Being with the right people

The people around you have a profound impact on the way you behave. As I write this, it seems like quite an obvious statement, but many interesting discussions start with observations of the obvious.

I had the opportunity to hang out at a house party of an American friend that just recently moved into downtown Tokyo. The crowd was markedly international, with people hailing from Australia, the UK, Korea, South America, Taiwan and more. It was a great party and even if everyone didn't speak perfect English, none of us cared the least bit. There were elder and younger people, but we all just hang out together talking about whatever and I thought it was kind of great to have this sort of free flowing conversation.

Perhaps, I might not be fluent enough with my Japanese to have the kinds of conversations I would like to have in Japanese; I often tell my friends that I am much more interesting when I speak in English. I am far more free to use the full richness of the English language to make conversation interesting and lead conversations subtly in interesting directions. There used to be a philosophy essay topic that I once read before in high school, that went along the lines of "you cannot describe something for which you do not have the words for." Compared to the English language, I still find my depth of expression in the Japanese language to be somewhat limited, but I would not limit the breath of communication to simply words. I have so far found from my experiences that if there is a will, even without the words, there will be a way to make yourself understood. This comes from my experiences when traveling to places to non English speaking countries.

More importantly, I believe that culture, whether be it the culture of a small group of people or a nation that has an immense influence on the way and of the topics which people communicate about. In my 5 years in Japan, I have probably seen a wider breadth of Japanese culture that perhaps most people would Japanese would see. I've been out to the countryside and spent time with the old folk planting rice in the fields and learning a bit about agrarian life, I've hung out with Japanese people that have traveled, I also hang out with the underground culture crowd and I also hang out with the geeks and your typical Japanese people.

I've seen many walks of Japanese life that I probably could not relate with my usual co-workers, what might be fine in a different sub-group might not easily be accepted in another. It's kind of unfortunate in that sense, but I guess, that is my biggest gripe about traditional corporate culture, not just Japanese culture in general.

I've never been a big fan of hierarchy, especially a system that has been imposed through largely seniority. I can agree that there is correlation but just because someone is older does not necessarily mean that it is right. We see this happening in recent US business culture as startups being run by smart young people trampling over the older corporate types. Times are changing because the amount of capital to start a company is rapidly declining (depending on your field of course). There is probably a lot I would like to talk about with them, but I already know that what I have seen is so wildly different from what they are used to, that they wouldn't understand. What I am talking about reminds me about an essay about "What you can't say" written by Paul Graham. A good read if you have the time.

I believe it is more of a class of values than anything else. I enjoy going off and doing my own thing, working on little projects in the hopes of making something new and interesting instead of slogging at doing the same things over and over again. I can't really generalize the whole corporate experience because I do have much more freedom then I would have first expected, I do have specific tasks that I need to get done but other then that I pretty much have free reign. I do have to deal with bosses from time to time that like to micromanage or get a little academic than practical when it comes to getting work done in a timely manner but I'll accept that as the natural progression of things. I do feel that there is a lack of a pioneering spirit, the kind of feeling that I used to have when working with friends back at UBC. Then again, we were young back then and pretty much everything that we did before when we were young was pretty much new to ourselves. We didn't know any better. I've gotten a little older since then, but I do miss having the crazy ideas and friends to work on them with.

There is also that too, being with the right people, in the right atmosphere, the right people often can draw out the best of us. With the right group of people, I've felt happier, more alive, filled with more interesting ideas and less inhibited. In the "zone" as some might say. I was with the right group of people a few weeks ago when just hanging out, and it felt great for once. I really wish that the working environment was like that, but I am willing to venture a bet that most working environments aren't like this, not by a long shot even back at home.

If I were to start something, I would like to have something that breaks those barriers, a chance to work with a productive, smart and creative group of people. With the right kind of skills when put together would allow us to make pretty anything happen. Maybe it's a pipe dream, and I am being idealistic and there will be rocky parts and disagreements, but I would say that I am willing to work around that. As you get older, the opportunity to meet with many people and work with them on small projects dwindles quite quickly compared to the times when at university. I would say that I miss that part of university, because it gets a little harder to meet people after that.

It turns out that this post is getting much longer than I anticipated so I'll end it here. It's what happens when I finally the chance to take a day off doing nothing and spend it thinking. It's been a great day of doing close to nothing.