Doodle Card

 

Don’t just keep it simple.
ただ単にシンプルにしない。

 

We prefer simplicity in our life. But creating something simple is not always easy.

On the other day, I started creating a logo for my client. But in my first attempt, I ended up with an illustration. The graphic I initially created had too many information – the things that might give a wrong perception about what the company is. On my second try, what I created was too simple; it didn’t have enough information that helps people understand what the company is.

Simplicity is NOT for the sake of simplicity; it is for the sake of better awareness, communication, and/or functionality. It is vital that we find the essential to achieve simplification of something, but that’s not enough – we need to ADD the bare minimum needed to help people understand, communicate, or function better.

Just throwing things away won’t help you organize your home or office – it can make an empty space, but that’s probably not the simplicity you want. Figuring out what is essential to you, how they interconnect and how you can make the most of them is the entry point for ideal simplicity.

 

 

Show your appreciation.
感謝の気持ちを表そう。

 

To say thank you is easy. Not to say thank you is also easy. But the outcome is completely different.

Until my mid-thirties, I worked for the company that people at the senior management levels rarely say ‘thank you.’ Well, at least to me. No matter how hard I worked, they just ignored me. They never said anything about my accomplishments. Instead, they often treated me like a criminal and interrogated me as if I always did something wrong. How could I stay motivated and trust higher managements of the company in such situation? Of course not.

It takes just a few seconds to say ‘thank you.’ But it may take years to restore broken relationship and rebuild trust — or after all, we may not be able to do so forever. It’s clear which is better for us.

 

 

Create your focus mode.
自分の「集中モード」を創ろう。

 

If you are employed and work from Monday to Friday, I never suggest working in the office on the weekend — unless it makes you happy. But if you have to, do it as an experiment — to figure out how you can enter the “flow” state.

I didn’t always love my job, but I liked working in the office on the weekend — it can be one of the quietest place in the world. No phone call. No incoming email. No one disturbed me. I was able to try anything to make me stay highly focused and get many things done. My favorite way to get in the zone was to wear headphones and listen to drum and bass mix while working, although I couldn’t do this on weekdays because I worked for very conservative companies as one of the management team.

Once you find the way to get you focused, it will help you for the rest of your life. Because you know how to become highly productive and get things done in a short period of time when needed.

 

 

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.