Hiroki Kudo: Dream, imagine, and change

  Photo by Aaron Burden / Unsplash Why? I have started this blog to push myself to become a better writer and also a better communicator. I need to level up my vocabulary and use proper language to articulate and communicate complex concepts I have in my head. But I also find reading and writing effective for a couple of other reasons. Give space for your mind to wander When you dream, your brain processes all the information that you have consciously and unconsciously accumulated. When you are doing a task, you are focus (hopefully) only on the task at hand. There needs to be space to let you materialize your thoughts. I think reading and writing give you that space and depending on what you read and write, it will strengthen certain "brain muscles". The practice If you are a bad writer, write more. Have what you have ready A bit related to the original motivation but preparation makes you better and confident. I was listening to Tim Ferris and Kevin Rose discussion, Tim me...

Photo by Ekaterina Shakharova / Unsplash Technology divide My mom is now 77 years old. Since COVID she hasn't travelled much and her main activities is to walk around her apartment in Kobe, Japan. It makes me worry more now that I am living in Vancouver, Canada. I would call her every month or so, get on zoom so I can see her face. I would usually use the kids as an excuse to have the web meeting. She is very persevering. In other words she doesn't ask for help when she needs it. She had a 5 year old Windows PC that was starting to make the zoom call difficult. She also had a smartphone but.... (We got to actually use it, but gosh!! it was such a piece of junk! You had to press hard on the screen to have any button respond. Fujitsu, your product is awful!) No function to do web calls. And she couldn't download and use Line (the equivalent of Whatsapp in Japan) The hurdles When I visited her in early July, she wanted to change her phone because Fujitsu will not support any ...

Photo by Brooke Lark / Unsplash Think of how living beings, starting from single-cell forms evolved into animals, plants, fungi, protists and monera. The beginning was not to die. Having a strong enough structure to withstand the external environment. Then came how to create energy. That came in 2 forms. Either producing energy or acquiring it. Plants evolved to produce energy with the help of chloroplasts. Animals, on the other hand, had to acquire energy. They developed primitive forms of the gut. This was far before any of the other organs were present. The gut eventually evolved to serve several functions, the nervous system, the lymphatic system, the blood circulation system, etc. These systems were taken over by other organs but the gut and other organs still support the main organs. As an example of this, let me tell you a story. A wealthy man had a liver problem. So he had a part of a liver transplant from a young Mexican man. Since then he suddenly craved spicy food. This sho...

  Photo by Aldebaran S / Unsplash We can only recognize what we can sense Humans can only sense limited information. For example, humans can only see visible light. Some butterflies are known to sense and communicate with ultraviolet. Humans can't sense, ultraviolet, x-rays, gamma rays, etc. Humans can't hear dog whistles. Humans can't sense magnetic fields. Humans can't feel seismic waves. In math, we learn about imaginary numbers. But can we recognize them? What if, there was a whole world that we couldn't recognize Humans talk about other intelligent life. What if they were right next to you? Could it so happen that you can't sense them? What if life could exist in a form that humans couldn't sense? Nobody said that intelligent life had to be in a form of a human or octopus-like or other grotesque forms. What if, other species of life were more intelligent than humans? What is the definition of intelligence? I wrote about that in my previous post, but wh...

  Photo by Ian Stauffer / Unsplash Clearly writing is not one of my strengths. But if I DON'T write, how am I ever going to get good at it?! So, I will be writing very short blogs, just to get into the habit of writing. Today I want to start writing about my views of the world. Let me start with where this all happened. I have been meditating now and then for some 8 years or so. (Maybe even longer.) I am now pretty good at quieting my mind. I was thinking that meditation will strengthen my ability to connect, connect to the unknown. What am I saying? Let me write about that in the next blog. By the way, meditation is great and I recommend everyone give it a try. It will clear up your mind and give you more focus. And if you are having trouble focusing, this is a great exercise for you. Set a timer, and just 3 minutes or even shorter, try focusing. If your mind starts drifting or starting to think of something, that is fine! Just notice that and correct it. Don't be frustrated ...

  Learning about Corporate Governance. Photo by Christina @ wocintechchat.com / Unsplash It seems that it does differ by juristic and Japan has a very unique system or practices. This seems to be related to historical events on how it developed. Japan's stock market had lost a lot of trust as a result of the of courts decision on Bull-Dog vs. Steel Partners. (And the Great Recession that happened the next year, 2008) Bull-Dog wins court case vs Steel Partners Many scandals in the corporate world, such as Daio Paper and Olympus (2011), made it clear that something was needed to be done to retain trust in the Tokyo Stock Market. The Fourth Abe Cabinet (November 2017 to September 2020) introduced a plan called the "tree arrows". The third arrow, a growth strategy known as the “Japan Revitalization Strategy”, pushed to amend "Companies Act", setup the Japanese version of Stewardship Code and Corporate Governance Code. For the "Companies Act" the followi...