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Connecting the Dots


1.      Half of my blog posts connect the prompts back to my work experience, interning and working as a warehouse associate. This isn’t all surprising to me because a large portion of the topics so far are somehow related to the workforce. Another theme that I noticed when reviewing my old posts is that all of them are pessimistic. They point out negative aspects of jobs I’ve had or poke holes in situations I’ve been in. I didn’t intentionally do this and only noticed once I reread them. I’m assuming this is because it could be easier to write from a negative point of view and I subconsciously was doing this.

2.       Within my opportunism blog post, I was able to connect to the idea of labor being used as a buffer. I experienced it firsthand and never truly realized exactly what was happening until I took this class. Looking back at it now, it is clear that I could have connected this idea into my first blog post. This was a post about transaction costs and during part of it I focused on that there were a few days where I did not have much work to do. Looking back at it, it is clear that I was being used as a buffer. When more work came in or one person needed some help, I had help and make the workload smaller. This is a clear example as labor being used as a buffer, and I didn’t make this connection until after the blog post was posted.

3.       Although when I submit my posts has stayed about the same, I typically start brainstorming and working on them much earlier. For my first two posts, the biography and 9/13 one, I struggled to write clear substantive post. I had bad writers block and wrote very slowly. However, the next posts I began brainstorming and coming up with possible writing ideas far earlier. Now when I sit down to type out my blog post, I have a clear idea what I am going to write about and in my opinion I write better posts faster.

4.      I liked the Illinibucks blog post question because it allowed me to problem solve and think about a hypothetical situation. I wouldn’t want all posts to be like this; however, it was interesting to see how others viewed the hypothetical situation. It helped understand the economic theory because I had to directly apply and discuss it.

Comments

  1. Professor ArvanOctober 14, 2019 at 6:53 AM

    Hmmm. I wonder why you felt compelled to write this as a list. It wouldn't have occurred to me to do that.

    I do think student experience may be be limited in learning course themes, but it was you have available to you and you learn by making connections between what you've already experienced and what is new for you. So that you were being used as a buffer in your warehouse job, serves as a good example to make the point.

    Several other students (in this class and in prior offerings of the class) have said they liked the Illinibucks post because it gave them a hypothetical to consider, something they normally don't do. There is, perhaps, a lesson in this observation. Maybe you should try your own hypothetical in a future post and write to it rather than writing to the prompt. You might find it liberating and helpful for guiding your future learning.

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