The big day

The big day isn't really anything very exciting. It is in fact the day of the final business plan presentations. The day where every group goes through the wringer. The day where we find out if our work over the last four weeks has been worth anything. It is a nerve wracking idea. Something which is scary for many people, and a fairly high pressure situation is never the most fun experience.

Today, we present to a very small group of people, something which we have been preparing for intermittently. If you walk into our LAN today, everyone will be clumped into their groups, making last minute changes to their presentations, and practising what they are going to say. Every shirt has a collar, and there are even some ties in sight. For a group of CS students, this is rather unusual, where the norm is T-Shirts, with predominantly shorts, some skirts, and some jeans. It is on presentation days that the whole group comes together to make sure everything is working, and groups will help each other out if need be.

Our group going first makes life rather interesting for us. The others will have the opportunity to see or ask what is expected of them, for us, we go in cold, hoping that we have no tech failures, and that we can remember our speeches. Something which is very important, if we stumble over our words, we will feel like we are letting down the team. We are ready though, or at least I believe we are, I can hope.

So, time to go practise. Perhaps, if I remeber, I will post about how it actually goes...

Maths, maths, maths

Ooh, I haven't written a post for a while, I'm getting slack. Or maybe I'm getting swamped. Lectures started this week. Officially anyway. Because of this some things have been put on hold. Possibly they shouldn't be, and it will bight us in a week when deadlines loom, but the workload is looking freaky. My work load includes picking up enough pure maths to fill in the gaps, so that I can successfully do a course on category theory (something which is awesome, but I don't fully understand yet) and producing an epic visualisation, which at least I'm not working alone for, and producing a business plan, and attending other lectures. PHEW! That looks like quite a big ask.

On the surface it is big, but I think over the next week or so the boiling pot will settle down, and life will feel like it is structured reasonably again. The business plan presentation is in a week and a half (uh oh) but after that the course can e written off, and there is no need to worry about any of that stuff until the marks are released, and even then the only reason to worry would be if I failed something, which I refuse to do. It may happen that my honours marks are lower than my undergrad, but that is kind of expected, what with working harder, moving to a higher class university, and no longer being the top of the class, as I was for the last year and a half (without bragging).

The maths is scary though. Hence the title. I have had two lectures on Category Theory, and now I know I have to work really hard to catch up. It is definitely possible, and I will sit in on another fundamental course to catch up on certain concepts, but I think most of my catching up will come from doing a bunch of extra reading. So looking through textbooks, and previous lecture notes, and that amazing resource which holds all knowledge, Wikipedia. With these tools, I can grasp enough group theory, ring theory and field theory to follow the examples of category theory. I have already got a reasonable knowledge of set theory (I think), so I should be okay on that score.

With all these things to consider though, is it surprising that I haven't even thought about NVP for days? I have much more exciting things to think about, maths and more maths, and possibly, if I'm bored of maths, I can have a look at my VIS project. When both of those get too much for me, then it is time to start writing out a business plan. Hmm, this strikes me as compromising my work ethic. Maybe I should find my NVP group and remind them of the deadline. I doubt they have forgotten though, they seem to be working just as hard as me, on the courses they are taking.

Oh well, I feel that maths is awesome enough to completely overrule any business strategy or business plan. Just put "we get to do awesome maths" and hope people will pay you for it. That would work wouldn't it? isn't that what academics do?

Oh well, I shall grind my way through the next few days, and hope that maths does not fry my brain, that would be unfortunate. If I survive to the weekend, then I have a whole day (Saturday) to devote to catching up on work that has been neglected due to a glitch in the weighting of the tasks in the priority queue that makes up my mental task manager. And yes, if you're reading this you should know, I am a nerd.

Ups and Downs

Valentines day. Bah, a commercial day, where many shops make money out of people, and prescribe what is romantic. A day where people value love more highly than on other days. I don't really approve. Not because I'm single and feeling lonely when everyone around me is being all Valentines dayish, but because I don't see the point. The commercialism thing, I hate strongly dislike it. Shops with these garish displays and stuff. They do it for Christmas and Easter, and it irritates me then too. The high emphasis placed on love, well isn't love important everyday? And doesn't Valentines cheapen love, and weaken people's originality when it comes to showing love?

