Lazy week that included some risks and less motivation

Hello again. This week was lazier than the ones before. We started to plan our Minecraft Vantaa-project and Aida Hubanic was lecturing at school. I also had a meeting with our SAE group which was enlightening. This week also included lots of free time and ice hockey. But first, let's start with the Minecraft Vantaa project.


We got our task from Lari Aho who represented Vantaa. He wants us to make a video where we play Minecraft in the map of Vantaa. We are allowed and actually required to make changes that makes people want to play the map of Vantaa. Thea idea is that having an interesting map of Vantaa tempts tourists to visit there in real life, and possibly attracts people to move to Vantaa. The task sounded a bit weird at first, but actually it isn't that bad of an idea. If the Minecraft map boosts economics of the city, it is a great investment since it doesn't cost anything to build a map in Minecraft. We started our planning but we couldn't play the game yet. We came up with a few good ideas but I am not going to tell about those yet, obviously. I am not really interested in this project, and thus I'll tell you about something else.

Aida Hubanic came on Friday to tell her story and give us a motivation lecture. Her story was touching and almost made me cry. She said that her family left her home country because of war. Nobody wants to fear for their own life or loose family members. That is why I also don't like war in any typical way. I don't like how people worship war or killing other people. Any war is unnecessary. I think that every conflict can be solved with talking. Two people arguing doesn't have to end by insulting and punching each other. Gang fights and wars are just multiple people not capable of discussing like grown ups. If I end up arguing with my friends, I'll try to calm down and ask myself "Why am I upset? Why does this concern me?". It is impossible to settle anything when feelings are strong. War is the wrong way to solve anything. War is just unacceptable when trying to benefit from something. I don't like the way USA fights in almost every possible war. If there is oil, there are US troops also. Wars have killed so many families and I wouldn't want to loose my family members or see anybody else encounter the same as thousands of people do everyday.  I wouldn't be afraid to use violence if it protects me or my family, but that shouldn't be the only way to argue. Ever.

Aida gave us also a motivation lecture, but I am not really fan of those. I know what I am capable of and I know how to motivate myself. Aida was a really good lecturer, but not all the topics were interesting to me. However, she gave few tips that got me all ears. When deciding if one should for example participate in a extra school project,  possible ending options should be evaluated. Three different things should be considered. First one is worst case scenario. What could happen if one fails miserably. Are you going to loose your job? Is it dangerous?
Second step is to think about best case scenario. Are you making somebody happy? Could you learn something new?
The most important step is to speculate the most likely scenario.

Aida lecturing

Let's take an example. Winter is coming and you can't trust the bus schedules anymore. You have to meet an important client at work and you can't be late. You should be at work at 10:15 and with your usual bus you're there at 10:10. The next bus is too late and the earlier leaves 10 minutes earlier and you'd be at work at 10:02. Taking the same bus as always might be too late since the bus might be late, but you don't want to wake up earlier than you need to. What to do?
Taking the same bus as always: Worst case scenario is that you're late and upset client and boss might not trust you anymore. Best case scenario is that bus is on time and nothing special happens. 10 extra minutes of sleep. YAY! Most likely scenario is the tough one. Sometimes the bus is late, and everything is ruined if you are in a hurry. But it might be on time. Is it worth the risk?
Taking the earlier bus: Worst case scenario in this situation is that earlier bus is late but your usual bus is on time and no harm happens. Just 10 minutes less sleep than usually which sucks.
Best case scenario is nothing special. You're earlier at work than usually and you have time to chat with your co-workers.
Most likely scenario is that your usual bus is late, but it doesn't matter since you take the earlier bus. Or the earlier bus is late, but you're still on time at work.

What does this mean then? Long text about choosing the right bus, nothing special. Wrong!
Making the right decisions is crucial. Especially if the end result might be vital. 10 extra minutes for the risk of loosing your job because of unhappy clients is not worth the risk. Sometimes you are even able to count with numbers how possible each risk or possibility is. Return% in Lotto is only 41,1% which is not worth the risk. When you have more to win than to loose, go for it. For a poor student like me, money is essential. I want to buy new shoes and games but there is other things that I need money for. Which is the thing I should spend my money on? My biggest single investment ever was Svante. We split the price but it still was a huge amount of money for a young adult. Was it worth it? Absolutely! I have never been happier in my life. If I'd have to choose between another dog and travelling abroad, I wouldn't even blink when choosing. Difficult part would be choosing the name. But this is just my opinion.


Another interesting thing Aida told us was brand association. I like to use examples so here comes another one. I want to set up my own company someday. I don't want to compete by price. I want to make remarkable products to people who need the products i make. I don't want to sell lies or bad quality to my clients. When choosing business partners, I should make decision based on my company's values. If my business association's values are really different, my clients might not like our collaboration. If I claim to sell products that are not made by children or slaves and my material provider gets caught using child labor, my clients wouldn't be happy. Therefore company's should choose wisely who they are working with. I see myself as a responsible consumer because I buy organic food as often as possible and I avoid buying anything from companies that use child labor or almost like slavery labor. For me it would be a shock if my favorite brand would get caught of paying bribes (like United Fruit Company/Chiquita) or stealing somebody else's idea (Avril Lavigne's boyfriend song is a copy or Kirka wouldn't approve this).

On Saturday I had an ice hockey game at 7:45 which was awfully early to anybody! I played really well and it was fun to be at home before Miia and Svante came from their morning walk. 36 hours of rest and then another game will begin. I like to compete, but I don't think my old team mates have fully recovered from the previous game. Anyway, a fun weekend is soon ending and I am waiting for an exciting week to start. I had time to write another extra blog post and hopefully I will post it soon. Blogging is thrilling since it also helps me to remember what I've learnt and it helps me to find different kinds of perspectives. Aida reminded us to figure out what is our best motivator. For me, I am my own motivator, but also my family helps me to motivate myself really well. In the last photo is my dangerous fox who likes to motivate me to wake up earlier than I want to. It works awfully well...