API Talk

I took one of those personality assessment quizzes via StrengthsFinder 2.0 for work and it gave me my top five strengths: Empathy, Connectedness, Input, Developer, and Intellection. Overall, it was very much on point with how I see the world and how I interact with others. So, along with a report that expands on those strengths, it also gives a list of action plans for each of them, ways in which you can continue to nurture those traits the best. And most of them were actually goals that I've been wanting to work on in general but haven't started yet. For Intellection (i.e., introspective and appreciate intellectual discussions), one of the ideas was,"Find people who like to talk about the same issues you do. Organize a discussion group that addresses your subjects of interest."

I found that super interesting because that's actually something I've been wanting to do for a while, especially now that I'm not in the college atmosphere and discussions about activism are harder to come by. I'd really love to have a discussion group about API issues and news, just an open space for people to bring up anything they wanted to talk about. I thought of doing it through Meetup.com, but I wasn't sure if there would be people in my area interested in this, plus I'm not sure how I'd mediate disputes if they came up.

Just when I think there might not be much in the news to talk about, something always comes up. There has already been a lot to discuss this year (but isn't there always?). Amy Chua/Tiger Mom at the beginning of the year, which I never did get around to writing my opinion on. And now all the things happening at UC Davis and the Occupy movement. I definitely think about all these things, and try to keep up w/ articles online, but I find myself having a difficult time condensing my thoughts into words here. Part of it is my fear that I don't have the background knowledge to backup my opinion, because I'm definitely still learning and absorbing, but that was one of my missions w/ this blog: chronicling my journey through social consciousness. Maybe that'll be my second goal for next month (along w/ sleeping earlier), being more analytical and not worrying so much about sounding like an authority on the subject. Isn't discussion half of the learning process?