Hi! It’s konkaz (@konkazuk) here.
I recommend Yoichi Ochiai’s this book which is titled as “Tactics to survive the super progressive age of A.I.” especially to those who are over 40 like me.
The reason for this is because, while the younger generation that has been at one with the speed of changing time over the last fifteen or so years and plan their future, I believe there are still lots of us in our generation having a passive attitude towards collecting information because the charm of the “Showa-era” in the last century is holding us back.
There is this famous book called “THE 100-YEAR LIFE” which was written by English authors Lynda Gratton and Andrew Scott.
The theme of Yoichi Ochiai’s book is similar to this, however he goes into more details about…
“what we need to do specifically to survive the future of shifting age”
in his book.
To be honest, people like me who are thick-skinned to keep up with the flow of modern age will probably be shocked to know where we are currently standing.
However, the modern age has been shifting towards the direction where we need to have a sense of crisis and hunt for new information so that we won’t be left far behind in the future.
Read this book and it will give your face a good slap to wake you up.
What is singularity?
The subtitle of this book is
“A list of 34 things to prepare for the singularity”
and having my ignorance revealed,
I didn’t even know the meaning of the “singularity” at all in the first place!
Hence, I had to begin with googling the word to know what it is…
After checking the word both in Japanese and in English and reading 2-3 articles about it with each language, I started feeling worried…
If I am to summarise the “singularity” from what I have read, it will be something like…
an “unprecedented super dramatic change”.
It’s called “gizyutsuteki-tokui-ten” (means “technological singular point) in Japanese, and it is said that…
”its change is so dramatic that generation that has lived before the technological singular point cannot understand how the subsequent generations think because the way they think is totally out of its norm.”
The word “Singularity” has become popular since an American inventor called Ray Kurzweil who has been leading the field of studying AI (Artificial Intelligence) used it as a concept when he forecasted our coming future in 1980s.
It is anticipated that if the technological innovation continues like this, A.I. will be able to develop its ability by itself and we will not be able to catch up with its developing speed, and at the end of the day, their intelligence will have been outperforming ours (human’s).
It looks like we will begin to see some visible changes in our society around the year of 2030, and by the year of 2045, our life will have been astoundingly different from the one we are presently leading.
It is also said that many jobs that we are currently engaged will have been operated by robots.
However, this is, of course, only prediction, therefore there is a counter-argument as well.
But even so, because the speed of technological development has been formidable since around the time where iPhone was released, the prediction sounds pretty much realistic, doesn’t it?
With such a feeling of unease, I turned the front cover and what I had found was this…
“Vague unease about the future…
For those who don’t know what to do…”
“My brother Yoichi…”
We have no choice but to read this book! w
How to survive the super progressive age of A.I.?
We cannot live against the stream of rapidly changing age of technology.
I guess “irreversible” is the word that really describes the situation…
The younger generations nowadays have lived their youth along with the recent development of technology, hence, I believe they have naturally integrated themselves into its speed, however, the older generations need to make some efforts to keep up with the constant updates of machinery.
(As for myself, I barely managed to buy a laptop computer for myself during the pandemic and set up my blog account…) w
Since the use of mobile phone has become widespread and the world has been connected by internet, we no longer can take work and private time separately.
The author calls this concept of taking work and private time inseparable in our society as “Work As Life”, and is addressing us to accept and adapt to its environment.
He is also encouraging us to use our private time to pursuit what we really like and create some value out of it so that it can be a source of our income in the coming days.
In other words, it’s better for us to make an effort to broaden some options so that some of them might have a possibility to lead you to another career in the future.
It is suggested that we need to spend our free time on something productive as well as enjoying ourselves rather than just consuming it by getting entertained.
As I go on reading his tactics to survive this modern age of evolving technology, people like me who are already being one or more laps behind might wonder if we will ever be able to make it…
But I was personally saved by this line.
“Waiting does not change your situation at all, and you shouldn’t be pessimistic about the fact that you don’t own any currently…”
Well, it sounds like there is still hope. ✨
This has made me feel like taking one step forward. w
He is also advising that…
”Not to pursuit originality if you are just starting but copy what other people are doing.”
