abstract world can movement or change occur without that abrasive friction of conflict.” was a comment made by Shaun Alinsky, an American writer and community organizer. It was an amazing comment, regarding conflict, where he explains the inevitability of conflict in this world. Yes! Be it big or small everybody has to go through the process of conflict. How one reacts to a conflict is often determined by one’s innate personality and level of maturity.

One such personal conflict that I went through at a young age was as follows:

It was primary 6 and it was my first year in Singapore. I was still trying to get into terms with the new culture and lifestyle and blend in. It was like any other afternoon in primary school where we were queuing up to go back to class after lunch. On the way to our classroom I wanted to drink water and so I went over to the water cooler. As I was drinking from the water cooler I felt someone pushing me away. When I turned around to look I saw this Malay boy from my class called Farhan. I was never fond of Farhan as I always felt that he was some sort of school bully because of the way he looks and behaves in class. It was only natural that I got angry because of my perception of him and immediately shoved him away. He got pissed off and a clash of hands soon evoked. Before anything could get serious our classmates had to step in and pull us away.

(Please feel free to share your insights on this conflict scenario. Probably a week later i'll comment on what happened after wards in the scenario above)