Since 2019, I’ve been on a path to escape dead-end jobs by upskilling myself through studies. While Finland is known for its progressive services, it also comes with steep taxation. Once you cross a lower middle-class income level, your marginal tax rate hovers around 50%. In practice, a €500 gross raise might add just €250 to your net income. This isn’t exactly a system that motivates people to take on more responsibility at work. Why push harder when the state takes half of your reward?
But here’s the tradeoff: those taxes fund an educational system where you can pursue nearly any university degree for free, programs that would cost tens of thousands elsewhere. That’s the silver lining, and it’s one I’ve decided to take full advantage of.
I’m now on a new path and have been accepted to study Information Systems Science at Turku School of Economics. It looks like a solid blend of IT and business. I’ve found that my strengths and interests sit right at the intersection of these two, and I’m hoping to explore some interesting topics within that space.
Hopefully, we won’t get hit with another global pandemic this time around, so I’ll actually have a chance to network and maybe find partners for some adventurous startup experiments.
I have a vision, and it’s all about data. I believe data will become an even more crucial part of digital business in the coming years. Most businesses are already digital, and some of the largest companies in the world are built entirely around collecting and leveraging user data.
Take Amazon. Their systems are so advanced that they can predict what you’ll buy before you even click the button. They track user behavior so precisely that they can guess purchase intent with high accuracy and pre-emptively ship products to nearby logistics centers. All of this happens before the actual order is placed. That’s not just clever tech, it’s literally magic!
So from here on, I’m diving deeper into data-focused topics—things like data analytics, business intelligence, and maybe even machine learning at some point. This blog will be my open notebook as I explore the world of data-driven business. I’ll share ideas, experiments, and lessons learned, whatever comes up as I move forward.