Ah, well. That is just a random piece giving my feelings on the day because I don't think it is possible to blog on Valentines and not mention the day. What this day really comprised of was weirdness, with both good and bad bits in the mix. First off, yesterday I had a day off, so it felt a lot like a Monday today (what a way to start Friday). Then I got some admin sorted out with my varsity access card, great. I'm a registered student, and I now actually have access to computer labs and the library. This is a very good thing. The thing that followed was a bit of a downer though, a very cold NVP lecture. That is really one of the things that stands out. Yes the concepts of the lean start-up are pretty interesting, and I would have thought the most logical business model if you have enough money and enough guts. I don't. I do not have it in me to go up to someone randomly and say, 'hi, can I talk to you for a moment about the idea of product X. What do you think of this and that, what would you really want from such a thing.' I admit this is very necessary in a business that wishes to provide a product, but its not me.

It probably didn't help that we were trying to do market research about an app for junior school kids on a varsity campus. Where anyone with kids is probably actually a lecturer or member of staff, and those are much less common than the students. Also, none of my group had whatever it takes to find some of those people. Maybe we were cowards, but I found us one person to talk to, so at least we did get some feedback. I dunno. I'm all uninspired again, maybe this is to do with the remainder of the day.

Since I'm using logical order, we'll move on to lunch. This was provided by the Maths department, so they could meet the honours students. All six of us. This was awkward, but at least there was free food. That was good. And I did get to know a little bit more about the maths honours class, which is helpful. I then did random stuff most of the afternoon, some admin, and a visit to the library, where they didn't have the books I wanted. I then waited around with a few others for a meeting that had been moved without our knowledge. I'm a bit bummed about that  one actually. It would have been nice if we had been contacted more reliably than through a chat room. An email would have been really nice, but alas it was not to be, and so I waited at varsity, and made my brother wait too, for no reason.

The evening was at least pleasant. Sewing and listening to rock music seems to have helped me to calm down. Maybe I can face tomorrow with a little more positivity and energy. It would be nice if the weather would cool down as well, but that is unlikely.

So, my funky rant about the day is now over. I don't know if it is meaningful for anything except to get it off my chest and to put things into perspective for me. Overall, I don't think the negatives should out way the positives, but the positioning of them made them seem even worse. So on that note, I say to you, may God bless you, and may you have a pleasant weekend, whoever you may be.

Presentations and projects

Wow, sorting out a preliminary presentation for a business plan that wasn't even a real idea a week ago is impressive. That is what the intensive PCU and NVP courses are about. In two weeks we go from no idea of what is happening, to presenting a skeleton of a business plan to be critiqued on presentation style, and to some extent what content we need to add or subtract. I don't think most full start ups move quite that quickly, but then again, most start ups are staking their livelihoods on this kind of thing, not just needing to pass to get their degree.

It does take off some of the pressure when you remember that just because you haven't earned 100% it doesn't mean that you've failed. I know there are some things in life where that maxim may hold true (all or nothing kind of vibe) but this is just a course. It is quite possible to graduate at the end of the year with no more than 50% in the course. Obviously those people who like me want firsts for everything wouldn't be happy with that, but we are the "overachievers" of the class.

I have been very impressed at how hard everyone works for this kind of thing though. There are some groups who make me feel lazy because they have done so much, whereas we have done the basic requirements for some things, but done them as well as we could. A full on presentation (with slides) is not always necessary when critiquing a piece of written work in front of a class. It can be useful, especially if you have been tasked with re-writing the piece, but a straight critique can be done by simply making sure everyone can see what you're talking about.

The other thing that has been happening though is that a course that has been all but forgotten has shown its head again. VIS, a design course, is starting to show signs of being a monster waiting to hatch. We need to have a solid project idea and premise for that one, so that the preliminary presentations of it can begin next week. Which is also, incidentally, when normal lectures resume. So on top of those presentations, there is the horror of beginning even more new classes, whose timetables have not yet been set. Whoopee!

