Hints for surviving in the world 10 years from now

This time, let's look at 'What You Must Master Now to Survive When the World Breaks Down in 10 Years' (by Yohei Yamaguchi, SB Creative).

Yohei Yamaguchi worked on corporate restructuring at a foreign consulting firm before going independent. He was involved in bringing Krispy Kreme Doughnuts to Japan, space development projects, electric vehicle ventures, and now seems to be writing as an entrepreneur and thinker.

Dissolve Japan to gain competitiveness!?

The 21st-century society is undergoing a major shift in values. This book offers significant insights into what the world will look like in 10 years, what we should learn to prepare for it, and how we should live our lives.

First, the book proposes the idea that "for Japan to become competitive, it should dissolve and divide into blocks, branding each individual region."

For example, five blocks: "Greater Tokyo Area, Kyoto, Seto Inland Sea, Kyushu, and Hokuriku." The Greater Tokyo Area would be a market granting the TOKYO brand seal of approval to export culture to Asia. Kyoto would be a nation built on tourism to its ancient capital. The Seto Inland Sea region would offer the bounty of the sea, like Italy facing the Mediterranean. Kyushu would be a trade market facing Korea and China. Hokuriku would focus on traditional industries, design, and meticulous cutting-edge technology, like Scandinavia.

Thus, the aim should be for each region to build its own community based on its unique strengths. We as individuals must consider which community we belong to and how we can contribute to "nation-building" within it.

While the debate over "shifting from centralization to decentralization" continues today, what struck me as novel in this book's vision is its perspective: starting not from governance, but from economic spheres based on actual needs.

If you want to transcend class, you must act quickly.

Moreover, it states that even within such communities, "disparities" emerge, and stratification gradually progresses.

For example, communities are said to divide into "global citizens, urban upper class, urban lower class, rural class, and non-social class." Definitions include: "global citizens are individuals who move freely without choosing a specific country or region; urban upper class are executives at listed companies or entrepreneurs; urban lower class are struggling small and medium-sized enterprises."

It is stated that within the next decade, the lid on this stratification will close.

We must recognize which stratum we will belong to and take action early if we wish to transcend these divisions.

However, this does not appear to be a simple hierarchy. This is because society itself is undergoing a major shift from a "vertical society of capitalism" to a "horizontal society of networks."

Making things is bad

In a network society, the "sharing economy"—where people exchange what they need—will develop. Consequently, the value placed on things will shift from "more and more" to increasingly "less is more."

In Europe, there is already a mindset that "making things is evil."

Things eventually become trash. This leads to disposal costs and ultimately results in social loss. Mass-producing furniture and appliances in Asia or Eastern Europe, shipping them by tanker, and selling them off is an utterly anachronistic practice (P.94).

Then, the value of money—the unit of exchange for goods—will also change.

This book states that in a network society, value will shift away from "money as a number" toward "an individual's trust balance." It also emphasizes that the "ability to communicate" will become increasingly vital for maintaining and building such networks.

So, what should we learn to prepare for this coming world?

The only jobs for humans in the 21st century are art and design.

This book offers several pieces of advice, such as "grasp the essence, not the information," "rethink education," and "travel (move around) to gain a new awareness of issues."

For example, as an example of grasping the essence, it cites Elon Musk, who has successfully launched PayPal, Tesla Motors, and SpaceX one after another. The key to success is grasping the essence that "the role of an entrepreneur is to create an overall concept and break it down into modules (breaking down into modules means dividing it into parts to realize the concept)."

In this day and age, anyone can access the best technological knowledge. Therefore, the essence of business is to focus solely on the concept and the knowledge required to achieve it, and to continue to verify whether the conceptualized equation works in the real world (p. 204).

This is the essence of business.

Ultimately, however, he asserts that "the only jobs for humans in the 21st century will be art and design." Why? Because "everything that can be verbalized will be optimized by machines."

(Omitted)
Design is de-sign—reducing people's cognitive load by filtering out noise. Eliminating unnecessary information so everyone receives the same message (P.214)

These things cannot be done without consideration for the recipient's perspective—that is, without "love." In other words, work that draws its source of action from "love" is uniquely human, irreplaceable by any machine.

Ultimately, the conclusion is that persistently pursuing "human love = contribution to society and community" is essential for our survival, even if the world collapses in ten years.

What can I contribute to society? To my community?

I suppose I'll just have to keep learning, carrying that question with me.