Name: Low You Jian

ID: 1201044
Course: Software Engineering
Unit Code and Title: USCC1032 CRITICAL THINKING
Title of OCA:
1) Google Entrepreneurship by Marcus Foon
2) UTAR Study Skill Mini Workshop
Date of Submission: 13th March 2014
Introduction:

The first talk, Google Entrepreneurship was presented by Mr. Marcus Foon, currently the
president of Google Business Group Malaysia , GBG Malaysia for short. It was held on the 27th
February 2014 from 2p.m. to 4p.m at SE102. I would like to thank the Information Technology (IT)
Society for inviting Mr. Marcus to give us an insight into his entrepreneur life. The event was also
organized by the IT Society. The participants of this talk were students from various courses and
even some from other university like TARC. Due to the size of the small SE102 class room, we quickly
filled up the room leaving many people standing throughout the talk. Unfortunately, the organizers
couldnt book a larger room as the speaker postponed the talk from 26th March to 27th March 3 days
before. Participants of this talk were promised by the organizer of Google goodies like Google shirt,
android toys, Google land yard and few more items. The organizers delivered their promise towards
the end of the talk.

Contents:

Marcus Foon attended Multimedia University and took up a course on Digital Media. Little
did he know until the mid of his studies, he found out that he was a color-blind. A color-blind
studying a designing subject is kind of oxymoron. 2 years already into his studies, he continued and
finished it the following year. His entrepreneurship road starts from here.

Marcus then started his own company with a few college mates and things were pretty
tough at the start. The first company didnt go well and only lasted 2 years so he changed to another
job. In the second job, he was appointed the head of a group of businessman that were very
successful. This continued on for around 8 years. Then he attended a business event and a
spokesperson from Google was looking for only volunteers to setup a Google Business Group in
Malaysia without getting paid. Marcus took up the offer knowing that he wont be paid by Google.
This has led to the position where he is now.

Google Business Group (GBG) is a business community that provides a free learning platform
to anyone who is interested to learn how internet technology can help achieve online success by
organizing seminar, talks, and workshops. GBG Malaysia is endorsed, recognizes and supported by
Google. Marcus Foon was appointed as country champion to support and oversee community
growth. Since March 2012, GBG Malaysia has since grown to 7 chapters throughout the country in 7
different cities.

The topic was regarding the 9 Things You Wish You Will Learn in University. The three things
that struck me are to be different, fearing failures, network of friends.

Marcus himself was being different by going into a business field which he was totally
foreign to while he was still a designer. Instead of getting a stable paying job at a company, he is
willing to be different and give everything a try. You should not fear or be shy to be different as
everybody is unique. Being different requires you to not jump on to the bandwagon just because
everybody else is doing it. Just like critical thinking and thinking, you need to be different. While
thinking relies on information like facts and opinions, critical thinking promotes assumptions, flaws
in reasoning, context and implications. Therefore, you should always base our thinking in logic and
not feelings.
 Fear to failure is the most common phobia most people have. Marcus Foon was
exceptionally immune to this fear when he was willing to change between 2 jobs that were different.
Seth Godin, an American author, entrepreneur, marketer, and public speaker once said as soon as
you say, "failure is not an option," you've just said, "innovation is not an option." Fear of failure is
the blockade to creativity and innovation. Being born into an Asian culture, failure seems like the
end of the tunnel for most young achievers. But it is actually just the light of the tunnel. Being not
afraid of failure encourages creative thinking that leads to trying out new stuff.

Having a huge network of friends might seem like a good idea when you are starting a new
business. However, if the net worth of your network has a low value, you might be better off with a
small network with high net worth. Surrounding yourself with friends within college life is easier to
do when compared to working life. However, choosing your friends can be quite a daunting task as it
requires some critical thinking. The skills involved are looking at different perspective, evaluating
own and others point of view.

