taro's note

Master of Life の条件

2010-12-01T22:08:00.006+09:00

分かりやすくくだけた文章を書くのが苦手だ。

自分の関心のある科学技術については、リラックスして文章を書けるのだが、慣れない分野、とくに場合によっては曖昧に取られやすい「ソーシャル」の文脈で文章を書くのは苦手である。

走るのが速い人もいれば遅い人もいる。
絵を描くのが苦手な人もいれば、上手な人もいる。

人には向き不向きがあるのは当然なこと。
理想は、向いていることに集中し、「好きこそものの上手なれ」を追求することだ。

不向きなことをあえて頑張ってやっても楽しくないし、
せいぜい人並みになる程度だろう。
そんなことにエネルギーを費やしても効率が悪いってもんだ。

好きなことを仕事にする。
仕事を趣味に出来る。

これが理想の人生で、Master of Life の必須条件なのだろう。

自分は人生の第何章目にいるのだろう

2010-04-13T00:06:00.003+09:00

心がヒリヒリしたことはないだろうか。
自分が人生の中で、進むべき方向に向かっているか自信がないときに。
人生の主導権が、現在の自分とはかけ離れたところにあると感じたときに。

将来のことを考えると、恐ろしくなる。
暗闇を手探りで進む恐怖感。壁にぶつかるか、穴に落ちるか。

将来のことは誰にも分からない。
人生の節目節目のイベントは、振り返ったときに互いに繋がり合い、意味を持つものらしい。
今の自分も、何か大きなイベントの一部として繋がっているのだろうか。

恐怖は目をそらせばそらすほど大きく膨らんでいくものだ。
目を背けることは、恐怖を増長させること。
心を決めて、真正面から見極めてやろう。

恐怖の前に立ちはだかり、目をカッと見開いて、恐怖の本質を見通してやるのだ。
もくもくと立ち上っていた恐怖は、途端にシュンと萎縮しはじめ、
自分が見下ろす程度のものになっていた。

私は心の底から笑った。
ワッハッハ！

理由もなく、心の底から笑いが吹き出してきた。
全身が弛緩する。じーん、と心が熱くなった。

分からないことは分からないと言えばよい。
かしこぶる必要もない。でくの坊と呼ばれても良い。
複雑な問題をきれいなマトリックスにまとめられなくても良い。

ただ自然体で、あるがままに、生きていけば良いのだ。
人間は必ず死ぬ。焦って死ぬ必要はない。心と身体をオープンにして、
自然と一体化し、溶け込めば良い。

Complex and Simplicity

2010-04-11T21:42:00.001+09:00

世の中は複雑だ。さまざまな要素が互いに相互依存し、影響を与えあっている。
そこで我々はフレームワークを当てはめ、シンプルな状態を作り出そうとする。
それは、強力なツールで、人類発展に大きく貢献してきた。

でも、思うのだ。

複雑からシンプルにする過程で、そぎ落とした「何か」に
大切なものが含まれているのではないか、と。

Winパソコンを購入

2010-03-27T01:07:00.002+09:00

仕事でこれまでなんとかMACを使ってきた。しかしもう限界だった。オフィスのプリンタになぜかMACだと使えないし、通勤に２キロを超えるMACBOOKはこたえるし、プライベートの全データを持ち歩くことにも抵抗があった。

ということで、なるべく道具として使い倒せるノートPCを求めてLet's Noteを購入した。最初の印象は「軽い！！！」泣けてきました。見た目のデザインは残念だが、１つ１つの技術的な要素のレベルは高い。

後は見た目のデザイン、細かいディテールの処理を丁寧に仕上げればかなり質感が高い製品に仕上がるのに。

良くも悪くも日本製品だった。

2010-02-12T22:52:00.001+09:00

The reasonable man adapts himself to the world;
the unreasonable one persists in trying to adapt the world to himself.
Therefore all progress depends on the unreasonable man.

