English Conversation Course for Part-Time Students: October 2013

Wednesday 23 October 2013

Week 3: Introverts (and the Internet)

Have you ever felt that you would much rather stay home and work on the coding problem that's been driving you crazy for the last week (it's always the missing “;”) or read a good book instead of going to a big party? Do you love your friends dearly but sometimes you just don't want to speak to any of them? If you've answered yes, at least once you might be an introvert.

Merriam Webster Dictionary defines introversion as “the state of or tendency toward being wholly or predominantly concerned with and interested in one's own mental life”. Introverts have also been described as “people whose energy tends to expand through reflection and dwindle during interaction”.

Here is a visual aid:

( http://www.intellectualbubblegum.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/08/how_to_live_with_introverts_guide_printable_by_sveidt-d5b09fj.jpg )

I've been introduced to the subject in 2012 when browsing for TED videos I hadn't seen yet. I stumbled upon a video by a little known at the time author – Ms. Susan Cain.

I have to admit the word introvert had some negative connotations for me. It brought to mind an image of an asocial recluse. I will be the first to admit that it was just ignorance on my part.

I really like this video. Just by observing the manner in which she is speaking you can tell she has described herself accurately as an introverted person.

What do you think about the speech? Do you relate in any way to the stories she told? I know I do.

I've purchased her book (which I wholeheartedly recommend), did some additional research and generally felt better about some of my introversion induced actions.

Fast-forward to the present day and if my various social feeds are any indication, the subject has gained a lot of steam in recent months.

You can also easily observe the increased popularity in Google Trends:

( http://www.google.com/trends/explore?q=introvert#q=introvert%2C%20extrovert&cmpt=q )

For years the interest was fairly stable but then something started happening. You can see the volume of searches quadruple between 2008 and 2013. What do you think brought about the sudden spike in the interest in this topic? Also, I think the real question here is what in the world happened in August 2013?

There is also a rise in searches for “extrovert” , albeit not as sharp. If you dig deeper though, you can see that it stems from people searching for the differences between the two.

As an aside let me put the increased interest in context:

( http://www.google.com/trends/explore?q=introvert#q=introvert%2C%20extrovert%2C%20Justin%20Bieber&cmpt=q )

More people talking about what it means to be an introvert generated some interesting trends. If you regularly spend at least some time on the internet (the part filled with memes and cats) you've surely seen images like this:

( http://media.tumblr.com/tumblr_mexhtaPbRX1qcs08a.png )

and many others like it. Being quiet is therein equate to being smart and thoughtful. I think it's not necessarily untrue in many cases but the gross generalization is definitely present.

Everything I wrote about above is brilliantly summarized in this PBS video:

( http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KtGscT3l-bs )

He makes a great point that there is a wide range of human personalities and people cannot be described by placing them on either of the two points representing extroversion or introversion.

In the spirit of the above I invite you to take the Myers-Briggs Personality Test. Here you'll find a limited, free version.

http://www.personalitypathways.com/type_inventory.html

As a poor man's version of taking the full test and having it professionally interpreted you can google the result and get some interesting articles. Who knows, you might learn something new about yourself today:)

Here is a quick cheat sheet:

( http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-4VcCnaaTZEc/UOkRy_n0W2I/AAAAAAAAAWs/J3SGpFzB11Q/s1600/MyersBriggs.jpg )

What's your result? Do you think it describes you accurately?

Have you noticed more people describing themselves as introverts in your circles?

Thanks for your time.

Monday 21 October 2013

Week 3: Women in IT. Why do we have so few and do we need more?

15th of October 2013, on Ada Lovelace Day, we celebrated women in science, technology, engineering and maths. During the day, female coders, administrators and scientists wrote blog posts about their stories in STEM in order to promote diversity and encourage women to pursue their career in the field.

STEM is an acronym. It stands for science, technology, engineering, and mathematics. All these fields have low women participation rate, both at educational and later at professional stage. Statistics show only 8 percent of IT students are female at Polish universities, and this number even lowers when we're looking at the data from the job market.

Low participation rate may be caused by a myth that women are not skilled in mathematics, hence not “good enough” to pursue career in IT. But history proves otherwise, showing examples of women that achieved great success in the computing field on its different development stages. The aforementioned Ada Lovelace was the first person to design a computer program and imagine the future of the computers. A century later an actress, Hedy Lamarr, decided to drop her career and devote her time to research on frequency-hopping idea that we now know from Bluetooth and Wi-Fi. Grace Hopper developed the first compiler which became the cornerstone for modern programming languages. These are only a few out of hundreds of examples of great women in computing. But the myth seems to remain, preventing girls from choosing education in the field.

Shown from the left: Ada Lovelace, Hady Lamarr, Grace Hopper

Studies show that teams with equal number of women and men are more likely to experiment, be creative and share knowledge than teams with different a ratio. Also, it's indicated that groups comprising diverse members consistently outperform those comprising of "highest ability" members. That research also shows that women on average have higher emotional intelligence and are better at multitasking than men. IT companies seem to have done their homework and are now desperately looking for female employees and failing due to their small participation in STEM fields.

The problem seems to be so severe that various groups started showing interest in encouraging girls to study IT, either by creating actions like Ada Lovelace Day, free programming workshops or making educational materials, like she++ Documentary shown below.

Do you think that there's actually a problem? Do we need more women in IT?
And why are there so few women in the field. What do you think are the reasons?

Week 3: Annual Leave

Have you ever forgotten to schedule an annual leave? Maybe you had to cancel or change your plans, as there were other important things to be done?

Friends of mine often say that they didn’t have other possibility, because of many different reasons. I’ve heard many times that they have to go for a vacation in autumn. Usually when we think about vacation in October or November, the only option we can imagine is Egypt, Tunisia, Turkey.

When you follow the link to The Guardian web site, you will retrieve the article with TOP 10 autumn destinations.

I must say that it was quite understandable for me, that people want to go for all inclusive vacation in a place where it is nice and warm, when here in Poland it is getting colder and the weather is not sufficient. Sharm el sheikh, looks nice, doesn't it?

And everything was clear, you didn’t have time to go for an annual leave in summer you buy a trip to Egypt in October and everyone is happy - your colleagues who have children and need to go for a vacation in summer time, your boss who wanted you to finish your project in the beginning of September so in July and August you were working 24h 7days in a week, your friend who was getting married and could not imagine that day without you, your mother who asked you to help her in the garden so everything is prepared for a winter. When you think about this it is even better for you – because there are less people in the hotel, no families with crying children, the weather is much better there than in your homeland – just wonderful.

Everything changed last year – when we decided for a first time to go sailing on Masurian Lakes in October. Up till then the last weekend of September was the last moment – that's what we thought. It was mid of October when we went only for a weekend, it came out it was a great idea – even though it was quite cold outside. We were surprised as we were not the only ones sailing. That's what it looked like last year:

This year we were thinking to go for a holiday to Egypt in October, but finally when writing this article I’m sitting on a passenger’s seat in our car, and we are on our way to the north – we’re going sailing this time we’ll stay there for a whole week. What I must say we have a problem to find a boat, as all were reserved… Promise to send you some pictures.

And what do you think about autumnal traveling?

Did you ever have to schedule your vacation in October?

Where do you go then?

Or maybe you have any other great ideas for a trip?