So, the next week and a half could be quite interesting. At least I don't have to worry about data scraping and so on any more, having worked out how to actually use the software that comes natively with a decent Linux distribution. I just need to worry about visual queries, colour, texture, shape and other interesting ideas. But I must not get them mixed up with my business plan. That could get really weird. Now that I have got to the point of being rambly, I think it is time to stop boring the few readers I have.

P.S. I just realised, I think I may have now put up more posts this month than in the whole last year. This review of life as a CS student in SA could be worthwhile for the stats that my blog needs.

Weekends and class work

There are times when it is obviously important to be doing work, but it is very difficult to know what exactly that work is. That is what has happened to me this weekend. I have wanted to try and get ahead on my project work for PCU/NVP and for VIS (a design type course) but I have had trouble crystallising my ideas of what work needs to be done. I am tempted to say that this is because I am waiting on details from other group members, but actually, I think it is because I don't have a very strong idea of what is happening in the project myself, and so I need to work out these details.

My role in the groups is also slightly unclear perhaps, which means that when I want to spend the weekend working on some specific thing, I struggle to define to myself what the thing is. I have a very straight forward approach to my courses, when I have work to do I like to get it done immediately, and when I spend a long period of time trying to define the homework that I need to do I kind of get dispirrited.

So. instead I think I should focus on how most people spend their weekends. Playing Squash matches with family, visiting the library, and otherwise relaxing. This might be a bit unusual, but I find it quite enjoyable, and it certainly stops me from doing any work.This was very pleasant, and ended with a family braai, but still left me feeling edgy for not having got anything done all weekend.

NVP Day 4

Nearly a week's worth of lectures. If I'm not mistaken the last of the lectures for this course happen tomorrow. This is very condensed, but it seems to be effective. Today's topic was finance, an interesting enough topic if you like money. Some of the systems are quite intriguing, but I feel a little bit like it was rushed. Probably because it was, due to needing to finish early for the majority of the class to attend a memorial service. This rush impacted a little on how much could be covered. Also, our lecture venue was locked (the purpose of which is unclear) and so we had to start a little late.

I did manage to improve my note taking techniques though, which was good, so I have a nice document with notes that will hopefully make sense to me if/when I need to look over them again for reference. That makes me feel a little more confident about the course. Also the brainstorming and planning session we held this morning before the lectures was very good, we decided the basic idea of what our App will do, clarifying quite a few of the necessary details. I feel a little bit useless in this section, but I will bring my skills in the admin stuff into play again, and I will do things around the edges, like writing an introduction and a conclusion, and consolidating the work. If it is me who does that, and we don't do it all together.

We have to get the skeleton of this done and dusted by Wednesday for our preliminary presentations for the communications course. This is actually quite a good thing, in that it forces the work to continue, although on that note I must remember that I have other work to do as well for another course. This other work comes from the interesting extra week that was tacked on to our year due to some administrative mix ups. The extra week has been taken to be quite a good thing by a large portion of the staff though, and may well be repeated. Odd how circumstance changes the way things are run.

Now that I am running off in a spiralling line outwards from my original topic, and reflect on the fact that blogging about a course for which I have not been particularly enthused (and am technically not required to take) has taught me more about myself. This is something that often happens when I blog though, that I get sucked into these introspective and soul searching posts. Not very typical, and possibly not very good for the readership, but hey, its not like the readership is very wide here anyway, and I might as well be honest, albeit a little monitored due to the public availability, and not wanting to condemn myself on the internet.

So, finance and risk stuff. It seems weird to do this all before the business starts, the idea of the cash flow thing, surely no-one would put a negative cash flow study in their business plan? You know if your cash flow thing is starting to look bad that you need to do something to make it look better before that. Perhaps put a few cash flow projections, with different initial investments to show how the investment amount can impact the success of the venture? It is something I would do, but then I am a scientist, and I believe in asking for money to do research (or to pay for research I've already done). I know that this is a little bit different.