George Bernard Shaw, Man and Superman (1903) "Maxims for Revolutionists"

シンポジウム「文化と社会」

2010-02-12T21:51:00.002+09:00

Gerard Lemons, CMG (Acting Chair of British Council)
Pierre Aubry, Senior Advisor to the Deputy Minister, the Ministry of Culture, Communication and the Status of Women, Quebec, Canada
相馬千秋、フェスティバル／トーキョー　プログラム・ディレクター
アレックス・ホンフレー、BOPコンサルティング
真鍋一史、青山学院大学総合文化政策学部教授

同業者が評価する

Financing
30%, grant from public administration
40% money from sponsor
30% profit from activities

定性的な評価と定量的な評価
その事業内容を知らない人間に説明する時に、定量的データは役に立つ。

「何をかえようとしているのか」というロジックを事前に用意しておけば、その事業のインパクトも評価できる。

批評とは誰かが人為的に作るものであるから、気をつけなければならない。

文化は若者を惹き付ける。コミュニティーを作るとともに、将来の職探しにもつなげられる。

I'll graduate my business boot camp

2010-02-12T21:50:00.001+09:00

I'll graduate my business boot camp next week.
I'm so happy to move next step.

Still under business boot camp

2009-07-14T23:42:00.002+09:00

I'm in a business boot camp.

I participated in a small company, which has lots of problem from the management point of view. Then I can study how to manage organization, how to communicate with people, how to establish credibility with colleagues. Most of things I can study in this small company are negative things by bad behaviors. So I called this "Business Boot Camp", stressing intentionally to train myself.

I hope I can graduate with smile in the near future.

ヒグラシの鳴く夜に

2009-07-12T18:47:00.002+09:00

ヒグラシが鳴いている

昼間の暑さが引いた夕べの一時

なぜだか分からぬが、

ヒグラシの鳴き声は、人をシンミリさせる

子供時代の懐かしさ、少し切なさが効いた

セピアなモノトーンに

聞く人を誘う

彼らは、何を思って

鳴いているのだろう

The election of Governor in Tokyo

2009-07-12T00:55:00.002+09:00

Today is a day of election for the governor in Tokyo.

A ticket was sent to me last week and I found my vote location is far from my house. It takes me a time and energy to go to the place. I thought this non-sense situation. Now we live in 21st century and IT is great infrastructure of the society, while I have to go to the vote place to write down candidate's name with a pencil.

I believe this rule make the number of voting rate smaller. Now governing party is "Jimin-to", so maybe small number of the rate helps them to keep their power in the Diet.

If Japan applies the latest IT system in the election, a landscape of Japanese politics will be changed dramatically, a revolution.

The Beer Garden Prophet

2009-07-12T00:48:00.002+09:00

My friend in Kobe enjoys playing drums.
His band name is...

The Beer Garden Prophet

It's coolest band name I've heard ever.
I hope they make the world sea of beer.

後悔

2009-05-12T22:37:00.002+09:00

人生は後悔の連続なんだ。
ある人が気になっていた。無視できない存在だったが、人生が続くと思い込んでいるから、時間が出来た時に、改めて接しようと思っていたんだ。
しかし、人生は長く続かず、その人は亡くなった。いなくなってから初めて、真剣に、その人の人生を深く知りたいと思うようになったんだ。もう二度と、その人に会えないと知りながら。なぜもっと早く気がつかなかったのだろう、と思いながら。
人生は後悔の連続なんだ。

「とやら」の羊羹

2009-04-11T20:00:00.001+09:00

季節限定の羊羹「菖蒲あわせ」を頂く。とても奇麗な外見だが、お味の方も素晴らしい。

巨大クモ＠山下公園

2009-04-10T20:00:00.000+09:00

横浜の山下公園で巨大クモを発見。フランスのアーティスト集団「ラ・マシン」の作品らしい。メカっぽいし、巨大だし、バンドがシュールなバックミュージックを演奏しているし、しびれる作品だ。カッコイイ。

寺田寅彦の視点

2009-04-05T20:31:00.002+09:00

今朝の日本経済新聞に物理者で文人でもあった寺田寅彦の言葉が載っていた。

「眼は、いつでも思った時にすぐ閉じることができるようにできている。しかし、耳のほうは、自分では自分を閉じることができないようにできている。なぜだろう。」

現代の科学は徹底的に細分化され、自らの専門以外の知識と接する機会が限られるが、昔の科学者は何と好奇心を縦横無尽に駆け巡らせたんだろう。

かものはしプロジェクトの二木会

2009-01-15T23:55:00.002+09:00

カンボジアの児童売春問題に取り組んでいる「かものはしプロジェクト」の活動報告会に参加した。Social Businessとして活動が広がっていけば素晴らしいと思う。

