The Dream of Anarchists

Recently I read Sakae Osugi's works.

He was one of the most famous anarchists in Japan before World War II. He was killed by the military police in the chaos just after the Great Kanto Earthquake in 1923. After his death, anarchism was almost disappeared in Japan.

He explained about anarchism as follows.

"Anarchist society is a society in which free individuals form organizations of their own free will, and these autonomous organizations form a union."

(自由なる各個人が自由合意によって一団体を形づくり、その各自由自治団体がまた自由意志によって相互の連合を謀る社会である。)

I'd like to put anarchism on the political map.

Communism and anarchism both advocate revolution, but they are opposed between emphasis on the group and emphasis on the individual. Actually they conflicted sharply with each other.

Communism is based on the proletariat as a class, and anarchism is based on laborers as individuals. Communist movements have led to autocratic states, whereas anarchists have failed to take power through lack of organization

Libertarians and anarchists both advocate individualism. I, myself, am conservative, and I agree with the kind of individualism advocated by anarchists. But I thought that an anarchist society was impossible and just the dream of anarchists.

When I read "How to Become a Hacker" by Eric Raymond, I found that the dream of anarchists came true in the hacker society. He wrote as follows.

There is a community, a shared culture, of expert programmers and networking wizards that traces its history back through decades to the first time-sharing minicomputers and the earliest ARPAnet experiments. The members of this culture originated the term 'hacker'. Hackers built the Internet. Hackers made the Unix operating system what it is today. Hackers run Usenet. Hackers make the World Wide Web work.

Hackers solve problems and build things, and they believe in freedom and voluntary mutual help. To be accepted as a hacker, you have to behave as though you have this kind of attitude yourself.

Hackers are naturally anti-authoritarian. Anyone who can give you orders can stop you from solving whatever problem you're being fascinated by — and, given the way authoritarian minds work, will generally find some appallingly stupid reason to do so. So the authoritarian attitude has to be fought wherever you find it, lest it smother you and other hackers.

This is the dream of anarchists, is it? They made a community of their own free will, and expanded the Internet and UNIX world. I think that Sakae Osugi would be a hacker in his era, even if he didn't know a computer.

I found another dream of anarchists, here.

The Fact Is, I'm a Patient with Depression

Sometimes I listen to the Anderson Cooper's podcast, 360, on my way to the office. It's a little hard for me to  completely understand what he says, but I'm really interested in his program.

I heard the rumor that he was gay, so when I read the article, "The Fact Is, I'm Gay." I wasn't surprised, but I'm interested in the reason why he came out at this time.

I'd like to quote his message.

But I've wanted to retain some privacy for professional reasons. ... As long as a journalist shows fairness and honest in his or her work, their private life shouldn't matter. ... It's became clear to me that by remaining silent on certain aspects of my personal life for so long I have given some the mistaken impression that I am trying to hide something. ... The fact is, I'm gay, always have been, always will be, and I couldn't be any more happy, comfortable with myself, and proud.

I've suffered from depression for five years. For now the symptoms have abated, but I guess  I'll never make a full recovery. I have to live with depression.

I know that there are many people who have suffered from depression in my company. After I suffered from depression, I was transferred to the division that I belong to now. Most people here have some sort of problem, such as depression, autonomic imbalance, experiences of harassment, and so on.

Most of them don't "come out of the closet," because the fact that they have these problems makes them face obstacles in their career. There is discrimination and contempt for depression in my company. In fact, some people doubted that I actually suffered from depression, and my evaluation was downgraded because of it.

But I "came out of the closet." I don't hide the  fact that I'm a patient with depression. I want to show and prove that even we, people with depression, can achieve something. I'm really happy to give confidence to people with certain problems.

I became a chief of this division. I know that each of us have our limits, but I'm trying to achieve something as a team. I always think about what we can do and how we should do them thoroughly.

he fact is, I'm a person with depression, have been for five years have been, always will be, and I couldn't be any more happy, comfortable with myself, and proud.

Thank you, Anderson.

Cultural Adaptive Radiation

I'm old enough to criticize contemporary pop culture, so you can, if you want, think of this entry as just being an old man's rant.

