Wednesday in the Closed Cafe

The lecture at the SAID Business School with Teppo Felin (raised in Finland, undergrad at BYU, PhD at Utah, professor at BYU, professor at Oxford) was excellent. I enjoyed the subject material, which was about strategic management and horizontal structures at Valve, and the guy was a really cool guy. After our lecture, Taylor and I wandered around the market, and that was fun. I was surprised at the free samples and the cleanliness of the grounds. In markets in Africa, the shops would not even consider free samples and no market was a good market unless there was filth and the awful stench of willey. I think that I almost unconsciously expected it to be filthy and smelly like Ghanaian markets, but it was much more enjoyable and more like the Summer Fest in Logan that I attended this last summer. I guess it may just be strange being in a developed country rather than an undeveloped country, like everywhere else I have been. Taylor and I had great conversation as we toured the market, picked up my suit from Next, and walked back to St. Anne’s.

My conversation with Taylor sparked a question I wanted to pose to a student. I won’t divulge his name, but we are close and I was surprised at something Taylor had said about him. I approached him in his room and asked him about the issue, which was forward, but I felt I came across as non-judgmental. We also have a good, personal relationship, which I would not be able to claim with some other students. Anyway, we discussed the issue for a minute, and we ended up talking about talking about the issue, if that makes sense. I said that I knew I was being forward, but anymore I have been less and less averse to asking forward questions because I am becoming increasingly confident in myself. I mean, I am trying less to worry about what others think about me and my actions and just do whatever I think I need to do. Forwardness in questions is a product of my trying, and being able to bring up and discuss uncomfortable topics is another. He related to my sentiments, although not quite so deeply, and even thanked me for bringing it up. It showed me that it really was valuable to bring up those questions directly to the person.  Pardon the vagueness and the lack of ability to explain my meaning, but it is a significant lesson I am learning, and I am glad I am learning it.

I also need to manage my time better. I spent several hours today on a bio that should not have that long, and I needed to spend time on my library research assignment. I dislike writing bios here, especially when we have valuable research time at the library. In a more empowering frame, I need to better allocate my time resources so that I can effectively use the library time and finish my assignments. It’s a tough lesson I learned today because I wasted a whole day’s worth of library time, but I am going to fix it as the week proceeds.