The Insider - June 2019

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Special thanks to Morten Hansen, Christopher Rieber, Linas Bagdonas, Nikita Stepanovs, ElÄŤna Jekale, Oleksandr Kononchuk, the SA board, and Dana Supe!

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Morten’s column Thus spoke the librarian Our favourite moments Teaspoon of semi-random AI talk Neutral waters iFund Don’t stagnate during the summer What your coffee source says about you Changing changes Self-reflection Park review Mental exhaustion quiz ( ͡° ͜ʖ ͡°)

the insider team

Daniela Gerda Baranova Luiss Martins Rozentāls Ieva Marija Vītoliņa Terēze Vītoliņa Hleb Birylau Valeria Toncovidova Oskars Ludbāržs Paula Līva Matuzeviča Ēriks Kasparenoks Austėja Denisovaitė Vakhtang Ivechiani

Editor-in-chief Creative Director Designer Senior Editor Senior Editor Senior Editor Senior Editor Editor Editor Editor Meme Lord

Dear readers, As this is the last issue of this semester we wanted to guide you into the summer and guide our dear Y3 out of here.

To come back next semester and provide Y3 with the correct manners of writing gossips check what the librarian has to say. For some potential future warnings find the article from Mr. Morten Hansen.

Maybe you can find yourself in the section of favourite moments since the last Insider issue? After that, you can find our take on explaining what AI is. But if you feel like you have not grown up yet, you can find some calming and guiding essence of neutral waters. However, if you are interested in what people find in finance that is so compelling, read the interview with the chair of IFUND Yes, yes, yes, you get a poster for this issue, as we promised!

get that will fit you most! An intro for - how to build up some skills or how to develop yourself during the summer (besides in your work/ internship) can be found too. How to cope with changing and changes in your life could be a nice goodbye letter to Y3 and for all of us to enter the next year… Two examples of self-reflection and a guide of how to do one might also be a great finish line of this academic year. However, if you have always wanted to study in a park, but have not yet found the best one for yourself, we reviewed some of Riga’s parks for you. But to be real - we all are exhausted and kind of desperately seeking to finally step over the finish line of this year - take the mental exhaustion quiz in order to know how actually exhausted are you. And to finish off, of course, the usual memes and gossips can be seen in the end!

After the great poster, you can finally find a full review of the best coffee around here - now you can

Have a great summer!

With love, The Insider

Vadims Guskovs Sports Committee

Mareks Pielas Information committee

Did an amazing job with the Tet Riga Marathon, a great team player and can perform a Slam Dunk.

Always shows diligence, notably contributed to the creation of the Yearbook

Anastasija Grigorjeva Alumni coordinator

Aleksandra Bodrova Event Committee

Took a lot of burdens during the organization of Alumni update session

Ensured activities for the latest parties, was very enthusiastic to do her work and generated new creative ideas

Enija Gulbe Business Committee

Kristīne Kastanovska Education committee

The secret Chairperson of Bus Com

Very reliable and runs evaluations super efficiently

Enija Gulbe Event Committee

Luiss Martins Rozentāls IT Committee

Works hard from preparations before the event until cleaning after the event, always ready to help and do more than is asked

Has shown exceptional creativity and initiative taking

Klāvs Dinters Business Committee Can summon both the Sun and the Carrot people at will

Rūta Ozoliņa Education committee Active and positive team member, put a lot of effort in Tea Time with Morten organization

Bubble, bubble; bubble-trouble

By Morten Hansen The Insider wants to be friendly to our soon-departing Y3 and has asked me to list potential warnings (of an economic kind; there are plenty of non-economic ones, too) out there in real life.

Most of the economies represented at SSE Riga do not exhibit serious imbalances but there will always be parts of the economy where some frenzy takes place, typically driven by novelty, big profit opportunities, herding behavior, lack of information (due to novelty) and irrationality (“I am smarter than other market participants”).

6 / THE INSIDER

The big example of the late 1990s was the dot.com bubble: The internet was new and there was a feeling that, hey! – everything can be sold via the internet. Firms popped up, got valuations in the billions, burned cash at dizzying speed and fell from the sky when people realized that not everything sells better via the internet. In the mid-2000s we had a real estate bubble in many countries: “Real estate prices can only go up!” was the mantra – until they fell drastically with the financial crisis. And do I really have to go into the crypto-mania? I mean, it is so yesterday…

all the FinTech startups survive? No way! Some will make a tonne of money, some will crash.

But start looking out for the next one; potentially the biggest of them all: With climate change seemingly being all the hype these days, expect technology firms offering solutions to these changes to get valuations in the zillions. This is the sector where I expect the emergence of people who will make Jeff Bezos and Bill Gates look poor by comparison.

While many others, obviously, will crash and burn by trying.

New technologies emerge, new Today’s bubble is FinTech – many markets emerge, new opportunities SSE Rigans are involved in that emerge – but the outcome is sector, not least in Lithuania. Great invariably the same. prospects? Sure! Do we know what FinTech can deliver? Hmmm…. Will Good luck!

Thus spoke the librarian

By Christopher Rieber The Insider has asked me whether or not it would be a good idea to continue the Gossip column at the back of the magazine. I strongly suspect no one would pick up the Insider without the Gossip column, so the answer is obvious, they should continue the column.

However, we can certainly explore how to improve the column. In order to do so, I will review a few choice nuggets from past issues as well as offer my guidance for writing good gossip. Let’s peruse a few recently published gossips together: “They say that: Many guys during FE that there is such thing as shower.”

Um…what you trying to say and in what language are you trying to say it? I think this is a joke about a general lack of hygiene during FE. That’s a fairly old joke.

“They say that: There are two things that Y2 love about Easter-no more FE and no more [name redacted]’s comments.” Ok listen, if you’re going to make fun of someone, at least have the decency to do it with proper grammar, otherwise you are saying more about you than about your intended victim.

“They say that: [name redacted] is squatgoals.” Hmmm, I think this is actually meant as a compliment.

However, the word squat, taken out of context, is pretty jarring, so I really hope the writer considered whether the object of his or her gossip would have appreciated it.

“They say that: [name redacted], everyone hates you!” Just plain bitchy.

shouldn’t be mean, or even cruel. This is certainly not a call for censorship.

After all, I’m the guy who while at university convinced ten people to dress up as a fellow student we found obnoxious for the Halloween social (don’t do this…). What I’m saying is, you should think long and hard about how cruel you want to be. Some things, at least to me, seem clearly out of bounds: outing someone’s sexuality, anonymously accusing someone of breaking a law or rule without them being able to respond, or stupid jokes. That still leaves a lot of room to be funny and mean. Or, you might even try an anonymous compliment—those seem to generate the most heat when they are published.

engaging in questionable grooming habits too close to the windows.”