When marsupial mammals reached the Australian continent, there was no higher mammal. Australia was plenty of empty environmental niches available for marsupial mammals, so they explosively evolved into a wide range of species, from Boongrays, which are an arboreal herbivore, to carnivorous Tasmanian Devils. This phenomenon is called Adaptive Radiation.

We can find similar phenomenon in human cultures. I call them "Cultural adaptive radiation". Rock 'n' Roll was one of the dance music styles in the black music world, which was imported into the white music world, and evolved into Rock. In the 1960s the Beatles created a wide range of rock music and showed the potential of rock music to evolve. The evolution of rock music in the 1970s was truly "cultural adaptive radiation". I love the rock music in 1970s, because I can feel the excitement of rock musicians who found new empty environmental niches to inhabit.

After adaptive radiation, environmental niches were saturated, and the explosive evolution of marsupial mammals stopped in the Australian continent. In the same way, the evolution of rock music stopped in 1980s. After the 1970s, grunge was the only new style of rock music. Hip hop, which was created in the 1980s, is the last "new" style of pop music. The pop music world is saturated now.

As I wrote in an entry, "Now it's bad times for music producers, but it's good times for listeners. We, listeners, can get everything far more easily through the internet." Now, I mainly listen to 1970s pop music, which got through the internet, because I feel that contemporary pop music isn't excited.

I think that there is no new sound but just combinations of old pop music in the contemporary pop music. When I listened to contemporary pop music I often feel that young musicians study old pop music very deeply. I guess that they can't find new empty environment niches and make an evolution.

I wrote in another entry, "I think that rock music isn't contemporary music now either. Hip hop killed Rock music in the 90s, and Nirvana was the last band that created new rock music." Now, rock music is an endangered species like Tasmanian Devils.

Now It's a Bad Time for Music Producers, But It's a Good Time for Listeners

Some music producer despaired about the future of pop music on his weblog. He wrote that the budget for making a CD had decreased so drastically that music producers could no longer produce a good sound.

I think that one of the main reasons why the budget has decreased is related to the widespread use of the internet.

I listened to pop music most in the 1980s. At that time, the main media for pop music were TV and radio music programs, records, and cassette tapes. I listened to my favorite music on my Walkman, which was, of course, a cassette tape player.

The time of music programs on TV and radio and the sales space in record stores was limited. TV and radio mainly played chart songs, and record stores sold records and cassettes of those songs. The following week, the TV and radio would play other chart songs, and the record stores would then sell those songs.

Of course we could buy pop "classics" such as "Abbey Road" by the Beatles in a record store, but we had to go to a lot of trouble to buy records and cassette tapes of less famous musicians. I used to go around to many used record stores to hunt for the records, which I desperately wanted.

The internet changed everything. Now, you can find almost any song on YouTube, and buy it through iTunes. I download all of the songs that I buy onto my iPod so I can listen to them anytime and anywhere I want.

Before the age of the internet, music producers competed on the chart. But now, they have to compete against all pop music: past, present and from anywhere in the world. The increased competition has resulted in a decrease in the budget for making a CD.

Now it's bad times for music producers, but it's good times for listeners. We, listeners, can get everything far more easily through the internet. I really enjoy collecting my favorite music videos on my tumblr.

Visualization with a Whiteboard

Toyota is famous for intensive visualization (見える化) of information in their factories. They think that visualization is necessary to find and solve problems quickly. ("Data visualization drives Toyota's product development")

In Japan there is a proverb "百聞は一見に如かず", which means, "One look truly is better than a hundred words." Sometime we thought that we understood each other by just talking each other, but after that we often found that we misunderstood each other. Verbal communication is imperfect.

Whenever I hold a business meeting, I must use a whiteboard. I bought a portable whiteboard, and when there is no whiteboard in a meeting room, I bring it.

I summarize what participants say with bullet points and charts during meetings. It's helpful to understand each other and make the meeting more efficient.

At the end of the meeting, I write the conclusion of the meeting and confirm it with the participants on the whiteboard. In a meeting without a whiteboard, we often feel that we have reached a conclusion, but in fact it isn't certain. Writing down the conclusion on the whiteboard makes everything clear.

After that, I take a photo of the whiteboard and send it to them by e-mail. We can skip taking minutes of the meeting. This way is simple and easy.