The Japanese Art of Preparation🇯🇵 💴 🗻 🌸

Image: Matt Cherubino

For the last 3.5 weeks, I’ve been immersed in everything Japan. After what was a glorious holiday I’ve had time to reflect on what we’re doing at Single Partners, and what our next phase should be.

Over the next few weeks, you’ll see changes to both of our website, brand and structure of content — most of this will reflect a renewed focus on “Human Intelligence”. While we’ve had time to reflect these last few weeks, we felt that structuring our content around a core principle rather than being generalist will better allow us to:

1. Provide useful and consistent content
2. Add credibility
3. Grow our community; and
4. Allow us to focus on what we do best (communicating & analysing)

Startup Lab will be discontinued, but we believe this renewed focus will better assist business owners & high performers make smarter decisions, as opposed to putting out more software that is already available.

For the time being, we’ve included a brief understanding of what Human Intelligence is on our Home Page. In the last few weeks some of you may have seen our social media posts on podcast recordings & the like — add us on Instagram & Twitter to keep in touch of the release. Some of you will also have the opportunity to come to the launch.

Image: Instagram

While we get back into the swing of things, and in between updating our expectations of content, we’ve decided to cover the usual random morsels and lessons learned from Japan. Enjoy!

The Japanese Art of Preparation —

Each country you ever visit has its pros & cons once you unwrap the wrapping that is touristification. I find that getting the essence of a city or country is closely correlated with how much time you spend living like a local.

The greatest lesson learned was the that the Japanese would be one of the most prepared groups of people I’ve ever come across, not for the sake of preparation/timeliness — but for comfort. This isn’t like the cliche that Germans must be on time or in order, but more that most Japanese (after confirming this with one of our hosts) do not like being uncomfortable — whether physically or socially. Now I know that must seem incredibly cliche, but you start to realise this when there’s a vending machine on the side of a gravel road in the middle of nowhere in the countryside.

The food is exceptional, and commitment to produce is unrivalled. The sushi back home will just never be the same. I will never understand the rationale behind burnable & non-burnable rubbish. I now start to wonder what percentage of plastic pollution found in our oceans comes from Japan, everything and anything is packaged. The honour of having a satisfied guest or customer made us feel incredibly pampered no matter where we were (guest house, restaurant, shop).

Almost all of these unique things that made me smile can be attributed back to their culture which prizes hard work, respect & tradition. However, the public & private face that often defines Japan can be a double-edged sword.

Initially, I had assumed Japan was quite technologically advanced, they were the country that adopted & mastered high-tech manufacturing, which saw a few decades of domination in both cars & electronics. But the yearning for tradition has seemed to stop that drive for innovation or perhaps it was the Lost Decade (1991–2000), which saw South Korea & software computing surpass Japan. There’s still conductors on a train, cash registers that look like their from the 80s, a constant desire for cash and lots of over-engineered technology.

Some of the sadder aspects we learnt from friends & hosts along the way were how traditional corporate & societal culture still was. In particular, we noticed that the need to get a full-time job out of university (and a good one) is almost life defining — without it you are pushed into a cycle of part time jobs, overspending, and insane credit debt. There is little to no career progression outside of your company. Around 50% of males aged 20–30 have given up on careers & relationships, committing instead to a “herbivore” lifestyle. The birth rate is worryingly low. The suicide rate in a western country would be deemed out of control, media & politicians alike would be declaring a “war on suicide”. Most Japanese do not know how to engage strangers unless of course, they were assisting foreigners like us or knew us personally.

All of that being said, I still strongly believe Japan is one of the most amazing countries on Earth — and I ensured that most of the points made above were confirmed by our hosts & friends along the way. My intention is not to persuade anyone not to go, merely to just enlighten you along your own trip. I will be going back, and cannot wait to get back to Tokyo for some Sake and Toro Nigiri.

Below are some links I used from Quora:

• What facts about Japan do foreigners not believe until they come to Japan?
• What are bad things about Japan?
• What do most Japanese people know that foreigners living in Japan typically don’t know?
• What are the biggest misconceptions about Japanese culture?

Image: Instagram

Random Morsels to get smarter

Here’s my picks of the week for brilliant articles that can improve your human intelligence:

• The “Hive” is the new “Network”. In each social network, key influencers become nodes delivering over 50% of the viewed/liked/shared content. The author summarises that the value of being connected isn’t in being in their network, but contributing to their opinion & taking it forward.
• What would happen if the world suddenly went vegetarian. Brilliant read as always from the BBC. This article breaks down the data of what would happen to the climate & health of societies that exist today. This article then transfers into the next one:
• Ethical arguments won’t end factory farming. Technology might. My honest opinion, for a multitude of health, cultural & economic reasons, is that switching the world to vegetarianism or veganism is near improbable. It’s also logically obvious that making the conscious decision to change to vegetarianism/veganism for welfare & climate reasons has nil effect on the greater numbers — although it can make the lived experience better for the individual who chooses that. With the way that the farm & food is being abstracted away (like most technology), I’m more inclined to assess that vertical farming & cultured meat will have a far greater effect in moving the world to more ethical & climate conscious arrangements for its food. Furthermore, it would do a significant amount in assisting Homo Sapiens to become a space going race. In the meantime, I will continue eating nose to tail, but will almost certainly consider cultured options when they become available.

Thanks for reading,

Jordan Michaelides

Single Partners is focused on human intelligence design (H.I Design) to dramatically increase the output of business owners & quality of life of high performers.

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