Ahh, that’s more like it. Here the victim is anonymized, which is only fair; there are lots of windows in the library, each equally visible from the SSER building. The vulgar reference to a particular nasty habit has been rendered unnecessary by substituting a more ambiguous phrase that gives play to the reader’s own florid imagination. Also, bonus points for the Herbert Spencer reference.

And that, dear children, is how you write a good gossip. Keep it classy, clean up your grammar, and be mean only when you mean it.

Remember, the most important rule of gossip is that that it says more Now, let’s construct a good gossip about the gossiper than the victim. together so you can have a better feel for the process. Here’s the first pass: “Eww! If you look out the window across at the Wallenberg Bldg., you can see the librarian in his office picking his nose!” Ok, what do we have here? We want to poke gentle fun at the librarian whilst alerting him to the fact that his office is a fishbowl visible from any upper-floor window in the courtyard. So let’s assume the facts are correct; this version is kind of the brute-force method. There’s no way for the intended victim to hide and the language is more appropriate to the grade school playground than a university. Let’s try again.

Second iteration: “The view afforded by looking across the yard at the librarian’s office reminds me of going to the zoo.” Here the language is better and the particular offense isn’t mentioned. The zoo dig is nasty: zoo animals get up to far worse than nose-picking in full view of the public. Just what could the librarian be doing?

Third iteration: “The panoptical quality of the Wallenberg building Look, I’m not saying that gossips should give one pause before THE INSIDER / 7

Our favourite moments since the last issue By the Student Association

Our boys did some football

Morten chose his favourite memes

The tragic fate of the trampoline after two Estonians decided to jump on it during the Sparkling night event

Our boiz were also the greatest at water polo!

“This was the most interesting 4h lecture at SSER I’ve ever had, can’t believe it was about sex” – a Y2 student.

8 / THE INSIDER

Teaspoon of semirandom AI talk

By Hleb Birylau

AI is a hot topic. Supposedly. Kind of? Used to be one in 2017? Still is hot af and gonna revolutionize the world in no time? Will be a subject of a new course in SSER? I have no clue as to how to answer these questions, except for the last one, and I’m not going to. Instead, let’s try to understand what current AI is and what it is not by looking at it core principles and a bit of math underneath the hood - and don’t worry, I’m gonna be gentle with the equations (mostly because I don’t go very deep on technicalities myself even when I’m home alone).

Let’s say you need to write an essay for Intro to Academic Studies.

However, you’ve got to write your essay in Mongolian - and with no dictionary/Internet access.

You know how to press buttons on your laptop’s keyboard to produce Mongolian words for some reason, but you’ve got no idea as to in which order the words should appear on the screen. Also, you have an almost infinite amount of time to complete the task (would be great, right?), and there is a cyber-Chris riding a steppe horse to check your almostinfinite number of essays just as they are coming. How are you gonna get a pass?

Little choice you have other than start slamming on the keyboard with all of your ten useless non-nomadic fingers. You write some random gibberish, send it to the cyber-Chris and get the very predictable 0 points. Familiar? Maybe, but that’s a digression. What is important is that at some point you will start getting not zeroes but some actual marks within the range of 0 to 10. It would be very nice if cyber-Chris provided you with some insights about which words and sequences increase the score that you’re awarded with - it will make sense for you to start using them more and more often.

randomness. Most likely, the words in your essay will start comprising actual sentences; besides, you’re quite likely to start employing linking structures. At any rate, of course, to actually produce something meaningful you’ll have to spend a tremendous amount of time - but it doesn’t matter for the purposes of the analogy that I’m making.

Remember, you’re not limited in this regard; and the cyber-Chris needs no rest.

As you have probably guessed, this process is a very rough approximation of what’s happening inside of the majority of the various algorithms and neural networks and other smart stuff of today. Like, really rough, but I think that it helps to get one of the most important points across - there is not much “intelligence” in the whole process.

Some people from the field are actually very upset about the wording used to describe what they are doing - mainly because it creates an unnecessary hype about all of the things and gives the scifyish feeling to the, in practice, quite boring matrix multiplications (on the other hand, they are much less reluctant to call it AI when it comes to raising funds for their startups).

In the analogy one can spot many of the important concepts of modern AI technologies: lots of trial and error (made possible by advances in processing speed and availability of data); the overall lack of understanding what really is going on inside and pattern recognition - which is the new thing, which is why there has been so much talk about all of the AI-related stuff since approximately 2014. It’s very easy to make computers do calculations; it’s also easy to make them understand commands that look like “If this number is X than do action A, otherwise do action B”.

As this process lasts long enough, You’ve probably seen quite a lot of some patterns will arise from the such things in your informatics class THE INSIDER / 9

at school. However, the problem of the real world is its complexity and the varying nature of the information that’s perceived by your eyes.

what if the lightning is not the same, and, finally, just look at the mess of an animal that is on the leftmost image - how in the sweet heavenly name of our lord-saviour Jesus How would a calculator understand Christ would you recognize a feline that there is a cat on an image? in it, when you can’t actually see it?

Remember that all of the images in the memory of a computer are Computers have predictably been just sequences of numbers, nothing very bad at pattern recognition, up more. There is no “whole picture” to the point when some clever folks for our metaloplastic friend, the only started employing the cyber-Chris to thing it ever sees are arrays of zeros train their machines, and did some and ones. Moreover, this sequences of the other highly intelligent stuff, represent hundreds of different namely the multi-layered structure, conditions under which, let’s say, the basis for what’s called “deep a photo was taken. Compare these learning”. two pictures: Look at the leftmost cat once more.

One of the very catish things that we can see are the paws - actually, we can hardly doubt that this is a cat after observing the very recognizable configuration of the animal’s limbs.

Our perception, according to people who know more about it than I do, works in a more or less this way - we notice distinct features of objects: shapes, texture, etc; and then put them together to conclude what it is that we are faced with.

If a computer were able to recognize those distinct features, it would be much easier to get it to actually understand what’s there on the images.

