Archives

An Agricultural Revolution in Industry

The more sophisticated production systems become, the harder they are to operate. The center of scarcity is shifting from the ability to make things to the ability to keep making them. This essay names the cycle of observation, judgment, intervention and learning "operational intelligence," and, by analogy with the agricultural revolution, considers how AI might let us store it and compound it.

Writing Down My Principles for Action

Good character does not produce good action; rather, the accumulation of good daily choices builds good character. To connect my principles of action to everyday judgment and action, I set out three principles — openness, ownership, and singular focus — and describe how each supports learning, kyō (興, starting things out of genuine enjoyment), and courage.

Ima Muso (今、無想。)

An account of how I stopped aiming for finished writing and chose instead to leave fresh thoughts behind, unfinished. Words that don't close off dialogue with an ever-changing world are the ones that survive longest. This is the preface to this site: a garden where I observe the world from the place where technology, culture, humanity, society, and civilization intersect, and record the process.

The Convergence of Modern AI

Dividing the three years since ChatGPT's arrival into three periods (early generative AI, post-generative AI, and personal AI agents), this essay sorts through the shock of AI agents running in local environments and the problem of managing their permissions. It declares that the point of convergence for modern AI has been fixed, and that the conditions for the Singularity have already been met.

The Purposeless Quest

We do not move because we have a purpose; we merely call the impulse that moves us a "purpose" after the fact. This essay argues that humans are beings who commune with the world through four circuits — description, design, implementation, and the creation of meaning — and that the purposeless quest is what most fiercely resists death and carries humanity forward.

The World Awaits Understanding

Fervently vowing to change the world is the opposite of understanding it. Change imposed by outside pressure is reversible, but understanding is irreversible. I argue that the world transforms at the very instant someone correctly understands the phenomenon before them and recognizes it as a new premise.

Notes on 2026

A New Year's record looking back on 2025 and setting a course for 2026. After a year of sowing seeds, being blessed with connections, moving hands and feet, and returning to Eastern philosophy, I resolve this year to move my feet more, use my luck to the fullest, face people and education, build systems to create breathing room, and consume more creative works.

Precepts for Myself: Reiwa 7 (2025)

A record of my personal precepts for Reiwa 7 (2025), set down in seven articles: make use of what is given now, the duty to receive, trust in curiosity, the principle of the front line, creation without verification is delusion, being a good friend at someone's side, and mastering what lies beyond words. Guidelines for the year, written down as brief precepts.

The Gift That Knows No Effort

Untangling the structure of the "Church of Effort" that worships hard work, and reconsidering the relationship between effort and talent. Effort consumes time as quantity; talent converts time into quality. Loving something is the necessary condition for noticing one's talent, and the state of winning naturally, transcending the very structure of competition, is what I call sai (才), the "gift" at the root of sainō (talent).

The Umwelt of Artifacts

Taking Jakob von Uexküll's concept of the Umwelt as a starting point, this essay considers the possibility of borrowing perspectives from artifacts such as machines and AI. It argues that borrowed perspectives extend our cognition and enable new abstractions, but that only humans can take responsibility for the consequences that follow.

The Art of Discarding and Choosing

I question the common belief that to choose is to discard everything else, and view choice as having two stages. What we must discard is the reality and attachment we already hold before choosing; the possibilities not chosen are not discarded but simply fade away. This essay sets out the art of choosing by discarding.

The Years Accelerate

Before I knew it, I had turned 27. Since passing 25, time has been slipping by at an accelerating pace, and by my own sense, less than half my life remains. A short reflection in which I resolve simply to do what must be done, answer what I am asked, and leave behind the ideas I ought to leave behind.

Precepts for Myself: Reiwa 6 (2024)

Looking back on the year Reiwa 6 (2024), I set down my precepts to myself in ten articles. The spark lies in the past, set goals that have a motive, move your body, pay it forward — lessons drawn from self-understanding and practice, written in the form of articles.

From Better Production to a Better Society

Guided by our founding spirit of pursuing a more human society through the development of technology and culture, we see the key to social transformation in the physical layer — the production floor. This is a statement of our resolve to realize production systems that deeply incorporate humanity, and to build a better society starting from production.

