Hey everyone! My name is Austin Chan, and I’m a Co-Editor for the AEO to Ivey Blog, alongside the awesome Linda Zhang! This year, our team is excited to bring you reflections from the past year and insights into future years as a student. The world is changing day by day, and it can sometimes be difficult staying up to date with everything. With all that in mind, I wanted to share two lessons that I’ve learned about keeping informed throughout the ever-changing pace of the world.
Be Curious About the Things That You Dismiss
It’s easy as a student to brush off topics that don’t relate to your major. A lot of the time, we are wrapped up in this bubble of school. Studying for exams, stressing about homework, and pulling all-nighters for assignments. It can be difficult to look past the next week of work. Yet, carving out time every week to learn new things is a skill that expands your horizons. As a result, we sometimes forget that there’s a whole world out there, and you’re a simple Google search away from it all. In 2016, I first heard about blockchain and cryptocurrency. I brushed it off as a boring and limited technology. During the pandemic, I stumbled across the topic again and decided to spend all my time learning about it. Six months later, I can confidently say that this has been the best decision that I have made for myself all year.
Being curious doesn’t mean knowing everything about a topic; it means having the humility to learn a topic even when you don’t know anything. Opening yourself up to the possibility to learn is a skill that will help you in any aspect of life.
Create and Consume
When you begin learning about a topic, most would think to read, watch, and listen to content related to the topic. That serves as a relatively good first step to learning about the foundations of a topic. However, that information isn’t always useful by itself. Using what you’ve learned can be a solid next step. Some examples could be building projects, starting companies, or creating content for others. There’s a whole realm of applications that can be used to supplement your newfound knowledge. In a way, anyone can read the same articles that you’ve read, watch the same videos you’ve watched, and listen to the same podcasts that you’ve listened to. But, not everyone can implement that knowledge in their lives, and it is through that step that makes all the difference.
I’m extremely excited for the upcoming year and the unique experiences that our writing team has to share. Please feel free to reach out to me at achan652@uwo.ca for any questions about my experience as an AEO student, my program (BMOS), or anything about Web3! Here’s to an awesome school year!