Bulletin I/2023

BULLETIN

Spring I/2023 Probba

www.probba.org

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In this issue

Table of CONTENTS 4

Editor's Note

5

President's Two Cents

6

New Year's Resolutions

12

Editor-in-Chief: An Editor: Saana Aho Publisher: Probba ry Printed at: Grano Oy Mikkeli Many thanks from the EIC to all who contributed to this Bulletin.

An

Otava Tuomi

Probba, NESU-Probba, Pentti, SkiBBA, Baba Beer Club

Greetings from KY Meeri Korpi, Henrik Asklöf

14

KYPÄ23: Martin Paasi

17

Exchange Stories

20

Helsingin Ekonomit

23

Baba's Kitchen

26

Humans of Aalto

28

What's Next: Our Upcoming Events

Martin Paasi, An, Otava Tuomi

Aida Helimäki, Elias, Yasmine Chu

Marjo Koistinen, Henni Hyvärinen

Alisa Kyyriäinen

Oleg Pavlov, An, Vu Ngoc Anh Babas

Editor's Note

A NON-EUROPEAN EIC

Editor's Note ...Half of the school year has flied away, and the spring break is almost at its prelude. Firstyear Babas suddenly realize they will not be "fuksi" anymore in a short time, second-year are wrestling hard with the thesis, while our exchange fellows are planning where to flee from Mikkeli during spring break. A lot of things are taking place right now in our campus, and I wouldn't hide the truth that I enjoy the atmosphere.

More than a year ago, back in my home country, I didn't think I would be here, enjoying this atmosphere. But I ended up being here, loving the country, the city I'm living in, as if life was trying to prove itself unexpectable. I picked up some Finnish class, and one of the very first sentences I learned to say was "Minä rakastan Suomea". In our cozy Mikkeli campus, I feel like everybody is a big family, especially when the Mikkeli songs are shouted out loud at the end of every Pentti, or the happiness I saw in third-year Babas when they came back to Mikkeli.

When the Baba alumni revisited their old school and talked about good memories, when the 10-year rendez-vous was written on the wall, all of a sudden thought I: What

4 | BULLETIN • MARCH 2023

"Once upon a time in Mikkeli..."

about us? Will we be like them after years?

We have spent spontaneous time here, got along with amazing people. As the new boards took over the charge, we promise to keep the student life in Mikkeli as lively as ever, like what our predecessors did. For my part, a person told me "your job is really hard...", and sometimes you will find me up and down in the campus hunting for Bulletin materials, but truthfully, I'm more than excited to bring all of that liveliness on our official magazine.

Trân trọng, EIC of Probba 23’ An.

President's Two Cents

President's Dear Babas,

I remember the first Wednesday evening of my time in Mikkeli. Everything was still new and exciting. From that moment more than half a year has passed. While everything is still exciting, some things are not the same anymore. Yes, I still find myself in the basement of the campus every Wednesday.

Yes, I still feel a little unwell during the lectures on Thursday mornings. However, an important part of student life in Mikkeli for nearly the past thirty years is missing.

The beginning of the year is a showcase for all of the new boards. While writing this text I’m trying to figure out what to wear on the first sits of the year organized by the NESUProbba board 23’. This week should also finally mark the exchange of the Skibba board, after which we’ll finally get to know who to challenge in weekly floorball and futsal.

I’m sure that I’m speaking for every one of us when I say that I’m excited to see what all the new boards will come up with this year.

Seeing how the beginning of the year has gone, I strongly believe that we will have an amazing year with lots of great events and activities to remember!

Best Regards, President of Probba 23’ Otava Tuomi

A VAAKUNA ENTHUSIAST PRESIDENT

For the first time since 2020, the beginning of the year has been as it used to be. Not only the ones in Mikkeli, but student associations and guilds everywhere around Finland are back to their usual operations. The beginning of the year has gone smoothly. Ribbon Skate successfully taught international students that ice is slippery, and during Career Day we learned that maybe we have a chance to get a real job someday.

