Mogic thinks

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.

Make mixed juice in the evening.

It's not that "making mixed juice in the evening" is meaningful in itself, it's that the way you refresh yourself in the evening can have a significant impact on your performance.

At Mogic, the office starts at 10:00 a.m. and we concentrate for two hours until lunch.

After that, if I start working at 1:00 p.m., I will continue non-stop until 7:00 p.m. if things go normally.

However, after collecting data for a long time, I felt that they seemed to lose concentration between 4pm and 5pm.

I thought that I would be more productive if I could spend 30 minutes making drinks or food while having a good time, so I do something at least three times a week.

We've been doing this for more than two years now and haven't had any problems. In fact, I think it's good training for the younger generation as they twist their heads to make it look like fun.

Help the weak at that time.

When a person has to take time off work due to something unexpected, or has to ask someone else to do a job for him, he feels vulnerable and a little guilty about his position.

For example, if you are raising a child, you may be called home suddenly from daycare, or you may have a high fever and have to stay with the child for several days to take care of him/her.

In reality, I have nothing to feel guilty about because my family comes first, but if it keeps happening over and over again, I feel like I'm putting a burden on the people I work with, and I start to feel weak and sorry.

It is important for people who work in the same place to "help those who are vulnerable.

However, if your workplace has too much work and you are pressed for time, you may not be in the mindset of "helping those who are vulnerable" because if someone takes a day off, someone else will be affected.

If we take this into account, we need to consider it as a problem for the entire team or organization rather than an individual issue.

At Mogic, we check each other's work, change our business model, reorganize our teams, and try everything to make sure that no one's work gets overwhelmed or overwhelmed.

Bouldering wall under construction.

The empty room in the basement was originally a theater room, but since no one was using it, we decided to turn it into a bouldering room.

Bouldering is a sport where you climb up a high wall with countless hooks, reaching out and putting your feet on them, and this is an attempt to do it underground.

Then, how to make bouldering walls and hooks, we decided to use our specialty, D.I.Y., and asked the woodworking department (our in-house special technology department) to do it.

As for the order, the first thing is safety. This is important, because it would be a disaster if the whole wall fell down.

The next important thing is to make it not just a wall and yay for climbing it, but something that tickles the curiosity of "hey, how do I climb this?

After several hours of ideation and strength design, construction is expected to begin soon.

At the same time, the craft room on the 4th floor (where the woodworking club has special equipment for crafting) will be half renovated as a new cutting machine will be arriving.

Thus, the Mogic office is redecorated at least once every six months.

butterflies dancing on the stairs

Mogic's offices are connected by a spiral staircase from the first basement to the fourth floor.

It would be easier to clean if it was just one floor, but in Shakujii, there are very few office buildings with large spaces.

However, there are some good things about having separate floors, and one of them is that you can change the theme of each floor or room to create a variety of impressions.

So far, we've created an atmosphere based on everyone's favorite movie motifs, such as vintage and metallic in the basement, American casual on the first floor, and inside the spaceship on the second floor.

This time, we wanted the stairs to be a little more exciting, so we added a lot of colorful butterflies to match the Mogic colors.

He wanted to express the image of blowing through from the bottom to the top with the butterfly.

These small ideas are born, disappear, and are born again.

I'm arguing for simplicity.

One thing I noticed when I was told by an outsider was that we often have discussions all over the place. Regardless of their position, whether they are executives, employees, or interns, they come up with ideas on the theme, give it a bad name, expand the rationale, and contribute to the path to the conclusion.

But basically, the ideas that I put forth are rarely adopted and are buried.

So many ideas come up that it becomes the norm. You will never feel that your opinions are ignored or denied.

And every time I was asked, "Have you had any questions lately? If you say "no," they will ask, "Is it true that you don't have that many questions? If I say, "No," they say, "Are you sure you don't have that many questions? If I say "no," I am sometimes asked, "Is it true that you don't have so many questions?

We do not receive one-sided instructions from anyone, but rather ask and answer questions thoroughly if there is anything that concerns us.

In this way, aspects that the requesting party was not aware of will come to light, and the process will become simpler and simpler.

To keep things simple, they seem to be the first to discuss it.

Don't try to solve difficult problems.

In Mogic, people say things like, "That problem is intricate and troublesome, so let's stop it," or "It's too hard to continue this flow, so let's eliminate it.

In layman's terms, when I get a problem that I think is difficult, I try not to take it at face value.

If a difficult problem can be made into an easy one, it will be solved, and if it cannot be made easy, it will be discarded.

If the problem is in a textbook, someone has solved it in the past, so you can challenge yourself with more difficult problems, but in the business world, most of the problems are new, and I think there are more problems that you can't solve.

If I try to force myself to solve many problems that I can't solve, I will stop, and someday I will put a burden on someone else, so I try not to solve such problems.