Cats on both of them, right? Now imagine what a pain in the ass it would be to create an exact rule for your PC to follow in order to establish that there are cats on both of these pictures. “Pixel number 456 in the 245 row should be of colour code #132S2, pixel number 457 in the same row should be...”? Doesn’t seem to be very effective. After all, what if the cat is of different colour; 10 / THE INSIDER

of neighboring pixels. What is done to the poor computers is spreading their pattern-recognition process into layers. Firstly, the program looks at the raw data (let’s say a picture in the form of numbers that correspond to particular pixels). Second, it puts together some very basic patterns into more complex ones. Finally, it takes all of the patterns (not in the sense that it actually understands what happens; it’s just a lot of multiplication) and makes the final decision.

Imagine several rows of interconnected light bulbs. Lamps from the first row are signed “vertical line in the middle”, “horizontal line to the left”, “a circle in the bottom”; and they go off if there is a corresponding pattern (basically, the expected combinations of certain values of certain pixels) observed. The next row’s activation depends on the combinations of shining lamps on the first row; and so on till we reach the final decision about the actual number. If there are two circles in the bottom and in the upper part of the image, it’s fairly reasonable to conclude that there might be an “eight” in front of us.

Of course, we still cannot be bothered to manually hard-code these elementary features into our computers; instead, we just give them a bunch of layers to work with and show them millions of correctly labeled images. Here’s a cat, here’s one more cat, wow - there is another cat. The computer tries to guess what’s there on them - and when it gets stuff wrong, the cyber-Chris comes and shows it what’s not good and how they should restructure themselves to recognize cats better - basically, to which shining lamps they should pay more attention and what should make the lamps switch on.

I’ll go deeper on it with another example - recognizing handwritten digits. This task is easier than cats but still helluva hard for conventional programs - and it helps to demonstrate the point. Number nine consists of distinct elements: a circle on the top and a vertical line on the bottom. Deciphering that there is a small element on the picture is much easier than recognizing the whole object - in fact, you could probably approximate a somewhat precise rule for detecting simple lines. For a cat we can think of borders of its body - and not in terms of actual color codes, but in Of course, the actual neural terms of the differences in brightness networks that work in your Huawei

camera or Google Assistant do more twisted things - there’s hardly a limit to people’s creativity in this aspect. But they are not complex enough to really suspect any sign of intelligence in the systems that we create today. This is all just fancy matrix multiplication and derivatives; optimisations of completely soulless functions. And, I hope, you really spot that the general stuff described can be applied to many things: need to process the speech into text? Just feed the cyber-Chris with lots of tries and utilise as much pre-labeled data as possible. Want to play chess as a God? Make the thing play with itself each time getting better of random changes; just don’t forget to make the structure multilayered enough.

AI probably is coming to beat the shit out of our self-esteem. It has already done so in Chess and Go. The funniest thing about it is how actually non-mystical it all turns out to be.

Essentially, the intelligence that we already cannot outperform in certain areas of life is just the result of pushing a square brick through a round hole by beating it with a hammer millions of times.

from numpy import exp, array, random, dot class NeuralNetwork(): def __init__(self): random.seed(1) self.synaptic_weights = 2 * random.random((3, 1)) - 1 def __sigmoid(self, x): return 1 / (1 + exp(-x)) def __sigmoid_derivative(self, x): return x * (1 - x)

def train(self, training_set_inputs, training_set_outputs, nu for iteration in xrange(number_of_training_iterations): output = self.think(training_set_inputs) error = training_set_outputs - output

adjustment = dot(training_set_inputs.T, error * self. self.synaptic_weights += adjustment

def think(self, inputs): return self.__sigmoid(dot(inputs, self.synaptic_weights

if __name__ == “__main__”: neural_network = NeuralNetwork() print “Random starting synaptic weights: “ print neural_network.synaptic_weights

training_set_inputs = array([[0, 0, 1], [1, 1, 1], [1, 0, 1], [0, 1, training_set_outputs = array([[0, 1, 1, 0]]).T

neural_network.train(training_set_inputs, training_set_ou print “New synaptic weights after training: “ print neural_network.synaptic_weights print “Considering new situation [1, 0, 0] -> ?: “ print neural_network.think(array([1, 0, 0]))

Neutral waters

with other adults. They drink coffee, point at graphs, and keep mumbling reasonable nonsense to each other.

By Valeria Toncovidova If you want to find a bigger pack You ever go by your day peacefully, of adults in the wild check out your and suddenly realize you are about local Rimi on any weekday after to enroll in full adulthood? Each 18:00 or on Sundays. If you see time I see my peers doing extremely ridiculously big queues of people adult shit – like buying yourself a with ridiculously repetitive groceries knife-holder - I can’t but think that patterns, then you are looking at oh no, they are adulting; I’m the next adults. one in line. New responsibilities are crawling closer and closer, and it have spent some time starring gets harder and harder to keep a absolutely non-creepily at those straight face. It becomes clear that magnificent beasts in random I can’t go on the same way I went places, and now I feel like an expert up till now, but it does not become in adulthood. From my observations, clear enough what is the new best I figured out what the unifying theme of adulthood is. It is neutrality! fitting strategy.

Look at it closer and tell me you Childhood sensations and simple don’t notice the official pattern of vivid colors have long faded away, being neutral in literally everything. harsh teenage contrasts quickly lost Neutral outfits, neutral captions to their once unquestioned universality. your pictures, neutral consumption I have to keep on painting whatever habits. Your e-mails, your humour, I decide I am meant to paint, but even your emotions – everything now it feels like somebody changed should look somewhat neutral to the rules. I am allowed to keep pass as an adult thing. Neutral things on feeling, thinking and building look professional and smart, and, memories, but I should do a lot of most importantly, they do not scare things in a new way. Do it in the other adults away. Neutrality signals that you got your shit together even adult way. better than the briefcase does.

The adult way - vague instructions with a lot of grey area left.

What was it, something about decisions, consequences, taking full responsibility for yourself? And a brief addition on painkillers and monthly bills in the footnotes? In essence, adulthood is just a lot of smartly glued together common sense that everybody has to pretend to have mastered from A to Z. You will always recognize an adult when you see it. They have a suit, use PowerPoint, and look as if they know what the hell they are doing.

The main must-have of adulthood is a very smart and very business briefcase that is to be carried around wherever you go no matter what.

Adults frolic around their offices 12 / THE INSIDER

Breaking it down to one unifying theme spares you of going through long lists of rules and specifications.

It is easy to grasp: you keep on painting your picture, you just switch to more neutral tones now. You put aside the loud avant-garde practices and from now on use bright accents only occasionally and wisely.

Shortest adulthood tutorial ever.