I totally agree with what he is saying here because, initially, I was not interested in writing at all, but as I opened my Twitter account, I realised that almost everyone was blogging…
So, I started following and copying what other people are doing, while I still had this doubt that a person who don’t have much of knowledge about computing like me can really manage this?
But as I kept going, I started enjoying what I was doing, and my writing skill has developed little by little as I continued.
There are several “badly written” articles that I posted a year or so ago, and now I’m desperately trying to re-write them as quick as possible. W
…and eventually and somehow, I succeeded in familiarising myself with WordPress… and come to think of it, it was totally initiated by copying what others were doing.
You proceed with what you are doing in a matter-of-fact way, and at some point, if you think it has become something enjoyable for you, then I guess it’s become your thing.
Anyway, it looks like we better move on or we’ll find ourselves being stuck with where we are…
You will find lots of informative tips that will tell you what you should do specifically to survive the modern age in this chapter.
How to work in the super progressive age of A.I.?
Here, I have picked some of his insights into “how we should work in this super progressive age of A.I.”, here.
We should make full use of the company we work for
In this chapter, the author goes into further details about what was introduced in the book called “The 100-YEAR life”.
I was personally impressed by the way he expressed how our attitude towards the company we work for should be, which is written as “To make full use of the company” rather than the way it was described in “The 100-Years Life” as “Not to cling to the company”.
You are lucky if what you want to learn or the opportunity to brush up the skills you want to acquire is included in the company’s task, but if not, you better find your way to create time for yourself one way or another.
Use tools as much as possible
He is warning us not let ourselves blindly rely on the spirit of doggedness to achieve things while there are alternative ways that can save our time, and is also advising us to keep this in our mind at any time.
This is a heavy slap for the person like me who had been avoiding learning skills that could be useful for doing many things with our daily life and had been blindly dealing with things with cavemen’s way. w
I was not aware of the preciousness of time, and it has been cursing my life till today, hence I seriously need to improve this area…
And another thing is…
to make good use of SNS!
This is also something I started… only recently… w
Because social media, which have been replaced from the mass media such as newspapers and TV that are not interactive at all, have become the main source to get information nowadays, we need to deal with it personally, he explains.
If you don’t post information voluntarily, you can’t create relationships with others, and this means you won’t be connected to the place of job opportunities…
Hence, we better let others know who we are and what we do.
And by doing so, we can ride the wave of “The age of small business”.
Have an interest in politics
He also mentions that because we are moving onto the age of individuals, if we don’t check political matters actively, we might end up putting ourselves in a life-threatening situation.
Well, I guess this is true.
And he even states here that politics will be conducted by computers to some degree in the future.
If you are going to do something as an individual, then you need to check and understand the legal side of your activity.
In other words, you need to be aware of what is going on around you and protect yourself.
Find your niche
It’s often said that you need to be a specialist in a certain genre if you want to be recognised, however, if the genre is a popular one, it will be fairly difficult to become No.1 out of so many rivals.
“So, what can we do?”
Here, the author puts a great emphasis on finding a niche to make it.
The similar thing is often said when it comes to blogging or tweeting, which is …to narrow down your target instead of writing for everyone, or your article won’t be read by anyone.
Anyway, there are still lots more of the author’s amazing thoughts written in this chapter.
But the key point is, I believe, to grab whatever is available around you and let the world know about yourself by posting every day.
As for the chapter three, what is written here is mainly about how to look after yourself mentally and physically as you carry out the lifestyle of what is being suggested in chapter one and two, therefore, I’m not going to touch the subject here since this is something you will need to know some time later on.
Finally, whether you believe the event of the “singularity” is happening in 2045 or not, it is pretty obvious that maintaining the status quo can be a risky choice since the time is changing with formidable speed.
The content of this book will be a great inspiration for whoever has made a decision to move on.
If you are interested, you can purchase the book from the link below. 👇
Best,
konkaz
👉 * Japanese version of this blog post