Two Cents

Bar’n’Night Vaakuna closed its doors for the very last time on the 28th of January. After that, the Wednesday nights in Mikkeli have not been the same. No more “Vaakunaan!” shouts after Pentti, no more touching the disco ball. Only time will tell if Las Palmas is a worthy successor to the legend.

5 | BULLETIN • MARCH 2023

KEEP CALM AND

MEET THE NEW BOARDS

New Year's Resolutions

"I promise to never get tired of singing Sweet Caroline in karaoke."

-Otava Tuomi, President"I promise to be a real seventeen Dancing Queen."

-An, Editor in Chief"I promise to find an equilibrium with school-workleisure balance, where I keep up with everything important, and concurrently enjoy my student life the fullest."

-Anton Kattelus, Corporate Relations Representative-

Photo: Saana Aho

"I promise to stop baking at 12 am and start going to sleep earlier."

-Sasha Taranenko, Academic Affairs Coordinator"I promise to be sober enough at events so the pictures won’t turn out blurry."

-Saana Aho, Communication Coordinator"I promise not to avoid taxes."

-Masi Mahlamäki, Treasurer-

"I promise to keep GAB better than Sillis."

-Victoria Björkqvist, Master of Ceremonies-

"I promise to make sure all the exchange students get the pleasure of meeting Poika."

-Aida Helimäki, International Affairs Coordinator-

"I promise to get acquainted with the Vaakuna disco ball (This didn’t age well)."

-Emil Lindemann, Event Coordinator-

"I promise to not be late to everything (like submitting this resolution)."

-Emil Kautto, Project Coordinator7 | BULLETIN • MARCH 2023

New Year's Resolutions

Photo: Saana Aho

"I promise to make sure all the others fulfill their promises ;)."

-Emma Laaksonen, President-

"I promise to work my a** off just like my predecessors did" -Tilda Hyttinen, Vice President-

"I promise zero food poisonings and maximum hydration."

-Georgi Todorov, Project Coordinator-

"I promise to be loud and clear despite how drunk I get during sits."

-Milla Immonen, Communication Coordinator-

"I promise to make sure we have sick after parties despite the tragic loss of Vaakuna."

-Onni Peltola, Corporate Relations Representative-

"I promise to be less lost."

-Elias Salminen, Treasurer-

"I promise to give punishments you’ll remember regardless of your blackout."

-Julia Heikkilä, Toastmaster-

"I promise to try and not get banned from Puska."

-Ville Alén, Event Coordinator-

8 | BULLETIN • MARCH 2023

New Year's Resolutions

Photo: Saana Aho

"I promise to come up with as many new drinks as possible."

-Eemil Kautto-

"I promise to play bangers only."

-Saana Aho-

"I promise to mennä mun vahvuuksilla*."

-Lilian Pulli-

"I promise not to 'nap' at Pentti."

-Iina Ketola-

"I promise to go to Las Palmas at least once this year."

-Albert Jantunen-

"I promise to make as many vodka russians as possible."

-Milla Immonen-

*Drinking on the job 9 | BULLETIN • MARCH 2023

New Year's Resolutions

Photo: Saana Aho

"I promise to always be the better goalie."

-Matias Pitkänen, President-

"I promise to make my first goal in Säbä."

-Ella Suoninen, Event Coordinator-

"I promise to score all the penalties I take."

-Georgi Todorov, Coorporate Relations Representative-

"I promise to make more goals in futsal than other SkiBBA members."

-Liisa Saaranen, Treasurer-

"I promise to not miss 100% of the shots I take."

-Ville Alén, Communication Coordinator-

`0 | BULLETIN • MARCH 2023

New Year's Resolutions

Photo: Saana Aho

"We promise to provide every Probba students a possibility to explore the delicious world of different beers."

-BBC Board-

11 | BULLETIN • MARCH 2023

Greetings from KY

KY Grand Annual Ball Hi Probba and Babas!

On Saturday, March 4th, we celebrated KY’s 112th Annual Ball. During the evening we chatted with guests over cocktails, enjoyed inspiring speeches by our chair Rasmus and our alumni, and ended the evening with some traditional ball dances. We are so excited to get to know you all during this year! Our year has kicked off with amazing energy, and we are looking forward to all the mayhem of this spring!