加藤唐九郎重高・高宏の陶芸作品

2009-01-15T23:35:00.002+09:00

菊池寛実記念智美術館で「加藤唐九郎・重髙・高宏 ―窯ぐれ三代」展を見た。
陶器は素朴で力強く、毅然とした大地の力を感じだ。

西洋のデザイナーはイスのデザインについて執着することが多いが、日本人に取って同様の精神が陶芸の焼きものにも言えるのではないだろうか。永遠に追求しても極めることのできない基本・・・それが西洋に取ってのイスであり、日本人にとっての焼きものだと思った。

展示品は良かったが、美術館があまりにも都心のスノッブな場所にあるので違和感を感じた。陶芸は自然との繋がりが大きいのだが、その場所はあまりに人工的な地区だからだ。

3D Hologram

2008-06-27T15:16:00.000+09:00

Really Achieving Your Childhood Dreams

2008-06-25T13:21:00.001+09:00

Possibility of Social Entrepreneur

2008-06-24T15:14:00.001+09:00

I'm interested in a concept "Social Entrepreneur". This means to pursue to solve social problems by doing business. There are several approaches to solve social problems. Donation or participation to NGOs or NPOs. However NGO and NPO always have a problem, which is how to raise money to sustain that activities.

Social Entrepreneur is one solution to this issue. They have to come up with good business model which enabes to make money for their activities. If customers or clients are poor people, it is possible to achieve effective business. This is well explained in a book, "The Fortune at the Bottom of the Pyramid " by C. K. Prahalad . This book is really nice, which changed my bias to poor peoples's ability to buy.

In Japan, the concept of Social Entrepreneur is growing, but its influence is much smaller than that in US and Europe. I was heard that skillful middle age people are earnest about those activies, in the other hand, younger people such as undergradulate student without business experiences are serious in Japan.

This difference is interesting to me. A guy who knows well about social entrepreneurs in Japan said that middle age pepole in Japan are very nervous to lose their increasing salary and promoting position in companies. What is American or Europian people's incentives to start social business? Is it relating to a sense of religion?

In developed countries, problems that government holds are getting bigger, much more serious. There are lots of inefficiencies, stacked bureaucratic organizations, sectionalism and so on. They exposes their limitation of public services.

My impression is social entrepreneurs are more active if disappointment about public services by government is more serious. Anyway I think this activity has great possibility to change societies better.

iPhone 3G Ad

2008-06-12T08:10:00.000+09:00

Canvas Car by BMW Concept

2008-06-11T16:00:00.000+09:00

iPhone 3G - Leading device in the future

2008-06-11T14:30:00.000+09:00

iPhone 3G is a hand held computer.
Apple Inc. unveiled iPhone 3G on Monday in Carifornia. The biggest feature is 3G, high speed communication standard in the world. Thank to 3G, many people in the world will enjoy this device.

Some people reagrd the iPhone as a phone, however its spec is actually more than a phone. It is a computer. For instance, its OS and brower are the same ones with Mac OS, OSX and Safari. Lots of people can develop applications by using Software Develoment Kit released by Apple.

It's really a computer with a phone. Some critics say iPhone won't be not so popular. Wate... This is just a beginning of great things. It's not so surprising that iPhone is not so popular now. People just don't know how innovative it is. But if people are aware of it...

That is a time IT brings us a revolution.

Shikoku

2008-05-29T13:03:00.002+09:00

Last week, I traveled Shikoku island in Japan.
There are lot ofmountains and less flat land, where cities locate.
There is a inland sea called Setonai-kai between Shikoku and the main land of Japan. There are 4 big bridges accross the sea, which are Akashi Ohashi, Seto-Ohashi and Shimanami Kaido. Their outlooks are really bearutiful. When I took a ferry, I felt that nice view, it was like Aegean Sea in Greece.

Shikoku Island is coutryside except Takamatsu and Matsuyama. People there are friendly and local time looks slowly. If you want to relax in the countryside, it's better to visit there and enjoy hot springs and its nature.

Matsuyama(松山)

Freeze in a crowd!

2008-05-13T21:24:00.001+09:00

It's difficult to find a doctor

2008-05-12T15:54:00.001+09:00

When you want to see a doctor, how do you find?
It's not easy to find an ideal doctor. For me, I'm new comer in Kobe and don't have an information at all...