Suddenly now, when standing at the edge of the introductory part of my youth, stepping forward into the neutral zone of adulthood does not seem exciting at all. I don’t feel comfortable with the thought of switching gears so radically. After all, is it just a natural beneficial change or is it self-betrayal? Why should I stay serious and say neutral

stuff when I am the least neutral person in the room? When did that become authentic? I don’t want me toned down, I don’t want me tailored.

There is nothing genuinely bad with the way I am, or with the way anyone else is. We learned to accept our differences moderately well, can’t we keep them in plain sight? While I would not want to end up in a world where everyone blindly copypasted a default personality, I still can see a reason to leash some of my outlier traits periodically. See, even if we convincingly pretend to have accepted that everyone is different, we still get angry when we clash into somebody from the other side. We enjoy staying strong on our grounds, but we don’t like strong opinions of others. We can – hopefully – respect and get curious about things on the opposite side, but we can’t escape disliking stranger thinking. A couple of conflicting opinions or noticeably different lifestyles are enough to spin the wheel of mutual judgement and prejudice. If you are lucky and things escalate quickly enough, you might even end up making new exciting enemies for life!

The problem is, as adults we are not always out there to do what we like.

Neither are we likely to collaborate exclusively with people of our kind.

We will have to accomplish things without the luxury to flock together only with those whom we like.

Forgive me for bringing Business and Leadership vibes here, but we can’t escape teamwork. And inevitably we will find ourselves trapped with jerks in the middle of an important deal. Our personal disputes, likes, dislikes, and whims won’t change the weather. We can aggressively hash things out with our new favorite foes, but nothing beyond our emotional fields is likely to move an inch. Big things do not care whether we like each other or not. That’s the beauty of the big things, they go

beyond personalities, even beyond the biggest ones.

through these lenses. Don’t look at neutrality as if it is a lame trait that you have to cultivate against your This is where adult neutrality comes will. Try to see it as a fool-proof tool in play to save us time. If we agree to avoid unnecessary hate. to play it neutral, we won’t find out whether we truly like each other This is not to say that I advocate or not. But we also don’t need to to always go for neutrality, God know it. Neutrality covers us under forbid. There are times when we a veil of mutual ignorance for all should conflict. There are times to the annoying differences we have. I make controversial statements, there won’t know your authentic self in full are times to take sides. There are glory, thus, I won’t have any clear- times when we should not seek to cut irrational reasons to hate on you. like each other no matter what. As If you agree to play along with this adults, we will have to intervene in neutral game, I will picture whatever the Big Everything, and there 9/10 covered in the most favorable light. times it will be smarter to keep If the professional part of adulthood neutral. However, when intervening frustrates you, try looking at it as adults in our own life, neutrality

is the best way to ensure a string of blank pages flashing before your eyes on the deathbed. The sparkiest moments of our life will actively demand to leave aside our neutrality.

We cannot make close friends or bound in love by showing constant neutrality. Mutual ignorance under the veil of neutrality is only good for building things, it cannot grow personalities, build connections or ignite any bright feelings. Neutrality is a tool for things, it is not suitable for people.

The structure needs neutrality. The essence must be bold. Consider staying neutral for the smart big things. Be brave to never stay neutral.

the problem is, as adults we are not always out there to do what we like.

Be brave to never stay neutral when it comes to the most important things.

How is it to be the chief of a student organization?

By iFund

to go bigger (in terms of career).

And as well - don’t forget to give something back. Philanthropy in my life is a huge thing and one should always be thankful to everyone.

Arvils: How hard was it to manage being the organization chief with studies at SSE Riga?

A: Let’s talk about your goals for the next years, what have you planned or what are your expectations?

Linas: Well in this kind of university – heavily focused on academia – it’s quite difficult even to study here.

As well as combining with other activities, such as extra-curricular activities, managing IFUND, was tough. And some things were sacrificed, for instance, several courses were sacrificed and I’m going to have to retake them once again next year. Overall, it’s quite tough, quite challenging, but in the end, when you expect some sort of reward it’s partially rewarding if you are people-focused because, in the end, you give value to the community.

L: Ok, so my personal goals are very much related to my career goals. I will have an ACI dealing certificate exam in a month in order to be certified enough to work in money markets, I’m going to pursue CFA of 1st level during year 3, and soon I will be starting my preparation for GMAT to take the exam in August because I want to go to for Masters’ after SSE. So, basically, I will not stop learning, I will continue learning, I will go for Masters’ somewhere, hopefully in Paris, hopefully somewhere else if not there – some well-recognized university because that’s the best way how to get to top tier banks.

I will continue development, you know, reading books and so on because I do think that (and I’m sticking to this idea quite strongly) that for students and young people, what gives most value when they are young is reading a lot of books, being interested in many things, and just educating yourself in as many ways as possible. Several people have told me “you have to work your ass off and then you are going to learn, and then you’re going to enjoy the life”. In my opinion, it is going to pay off as much as you put A: Do you think that the current effort into it - so, I’m going to work organizations are becoming or are hard. already old-fashioned and maybe something should be changed?

A: What was most challenging during this year - being a chief?

L: Yeah… I do think that there is a problem. I don’t know the exact L: Well, the most challenging thing number we have here in SSE Riga, but was to overcome myself because I many organizations are not doing do find myself as an introvert person. much because it’s very difficult to It’s not really easy to say: “let’s meet combine studies and new initiatives. up”, “let’s have a meeting”, “let’s We have new organizations gather up”. Basically, you have appearing but there is not much of

A: What was your motivation when you decided to apply for this position?

L: My main motivation initially (even coming to SSE} was to manage the portfolio. However, I discovered the portfolio is non-existent, so my motivation was to bring it back again and to encourage students to be involved in investing and trading more because I was very passionate about trading. I started trading when I got my permission from the bank - as soon as I turned 18. The lady sitting in the bank even congratulated me on my birthday, so I feel blessed that I sort of had my 18th birthday in a bank - opening trading account.

My motivation is purely interest in finance, I’m a finance person – I’m interested in trading, I’m interested in banking. And I believe that this is fascinating, and I just want to encourage people to do more of it and pursue their dreams in finance, marketing, whatever it would it be, 14 / THE INSIDER

to overcome many things to be a leader but having a good team is also very important and they helped me a lot. You experience several mental breakdowns while being a Y2 due to FE, you have quite a tough period in autumn and if something personal happens - it’s amen. I had something personal and it felt like touching the ground of a bottomless pit. But I’m still breathing thanks to the people who were nearby. And in the end, you are stronger, more competent and more positive, you learn. Looking from a retrospective, it was an interesting journey, I mean Y2 in general. Not only studies but personal life. Which else university is going to teach you that? But now it’s about just staying on the same line for a long period without any deviations to one side or another.