Join us in Otaniemi to experience everything from sitzparties and career events to bar crawls <3 You can even follow our brand new TikTok @ky1911_ to get a look at our events and fun memes!

Probba at KY

12 | BULLETIN • MARCH 2023

GAB!

Greetings from KY

Greetings from Otaniemi, KY Board 2023

Written by Meeri Korpi Photos by Henrik Asklöf

KY WAPPU - THE WILDEST TIME OF THE YEAR

As the spring is around the corner, one special event is approaching… Naturally, it’s soon time to celebrate Wappu! Grab your dollar greens and experience the wildest time of the year with us ;) On the agenda, there’s something for everyone. Come play beer pong with KY-Beppo, enjoy the spring weather during the Kymppisuora -bar crawl or grab a KUJ puuhapullo and listen to artists during wapputerde! There might even be some new KY Wappu songs on the way… We are so excited to attend Mikkeli Road Trip! See you all there! <3

13 | BULLETIN • MARCH 2023

KYPÄ23: Martin Paasi

K

YPÄ23

In January, the legendary KYPÄ 2023, organized by Suomen Ekonomit, took place near the mesmerizing harbour of Helsinki with the attendance of the new Probba Board. What did we have in KYPÄ? Lavishing banquets, on-the-hype music, spontaneous Grand Sillis,... and an inspiring interview with Mr. Martin Paasi, who happens to be Chairman of the Board at Suomen Ekonomit.

Photo: Twitter @MartinPaasi

Martin Paasi • Extensive experience of leading financial organizations.

• Member of the Supervisory Board at Finnvera.

• Chairman of the Board at Suomen Ekonomit.

• Savings Economist at Nordnet Bank.

• Extensive media exposure (TV, Print, Radio) and host of the most successful business podcast in Finland.

• Former CEO of Amanda Capital Plc (now eQ Private Equity).

• Former CEO of East Capital Asset Management in Stockholm.

• Former CEO of Seligson & Co Fund Management.

• Established the first exchangetraded fund in Finland: the OMXH25 ETF. • Certified EFFAS Financial Analyst (CEFA), Master’s Degree in Economics.

14| BULLETIN • MARCH 2023

KYPÄ23: Martin Paasi In your opinion, what is the most important for being a leader or manager?

productivity growth. I believe there are several causes contributing to this problem.

Empathy. Everybody always keeps telling: you need to have a vision of what you want to accomplish, understand how to organize your troops, be structural and all that. But when it comes to difficult situations where somebody is unhappy and conflicts arise, empathy becomes extremely important for leaders today.

First, we have a big welfare expense. The costs are too high while the public sector is being inefficient. The public sector is always running less efficiently than the private sector, because the private sector works every day 24/7 trying to “do more with less". In the public sector you have little of this, so there's a lot of waste in that sense.

On top of that, I also think that leadership is changing as we’re speaking. In the past, the leader was supposed to be the one standing on a podium for everybody to look up to. But now, with the social media channels, you can expose your personal traits, create podcasts and have interviews like this. These channels become a tool to manage your company because they can deliver your message through. And by that means, leadership is changing from a very orthodox perspective to a closer approach. You have to lead more closely. You cannot maintain the same distance any longer, because people nowaday won't be led by you if you are like that.

Empathy can bring you closer to those you are leading.

❛Leadership is changing as we are speaking. Empathy can bring you closer to those you are leading.❜ And what do you think are the challenges businesses in Finland are facing nowadays?

The challenge that Finland is facing right now is basically stagnating productivity growth, meanwhile all economic growth stems from

The second challenge we have is the slowing birth rate. 5.5 million people is not enough and we are mismanaging immigration. You know the story of the Mongolian healthcare servant that didn't get the permission to stay in Finland for whatever the reason or for they suspected she had falsified something which wasn't true.

The immigration authorities really need to get this problem solved because we need more people into Finland to do what needs to be done.