Now I'm just going off on tangents, so it is probably time to stop writing about doing things, and actually do them.

NVP Day 3

Day 3. It feels more like Week 3. Although I don't think we actually have that many lectures on this course. We have been moving fast and intensively. And I am re-writing because I managed to post this early, and then delete it, and now I have to type it all out again, because I didn't just use the revert to draft feature. So, where was I last time. I think I was saying something about how this wasn't quite as bad as I thought it would be.

Yes, I have seen the point of doing this course, it is for the point where you are out in real life and something puts you in the path of a business venture. Without this course, you are completely lost, and don't even know enough to stay afloat. With this course you know the basics of treading water when you land in the deep end, and from there you can learn to swim by listening (Googling) to instructions from the sidelines. The concepts are useful.

I am still not convinced that I am entirely suited to the business sector, but the groups we are in were chosen intelligently (and not by us, this is likely linked) so I am in a group with a Business Science student, so my weakness is made up for in his strength. I bring other things to the group, like the fact that I take notes of things. Not to say the others wouldn't, but I do do it. That is part of the value that I bring to the group.

On to today's lessons. We spent a VERY long time on case studies. This is because we didn't just look at each case, but rather after each group reported back, we had a (short) lecture on some of the topics raised by the study. This is quite a nice method of lecturing, but I need to get better at taking notes with it. I feel a bit silly taking notes when the lecturer is using a very casual style, but I need to take notes if I want to assimilate the information properly. This may simply be something to be aware of with regards to this course. I must make note of the fact that I am used to lecturers being fairly formal, and so when one breaks that mould so much it can be a bit unnerving.

Of course I am now having a discussion about this over email with my lecturer who is reading yesterday's post, so there you have it. Brains are weird. Or possibly it's people who are weird.

Now, back to the topic. Business. I think today's spider diagram deserves a spot in this post, it was pretty cool. And it has some very important headings that we discussed in the class, which have details I don't fully remember (o_O).

Of course you get a little bit of insight into my doodles as well, but that is a bonus. They do not actually have to do with how I feel about the course, but rather begin as what can I do with lines in this shape or that.

So I have come to see that I may not be a business person, ever, but I may well benefit in some way from these concepts.

NVP Day 2

Yes, another day of the new venture planning course. I am starting to revise my opinions a little, with the help of friends. I think the course is interesting, and the concepts could be very valuable, but I have trouble taking it seriously. It feels very cynical, and tongue in cheek. Like we keep getting told all these bad things about entrepreneurship.

Anyway, moving on to the basic concepts learned in the lecture, and some thoughts provoked (based on the notes I took and annotated). So, the creative process. A messy business, but no-one really cares about that. All the customer cares about is the result, not how you got there. We do need to care about the route though. We are expected to follow that route. As a fairly well ordered person though, I find that a messy process can be irritating, almost as bad as adapting to a slightly different key spacing and sensitivity on the keyboard of a computer. So, to follow the route, we need to accept that everything is essentially creative. This means that every process we follow, every item we develop or use, is a creative process or the result of a creative process. So why don't we pay more attention to this? The creative process is powerful, yes every person has their own unique process, but what are the common threads?

Sorry, that was a little bit side-tracked. That is how my mind processes things though, the search tree is not very efficient, but it is generally pretty thorough. Our lecture did go through some interesting routes though. For example we had a brief lesson on tax evasion in the import/export industry. Which then lead on to different areas where creativity evolves. That doesn't actually seem that related, but it comes from too much(?) story telling around the subject.

I am now starting to wander if I am doing this quite in the same spirit as expected, but I think I will decide not to care. This is a blog of thoughts and ideas and how they affect life. If I analyse things here, well that's cool isn't it?

Right, moving along. After deciding the difference between innovation and creativity (innovation is creativity with value) we move on to the ideas of the great Walt Disney. Be a dreamer, be a realist, and be a critic. Get all three of those right, and maybe you will be able to be as innovative as him? That would be cool.