If this issue is about products, I can compare them by reading reviews on the Internet. Their spec is objective and easy to compare with others.

However when it comes to doctors, this method doesn't work. This is because our demand is depend on our situation. Expectation from young men is probably different from that from elder people.

I tried to search by Google Map. But I just found a long list of doctors. There was not any reviews and no information of doctors.

Then I decided one doctor. It's gamble. My conditions were only two, access and office hours. What was the result?

It was bad...
I got a joker. There was an old doctor who looked to have lots of experience. But that experience annoyed me. He never listened my explanation. He just looked at me and diagnosed from his experience. I appealed that his points were not exact, but he ignored.

I promised myself I would not see him anymore. He was far from my ideal image of doctor. But still I don't know how I can find a doctor...

Radical Innovation Cleaning water

2008-05-05T16:06:00.000+09:00

"Social Entrepreneurship" - Ashoka's Bill Drayton speaks...

2008-04-17T11:46:00.000+09:00

Meaning of "Education"

2008-04-16T15:28:00.002+09:00

I'm interested in education.

One day I looked into its origin with a dictionary. I found that Education is composed of "edu" + "cation". "edu" means something that comes from inside to outside. "cation" means action. Then I realised that the education is basically self-motivated action.

In Japan, "education" is regarded as teaching in schools. Teachers give their knowledge to students. The position of teachers is higher than that of students. Discipline or rules govern the students.

I don't like this culture and think it is wrong from the educational point of view. The real role of teachers is not giving knowledge, to inspire their students to motivate self-learning. Teachers are just supporters in the case their students are at a loss in their thinkings.

I watched a TV program which shows teachers in Finland. Finish way of teaching is respected by the world. Their goal is for children to think by themselves. Theacher as a carrier is ragarded as respectable job. It's not easy to get the job. All candidates have to get PhD in universities. I guess this is one of proofs that they think education very seriously.

I hope Japanese education system will be like that in the future. To do that, we have to change our mind-set totally.

Eco Touring at Biwa-ko (Biwa lake)

2008-03-25T10:10:00.005+09:00

There is lots of water in Japan. We don't have to prepare about drought.
Last week, I participated in an eco touring in Harie, Shiga. People who live that town make the best use of water, stream and spring water.

Each house has a water place called "Kabata" inside or outside the house. Kabata is composed of water from stream and spring water. In the water from stream, there are carps and other small fishes.

People use spring water for their drinking, cooking and cooling vegetables and fruits. Some people use that water for washing their faces and teeth. In the other hand, people use the water from stream to wash their dishes. When washing the dishing, the carps are eating leftover meals and make the water clean. That is really sustainable water system. Many carps keep the water clean and people can use it for their lives.

This place became famous because a documentary about Kabata by NHK earned an international prize. I was heard from a guide that ABC from US covered that place before our touring. It was really good countryside in Japan.

Tibet Uprising

2008-03-19T14:09:00.002+09:00

I'm worrying about the situation in Tibet.
I've been interested in Tibet. People in Tibet have been facing hardship. They are fighting with the power which tries to overwhelm Tibetan culture. Chinese Government requests their obedience and its attitude looks superior.

What shoud I do for Tibet? All I can do is only looking at the extinction of the culture? I hope lots of individuals in the world keep attention for what is happening in Tibet now and find opportunies to empower them anytime, anywhere.

Pursuing geographic teritory is out of date. The goal we have to aim is to become an independent individual. The government and the nationarity is secondary.

Nice Song

2008-03-17T18:38:00.001+09:00

I zapped the net and found a nice song.
It's old (80s?), but cool french pop.

Cool Car by TOYOTA

2008-03-13T18:46:00.002+09:00

I love small cars. But most of car companies were not serious to manufacturing small car so far.

However the age has changed. TOYOTA released new concept of small car. I hope they keep its design when they start production model.

Whale hunting issue in Japan

2008-03-07T16:01:00.001+09:00

Recently we can see articles about Japanese whale hunting.
Many countries and NGOs are aganst this Japanese action. Australian activist "Sea Shepard" threw away anything like chemicals to Japnaese suvey ship. I think this is too radical and dangerous.