And this is particularly true. The fact that we need more people into Finland is because we have a steep population pyramid: the great generations are becoming old and there's fewer and fewer people to take care of this welfare society. Foreign direct investment made into Finland is challenged by the slowing birth rate and we are mismanaging the amount of people coming to Finland to work. This is obviously not a good equation. We should roll out the carpet for people to come to Finland to study or work and we should have a pipeline that looks welcome. It is the correct word that you hear: this is your pipeline. More immigrants, less 15 | BULLETIN • MARCH 2023

KYPÄ23: Martin Paasi rules and bureaucracy, more permits, simpler permit procedures, more continuous politics.

Other than that we won't be able to manage the situation because soon we will be in shortage of people and of foreign direct investments, which is the fastest way to get the economy going down.

In terms of welcoming other people who come to Finland to work and study, I think that Finland has been much more open in recent years. From an education angle, for example, more and more international students are looking to Finland.

That is wonderful news. I have a podcast called Rahapodi, which is fairly successful in Finland; one of them is about criticism towards the way we have been mismanaging immigration.

However there are a lot of good fundamentals in Finland that we can build from; we just need more do-ers. And I also think that this sort of Nordic welfare state escalates from the public sector growing a little bit too big and then a little bit too little, and then a little bit too big again. Now we are in the turn where we really need to make it smaller for a change.

Robert Oppenheimer. His biography, which called American Prometheus, is extremely inspiring because they had written about a guy who is very interesting and was living in a very interesting time. And then they have done it, written the biography as objectively as ever possible.

And this biography from Oppenheimer has really inspired me; I always recommend it to everybody. That is one for certain, and there are others. John F. Kennedy.

He's also dead. I have to come to the living.

Schwarzkopf. He was a general during the Iraq wars. I like the clear cut, simple life of a military management style, in a sense, because it simplifies things, but it's obviously not applicable to all situations.

So it's like a sine curve.

Yes, a sine curve.

Photo: American Prometheus: The Triumph and Tragedy of J. Robert Oppenheimer by Kai Bird & Martin J. Sherwin

My last question is quite personal: who is the person that inspires you the most?

Well, this is a really tough one because I can't really say that there is one. I'm typically a collector in this sense and I would say that 16 | BULLETIN • MARCH 2023

Interview: An Recording: Otava Tuomi

Exchange Stories

From our IAC to the exchange students...

ello, all you lovely exchange students! I hope H your exchange term has started nicely and you have been enjoying the snowy Finland. I also hope you have been able to stay up on the icy streets while rushing to class and that you have enjoyed your fair share of Penttis and managed to still make it to class on most Thursdays (if not, hey that’s what the three absences are for).

downside. But not to worry the first signs of spring are finally starting to show as the days are getting longer and the sun is shining brighter.

Keep an eye out for the first flowers pushing through the icy ground as soon as the snow disappears. I hope you will enjoy the spring and all that it and Mikkeli has to offer. Together let’s make your time here unforgettable.

The Finnish winter can be beautiful, but the darkness that comes with it is for sure a

International Affair Coordinator Aida Helimäki 17 | BULLETIN • MARCH 2023

Exchange Stories Meet Elias, a guy from the beautiful city of Innsbruck, Austria, and an outdoor activity enjoyer. If you like mountains and all mountain-related sports, like skiing, hiking, and rock climbing, come to Elias and he might show you the way. Plus, he has spent 6 months studying in our campus, so surely he knows about Mikkeli more than the vast majority of the exchange students.

Elias, Austria What are your expectations before coming to Finland?

Well there were the obvious things: cold, dark, the people are kind but don't talk much and they drink to much. From the university, I expected a fresh energy and outlook in the university life and to meet cool new people and experience a previously unfamiliar country.

What is the craziest thing you have done in Finland so far?

The craziest thing was Mursulaiva just because of the whole insanity on that boat.

Running Baba was also very crazy and apart from that was probably sleeping on Helsinki train station because we hadn't booked an overnight stay after our night out.

18 | BULLETIN • MARCH 2023

What makes you surprised most about Finland?

Its very beautiful from a landscape point of view although I miss mountains. Especailly Lapland and the northernlights are amazing.

Final one (you might be interested in this): what do you think Finland should learn from your own country?