Skipping ahead a bit, because I feel like I'm going on too long on a topic which I don't find as interesting as some others I could write about here, I will get to the final points. First off, when marketing, raise a purple cows. Yes that grammar is intentional, it bugs me too, which is why I quoted it. Then, make use of milkshake marketing. Then use the concept of the "golden circles" by selling a dream that happens o be functional and feasible.

That seems to sum up the day's lectures. What did I learn? My lecturer needs to sit in on our professional communications lectures. I think he might benefit from some of the presentation skills we are learning. Also, I am not very interested in marketing and business strategy. Oh well, I must do what I can to get through. At least the group has some kind of idea of a product which could possibly make money in the education sector.

NVP Day 1

An introduction before the ranting and other nonsense begins. This is, for the next few days, more than just my personally neglected blog. I have a university course called New Venture Planning, which I have to do, and for which the lecturer requires we keep a blog. I do think that it will be possible for me to get into the habit of regular blogging about the goings on of my university career through this, I just have to hope my lecturer wont judge me too harshly for some of the other weird stuff that winds up in my blog posts. So without further ado, here it is, the NVP log, of me.

We have been instructed to keep a blog for this course. Great, I agree, the most learning is done in the time spent contemplating the material. Unfortunately for the lecturer this is also a time when it becomes possible for me to air my feelings about the course. Under some circumstances a blog I kept of a course would be quite fun, in this case it may simply serve as a ranting spot while I analyse my own feelings about certain business concepts which are being taught. That is not to say that all my feelings about the course are negative, but rather that my instincts are not business oriented, and I struggle to put money before social betterment. Perhaps that makes me a socialist, but then that is who I am, and how I work.

The way in which our groups were assigned I found to be fairly interesting. It leaves us with quite a nice spread of interests and areas in which we are “experts”. I would say that there are some groups who will perform to a higher standard than others, but that is due to the socialisation of the group members, and how well they interact. I feel that in some ways I will pull my group back, because I struggle to see how it is possible to make a money focussed educational product. I suppose though that to think about it rather as an educational product than a thing to make education more accessible to people would aid in that process. There are a number of odd educational toys and things that are simply making money out of parents who wish to give their children a head start.

This is a much nicer way of thinking about it actually I think. To create a product which also happens to be educational which will make money is much easier than to create a product which will revolutionise the education system and make me money as well. I don't have any ideas yet, but I'm sure they will come to me over time thinking about this.

It is now time to think about what I learned today, if anything. Well, obviously I learned something. It is very rare that I sit through three or so hours of lectures or discussions without learning anything. One thing I learned is that I struggle to pay full attention to these lectures because they are outside my are of interest. I find it would be really easy to sit and draw pictures all through these lectures. Obviously if I actually want to do well I need to pay attention, but I struggle, I am a theorist. I do aspire to becoming an entrepreneur. I do not feel that it is meaningful for me to sit through a bunch of lectures telling me how hard entrepreneurship is, but I should do it anyway.

Okay, thing I learned today. 0.5% of business ventures presented to venture capitalists are funded. That is 2 in 2000. I am in a class of forty something all being told we could be entrepreneurs. I feel like we are all being set up for failure. Oh wait, of course we are, entrepreneurs love to fail! Failure means we are trying things. A good entrepreneur has lost millions in other people's money. It is these people who make me think I will never invest my money unless I know for sure that it is safe, i.e. I will quite happily make use of a good savings account, but don't ask me to be part of any of this stupid risky stuff. I want to be a teacher, not a risk taking venture capitalist.

Perhaps my rant is compounded by the other things which are being stupid at UCT, but I was hoping I wasn't going to find that this course was mandatory for me, so, you know, I'm a little disappointed right now.

Of course the reader of this blog now has no idea what to think of me, except that I waffle and I am either really brave, or really stupid, or both, because I have said that the course for which this blog is mandatory is boring and not what I actually want to be doing with my time.