A Journey through My Diverse Perspectives

It is undisputed in Japan that with the renewal of a supercomputer, the accuracy of the Japan Meteorological Agency (JMA)'s weather forecast has steadily improved. Along with that, JMA has proactively started taking on new challenges, including linear rainband forecasting, to alert people in certain areas to disasters like landslides and flooding caused by heavy rain. Last week's announcement of linear rainband forecasting demonstrated a significant effect on promoting preparedness. When it comes to the weather outlook for the week, maybe it's just me, but the probabilities of both cloudy and rainy days seem to be relatively higher than the actual average probabilities. This might reflect the psychology of humans, in the sense that most people are still happy to hear about a change in the weather forecast at the last minute from a rainy or cloudy day to a sunny day, but not the other way around.

There are obviously plenty of capable and sensible individuals in every sector of Japanese society, including politics, bureaucracy, and business. However, in most cases, it strikes me as a distinctive fact that they often fail to emerge as great leaders due to the undesirable effects of group dynamics generated internally by the organizations they belong to. This phenomenon is particularly noticeable in those establishments characterized by vested interests and a lack of concern for public interests. Whenever I come across such cases, I can't help but feel frustrated by the inherent contradiction. It is a reality of human society.

The thing I really don't want to do is feel remorse about missing out on an important and rare opportunity by saying things like 'I should have done it at that time, even if I fail!' If my memory is correct, it was around my mid-teenage years that I developed such a life motto: 'Not to regret any passing days.' This motto was probably slowly formed through being greatly influenced by reading several autobiography books. I have been occasionally told that 'You are soft-spoken and look somewhat tame at first glance. But, in reality, you are a kind of stubborn and determined person.' I am not very good at assessing my own character, but both observations might be correct since human character cannot be easily categorized, as it is more complex than we think. Regardless, this motto remains one of the most important principles in my life.

To maximize the results of my business trip, I used to plan it down to the last detail as carefully as possible in advance. Perhaps due to this long-standing habit, I preferred to keep my personal holiday plans to a minimum, allowing myself to be psychologically free from unnecessary stress caused by the associated burdensome tasks. Moreover, such spontaneous plans sometimes led us to unexpected and delightful discoveries. We didn't mind the various troubles that inevitably arose during the trip. Interestingly enough, after retirement, dealing with on-site troubleshooting became more bothersome than planning beforehand. Thus, changes in my circumstances brought about psychological changes as well. Nonetheless, we still look forward to encountering unexpected and amazing discoveries without any troubles. That might be an inherent human trait—to seek the advantages of both scenarios.

Although I have poor knowledge of Artificial Intelligence (AI), based on my short experience using Chat GPT-3.5, I would say that, by inferring from analogy, AI surpasses humans in terms of the reliability of repetitive menial tasks, as well as logical and intellectual thinking, judgement, and diagnosis based on accumulated knowledge and data from the web. In simpler terms, AI excels in intelligence quotient (IQ) skills. On the other hand, humans can be adept at emotional intelligence quotient (EQ) and intuitive quotient (IQ), making full use of our six available senses. With the future development and widespread use of AI, many current menial and intellectual jobs may be replaced by AI, whether we like it or not. However, just as our ancestors experienced after the dawn of the industrial revolution, many new jobs associated with AI will be created to respond to emerging needs, and the value of jobs that utilize human advantages will increase.

There are times when nothing comes to mind while writing a short essay on this page, no matter how hard I try to force the words from my mind. When that happens, there can be considered to be two possible underlying causes. The first one is physical and mental tiredness or fatigue. The second one is unknown. From a probability perspective, most cases fall into the second category, including today's case. No matter what measures I try to take, my efforts result in a fruitless endeavor. However, by some chance, once an idea comes to my mind, it becomes very easy to write up a short essay. Today, I had no alternative but to resort to desperate measures in describing my current situation.

"Don't overlook the real world by going too far in pursuing the ideal world." This quote is from the late Kounosuke Matsushita, the founder of Panasonic. What he meant by that is not to leave the solution of crucial, real problems to others, but to face and work through them immediately on your own, based on the principles of true independence and autonomy. Pursuing ideals should subsequently follow this approach, rather than the other way around. The implication of this quote can be seen as a distinctive characteristic of a big businessperson like Kounosuke Matsushita, who solved a variety of management problems while always holding onto the ideals of his company. This attitude of critical thinking is highly beneficial for both idealists and realists in any sector's activities.