---
layout: post
title: "What I learnt in Computer Science"
---

I dropped out from an undergraduate course in Computer Science (CS, for short).

While I was attending CS courses, however, I learnt how to detach myself, or abstract
myself, from technological tools, which, as a so-called 'digital native' may
know, changes ever so frequently.

I learnt that if I have a fundamental skill, or what
 [(one of)](https://www.comp.nus.edu.sg/~bleong/) 
my lecturer(s)
called 'first principles', I can solve a given problem, regardless of how
seemingly foreign the problem may be.

Applying this concept in another context, it could be said that if I know
the fundamental skills in social dealings, then regardless of which country,
or culture, I find myself in, I can thrive (and not merely survive - but
that's a topic for another time, perhaps).

That's powerful. That's empowering. (As the saying goes, "Give a man a fish,
and you feed him once. Teach a man to fish, and you feed him for a life-time.")
And it gives one confidence. It
certainly gives me confidence.

But of course I credit all these lessons and benefits, or perks, to 
[my god](http://phtan.github.io/religion.html) and his kindness and goodness.