However I also think Japanese Government is irrational. My opinion is to quit the hunting right now. But I agree that hunting whales were one of Japanese tradition. When we didn't have enough food after the war, whales were important proteins for children in the schools. But eating whales was just one of our culture. And now we have enouh food and there is no need to eat whales.

I know some people who demand hunting think "Western people killed tons of whales for only their oils, while Japanese made the best use of them. Why do they regard us as bad men?" I feel sympathy with this opinion. But yet I think we don't have to hunt whales. Becasue we can't find a certain reason to persist whales. We kill animals to keep our lives. We kill cows and pigs to keep our lives. They are common in our food. But not whales.

Japan has lots of other serious problems such as aging population, grobal warming and education. We should forcus on these issues. Whale hunting looks sensational, but essantially tiny problem to be solved.

IT as a tool

2008-03-03T16:40:00.000+09:00

Demands of people against IT are various.
It's impossible to embed all possible functions in a package. So I guess the ideal software is based on Internet, on demand, download required software, it's real time events. That software looks infinite for users because of lots of combinations of functions.

Basic function is classified as units and people select them like LEGO toys.
All information about the software is open and companies make money by consulting and maintenance.

The software encourage people as a individuals because every application differ as user wants. People appeal their demand and that movements introduce democracy on the Internet. That change of mind affects our real lives. The customizing our software will be an opportunity to get back an initiative of life from the governments and companies.

IT should be a great tool for the people who are in weak position so far.

Open Source

2008-02-29T13:52:00.001+09:00

My expect about IT is that most prevalent technology is open source. It's extremely opposite of secrecy and crowds of knowledge. If the important software like OS is supplied by commercial companies, Users will be victims of company's money making. If making money is the fist thing, our sense of beauty and curiosities about unknown things become worse. Then we can't enjoy our lives instead of the only once lives.

Developing technology evolves our utilities.
How about a concept "Significance"?

I think that has been left out on a limb.

Life in Natural Circulation

2008-02-27T11:25:00.003+09:00

One day, I watched TV program about "Kabata". I was really impressed and moved to make full use of nature function.

Kabata is a system to use natural water running through the town. There are various kainds of lives such as carps and crawfishs and they are in the stream of water in the kitchen in each houses. There are also spring water in the kitchen. So people separate the stream and the spring water.

When they want to wash vegitables or cool fruits, they use the sprint water. When they want to wash their dishes after meal, they use the stream. Leftover meals become delicious food for the fish in the water. They help water to become clean by eating the meals.

People in the area are very humble against the nature and coexist with other animals. Probalby that peaceful scene impressed me.

* This area locates the north west of Biwa-ko in Japan.

Dentist

2008-02-26T16:37:00.003+09:00

Last night, I went to a dentist.
It was the first time for 15 years! I was scared of a diagnosis because I feel a pain in molors, it must be a cavity...

The result was a cavity, of course. But it was serious. My wisdom teeth partially erupted and hit the next molor. I got a cavity in the small gap between them. The doctor told me that I had to decide to extract that wisdom teeth. She also explained that the teeth is tough and there is big nerve near that teeth. That means I'll got a pain after the treatment.

I'm scared the dentist...

MacBook Air by Apple Inc.

2008-02-25T13:28:00.002+09:00

I could touch Macbook Air on Sunday.
I knew its feature by many pictures on the internet, but the real shape was very nice! I was strongly impressed by its details.

I wanted to buy MBA. But there were 3 problems.
1)Only 1 USB port: I use a USB to sycronize my iPod touch. So I need at least 2 ports.
2) Size of SSD is 64G. Size of my all media fies is over 90G. At least 128G is needed.

Yes, I spin a daydream as many Mac users do...
:-)

Uncertainty in the future

2008-01-15T15:14:00.000+09:00

Basically our life is surrounded by uncertainties. Almost all the people are afraid of that and have tried to predict and avoid dangers. Science has developed by that strong sense of human nature.

And now, our fear about the future has decreased? The answer is No. No matter how we develop science, uncertainty still exists. We never remove it.

So how can we face our life? The only way is to accept the uncertainty and risk to live, with doing our best.

Our goal so far was to avoid starvation physically. That is right way in developing countries. But people who are responsible to create new added value, new possibilities, needs to avoid starvation mentally.

