My thoughts on this entire experience…

Coding and R

I used to think that coding was something…elusive, almost. If asked to play a word association game and given the word ‘coding’, I probably would have said Mr. Robot. I had absolutely no concept and initially, part of me was apprehensive because I imagined that it would be extremely difficult to pick up in the time-frame given.

Can you feel that unease? That is an accurate representation of my mind state when we started hahaha.

Coding can be difficult, don’t get me wrong, but it’s honestly one of the most rewarding things I’ve learnt. Granted, we’ve just scratched the surface but still. It’s challenging and I love that because it pushes me to be better and go beyond what I thought I could do.

It’s like a challenge for yourself that you work though and the sense of achievement you get when you do it is…unmatched. I can definitely see myself coding for fun, that’s how much I’ve grown to love it!!

Support

Part of the reason why I think this term has been so enjoyable is because of the learning experience.

The learning environment was one of my absolute favourite things because there was no sense of pressure. It felt like the focus was more based on helping us cultivate our own understanding and skills in our own time, and providing us with the support and tools to do so. It was freeing, and a nice break from rote learning and the more theoretical sort of approaches in other courses. This course has been more practical and it enabled us to actually see the results of our work, which I think was really helpful.

Honestly, this was my favourite subject this term.

Science

A key thing I realised was that while it’s easy to condemn/judge those that misreport their findings in order to only publish significant results, there’s so much more to it.

In the beginning of the term, I couldn’t quite fathom why people would misreport/cherry pick their findings, in spite of knowing about the systems and structures that propagate that sort of behaviour. But it honestly is a mindbend because when I was doing the exploratory analyses, I definitely felt disheartened when I had results that weren’t significant.

I can’t imagine that feeling of pressure one would feel if they’ve dedicated so many resources (e.g. time, money) into their research. They’re only human after all. The system is the problem and I think actually educating psychology students and informing them of the open science movement etc. is helpful in deconstructing that system. I’m grateful to have had this experience, because going forward, I definitely do think it’s helped to re-frame my mindset and make me more conscious and intentional.

My final message

All in all, this experience has been wonderful. It has taught me a lot and I’m immensely grateful to everyone involved in making this term what it was <3

This wouldn’t be a learning log without some code hehehe…

Loading the library needed

library(memer)

Seeing the memes I can create

meme_list()
##  [1] "AgnesWink"          "AllTheThings"       "AmericanChopper"   
##  [4] "AnakinPadmeRight"   "AncientAliens"      "BatmanRobin"       
##  [7] "DistractedBf"       "EvilKermit"         "ExpandingBrain"    
## [10] "FirstWorldProbs"    "FryNotSure"         "HotlineDrake"      
## [13] "IsThisAPigeon"      "NoneOfMyBusiness"   "CheersLeo"         
## [16] "MoneyPrinter"       "OneDoesNotSimply"   "DosEquisMan"       
## [19] "OffRamp"            "OprahGiveaway"      "Philosoraptor"     
## [22] "PicardFacePalm"     "PicardWTH"          "Purples"           
## [25] "PutItPatrick"       "Rainbow"            "ShiaJustDoIt"      
## [28] "Spongebob"          "SuccessKid"         "SuezExcavator"     
## [31] "ThatWouldBeGreat"   "TheRockDriving"     "ThinkAboutIt"      
## [34] "TrumpBillSigning"   "TwoButtonsAnxiety"  "WhatIfIToldYou"    
## [37] "CondescendingWonka" "YoDawg"             "Y-U-NOguy"

Recreating one of my favourite memes

I wanted to leave a little message to anyone reading this and say that I hope you continue to work towards your goals and make yourself proud. You’re capable of so much!

But don’t just take my word for it. Listen to the man, the legend himself.

meme_get("ShiaJustDoIt") %>% 
  meme_text_bottom("JUST DO IT!!!")

GO FORTH, CONTINUE TO CODE AND CONQUER!!!