10 Observations About Tokyo
What is the foreigner to make of Jante Law? How does one negotiate its booby traps and trip wires? There are two approaches to take: one is to play the stupid foreigner card, proceed as you would at home, and feign obliviousness to the frowns as you sail through Danish society boasting of your successes and acquisitions. Or you can keep your head d
... See moreMichael Booth • The Almost Nearly Perfect People: Behind the Myth of the Scandinavian Utopia
A Way Forward
geohot.github.io
When he landed in Japan decades later, he, more than any of the other Americans there, immediately grasped how crucial the special arrangement between Japanese companies and their employees was and why it led to superior quality. This line of thinking would become what I believe is the striking difference between the System of Profound Knowledge an
... See moreJohn Willis • Deming's Journey to Profound Knowledge: How Deming Helped Win a War, Altered the Face of Industry, and Holds the Key to Our Future
In Japan, by contrast, you see strangers in your neighborhood all the time — in the convenience store, in the noodle shop, or walking down the street from their own houses to those shops and restaurants. Even if you don’t like to meet strangers or say hi to your neighbors, it’s nice to see strangers and to see your neighbors. It creates a feeling o... See more
AI refactors previous use of humans, and unleashes new use for humans. Two weeks traveling Japan proved to be the perfect setting to contemplate some of the sweeping changes facing our society over the coming years and decades. The smart people I know generally agree that 80% of the work of 80%+ of jobs will be refactored significantly by AI. And
... See moreScott Belsky • The Personalization Wave, a Surge of Wildly Human-Intensive Non-Scalable Experiences, & Ideas of the Month
When he landed in Japan decades later, he, more than any of the other Americans there, immediately grasped how crucial the special arrangement between Japanese companies and their employees was and why it led to superior quality. This line of thinking would become what I believe is the striking difference between the System of Profound Knowledge an
... See more