Information literacy

2007-12-19T09:53:00.000+09:00

People say IT removes obstacles such as nationality and geography. But I think, I'm Japanese, it's serious problem if we can use English because most information on the Internet are described in English. If we can only use Japanese, that means we still live in a closed community as the real society.

James Surowiecki wrote his book "The Wisdom of Crowds". In that, he explains that an idea many people share is better than expert's idea. It's amazing. And the Internet is a very tool to take advantage of the wisdom of crowds. The quality of the wisdom of crowds depends of a number of its participants. That's why I'm concerned about the people who can't use English on the Internet. At this point, English is the most common language in the Internet.

If we, Japanese, won't be aware of an importance of common language, information disparity will be getting worse before we awake. We may be driven into a corner economically and mentally in the near future.

Actually I don't insist "We have to learn English. It's our duty!". I don't believe imposing anything doesn't release our potential ability. I just want people to figure out the infinite possibility of the Internet. Anybody can use it without any conditions. And English helps us to improve our life.

Kobe

2007-12-18T13:35:00.000+09:00

Kobe...
I have lived in this city since 2005. Before that, we lived in Tokyo for 28 years.

Characteristic of this city is variety.
Mountain and sea. Various kinds of people like Indian, Chinese and Korean. Historical and modern buildings. Religion such as Buddism, Chiristianity and Islam.

I love these varieties. Monoculture or believing there is only one culture are dangerous from biological point of view. If we depend on one culture, a possibility to damage seriously because of an environmental change is very high. If our mindsets are various, someone has a solution when we face a problem.

Oops, my thinking was out of track.
My thinking always expands if we enjoy a cup of coffee in the comfortable cafe in Kobe.

Kobe

Quantum physics in Biology

2007-12-17T11:46:00.000+09:00

Recently I’m interested in quantum physics. Phenomena in small world are really amazing. Who believes an electron has characteristics of particle and wave at the same time? Who seriously believe that an electron goes through multiple slits at the same time if we don’t observe. If we try observe that motion, all trajectories of the electron shrinks to a specific one. Can you believe it?

By the way, neuro-scientists in the world are now studying to figure out our brains. Some people simulate neurons by computers. However they fail to recreate our brains. Why? Because computers can only handle simple concept, Input and Output. If we want to make that calculation more complex, only thing we can do is to change calculation combination.

Anyway Computers need input, “initial conditions” and “boundary conditions”. Meanwhile our brains don’t look to care those prefaces. So I wonder how we decide something without specific conditions. I guess that quantum phenomena in neurons play important role. I was heard Roger Penrose, a famous scientist, is studying the relations between quantum physics and our mind.

Reading books

2007-12-16T16:37:00.000+09:00

I love reading.
Basically I finish reading a book in a week. Why do I read so many books? That is because I'm curious guy, but I can't go everywhere I want. Reading is the second best option for me to understand the world, human being. My challenge is how to output my knowledge to the society. This is very difficult.

Life is ...

2007-12-15T07:23:00.000+09:00

Life is what happens to you, while you are making other plans.

taro's note

Master of Life の条件

自分は人生の第何章目にいるのだろう

Complex and Simplicity

Winパソコンを購入

シンポジウム「文化と社会」

I'll graduate my business boot camp

Still under business boot camp

ヒグラシの鳴く夜に

The election of Governor in Tokyo

The Beer Garden Prophet

後悔

「とやら」の羊羹

巨大クモ＠山下公園

寺田寅彦の視点

かものはしプロジェクトの二木会

加藤唐九郎 重高・高宏の陶芸作品

3D Hologram

Really Achieving Your Childhood Dreams

Possibility of Social Entrepreneur

iPhone 3G Ad

Canvas Car by BMW Concept

iPhone 3G - Leading device in the future

Shikoku

Freeze in a crowd!

It's difficult to find a doctor

Radical Innovation Cleaning water

"Social Entrepreneurship" - Ashoka's Bill Drayton speaks...

Meaning of "Education"

Eco Touring at Biwa-ko (Biwa lake)

Tibet Uprising

Nice Song

Cool Car by TOYOTA

Whale hunting issue in Japan

IT as a tool

Open Source

Life in Natural Circulation

Dentist

MacBook Air by Apple Inc.

Uncertainty in the future

Information literacy

Kobe

Quantum physics in Biology

Reading books

Life is ...

加藤唐九郎重高・高宏の陶芸作品