Yep. Today I wrote my first exam for this semester. Well, it wasn't too big a deal. All one had to do was to learn some models and facts about communication and organisational development. "Which are the important stages of working in a team?", "How can you improve your personal skills refering to communication?", "How does change management work?" and bla bla bla... *really boring stuff here*
Actually, there were some interesting facts and information and even some of those concepts although being kind of abstract and relatively far away from reality on first sight somehow changed my view on my future job as an engineer. Not my attitude towards it, more the way I expect the everyday life to be like.
But there were even some things I learnt that can be applied to other parts of life as well. For example one of the most important guidelines concerning feedback:
"Never react to critique right away. Be it positive or negative criticism, just sit back and take some time before you give any reply."I personally think a lot of drama (here at dA or anywhere else) could be avoided if the people would just stick to this rule. It would make things so much easier. People tend to get defensive when they get some "negative" feedback (including myself

) and just like a harried animal they start to get emotional/aggressive. If you just lean back, think about the aspects the other referred to and get some distance you'll almost certainly find out what your critic wanted to show you and that he or she maybe isn't that retarted you thought him or her to be.

Remember: You still have the opportunity to explain some things if you really feel misunderstood but by reflecting on it first you'll be a much fairer partner in conversation. Unless the critism you get is something like "lol this sucks ass!!11!eleven"... Well, it's still some kind of opinion... but... you know... it isn't really worth to think about...
Wow, looks as if I've wandered from the original subject a bit

. But I guess it's a good sign that my brain hasn't suffered too much damage in the last time.
So I'll better end now and get back to work. Still 5 exams stand between me and the end of my first semester at university. Hope you're all doing fine.
So long,
DuskFennec