Mogic considers

When the dust settles, 38 years later

Out of 365 days in a year, there are around 240 business days if weekends and holidays are taken off.

If you work 8 hours a day, that's 1,920 hours a year.

If overtime is worked an average of 2 hours per day, +480 hours per year.

If you work 38 years from age 22 to 60 with 2 hours of overtime, your total overtime hours would be +18,240.

If these overtime hours are re-converted to an 8-hour work day, they amount to 2,280 days.

This means that in the 38 years from age 22 to age 60, you will have worked 2,280 overtime days/240 working days = about 9.5 extra years.

This leads to the idea that it would be better to work until age 70, leaving on time without overtime +2 hours and allocating the time not spent working overtime (+9.5 years) to after age 60.

Furthermore, if it took 2 hours round trip to commute to work, living nearby would give you another 9.5 years in 38 years, and you would be better off working until age 80.

However, this conception will be effective only if working can find a positive meaning.

Although each person has his or her own positive feelings, if you have a moderate amount of stress, a little satisfaction, a little growth, time to yourself that you can spend as you please, laughter with family and friends, good physical and mental maintenance, and being able to help others casually while being relied on by those around you, +10 or +20 years is not so bad. I think that 10 years or 20 years is not so bad.

In this day and age when everything is moving so fast, this idea may be too idealistic.

But because it is our company, we use the freedom to aim for our ideals.

Think of a problem you've never seen before.

When we encounter a problem, we think about how we can approach the goal in the shortest distance and with the least amount of man-hours, as the phrase "winning formula" suggests.

This metaphor of an equation is one where there are certain rules or formats, and if you put in the parameters, A or B, the answer you seek will just tinkle out.

It can be paraphrased as know-how or methods, which can be copied, distributed, and restored if transplanted to another location.

If we drill down a bit here and consider the winning equation to be strictly an algebraic equation, it is possible that it may be of high order and not always solvable, or that it may not lead to a particular value.

In other words, equations are fine for solvable problems, but what approach other than equations should be taken for problems that cannot be solved in the first place?

Do we decide not to solve it, approximate it to get the optimal solution, look at the distribution probabilistically, change the dimension of the problem by shifting the viewpoint, etc.?

When I run a company, I feel like I can't solve more than 95% of the equation.

To begin with, the major difference from algebraic equations is that the assumptions of the problem change in a variety of ways over time.

On the other hand, you can wait for a specific condition until you are ready to solve it.

So, well, we have to take plenty of time today to figure out what to do about a problem we have not seen before.

The Day We Must Have a Philosophy

The more information we are exposed to, the more we want to see this and that, and before we know it, a lot of time has passed.

The information that comes in a continuous stream of potato piles can unintentionally lift or lower your spirits and keep your mind busy.

If more information comes in the future, it will not be more peaceful than now.

I didn't want such a future, and was wondering what stance I should take, when the words of a product designer caught my eye.

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And when you talk to yourself, be respectful.
https://www.kinokuniya.co.jp/f/dsg-01-9784906790401

It takes skill to increase functionality, but it takes philosophy to decrease it.

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I came to think that haha.

I would forcefully replace the word "function" with "information."

thereupon

It takes skill to increase information, but it takes philosophy to decrease it

and then

I don't feel like I am being asked what kind of philosophy I have.

the eyes cannot belie one's true thoughts

In engineering, everyone knows the story of Conway's Law.

To quote from wiki on the concept proposed by Melvin Conway over 50 years ago

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Conway's Law
https://ja.wikipedia.org/wiki/%E3%83%A1%E3%83%AB%E3%83%B4%E3%82%A3%E3%83%B3%E3%83%BB%E3%82%B3%E3%83%B3%E3%82%A6%E3%82%A7%E3%82%A4

Organizations which design systems are constrained to produce designs which are copies of the communication structures of these organizations. of the communication structures of these organizations.

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If an organization has a hierarchical chain of command, it means that it naturally creates a directory-type system.

As a result, it can be predicted from the outset that horizontal cooperation will be weak.

