Mogic thinks

I want to feel the buzz.

Due to the risk of coronavirus infection, some of our members work remotely (from home).

About a month after I started remote work, I interviewed people to find out what they wanted most from me.

When I started remote work in the first place, I made preparations based on three axes.

The first is to improve the physical environment, the second is to redesign the work flow, and the third is to take care of the mental health.

At that time, the members of the team predicted what would happen in a month's time, and it was that the physical environment would be almost cleared, but there would still be some issues in the work flow, and the mental state would tend to be depressed.

The results were an extension of my expectations, but I realized that I needed to be more mentally sensitive and complex in my thoughts.

It wasn't just that I was depressed because I was worried about the future, but in addition to vague concerns about the macroeconomic situation and overseas circumstances, I felt as if I was beginning to lack and seek "something" that would help me grow while working comfortably.

Perhaps that's why remote workers are naturally starting to add their own touches to their style.

I tried dressing up in the morning and going to the computer in a kimono, made tai-meshi (sea bream rice) in an earthenware pot for lunch, and thought about things while carrying a young child on my back.

However, that doesn't fill the gap, so I think the expression is vaguely, "I want a sense of buzz.

The sense of buzzing seems to have a variety of connotations, like wanting to watch and copy a bit of the senior staff's work, eavesdrop on a discussion of a new project, show off a bit of your own personal material, or participate in a bit of a spur-of-the-moment cake baking event.

It seems that there are hints of the joy of working, food for growth, and new ideas in the ambiguity of this area, so I'm going to talk about it some more.

I wonder who I'm really competing with.

Capitalism is competition, running a company is competition, and life may be competition too.

It is a competition to achieve something, to compete with someone else in a friendly competition, to play to your strengths and eliminate your weaknesses, and maybe even to fight against yourself.

I would like to delve a little deeper into competition and write about the state of strategy.

If you take out the skeleton of competition, it becomes "multiple players aiming for a goal under a common set of rules to determine superiority or inferiority," with qualification exams being the most obvious example.

The terms and conditions of the test, such as subject, date and time, are fairly known to multiple players, and the score earned on the day of the test determines whether the player passes or fails.

The rules are clear and the goal is clear.

But there is a hidden premise here, and tweaking it reveals a different side to the competition.

That's when you set the rules in advance and eliminate or change the presence of someone ruling after the goal.

In the case of certification exams, this means being on the side of changing the very organization that determines the content of the exams and whether they pass or fail.

In this case, people who change the rules themselves are sometimes called game changers.

This means that the rule change itself becomes a field of competition.

Of course, it is not just a matter of changing the rules, because changing the rules is not a game changer if no one believes in it.

Just by looking at the two types of competition, I feel that the way to survive them, or strategy, is ultimately timing.

When do we fight within the rules that are set, and when do we fight with those who change the rules?

No matter how many great skills you build up, they will be meaningless after the rules change, and right after the rules change, even a simple skill is better than nothing.

Do we sense structural changes that are likely to change the rules and try to symbolize them ahead of time, or do we wait until after the symbolization and quickly imitate it?

As we move our thinking from competition to strategy, we sometimes wonder who we are really competing with.

In the long run, the other companies and people you see are only a small part of the picture.

Crisp, relaxed, and slow.

When I cook, I find it interesting to gradually adjust the rhythm of the various cooking processes.

Some are processed as quickly as possible to keep them fresh, some are left in the refrigerator to soak up the flavor, some are simmered overnight, and some are marinated for six months.

There are short rhythms and long rhythms, and they must be matched perfectly when they are put on the table.

In Japanese food, there is a rhythm of the season of ingredients, and we need to pay attention to it throughout the year. I found a passage that conveys this, so I will write it down.
I'll tell you what.
Suggesting that one soup and one vegetable is enough
http://www.graphicsha.co.jp/detail.html?p=34247

We look forward to the savoriness of the changing seasons.

It is a bit of an exaggeration to say that the Japanese and wild birds are the only ones who don't miss the season ......, but it is not a complete lie when you consider the range, detail and depth of ways to enjoy the season.

This is especially evident in the way we divide the season into "early," "late," and "late," and use our five senses to feel and be aware of the intersecting beginnings and endings of life.

The sensibility of Japanese food, that everything is in accordance with the seasons, reminds us that our bodies are connected to nature in an orderly way, in the form of emotions.
The sensibility of Japanese food reminds us that our bodies are connected to nature in an orderly way.

Running a company is similar in some ways, and the flow of time is completely different for each worker and project.

Time moves at different paces, such as the pace of a new graduate who graduated at the end of the 1990s, the pace of someone who came out of the countryside and has been working in Tokyo for 10 years and raising a child, the pace of a project that has been firmly in place for more than five years, and the pace of launching a new business.

But that is nature, and I think it is management to feel the rhythm of such disparate time.

Subtract or multiply by "work.

I am working in a company, and I am trying to figure out what is left when I subtract the prerequisite of "making money".

Capitalism is so self-evident that if you choose the stance of "belonging to a corporation," you will make sales and increase profits.

That is the first reason to run a company or work for a company.

However, when I consider that I spend more than 7 hours a day working, I feel that it is important to fulfill something other than "earning money" in order to keep my mental balance, although I am a little greedy.

I've started to do well in my work, I've been praised a little, I've made friends, etc. Everyone has their own criteria, but I wonder if I can have expectations for myself in the future.

From a different angle, another question I often receive from interns is "How can I insure myself against working in the future?

