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.

Books, the past, the future

Well, its been a while since I last had enough on my mind that could actually be written out meaningfully. I suppose reading real books does this to me, it starts me thinking about the meanings and purpose behind the works. I have recently found two authors who's writing I have enjoyed more than I would have expected.

C. J. Sansom's historical works starring the lawyer Mathew Shardlake are interesting. They are well written, in the style of a fairly generic mystery story. What really makes them good is the historical content. Set in the 16th century, in the time of King Henry VIII, Sansom brings into discussion the politics of the time. Shardlake is shown to become disillusioned of the reform in the first novel "Dissolusion" but he has long disagreed with the papist faction. This leaves the reader with a hero who is open to both worlds in a sense, and so the story is not about religion, but simply politics.

The stories contain enough fiction to captivate a wider audience, but also enough fact that the captive audience cannot help but learn some of the less pleasant details about the history of England, and the time of Henry VIII in particular. The set of three books spans a period of four years, in which three wives are killed. For the first time ever, I know the names of the wives of Henry, assuming he only had six, which I think he did.

So thos books give you thoughts on the past. I have also been reading the novels of David Mitchell, who writes convoluted stories that intermingle, and there are characters who cross between books in a manner which either suggests the author struggles to create cameos, or is a clever way of saying, "all these novels are actually linked." I have read three of his novels, and all three have the same kind of convolution as the movie inception. Stories within stories, and no clear description of when waking or sleeping. But there are two things that strike me most strongly about these books. One Mitchell is a fan of the Japanese and Eastern culture. Two he makes some of the works of George Orwell look optomistic.

These novels are set well ahead of where we are today, but a large amount of what we see happening we know could very well come true. The wars that are suggested are not unrealistic, although they due portray a particularly cynical view of America and the American military forces. What Mitchell does which both darkens his works and gives hope to the reader is he gives his characters their humanity. They are realistic, and it is possible to imagine meeting one of them in life. Even those characters who play cameo roles have enough depth that one can relate to them ad to their feelings.

This look into the future is bleek, but the people inside it are shown to be just like us, even if they are more likely to be caught up by the crime bosses, or develop amazing scientific technologies. The fact that every hero is humane, and even the villians are possible to relate to leaves the reader feeling positive, where it would be easy to leave them feeling negative about what the future promises.

So there are my Ramblings on the books I've been reading. I hope you haven't been too bored.

Life, the universe, and everything

So, I hand in my big project, hoping that now I will be able to relax a little. But instead I find that tonight I am restless, and unable to convince my brain to stop wizzing for long enough for me to work out what is making it wizz. So I am looking at what is happening in my life that might be worth wizzing about.

Only, things actually look pretty good from an objective point of view. I can go shopping for some sports equipment which I would like to buy, and I don't need to worry about either the money or the time. I have a hockey match which will be a lot of fun to play. And I am able to spend some time this week catching up on interesting physics things that have been neglected recently, due to project pressures. There is onehing which is a bit of a bummer, and that is the fact that my cell phone battery seems to have been overcharged, which shouldn't even be possible, but has made the battery physically swolen, and it loses its charge in about ten minutes when being used. But that shouldn't be causing my brains to wizz.

So it is time to think, what else is happening in my life. I have covered academics, that looks good. I have covered sport, that looks good too. Technology is being a pain, but hopefully I will be able to fix that soon, by buying a new battery. So perhaps it is my social life.

The question there could be actually, "do I even have a social life?" The answer to that would be yes. So is it worrying me? Perhaps a little. I have to tell a good friend that I will not be able to attend her 21st birthday do, because I will be away with family that weekend, but she will understand that, so tjat shouldn't be stressing me. I have some things I need to get done for my youth group, but objectively they are all fairly simple.

So I come to the conclusion, that there is no one thing that causes my brains to wizz like mad, but rather perhaps a collection of things. It would be awesome if things were all simple, and peoples reactions were as predictable as a physics edperiment, or a piece of complex code. But unfortunately there is no debugger in the IDE of life, so we just have to put up with the occasional bug, and possibly create a work around. That's why life hacks are so popular. So if that is the case, then I will steal shamelessly from Douglas Adams, and say the answer to why my thoughts and brain are wizzing endlessly must be very simply, 42.

Pressure

Being under pressure sucks. That said, maybe I should have a look at my life, and realise that there is so much that doesn't suck for me right now, in fact I am really blessed. Even though I am feeling the pressure, how many people can say that they are doing their final year of a degree in physics and computer science, and aiming to be top of the class in all courses, and acting as class representative for three out of four classes? I have been given oportunities, I need only to make the most of them. Yes it is hard when I have four reports to write before Wednesday, and for one of them the data is dodgy. But over all, I have been given a chance not everyone will get.

I have had the priviledge of being a leader on a youth camp. Doing something I love, and making sure that everything keeps happening, and that everyone has everything that they need. It was great, we had a chance to minister to kids from all sorts of backgrounds, and I also, as a bit of a bonus, got to catch up with some friends who I don't see nearly enough of. It did chew about five days during which I could have been doing varsity work, but it was a sacrifice well worth making, even if it is adding to my pressure now.

As I feel the pressure groing inside of me, and start feeling more.and more like I'm going to explode, I start to write more in my journal, which leads me into praying more. And that leads me to realise just how blessed I am to be able to take everything to God in prayer, and know that he will be able to sort it out, and that He will make everything turn out good in the end. Even if I skrew up, Jesus is able to fix my mistakes, and has a plan for me. Romans 8:28 says "and we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose."

So as a conclusion to that, I suppose I can say, that even when it feels like the pressure is too much, I know that I am never alone, and that I have been blessed beyond what I would think to ask for if I was given the opportunity.