It’s quite hard and staying as a leader of IFUND, a leader of 30+ people, is quite difficult. And what I find the most difficult, and to my disappointment, is the thing that I was not able to engage students into all of it as much as I wanted to.

Because I find investing and trading way more fascinating than many things we study here. So, FE was not a terrible thing for me, it was a pleasure, so I enjoyed it, but I would have liked to engage more students to come to our meetings and guest lectures, to come and learn more about investing because I do believe that not many Y1’s even know how to open trading accounts at least, how to take care of your savings.

a point in that, I suppose, because it will be tough to deliver quality outcomes. DOO is one of the main organizations that have to be here in SSE Riga because it brings a lot of opportunities to students and benefits for society. Along DOO, IFUND is one of the main organizations in this university which gives some sort of practical view on finance and economics. Of course, some say Je Joue, is a quite useful organization because they entertain and relax you. And it’s an organization that brings the community together and do some funny and interesting stuff, which, I think, is appearing too little in this university. As one of the principles of integrity, I think that such organizations, that are focused on students, are very necessary.

Organizations that operate without any focus on gaining profits and with a focus on bringing us all together.

So IFUND, Je Joue, and DOO are the main organizations that I would focus on.

is something that IFUND could be proud of. And of course, I think that in every single organization there will be someone who is unwilling to do something, as well as in this organization it has happened. I’m grateful for the associates who got engaged in delivering quality results and kept pushing, we owe them a big thank you.

A: Did your position exceed your expectations of it?

L: Not yet, I would say that there is one thing for me to do which is to establish the portfolio. My position, I wouldn’t say that I worked as hard as I wanted. So, I wouldn’t say that I have done something spectacular, just did a bit of my job, considering the circumstances. In terms of expectations, my main will is to revive the portfolio and to maintain some sort of educational purposes within the society with the help of IFUND. Of course, it is a bit disappointing the fact that we did not manage to A: What would you say about the do our best work. However, Internal current associates?

Trading Competition (where they had the ability to learn basics of L: It’s very much a problem of mine, how the trading looks like) I believe perhaps, because when you’re trying is one of our largest successes from to attract students to organizations the financial education perspective. you basically are this populist that promises a lot of things, that many A: If you were to go back in time 1 things are going to happen. When year, and you would be able to say you’re trying to combine studies and 3 sentences to your younger self, giving something new to students it who is going to become the IFUND does not usually happen the way chief, what would you say to him? you want it to. Involvement from my associates’ perspective was L: Oh gosh, this is such an interesting not always what I expected, of question. Let me think… course, it’s very difficult to involve First of all, don’t let people distract all of them. It’s very difficult to even you. Second thing would be – never involve all the board members to stop thinking about the long run. do some of the activities due to their Meaning that - what you are doing, own schedule. But I’m happy that how much work you’re putting in – we have some very good associates it has to pay off some day. And the who are passionate about what third thing would be – be positive. they are doing, for instance, we Believe that everything is going to have students who constantly help be fine because… Ok, let’s make it board members to contact people, true – don’t give a fuck. Just that. Do companies, who are close to starting your stuff to the fullest. their own businesses. So, I think this

Don’t stagnate during the summer

By Daniela Gerda Baranova Of course, summer is meant for work/internship, a little fun, maybe some music festivals… Overall summer is for leisure. That’s what most of us think. However, during your day on the beach or after a day at the office, you still can find time to do something worthwhile because sitting in the beach the whole day and doing nothing will not give you the sense of accomplishment at the end of summer. When people will ask - what did you do in the summer besides work and parties?....

Nothing? - will be the only answer to give. And well, that’s just kinda sad.

Purchases, but most of them can be development (some of them were used without any purchases! on the reading list in ECP), like “The Power of Habit” might even help 1) The ones that have been said to you quit smoking or do more sports be one of the best & most effective or whatever (if that’s what you want, overall: Duolingo (especially this of course). These kinds of books can one!), Busuu, and Babbel. be crucial for a person. However, if you want to read a cheesy romcom or reread your favourite book series, like Harry Potter, do that!

Any kind of reading (that is not in the form of the yellow press) keeps your brain sharp.

Summer could also be the time you start exercising more, or just fixing some broken things at home (like, relationships or just the always screeching floor panel that you have been promising to fix). Maybe 2) More tended for Q&A, chats, finally go to Yoga, Zumba or some and social purposes: HelloTalk, other practice, that you have always HiNative, TripLingo. wanted to try!

Actually, summer is the best time to learn something that you do not learn in university but still are interested in. Go to a painting masterclass or paint by yourself by the lake, or learn how to play the piano that has been covered in dust in your grandma’s living room for a while from videos on Youtube they are free! Andrew Furmanczyk channel on Youtube has around 40 lessons for piano basics and more 3) Uses flashcards, SRS: Memrise, videos about music theory, etc. He AnkiApp, Tinycards has stopped posting, but the videos are still good to use!

I guess many of us have thought about learning languages - the more you know the better, right?

Or maybe you finally want to learn the basics of languages of your friends/roommates to know what they are talking about? But as we know SSER does not have any language courses, and the ones that are offered by other schools or organizations are expensive or lead only in Latvian. This is where the digital century comes to your advantage - downloading free apps & learning languages is now free and easy. You can also find a one that fits your style of studying the best! Some do have In-App-

For those who like to read books, summer is the best time when to use the massive resources our library actually has! Maybe reading the many interesting books from Economic & Consumer Psychology till the end might interest you?

Also, books that encourage self-

There are so many things that you can finally do in the summer, all you need is an old piano or sports sneakers that you only wore to Summer Symposium and never before this year, to actually try and do something new!

I know, that the summer is not long enough for all of these things, but believe me (and this is coming from me, honestly), doing nothing all summer feels 10 thousand times worse than actually doing something, even if it turns out that painting or playing the piano is not your thing - at least, now you know!

But, if the careless summer is what you want - no one is judging, you can do whatever makes you happy!

What your source of coffee says about you

By Austėja Denisovaitė Even though the summer is here, some of us still have some debts to fill and still find ourselves chugging buckets of coffee just to get through.

Since we have quite a few options to choose from, here’s what your choice of getting coffee says about you.

RGSL machinery: A TRAITOR! A traitor with a cold heart, since you don’t mind pouring the boiling hot coffee that this machine offers down your throat. Although it does have the cheapest coffee around and a snack machine alongside it, so perhaps your actions can be forgiven.