Drinking beer 😜 no just kidding. It's a good question indeed and difficult to answer because I think that Finnland is better than Austria in almost all relevant categories but one thing that come to my mind is that Austrians are very outgoing. You get to them easily and they treat you like a friend very quickly.

Exchange Stories If you go to Pentti some evening, you might crash into Yasmine, who is dancing passionately to the bar song on her own stage. Coming from a populous, busy place like Hong Kong, Yasmine has experienced a huge change when she moved to Mikkeli - a small and quiet town.

More surprisingly for her, this is her first time being in Europe. But it turns out to be not a bad decision at all...

What do you most enjoy doing in Mikkeli?

It’s definitely Pentti because for me it’s a chance to know people, both exchange and bachelor student. And I appreciate that Pentti is opened every Wednesday, which can let me to have some relax time in the mid week. And also I enjoy the Ribbon Skate a lot! I mean just because Mikkeli is so cold, then we’ve got the chance to skate. And I have so much fun in the activities.

What is the craziest thing you have done here so far?

Yasmine, Hong Kong home university focus more on theories and concepts. But in that course I can really handle a real case, that is very new to me.

And now I am having Data Visualisation and Storytelling in Business and it’s very useful too. I learn how to manage and present data and it benefits the communication in my future career What do you think Finland should learn from your own country?

Maybe it’s the big funnel to put alcohol in and drink (I’ve forgotten its name). For me it’s crazy to drink with that tool.

(Mark his majestic name: Poika.)

I don’t think I should use the word "learn" but the food in Hong Kong is much more delicious (no offence coz Finnish food also good, just make a comparison). And the transportation in Hong Kong is also better.

How do you feel about the program our campus provides?

Can you say something to the Baba students in your own language? I won't translate it!

My first course here is Business Consults in Global Economy. Before that I’ve never thought of learning business can be practical, since my

我愛你哋每一個💕 19 | BULLETIN • MARCH 2023

Helsingin Ekonomit

MARJO KOISTINEN FINLAND FROM THE 70s UNTIL TODAY Photo: Henni Hyvärinen

· Member of the Board of Helsingin Ekonomit 2022-2024 · Senior Lecturer in Finance, Laurea University of Applied Sciences 2015· Management Accounting, Tapiola insurance company 2001-2002 · Business Controller, Sonera Oyj 1999-2000 · Controller, BAT Nordic Oy 1997-1999 · Assistant Business Controller, ABB 1996-1997 · Master of Science in Economics (Accounting) 1996, Helsinki School of Economics · Hobbies: Orienteering since 1980 20 | BULLETIN • MARCH 2023

Helsingin Ekonomit

Finland from the 70s until today When I was a child in the 1970s, Finland was very different from today. I have seen the rise of Finland and also the deep depression of the 1990s. My childhood was very happy. I was very good at School and I was very active in hobbies and I have also been working part-time since I was 15. I still participate in orienteering competitions and the orienteering people are my second family. I love Finnish nature and forests.

The 1970s was a time of slow growth, when very few people got a loan and the basic loan interest rate was around 10% and the Finnish financial market was very closed. The largest exporting country and importing country was the Soviet Union. In the 80s, the Finnish financial market began to open and economic growth accelerated. The Bank of Finland opened the issue of foreign loans in 1986.

Foreign loans were available at a lower interest rate than Finnish loans, which were tied to the Bank of Finland's base rate. The markka was a fixed currency whose value was determined by the Finnish government and the Bank of Finland. Finland's economic growth was fast for almost ten years until 1989, when it was the peak of the boom and everyone was offered a loan, and above all foreign currency loans.

Money flowed into Finland and house prices rose quickly.

The year 1989 was significant, because the Berlin Wall fell, i.e. East Germany was united with West Germany, and a period of change and instability also began in the Soviet Union. This affected the decrease in Finnish exports and the rise in interest rates, as well as the increase in government debt. The banks had also taken foreign currency loans and the situation of the banks deteriorated. The Soviet Union collapsed in 1991, which further weakened Finnish exports and further deepened economic difficulties and depression.

