The first week of the VB18 program has been quite an overload of information. However, the overall perspective of the several projects and their inter-sectional elements are slowly coming into view.
Our CEO, Dr. Alex Lin, gave a talk on team-building through the different types of dominant thinking methodologies inherent to most people. It was clearly emphasized that while there were four types of thinking methods represented, they were not the only methods that are used. The key point made on the four methods, analytical, structural, conceptual, and social, were simply methods that people are most inclined to use when it comes to problem solving.
As indicated from the brief exercise conducted during the group activity, I found my dominant method of thinking more inclined toward the analytical group. Under the analytical group, the problem-solving approach revolves around an end goal.
Essentially, learning about the different methods of thinking and inclinations of each represented group will be a crucial element for working in teams. This being more apparent as most of us come from different academic and career backgrounds that have more or less instilled a certain way of thinking.
In relation to this weeks events and discussions, I have observed some of the characteristics and personality traits of my peers to help match their working style over the course of our projects. As my main group of 5 peers consists of three different start-up projects, all 6 of us have to be fundamentally well acquainted across our respective projects. It as also been established that the projects will have inter-sectional components which require cross-team collaboration. With this in mind, I was initially concerned with not being able to comprehend some of the technical jargon discussed in my group. However, I was reassured by my encouraging team members that my unfamiliarity with technical terms in the fin-tech realm would not be a big hindrance if I have a clear grasp on the concepts. I felt like this was a minor achievement for my first week, engaging in discussions and dabbling into a field I was unfamiliar with.
For the next following week, I hope to develop a more coherent plan for conducting research for the Autonomous Music Composer (ACM) project. Although I have a general understanding for building algorithms, the required parameters for generating popular music has yet to be identified. I am confident that this phase should not consume too much time due to the availability of online resources and previous studies that have been conducted.