The risk of having only one job, the risk of not being able to do the job you want, the risk of working long hours, the risk of being transferred, the risk of having an unpleasant boss, the risk of not being able to start a business.

Ideally, there should be option trading that avoids them.

Whether there is really an option or not is another debate, but I feel that there is too much anxiety leading up to it.

Anxiety is born, then expectation, then worry, then hope.

It would also be ideal if the years of work increased with each passing season.

ORIGAMI, how to fold information

It's a bit of a stretch, but one of the best ways to get to know people from different countries when you go abroad is through the Japanese art of Origami ORIGAMI.

Origami has a high level of recognition, and when I start making it, people are interested in it in a "Oh, that" kind of way.

However, since many people know about vines and balloons, it is usually a good idea to write the person's name in Chinese characters on the completed origami as an added bonus.

While making origami, I always feel that this is what makes it "valuable" and that it is the "ability to organize information".

The material for origami is a sheet of plain paper.

They are everywhere in the world. And pens are everywhere, too.

In just a few tens of seconds, you can create a sense of discomfort in the person you are talking to, with the Japanese world view of cranes and your unfamiliar name in kanji.

There is a moment when something that was too common and too familiar to be "there" becomes "there".

The process of creating new value from mundane objects gives us hints to gain insights from the vast amount of mundane information on the Internet.

Perhaps the framework of perception of "vast and mundane information" itself is different, and we cannot see how to fold mundane information into value, and even more troubling, it is uncertain and seems to be changing rapidly.

Company grammar in a bedroom community

The flip side of the story about the large number of housewives in the 1950s is the fact that most corporate organizations were dominated by men.

The company culture created at that time would naturally be a grammar = company culture created to help working men work harder.

They have been handed down from generation to generation in companies with a long history, and are now coming to terms with the discrepancy between them and the diversification of the workforce.

I think this is reflected in the recent discussions on childcare leave, shorter working hours, and the reform of work styles.

The company, Mogic, was founded in 2009 and its office is located in the bedroom community of Shakujii, which makes the company's staffing structure close to that of the local community.

The age range is from 19 to over 65, some are students, some are single, some are mothers and fathers raising children, some are caregivers, some are taking care of their grandchildren, and most are international students.

The grammar of a company created from such a background is still fundamentally different from the grammar of working men alone.

Something unspoken was created to lean on the workers in the community before the rules were made explicit in the work rules.

The various events and rules that don't seem like a company are apparently rationalized to accommodate the diversification of the workforce.

Landscape Architecture

We are familiar with the term "landscape" in urban planning, landscape architecture, and geography, but we don't hear it very often.

In layman's terms, landscape is "an organic connection between people, nature and artifacts". (It seems that the actual definition of the term "landscape" is different in each field.

The reason why I bring up the idea of landscape when creating IT services is because IT development tends to be created in a point-by-point fashion, and I think it is necessary to have an idea to cover that.

For example, the functions to be used are summarized as requirements definition, usability is created as web design, and a place to store information is created as a database, which is then combined into a single system.

We also work on ranking high on search engines, post on social media, and send out press releases to let people know about it.

At first glance, all of these things seem important, but if we compare this to the construction of public facilities, we start to feel that something is missing.

The first step is to put together a list of possible uses by local residents, decide on the exterior and interior of the building, and create a multi-purpose room management office.

In order to inform the community about the new facility, we give priority to posting it on bulletin boards, telling people we know, and putting it on circulars.

Is that enough to really see the "view" that people enjoy and use?

I feel like I'm missing something.

Perhaps it seems to lack "something fun" that would make the people living there feel richer in their lives.

I believe that one of the most important things when creating an IT service is how you build that part of the service.

Well, in IT, it's not so much a landscape as it is a cloudscape.

Education as a Gift

In Mogic, there are many educational things going on.

The reason for the vagueness of the term "education-like" is that, like a classroom, there is no solid curriculum or performance goals, and the way we do things can change according to random events.

There have been various activities such as the creation of an idea service called MicroTech, the creation of Lassi, and the creation of a bouldering wall.

I've been doing this kind of education for a long time now, and I know that it has benefits that cannot be described in a few words, but why this style of education is actually better has not been clearly understood even among those who practice it.

I recently read a book that made me think of this, so I'll quote it here.

The Anthropology of Hiding
The Anthropology of Hiding
https://mishimasha.com/books/ushirometasa.html

Students will eventually forget the content of their college classes.

I can hardly remember the contents of the lectures I took at university.

There is no way to know in advance what the benefits will be, or when the tangible results will be seen, either in education or by students.

Probably the only thing that remains in the students is "heat. The teacher cannot decide in advance what kind of energy the "heat" will turn into next in the student.

In the first place, students have the potential to be anything they want to be.

The words spoken in class, and the "learning" evoked therein, are not "products" that satisfy the needs of others.

It is a "gift" that is handed over without knowing how it will be received and without knowing what it will lead to.

omission (of middle part of a text)

Because it is a gift, the "effort" to do so cannot be converted into time or money, nor is it a subject that should be calculated for profit or loss.

If we view education as "labor" to be exchanged in the marketplace, as long as the "results" cannot be properly measured, it will always be the "right" answer to spend the least amount of effort.

If that is the case, then "education" becomes an exercise in futility.

In fact, you may have received very little, or you may have received something you never intended to give.

On the part of the teachers, only the "inability to reach" always remains.

I think that education is the act of continuing to give a gift to this unreachability.
Education is the act of continuing to give gifts toward this unreachability.

Perhaps it is because of the management policy that emphasizes teamwork that they do not see education as a cost effective way to improve skills, but as a gift.