A slight application of this law would infer the opposite.

In other words, it is the opposite of looking at the organization to understand the system, and looking at the system to understand the structure of the organization.

In other words, eyes speak louder than words.

If we look at the system we are creating, we can see what kind of communication we are unconsciously having.

Innovation & Production

The new division was established on March 1.

The name "Innovation & Produce" may be a bit of an exaggeration, but it is a name that anticipates future growth potential.

The actual situation was web production work, which took several years to finally become a department.

Why did it take so long to set up as a department?

That's because, as the word "produce" gives the impression, we don't know what to do in a flash.

If the person in charge does not know what to aim for and how to achieve it, it cannot be made into a job category.

It is very difficult to train them because their skills and know-how are less structured than those of engineers, designers, directors, and marketers.

I have been developing a sense of member production in various real-world settings.

We will be busy for the time being with our new department.

Please allow this column to be updated 1-2 times per month.

Preparatory Exercise for Web Producers

Have them write a proposal as training for apprentice producers.

He said, "Okay, well, write a 10-page PowerPoint proposal."

"How long do you think it will take?" I ask.

I would say, "Well, about three days.

As you can see, you can tell at this point how much power you have or don't have.

There is no point in talking about good/bad, so I will put out the next job, and the next one after that, in a similar type.

Try making a flyer with a designer to recruit interns."

"I want to put out an app for kids during the summer holidays, so try it out with an engineer."

"Try starting up a web service that's going to blossom in three years."

Nowadays, this would be considered reckless, but the intention is there.

The forecast is that every project will begin with great enthusiasm, time will run out as it progresses, impatience will lead to impatience in the second half, and finally a decision will be made that will determine failure.

I believe the best preparatory exercise is to look back on those painful experiences and see what they have in common.

One of Mogic's management policies

Personally, I do not like to work with a lot of lines.

I don't like the idea that I may have my eyes full of work.

To-do lists are my least favorite and I avoid them as much as possible.

But the company is a tricky thing, isn't it?

The more we do, the more work we have to do.

We want to make that work somehow.

Therefore, there is one thing I think about in my free time.

The question is how to reduce work in the future.

We will try to reduce it gradually next year rather than this year, and the year after that rather than the year after that.

That is exactly what Mogic's management policy is.

Imagining the changing state of the world

I recently had a long interview with our internal branding team.

The theme of this year's conference was recruitment and education.

I answered the questions without thinking, but later, when I looked at the transcribed draft, I discovered that I was thinking about these things.

Since it is not yet available to the public, I will quote a brief summary.

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- After our last interview, I asked not only people inside the company, but also people outside the company, "Do you have any questions you'd like to ask?" I asked. Many of them said they were interested in Mogic's internal education. So this time, we would like to focus on education and talk about it in more depth.

I'd like to get into education out of the blue, but before I do, I'm wondering what kind of hiring you do. If you have any ideas about what kind of people you would like to hire, please let me know.

Yamane: It's pretty simple. It's whether or not when you meet them, you think, "Oh, I want to work with them. I don't know, this may not sound like an answer. In a typical interview, there are a lot of requirements, such as having a high ability, wanting to have skills, wanting to be an immediate asset, having a high level of vision, and being sure to do what you are told.

But what we value is hiring people who are willing to work hard with us in a pinch at the end of the day, and also people who I would like to work with until the very end.

- What is the best way to find out when you are being interviewed?

Yamane: I guess. To be more detailed, there is a kind of compatibility between you and the person who applied for the job. Because there is no one who will absolutely be hired. We check in various ways to make sure that when we work together, this person has an atmosphere that we can work together until the end.

So, unfortunately, there is no such thing as a standardized question. If I insert the same question at different times, the meaning I receive will change, so I ask differently depending on the flow of the question.
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Who you work with is a very big issue.

Even if the nature of the work does not change much, people change each other rapidly.

We cherish the time we spend meeting with them, imagining how they change.

[To be added at a later date] Click here for the rest of the interview article.
https://www.mogic.jp/category/interview/13560