Turn page 27 to read a professor's opinion on the USSR collapse from an economic angle

Apartment prices had risen rapidly in the late 80s. The housing bubble burst at the beginning of the 90s and housing prices collapsed as quickly as they had risen a couple of years earlier. The Bank of Finland forbade the banks to give loans anymore, because the banks' situation was critical. Many mortgage debtors had to sell their apartments at a much lower price, or the bank took over the apartment if no additional guarantees could be found.

The end result was the most shocking depression in Finland's recent history: unemployment rose to almost 20 percent, there were a huge number of bankruptcies.

Apartment prices collapsed and many individuals were left with loans, even though the apartment had gone to the bank. This was all too much for many people, and the saddest event in our history is the huge number of suicides at the turn of the 90s.

21 | BULLETIN • MARCH 2023

Helsingin Ekonomit

I graduated from Helsinki University of Economics and Business in 1996 with a master's degree in economics. We lived life after the recession and I got a job at ABB Service out of 250 applicants. My title was Assistant Business Controller and my task was to interview, train the excel budget base for ABB Service's service center managers and make a report and 12month rolling forecast using excel for the management team from the service centers located in different parts of Finland.

In 1997, the labor market began to open up after the recession of the 90s, and there were many jobs available. Next, I got the job of Controller at the BAT Nordic company, where I did a wide range of tasks related to budgeting, reporting, accounting, cash management and investing. I was also involved in the SAP R/3 project, where Finland was the first pilot country of a large international company.

Finnish Post and the telecommunications company were incorporated Post and Telephone operations were continued by Posti Group Oy and Sonera Oyj (Swedish Telia bought Sonera ). I started working in 1999 as a Business Controller in Sonery Oyj's Abacus Solutions unit. This time was a period of strong growth in the mobile phone business and the time is also called the time of the internet bubble. During the Internet bubble, many startup companies were born, whose goal was to develop mobile phone applications before the smartphone era. Abacus Solutions was sold to the Swedish company Triocom.

22 | BULLETIN • MARCH 2023

After the Internet bubble, I decided to switch to teaching. I worked 2002-2014 at Helsinki Business College. I was able to be the project leader in making a completely entrepreneurshipbased curriculum together with the management, Advisory Board and teachers. All teaching was linked to entrepreneurship, whether it was marketing, accounting, mathematics or languages. I started 2015 as a Lecturer of Finance at Laurea University of Applied Sciences. Laurea has a very positive entrepreneurial and project-based teaching pedagogy.

Written by: Marjo Koistinen

Babas' Kitchen

Slay your kitchen with

CINNAMON ROLLS Ingredients Milk (3/4 cup) Granulated sugar (1/4 cup) Quick-rise yeast (2+1/4 teaspoons) Butter (1/4 cup) Egg + egg yolk (1 each) Bread flour (3 cups) Brown sugar (2/3 cup) Cinnamon (1+1/2 tablespoons) Salt (3/4 teaspoon)

Instructions Step 1: Warm milk to around 43°C, then transfer it to a bowl and sprinkle yeast on top. Add in sugar, egg, egg yolk and melted butter. Mix until well combined. Next stir in flour and salt until a dough begins to form.

Step 2: Place dough hook on stand mixer and knead dough on medium speed for 8 minutes. Dough should form into a nice ball and be slightly sticky.

23 | BULLETIN • MARCH 2023

Babas' Kitchen Step 3: Transfer dough ball to a well-oiled bowl, cover with plastic wrap and a warm towel. Allow dough to rise for 1 hour to 1.5 hours, or until doubled in size.

Step 4: After dough has doubled in size, transfer dough to a well-floured surface and roll out. Spread softened butter over dough.

Step 5: In a small bowl, mix together brown sugar and cinnamon. Sprinkle mixture over the buttered dough, then rub the brown sugar mixture into the butter.

Step 6: Tightly roll dough up and cut.

Step 7: Place cinnamon rolls in a cake pan. Cover with plastic wrap and a warm towel and let rise again for 30-45 minutes.

Step 8: Preheat oven to 175°C. Remove plastic wrap and towel and bake cinnamon rolls for 20-25 minutes or until just slightly golden brown on the edges.

Photo: Alisa (Her cinnamon rolls are a thing you should try once in a lifetime!)