The original coffee machine: I see you’re a man of culture and appreciate the OG. But you have to agree, the coffee is pretty disgusting and you have to remember to place a cup there or you end up losing half

the drink you paid for. And yeah, it’s semi costly as well.

1.2 euro with an ISIC card. A solid choice. (A word of caution: chances are you spend more than 1.2 euro The newer coffee machine in there because of all the snacks SSER lobby: You’re not as basic seducing your eyes, so be careful as your OG machine-loving friends and aware of that) and like having some sweeter options to choose from. But don’t Caffeine: you don’t like socializing lie to yourself, you do know that the and like to escape the SSER “real” and “not real” milk thing is just atmosphere, and honestly, I feel you. a big fat marketing lie.

The coffee is a tad more expensive (2.5-3 Eur) and, subjectively, not as The 6th Floor machine: Assuming good as in Britt, but still decent. The you’re a BSc student, you either visitors of this café are younger, but are entitled to go there or you feel it is a relatively quiet place for some entitled to go there. In any case, I’d last minute work to be done. suggest not doing it, there’s nothing magical there.

Rocket Bean: You like a quality cup-a-coffee AND escaping SSER. Britt café: You’re one fancy fella You’re like Hanna Montana – living who does not care about spending a separate and secret life of a Coffee 3+ euros per cup of quality coffee, Gourmet. And sorry for being blunt, a nice view, and company of rich but you must be rich AF, the coffee business people who spend their costs nearly half my monthly rent coffee breaks there. Can’t lie, I envy there. you, the Britt coffee is really good.

Maxima coffee options: I’m sorry, Narvesen: Honestly, you’re a quite but you’re naaasty. There are so rational being. Besides the con of many better options, you’re worth having to take a 5min walk there, more than a cold, overpriced and it’s not too bad, for sure better than sad cup of supermarket coffee. the coffee machines and costs only

Changing changes

By Valeria Toncovidova & Hleb Birylau

The linearity of time is a relatively novel concept - you wouldn’t be able to sell it to our distant predecessors.

Try telling them it all had a beginning, and since then kept moving forward, like it is some sort of a straight line.

And then watch them disappointed for giving you the chance to speak.

Not very convincing, man, try working harder on your pitching skills. What if they’d tell you time is not linear, but rather cyclical? The leaves are green, and then they are yellow, and then they are gone – and then they are back. The days are short, and then they are longer, and then they never end, and then they are short again. The people are alive, and then they are dead, and there are some freshly made people to replace the deceased, which will also go away for good.

Cycles are the most familiar and the most intuitive structure that follows humankind everywhere around.

Of course, we’re much more knowledgeable now – for good or for worse. Humankind evolved quite a bit; Each of us in particular made some impressive progress over the last almost 20 years too. The rushing movement forward and only forward is painfully obvious. The context is changing so fast that while writing the 10th somewhat desperate cover letter in a row you feel under your fingertips the boiling flow of life instead of your good old keyboard.

The Universe itself appears to be progressing, heading to the nowassumed heat death with relentless speed and complete absence of any regard about it. The existence is not a cycle – vice versa - a road forward; a marathon with obstacles; a sequence of grand and sweeping changes, each unimaginably more important than the previous one.

And although we are a bit smaller than the universe, we also have some changes to think about at this point of our lives. The bridge between spring and summer has always been the best time to feel happily unimportant

in the Big Mechanism of Everything.

The last blossom of flowers fading away, school years coming to their end, SSE Rigans about to enjoy their well-deserved internships rest. It is again that time of the year when it does not matter anymore whether things make sense or not. It is the time to feel worried and not know why, but also to feel good and not know why. It is the time to tiptoe at the edge of the unknown and feel something in-between nothing and everything. The edge is frustrating.

First, second, or third year – each of us plays it cool, none of us actually is. It’s the time to end our current stage and switch to the next level.

Somewhere in the middle of the steaming deadlines Y1 stopped being newbies and became actual SSE Rigans. By this time of the year, everyone in the university feels like one of us. No more scared clumsy kiddos in da hood, only dead-serious clueless economists.

I remember feeling the tingling confusion when my first year came to its end. I thought whoah, this prank went out of control; now I have to become the boss ass Y2 and do the real stuff. And objects in the mirror were closer than they appeared, only a couple of MAF lectures and one internship away.

The inevitable eventually happens; you become the Y2. You are now the ultimate representation of the peak SSE Rigan-ness. You are always in the spotlight, everything is for you and about you, your financial chakras shine brighter than the sun, and, most importantly, you have no idea what you are doing and how to get out of it. You are on a rollercoaster, and you are not sure why the hell have you bought the ticket. It does not cross your mind even ironically that you will make it through, you are just here to fail in full glory and, hopefully, have some fun along the way. You are just curious how far you can take this prank, and

what exactly, out of all the numerous alternatives, will become your breaking point. In the end, the whole thing turns out to be a wildly intense experience, perhaps too rough on the edges, but 10/10 in terms of fun and educational value.

one could do about it. Call me crazy, but becoming a ghost right after spending a whole year in the spotlight sounds challenging to me.

Yet, I have zero influence over the natural course of things, and I have to keep rolling in this cycle. After all, there is a role you have to give up, And then the ride comes to its end, there is a role to be taken right after. but wait, that’s it? Just when you thought you’ve got the hang of it And I think upcoming roles when and finally understood 0.5% of compared to our current ones what was happening, it all came to will always seem either too its end. Surprise-surprise, you made overwhelming or not cool enough. it through. For real. Unironically. The unknown will be always Everything sparkled so intense and misunderstood, and the present will so fast, you barely managed to never feel understood enough to understand that it was happening. carelessly let it go. Yet, there is no While you try to reflect on what way out of the present, no matter we have you done, life impatiently how much you urge to sneak back congratulates you and hurries you into your past. Echoing memories, to get off the rollercoaster. Y1 are that’s all that you’re allowed. No waiting their turn, time to get out of rewinds, no comebacks. That’s the their way. Yaikies, rude. It was your cruel but fun thing about time – it very special life-changing ride, and does not care if you cannot catch you paid for the tickets with nerves up. The time cannot be bothered to and sweat and whatnot - how can slow down or stop until you figure others dive into it and take your out what happened and what you place so easily? Right after bathing should have felt and learned. When you in the most intense experience, the moment is gone, you have to life quickly asks you to move away move away. and make room for others. Feels as if you had the most sensual one-night It is weird to see that life can go on stand, but they just gave you a polite with or without you. It is weird to see kiss on the forehead and casually how quickly life forgets you, how reminded that it’s time to get you unimportant your past becomes, an Uber. Where are we supposed how easy it is to vanish away. to go now anyway? Ah, just move Others will come to feel what you from the spotlight to the very edge have felt, but what you have felt is of the picture, right where the current irreversibly sunk in the past. Places Y3 are standing. where you have felt the happiest will continue to make other people Y3 are the legendary soon-to-be- happy and won’t need you there. extinct creatures. The existence of You will be forgotten. Life will remain Y3 is almost debatable. They seem here, stable and indifferent; You will to have been here long before be gone over and over again, everwe were born, but they don’t ever changing and full of feelings. come to Soros for lectures anymore.

