Author: Satoru Hirose

 

Love supersedes all negative feelings.
愛情はあらゆるネガティブ感情に勝る。

 

It often seems impossible to let go of our feelings of hate.

I have to admit that I still hate dozens of people who treated me unfairly in the past — both in the workplace and in my private life. But the worst problem of the feeling of hatred is that, it loses our mind and prevents us from focusing on the present moment. It almost always causes more serious problems and damages to our life — than the hatred itself.

Although we can’t always let go of such hatred, our mind always have much stronger feelings that supersede it: Love and compassion. Even when you don’t feel like you have them, they certainly exist within you — your feeling of hatred just keeps you from recognizing them. Once you recognize them, you can grow them gradually.

Love and compassion are not for the sake of the people who are cruel to you; First and foremost, these are to protect yourself from cruelties of others — and your own. They are like your ship; The bigger and stronger they get, the safer you can sail on the sea. And every once in a while, you might be able to save someone from the sea of hatred.

 

 

Survivorship bias can destroy us.
生存バイアスは私たちを破壊し得る。

 

We can’t be free from biases. So we had better keep the ones that can help us, and recognize the ones that can hurt us.

What are the biases that can hurt us? Survivorship bias is one of them, although you might not agree with me.

Survivorship bias, or survival bias, is all around us. If you pick up any business how-to books or self-help books at the bookstore, they are most likely a pile of survivorship biases. When you read one of the most successful blogs in the world, you probably read the writing with full of survivorship biases.

Here’s another example. Over decades, we Japanese are brainwashed into believing that sleeping less and working harder is a sign of competence. When I was in high school, we were told that if we study hard and sleep for four hours everyday, we would be able to pass an entrance exam for university; if we sleep for more than five hours, we wouldn’t. Many business gurus in Japan are proud of being a short sleeper and tell people that sleeping less is the key to success. THESE BELIEFS ARE ALL NONSENSE; nothing is based upon scientific facts. And if someone pointed it out, other people would say, “Oh, you are losing the mental battle.” These people might have forgotten that it makes no sense to win the mental battle if we lose the war — and our physical & mental health. And many Japanese people are actually losing their health by being forced to work longer hours and sleep less.

I’m not saying that all survivorship biases are not useful; they just aren’t always applicable to everyone and every situation. It is good to learn the best practice of other people, but we have to evaluate them carefully. And if we use them, use with extreme care. Bestseller authors or business gurus will never be responsible for the outcome of what you do — they are busy making themselves successful.

Oh, by the way, survivorship bias doesn’t exist in my writings. Because I am just an ordinary person who still struggles to survive.

 

 

Talk only about what you experienced.
経験したことだけを話そう。

 

You might think what I write is based upon my prejudice. That’s true in a sense — because I write about what I actually experienced.

I once thought that taking or writing about something based upon what I learned — from textbooks, encyclopedia, research paper, or other person for example — would make me look smart. That was wrong. I noticed that doing so just made me look like another copycat. Many people didn’t think that way, but the person who I wanted to befriend — those who are wise, honest, not authoritarian, and have zero tolerance for any nonsense — often revealed my shallowness almost immediately. They wanted to hear what I experienced in my life, not something similar to what they had already heard somewhere.

If someone doesn’t value what you experienced, you might as well consider whether the person is worth making friends with. Because if someone wouldn’t value your experience, the person wouldn’t value you either.

 

 

Get back to your life.
自分の人生に戻ろう。

 

More than ten years ago, I worked for 4000 hours per year, and people said that I lived to work. But even at that time, working for a company was always secondary to my own life. I always worked to live my life — although my effort was not successful while I was employed.

Now that I’m self-employed and work almost every day — in fact I don’t think I am ‘working’ every day. I just focus on creating something valuable, solving a problem, and helping others. Although I get paid for what I do, it seems like that the concept of ‘work’ has been fully dissolved in my life.

No matter what the focus of your life is, live with it 24/7. Don’t let others decide what you focus on. Don’t allow others to interfere in your own life. If you did, you will end up with regrets — that you should not live with.