24 | BULLETIN • MARCH 2023

Humans of Aalto

Humans of Aalto: Professor Pavlov

❛... Studying economics is not a waste of time...❜ Oleg Pavlov Ph.D How do you think economics would be important for students?

How did you feel when you took a transition from your physics major to the economics?

Well, my thinking is that economics is extremely important because it's everywhere and you know, the progress is innovations, the progress is new technologies and so on. But at the same time, the reason that people invent, the reason that people implement, the reason that people go to work, it's all about economics. And so therefore it's really important to, I think, understand how economics work for everyone.

And we've been influenced by economic forces on a daily basis, so it's very helpful to have some framework on how to think about economic decision making and understand how the economic systems around us work.

In my case, I was in college back in the early 90s, and at that time there was a lot of big changes in the world: I grew up in the Soviet Union, and the Soviet Union fell apart at that time. And so I wanted to understand what happened, why the economy that had been working for so many years suddenly just stopped working. I wanted to study economics and I still finished physics, which I started. I went into physics because that's what I did in high school. So I was like on a physics kind of track. When I came to the United States, I adapted to continue studying physics. But then I was able to pick up computer science on the way because this was also developing kind of field rights at the time.

And once I finished, I was about to finish my undergraduate studies.

❛... it's all about economics..❜ 26 | BULLETIN • MARCH 2023

Humans of Aalto Then I asked myself what I would like to do next, and the answer was I would like to do something else. The opportunity cost of doing physics was too high for me because I wanted to understand more about the social world, about economics, about how countries work. And physics was not providing those answers for me.

And so even though I loved physics, I loved computer science, but I wanted to do something else, at least for the next few years.

And so that's why I applied for graduate school in economics. But at the same time, I did use the maths that I learned in physics. I did use the computer skills that I learned while being computer science major for studying economics.

So after years digging into economics, have you found the answer to your initial questions about the economy that had been working so well for years suddenly collapsed?

Good question. I think now I understand better how the system works. To some extent it's a curse because now you see the forces, what people try to achieve and you understand those very often things happen. Economies don't work well not because, for example, people don't know how to do good economics and how to develop, but because it benefits somebody else maybe. And so certain policies just would not be implemented because again, it's against some interests. It's not only difficult to know what needs to be done, but also how to implement it. For example, one of the things that economists agree is that there's no need for hunger anymore. We have enough capacity to grow enough food for everybody to be fed. But still there's hunger in the world. And all this

hunger very often are the result of maybe some supply chain issues, wars, disasters. We can solve those problems, but we just cannot organize ourselves to solve those problems. But at least I feel like I have the tools that I can look at the particular problem and I have some kind of pathway. I can see the pathway to solve a particular problem.

Can you give some book recommendations for the students who are interested in economics?

I would highly recommend The World Is Flat.

I thought that was a great book and so that described how outsourcing occurred in the United States. But there are tons of good books and if I may plug my own book. We’ve just published a book called Feedback Economics.

Economics which basically takes a systems approach to economics and the kind of diagram that I showed you in class - the “spaghetti” diagram. So that type of approach to economic problems is still a relatively new approach, but hopefully it's going to come up. And I think it's very powerful because we understand that economies have lots of reinforcing feedback loops and also balancing feedback loops because there's lots of resistance to change which are balancing loops in the economy. Therefore in that book we try to bring that analysis of complexities and unintended consequences into economic analysis. So hopefully, if we use that type of analysis, we'll be more cognizant, more mindful of potential disasters that are coming, like the 2007-2008 financial crisis.

Interview: An Photo: Vu Ngoc Anh 27 | BULLETIN • MARCH 2023

What's Next: Our Upcoming Events

Ribbon Skate

Feb

"Sledding to your dm" Sits

Mar

Flipcup Tournament

Apr

Thesis Sits Mikkeli Road Trip Wappu

June

Graduation Möbba

Jul

Mikkeli Boat Trip Summer Sits

Aug

O-Week

Sep

Mikkelin YritysApprot

Oct

Babeing Week

Nov

Grand Annual Ball Grand Sillis

28 | BULLETIN • MARCH 2023

We are here!