Hi, I’m Ohto Pentikäinen. A person based in Helsinki. This website will do its best to expose my thinking.

And for those, who came for the pasta recipe, find it here.

Ohto Pentikäinen

This is me. :)

I like to think we’re here for each other. For humans, and for nature. To learn from the past, and to enable the future.

If only we saw each other as human. As those kids who we used to be, but who’ve picked up layers on top to protect ourselves from being victims. If we approached each other with empathy, I like to think we’d be approaching a better world.

A world where the future mattered and where we’d be able to enjoy life as it happens. A world where we can be ourselves and that’s valuable as it is.

Life philosophy

Sounds great, but isn’t that a little naive?

Naive: Yes, probably. I also agree the world and people are a lot more nuanced than the above sets out. That said, I still persist that the above is valuable as a guiding principle when entering situations, and then I adjust my thinking (or get hurt) if need be.

Okay.. well go to the point. What are you up to then?

Well, to be honest, I’m only in the beginning of turning my values into actions at the level I feel right and that’s partly why I made this website - to make myself accountable during the process. Lately I’ve been collecting several thoughts about:

  • What problems are actually worth solving?

  • What is the most efficient way to go about solving those problems?

From my experience, I’m starting to see that small, smart, efficient, multi-disciplinary, resourced and well-incentivized teams can be an extremely high leverage way to solve problems worth solving.

I’m currently practicing this at Doublepoint, where together with my life-long friend I’ve built and incentivized a team of biomedical engineers, data scientists, designers, and applied physicists to build a touch interface for future computing platforms.

In the future, one of my dearest goals is to use my learnings to solve more problems worth solving.

Looking forward! What other thoughts are you going to expose?

    • Turning holding companies into a medium for good (DONE!, combined with “perspectives on wealth” for my “I don’t want to become rich” - blog)

    • Perspectives on wealth (DONE!, see above)

    • The mental health crisis in Ukraine (and what can be learnt from Finland)

    • My ideal sabbatical

      List inspired by the great blog       Sunday Afternoon by Yakko Majuri.

Cool! How can I continue the conversation?

The best way to contact me is my email: opentika@gmail.com, but I do check LinkedIn every now and then as well. :)

Thoughts

  • I encounter power dynamics within the tech industry every day. But on the other hand, I also feel the humane side of running a tech company, every day. Many tech companies only exist because they solve existing problems. However, sometimes they create new ones during the process. This is a paradox and I wanted to write about it.

    The article was published in my previous student association’s magazine. It is in Finnish, but in case you need to translate it to English with ChatGPT, let me know and I’ll buy you a coffee to cover the computation costs. :)

    Sometimes my thoughts come in English, sometimes in Finnish, and sometimes in some other language.

  • This also came to me in Finnish. Use ChatGPT to translate if needed. :)

    This topic has been on my mind a lot. So when I heard that the Kylteri magazine is making an issue on money, I thought this would be the time to share my thoughts.

    I feel a bit more exposed with this article than the first one, because I am not rich, nor have I had chances to become rich. If I never get the chance to make the decision on what to do with a large sum of money, then this thinking feels a bit useless. However, I think the underlying value of using money for good is something that I feel strongly towards and I guess if it’s not my money, then it’ll be someone else’s - who shares the values and wants me to help.

    Illustration by: mirkalarjomaa.com!

aalto alumnus ohto pentikainen

  • Again, sorry for this also being in Finnish..

    During my studies, I felt quite rebellious towards business school. I’ve been in panels where I’ve expressed things very strongly on how well business school prepares for “real business”, and how the institution acted on some value-related matters. Yet I decided to do my studies to the end and having a few years to think about it after graduation, I’ve calmed down and see the nuisance on running an university. I might even go back someday.

    Photo by my wonderful cousin Vilma Hyry <3