Conclusion

Firstly, I am going to apply being different by being different in my ways of thinking. Others
might think I am an alien to them but if something is sounds logic, it is logical. Besides that, I am
going to be more daring to be different in classrooms as compared to the silence in lectures.
Example, if I wanted to attend an educational event and I felt sad when my friend didnt want to
attend. The feelings shouldnt be a blockage to your logical thinking. This type of critical thinking
requires the person to be different from the common public.

Secondly, I will try my best to be more creative thinking and accept more perspectives on a
matter especially if it involves failing. By allowing myself to be more of a critical and creative
thinker, I am empowered to try out new things even though knowing the possibilities of failure. This
allows me to be exposed to more things that are new and unexplored and hopefully build a business
from one of my tries.

Thirdly, I will need to think critically and evaluate each of my friends as some of them might
be double-edged swords that will pull you down. This revolves around weighing the pro and cons of
each friend and letting some of them go. Choosing the right friends that will help your career growth
is a critical task as many skills need to be used here.

Im the one on the right

Introduction:

The second talk that I had attend was UTAR Study Skill Mini Workshop by Puan June Mohd
Som. The workshop was held on 14th February 2014 at 12pm to 2pm at SE109. The topics that was
touched were 7 common mistakes made by uni students, mind preparation before,during ,after
class and 7 fast learn study skills. The workshop was made available to all students of UTAR free of
charge. A total of 30 students turned up for the event. Puan June is a lecturer from FAM Sungai Long
Campus.

Contents:

The seven common mistakes done by students are The Seven fast learn study skill
1) Studying at home 1) Test Yourself
2) Listening to music while studying 2) Distributed practice
3) Procrastinating 3) Recall
4) Not making notes 4) Study Break
5) Highlighting 5) Attending Class
6) Cramming 6) Note-taking
7) Skipping Class 7) Retention Skill
8)
Firstly, studying at home is a bad idea since theres virtually distractions everywhere you
look. Studying in a group at campus is a much better alternative. Furthermore, studying in a group
helps retention skills as you keep repeating the topic and this method actually helps you to keep that
information in your memory more efficiently. Besides that, listening to music or watching tv while
studying is a bad idea since most of our brains cant multitask very well. We would have to apply
critical thinking skill to determine which action to be done first.

Moreover, not making notes is a big disadvantage while studying since only 20% of what
you have read only stays in your mind. Recalling and writing it increases the percentage. This is a
proven method to remember things easily. Some of you might recall that highlighting was a A+
student must dos. A recent research by John Dunlosky has proven it otherwise. Instead, he
introduced some other methods mentioned in the 7 fast learn study skill mentioned above.

One of the most common practice among students is to cram and go through textbooks
right before exams. This burning midnight oil method of studying is inefficient as you are quick to
forget what you have learnt. Instead, Jon Dunlosky introduced distributed practice as a better
approach to remember your syllabus or learning something so that it stays in your memory. This is
because the info is stored in the long-term memory instead of the short-term memory. An short 10-
20 minutes per session of distributed study across a week is sufficient to cover the subject.

Another mistake done by students is not taking study breaks. They might think that the
break will stop the momentum of study and result in them forgetting what they have just learn but
this is untrue. A famous timing technique called pomodoro named after the italian word for
tomato is useful for studying. The technique is simple. For each project or study sessions,you study
for 25 minutes then take break for 5 minutes. Each 25-minute is called a pomodoro. After 4
Pomorodos have passed, you take a 15-20 minute break. These frequent breaks keep your mind
fresh and focused.

Conclusion:

I will definitely be using these techniques to fully utilise my time spent studying and using
critical thinking skills with it. These skills would apply to both my student life as well as my future
career as learning is a life-long process. I will try to skip less classes as the speaker mentioned that if
you skipped an hour of class, you have to spend 2 hours to study it yourself. Mind Preparation is also
included in the talk. It talks about preparing your body for the next day lectures by having enough
sleep so that we might be able to think critically,evaluate, and analyse logically. This is becoming
more important when we pursue our career as we would not like to be found sleeping on the job.