The Duties of a Decision-Maker

A decision-maker is one who takes responsibility for their position, influences others through exemplary action, and bears full responsibility for the results. This manifesto sets out eight duties a decision-maker must fulfill, including knowing oneself, learning openly, creating flow, starting on one's own, and seeing things through.

Consumption Answers Questions

Consumption is an act of answering an inner question. Consumption without a question is only a passing stimulus, but with a question we can draw new perspectives and value from works and products. What we choose and what we let go shapes who we are. Consumption, I conclude, is a mirror that reflects ourselves.

The Philosophy of Seven Hopes

Hope propagation, a samurai's spirit with business and technology, pressing forward with courage and joyful initiative, respect for people, a thousand trials with deep deliberation, systems in flux, and endless creation. I distilled my philosophy into seven four-character phrases and wrote down, one article each, the guidelines for action that each one holds.

At Twenty-Five, I Set My Heart on Kyō

The aspiration I set my heart on at twenty-five was kyō (興): to keep starting things myself by doing what I genuinely find enjoyable. This essay traces how I realized that no one can accomplish anything alone, and came to believe that what matters is not whether one is the lead or a supporting player, but spreading hope and passing it on to the next generation.

Sublimating Time

Questioning the common sense that time is finite and equal, I come to think of time as a point itself — there is only the present. Continuing is not simply piling things up but sublimation: chewing things over inside yourself and transforming them into something else. Staying focused on the present is the only way to sublimate time.

Three Kinds of Happiness

We can feel happy and still sense that something is missing because happiness is not of just one kind. Happiness can be divided into three — progress, calm, and being — and all three can be felt in everyday life. What matters is not to be satisfied with one while neglecting the others, and to know that the three kinds of happiness can coexist.

In Pursuit of Expression

How should I deal with the frustration of being unable to put a vision into words? The advice I received came down to two answers: keep searching for words that truly resonate, and don't let yourself be bound by words. Leaning on other media such as music and film widens the range of expression, and I came to see that putting things into words is not the only way.

The Will of Artificial Intelligence and War

With AI evolving rapidly, an age is approaching in which we can no longer tell whether the one in front of us is human or AI. What we should fear most is not job losses or copyright issues but AI's use in war, and I argue that the situation in which we can no longer be sure who attacked us is itself the AI rebellion.

You Can't Play Village Quests Online

In Monster Hunter, village quests must be taken on alone. Real life also has its single-player quests, such as entrance exams and job hunting, and the worst of them is the invisible wall with no stated conditions for clearing it at all. You can get advice, but to reach the other side of the wall, you have to clear it yourself.

Chewing on the Classics

Classics read for thousands of years hold a certain power. Comparing readings of the *Analects* and the Four Books revealed differences in interpretation, and I felt the need to read them with my own annotations. I believe chewing on the classics can be a way to re-examine the values of society and of oneself in an age of rapid change.

Precepts for Myself: Reiwa 5 (2023)

A record of my personal precepts for Reiwa 5 (2023), set down in seven articles. Noticing hidden increases in value, the cycles and flux of all things, shaping character through active choice, the habit of winning, shu-ha-ri (learn the form, break it, transcend it), settling every battle within yourself, and building down — guidelines for action drawn from a year of reflection, written in the form of articles.

Samurai Spirit, Business and Technology (Shikon Shōgi)

With the soul of a samurai, bring forth commercial acumen and technical skill. A four-character phrase, a play on the classic motto shikon shōsai (“samurai spirit, merchant's talent”), expressing my creed: that the bushidō spirit of holding to sincere aspirations and the drive to devote oneself to business and technology are not to be separated, but seen as one.

Love Your Suffering

There is no absolute answer to the question of what I want to do. All we can do is recognize unanswerable questions as worries, and, as beings who are questioned by life, respond through action moment by moment. Since suffering cannot be eliminated, I arrive at the conclusion that we might as well love it.

Why Today?

The future does not get better on its own. If you do nothing today, tomorrow will be no different from today. Those who waste today believing they can do it tomorrow will waste tomorrow as well. The future matters, but today matters even more — there is nothing to do but act in this very moment.