They hide on their exchange or And you will be the first person on their serious jobs. They only do to carry out the self-forgetting one mysterious thing for sure – the procedure. In some ten or whatever Thesis. Everything else about them years, being a prominent and wellis uncertain and of little interest to established tax specialist in Deloitte, others. And this is who we are about you will find yourself pondering at to become, and there is nothing all this mess once again. Looking

at the clouds of May and breathing in the pleasant scent of yet another spring’s rotting corpse, you will be faced with some different but very similar change. It will seem much more important than the pesky stuff that’s now on the agenda – a different job? Marriage? Children?

Who knows, and who would care.

In twenty years, if not fully stuck and turned into stone, you will once again look at the choices you’ve made, at their consequences and feel the insufferable alldestroying passage of time.

It’s only an illusion that there is a real you, running through the amusement park of existence from one rollercoaster to another, asking parents to let you have one single more ride. Each subsequent experience overthrows what had been felt; it gets rid of you and substitutes with a weird almost-you – a new device for sensing stuff – never with a manual shipped. Each time when you put your foot on the firm ground and cope with the light dizziness of the ride ended five couple of seconds ago, you’re born into this world anew.

Next decade – and these are the 30s; one more – the 40s. How many times will you feel your whole being shaken from the scale of changes sweeping through your life with the merciless, unstoppable force? And yet, how unimportant all this stuff ahead appears and turns out to be now, when you don’t know and don’t want to know about the future changes. A level-up is now in occurrence, certain to be gone and done with, but happening to you in this very moment.

THE INSIDER / 21

Self-reflection

By Terēze & Ieva Marija Vītoliņa

1. What are my core values, always be tons of things that I could goals, and expectations of have done better. I believe it is more important to look back at things I am myself and life?

grateful for, things that I did good, in 2. Are there any beliefs or general, it is more important to look back at the good things and rewire thoughts that are limiting me? yourself to think more positively.

“You can’t connect the dots looking forward; you can only connect them 3. What could I have done better looking backwards” — Steve Jobs today?

A fruitful academic year is coming to an end, which is the perfect time to stop and appreciate all that has been achieved and learnt in these preceding months. Amongst the daily rituals of every day events, it is easy to direct most of our energy to the outside environment- events, people, jobs, responsibilities and so on. However, great strength, peace and fulfilment lies in the energy we devote to going inwards and reflecting on what is happening within. Through the process of selfreflection, we can find internal peace from all the knowledge that we have acquired so that we might recognize who we are and who we want to be.

Simply put, self-reflection is an act or a process where you disconnect from the world and introspect your actions, thoughts, priorities, and aspirations, one might say, to become a better human being.

Although often looked upon as something for hippies, self-reflection is a vital part for anyone looking to truly find the peace that is ever so rare in this responsibility filled world.

Our daily lives are fast-pace and can seem absolutely overwhelming at times, which is often the cause of us not paying enough attention to our mental state and always thinking about the future, what’s next to come. Self-reflection can help in staying more present and connected to the current moment, the people around and importantly to yourself.

To help you set off on your selfreflection journey, here are some good questions you can start with: 22 / THE INSIDER

Oleksandr Kononchuk:

4. What are the three things or 1. There is no greater satisfaction skills that I need to learn to be than to know that I, through my actions, bring something of value my best version?

to others. At the same time, I 5. Am I making the most of my consider myself an avid learner who frequently focuses on the talents, skills, and strengths? development of the own self, discarding the trivia around. Hence, 6. Am I at my best right now? my core values: serve others by Below are two of our fellow Year doing meaningful things in life 3 student takes on the first three and serve yourself by constantly learning and by challenging and questions. bettering your personality.

Elīna Jekale: The sweet spot for me is the area in 1. Honesty is my core value. I have which I can give the most to society always been honest towards people and, in doing so, acquire the around me, now I am learning to be greatest amount of knowledge and honest towards myself as well. Thus, skills – quite a sophisticated utility I still do not have too specific goals maximization problem, if fact:). since I have not quite figured out Nevertheless, it is what I aim at in what it is that I enjoy in life. For now, my life, and so far, I believe I am on I just want to stand on my own two the right track. feet. As for expectations, I hope that life will challenge me enough and 2. People, by design, are that through those challenges I will social beings and at the same time, when it comes to social grow as a person. interactions, everyone has his or 2. I keep thinking that life will throw her own egotistical motives and opportunities at me and I just have expectations. Life taught me read to sit and wait for the best one to the clues, so it is very difficult for me appear. This thinking is limiting to get hurt by someone’s insincere me because sometimes I have to or exploitive behaviour – I believe go and look for the opportunities I possess strong immunity to such myself. When I think that I just have people. Nevertheless, when it to be patient and wait that is when I comes to the very close ones, my loyalty and trust, once gained, are usually miss out on good things. absolute. Very infrequently, some 3. Instead of playing video games unfavourable external factors might I could have applied for jobs, and trigger the apprehension that those instead of watching Netflix I could very close ones might upset me, have read a book. I actually do but this feeling is very short-lived, not look back at my days thinking and with their help and support I what could I have done better; it continue pursuing my grand lifejust makes me rather sad. There will goals.

3. For today I planned to write the words of gratitude to my Bachelor’s Thesis supervisor – Talis Putnins.

Unfortunately, I had some urgent matters to attend to, so I decided to reschedule the writing of the thanksgiving for tomorrow. The upside of this happening, however, is that now I can semi-publicly express how thankful I am for his continued support and ample knowledge. Vis-à-vis discussions with Talis gave such a strong boost to the expansion of my knowledge base that they alone constitute one of the highest rewards for the entire study program. Thank you, Talis, for such deep and immensely interesting insights. Now, having fed the part of me that craves self-development, I am eagerly looking forward to putting this knowledge into practice to bring the value to society.

