I used to play football (soccer) when I was in junior high school and high school. When you are running or dribbling at top speed, your view cannot stop being narrow. Sometimes you need to stop, look around the entire field and try to gras…

When I was small, my dad used to tell me that "you should not do harm to others". In a sense, this is a low aiming goal. Why not "you should do good to others"? You should actively try to do good to others, not only avoiding bringing harm …

Sometimes, art and science are considered to be placed at the opposite side. But both of them deal with the same thing: our world. Science tries to explain the world.Art tries to express the world. I love both of them.

They always say that logical thinking is critical especially in a business world.But I always wonder why that is. 1. Being logical is context dependentA logical argument in a place might not be logical in another place. For example, how do…

I'm not a specialist in Machine Learning at all but interested in it and have read books about it. 人工知能はどのようにして 「名人」を超えたのか?―――最強の将棋AIポナンザの開発者が教える機械学習・深層学習・強化学習の本質作者: 山本一成出版社/…

I feel like many people are good at asking HOW questions. How to make money?How to learn a new language?How to get married? Then, we ask WHY? Why do I need money?Why do I have to learn a new language?Why marry? But to think deeply, I think…

It seems like many people think that machine learning is about machine. But this book changed my view; machine learning is about learning.The Master Algorithm: How the Quest for the Ultimate Learning Machine Will Remake Our World作者: Pedr…

Now I work for a small startup. A small startup always has resource constraint and needs to think about where to allocate scarce resource. On the other hand, when I was working for a big transnational corporation, there was enough budget. …

The other day, when I was talking to my friend, she said "I believe in money but not in people. Why? Because people might betray you but money does not." I think this is reasonable. But only when the value of money is relatively stable. Si…

Donald Rumsfeld, when he was asked if there was an evidence of Iraq owning weapons of mass destruction, said, "there are things that we know,there are things that we know that we don't knowand there are things that we don't know that we do…

Recent case of Karoshi, a Japanese word for dying because of working too hard, of a young employee in one of the elitist corporations in Japan, Dentsu, is again heating up the debate concerning Japanese working culture. It is well-known th…

Now I work for a cross-border crowdfunding investment startup in Tokyo. This might sound a bit complicated but what we do is simple. We raise funds from Japanese investors (mainly individuals) online and invest it in emerging markets.Capit…

Though Thomas Piketty (2014), in his book “Capital in the twenty-first century”, pointed out the growing inequality in the process of economic growth, it is often criticized as not having theoretical support. Why does inequality grow? Kahn…

The word research is obviously a combination of the prefix "re" and the verb "search". In the course of our daily lives, we come across events, go through experiences and feel diverse emotions. But we hardly look back on those and reflect …

I like having fun. I like having sense of humor whenever and wherever I am. But sometimes, bringing sense of humor into work places or academia is considered to be immoral and sinful. Or it's just not welcomed because people think that I'm…

(I think I wrote the same kind of article before but I forgot which one...haha) It seems like the word "Diversity" is in the mode all around the world since a while ago. Corporations say "we respect diversity among employees," schools and …

Yesterday, I wrote about why people tend to think that increasing the amount of input can enhance their productivity, living standard, well-being and etc. One of the explanations might be that increasing the amount of input is tangible, vi…

A while ago, I wrote that "less" might bring about something that can contribute to "more". What is it? I believe that it's "knowledge." I think "knowledge" is the single most important thing that brings about "more" in our life.(How to de…

I'm in Leyte Island, Philippines now, working with cooperatives. I sometimes have chance to talk to farmers. I ask how they think they can improve their productivity and generate income. Their answer is always all the time "Capital. We nee…

I like asking "why" question rather than "how" question.Honestly speaking, Im not that interested in "how". "Why" question is about making sense of the world that surrounds me.I somehow want to make sense of it. I want to "understand" what…

William Easterly, in his book White Man's Burden, introduced the notion of “homegrown development” and argued that imposed development never works. The White Man's Burden: Why the West's Efforts to Aid the Rest Have Done So Much Ill and So…

Put water in a container and boil it. If the container is not covered with a lid, the water just spills over the container when it is boiled. But if the container is covered with a lid and the water is pressured inside the container for a …

There's a proverb says "the road to hell is paved with good intentions." Especially as I major in development studies, I realize that there are thousands of cases in which good intentions paved the road to hell. Aid creating aid dependency…

I learned a lot of things in graduate school.Surely, I leaned a lot of new knowledge, facts and frameworks. Of course, that is important. However, I also learned "how to think." I believe that this is more important than learning knowledge…

There is a Japanese proverb saying "after a festival, you feel sentimental."Festivals create special time and space in which people interact and obtain shared experience with other people.In festivals, people get out of their daily routine…

Probably, most of us have said this at least once: "He is a smart person!!" Well, I don't think it's a problem to say such a thing but today, I want to think about it. Certainly, there are lots of types of smartness: having a good memory, …

What I'm studying now in my MA degree is so-called "development studies."Development studies is a broad academic discipline but its main focus is topics such as poverty, conflict, terrorism, inequality, human rights, climate change and so …

It is said that the modern world is "Anthropocene." According to Dictionary.com, "Anthropocene" is "the present geological epoch (from the time of the Industrial Revolution onwards), during which humanity has begun to have a significant im…

The other day, I wrote that the pension system in Japan is in danger.Since the aging society is proceeding rapidly in Japan, there won't be enough young people (working population) to support elderlies (who are receiving pension). It seems…

When I was a member of soccer club in high school, I was always scolded by a coach, saying "you lack willpower!!! You always indulge yourself!!!" Yes,,,,,,I agree,,,,,,,I was a slacker... haha and still I am..... It seems like in Japan (ma…