And now it is your turn! We hope that these insights have fostered some inspiration, and acknowledge Elīna and Oleksandr for sharing their self-reflections.

THE INSIDER / 23

Park review

While also a park in the heart of the Dzegužkalna parks - (8/10) city, thus suffering from the same faults as the previous two parks,

By Oskars Ludbāržs this park has a cleaner design and structure to it, as well as having an The park around Bastejkalns and actual playground inside it, as well the Opera house - (3/10) as many attractions for children, thus making it more family-friendly.

For that, I give it a 4/10, although some of the roads in the park are quite horrid.

It is large, it has a large hill that hosts Kronvalda parks - (5/10) many children with sleds during the winter, and in the warm months if it beautiful. The fact that the park is elevated on a hill allows for a nice view of the whole park if one goes A classic of the city, however, to the peak of the park. The park rather standard, uneventful, and has strong immersion, as sounds of very crowded. Many tourists go traffic are hushed when located in it. here, and there is little connection to nature due to the noise of traffic Arkādijas parks - (10/10) overshadowing that of the birds.

The closest park to our school, this park is further away from the heart Vērmanes dārzs - (2/10) of the city, and thus the quality of it increases noticeably. Although it is clean and tidy, it lacks immersion, and for that I give it a 5/10.

Uzvaras parks - (6/10)

Much like the previous contender, however is often filled with teenagers smoking and drinking on the side near the Radisson Blue hotel, and is more often used as a shortcut than an actual park.

A large, vast park, stretching across Āgenskalns. Great for sports Esplanāde park - (4/10) activities, and many use it for that.

Also provides skiing opportunities during the winter, bringing many families together that way when going to a proper place to ski is not feasible due to time constraints.

6/10, would be more, but the monument it hosts leaves a bad taste in the mouth due to various demonstrations and protests occuring in this park from time to time.

24 / THE INSIDER

The best park in Riga for sure. It is full of trees, it is very immersive, it has playgrounds, it has a nice design, it is neat and tidy, and words cannot describe how it feels to spend time there. I recommend going there yourself to understand what I am talking about.

While normally you handle everything well, lately things haven’t been going so swimmingly. Whether

By Oskars Ludbāržs by your fault or the administration’s, you found yourself having to do too The demanding studies of SSE Riga much in a seemingly impossible time certainly take a toll on the mind, window. Being the champion you especially after almost 2 semesters are, you managed to do it anyways, of non-stop action. However, each but now you are tired, and nothing is person is different, and we find of interest - only your nice, soft bed. things to be exhausting on different scales. Furthermore, it can be hard 13 : I don’t feel so good, guys to evaluate just how tired your mind is. The test has been designed to An evolution of the previous help you evaluate your exhaustion phase, you find yourself needing levels, as well as your life choices. naps constantly. Frankly, you

Mental exhaustion quiz

Choose the option most relevant to you, and sum up the points at the end to receive your result. Points are provided on a scale of 1-4, with a) providing 1 point and d) providing 4 points.

4 – 7 points: Motivation still going strong For some reason, the studies at this school do not pose much worries to you. Deadlines do not scare you, and you even find time for the things you love, as well as those mystical creatures called “friends outside SSE Riga”. You are truly amazing, and many probably envy you.

8 – 12 points: I need a nap

have accumulated a nice, hefty amount of sleep debt, and none of the knowledge gained in finance courses will save you now. Your mind starts to feel weary, and you have become increasingly irritable.

It is time to take a rest for a few days, else you will find yourself in a hole deeper than the one you fell into initially.

14-17: Get me out of here Your mind is crumbling. You find that your emotions are all over the place due to not being able to deal with the constant pressure, and this impacts your personal life. You find it harder to interact with your peers, and find yourself sitting at home more often instead of going out to wanting to

rest your mind, but also regret not going out with your friends to have a fun time. Ultimately, you will feel bad even if you do go out, because you feel hungover the next day, and you will feel like you have lost resting time you needed to deal with the next assignment. Life feels like a deep, dark tunnel, but you hold on in hopes for a light showing up at the end of it.

18 - 20: Acceptance and apathy Your mind has become so exhausted that it has separated itself from the mere mortal processes around you.

It is as if your mind and yourself are two different entities, each being one but being separate at the same time. You do not care about any tasks given by lecturers or responsibilities to your friends – we all die eventually anyways, so there is no meaning to worrying. All that matters is enjoying something, so you start devoting more time to things you love again, something you used to do a lot before entering SSE Riga. However, this is an illusion – there is no such time to be devoted, as you should instead be using it to study, but frankly, you do not care anymore. A zen-like state, and it is debatable whether finding yourself in this state is a good thing or a bad thing.

1) Your friend invites you to go out on a Friday night. What do you do?

could last forever, so that the future with a deadline in it does not arrive

a) A usual occurence in the school, nothing out of the ordinary; they are to be expected

4) How do you study for an exam?

c) Do your best to study, but find yourself watching YouTube videos about cats too easily

d) You don’t even care anymore a) Go without hesitation and have and are ready to not stick to them if d) Study 1 day before the exam, a fun time it preserves your sanity but only if it is a hard exam – if easy, study for a few hours the day b) Think whether you can afford to 3) How do you spend your free before and revise in the morning lose precious time, but realize you time? will be fine anyways, so you go a) Devote myself to all my hobbies 5) How do you spend time in c) Hesitate to go, go anyways, and and spending time with my friends, lectures? regret it the next day, when you both inside and outside SSE Riga realize you have lose time where a) Listen intently and make good you could have been productive b) Spend time on only my most notes to revise later in the day valued hobbies and spend time d) Don’t go, due to not wanting to with friends from SSE Riga b) Listen and make notes, but have social interaction – time for check your phone and respond to yourself to rest has become more c) No time for hobbies, but can messages from time to time precious, while this was not the always go drink with friends from case a few months ago SSE Riga c) Spend a large part of the lecture d) Focus on only the things that you on the phone, talking with your 2) How do deadlines make you truly love and only your few closest coursemates or drawing instead of feel? friends, ignore all the rest making notes

b) Perhaps will lose some sleep on the night before the deadline, but should be fine

d) Do all described in c), but also skip lectures if given the slightest a) Devote time to properly absorb reason to, including wanting to the material, remove distractions sleep for 15 minutes longer, so completely to spend time might as well not go the lecture at productively all if you are going to be a bit late

b) Study hard, but allow yourself to c) An announcement of a deadline infrequently respond to texts from makes you stressed and anxious your friends on the spot; you wish this moment

always remember why you signed up for this

INSIDER

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