What’s Here
This is where I collect various ideas and beliefs - concepts that are worth using as a basis for action.
Lucky Surface Area
The “Lucky Surface Area” is a metaphorical concept describing the degree to which a person can encounter opportunities. Just as an object with a larger surface area has more chances to interact with its environment, people can increase their chances of encountering opportunities by expanding their knowledge, skill sets, and social networks. This concept reminds us to:
- Continuously learn new knowledge and skills
- Actively participate in various activities and social interactions
- Maintain an open mindset
- Be brave in trying new things
Through these actions, we can expand our “Lucky Surface Area” and create more opportunities.
Ikigai
Ikigai (生き甲斐) is a Japanese concept representing “the reason for being” or “the value of life.” This concept is formed by the overlap of four elements:
- What you love (Passion)
- What you are good at (Mission)
- What the world needs (Vocation)
- What you can be paid for (Profession)
When these four elements overlap, you find your life’s meaning and purpose. This concept teaches us to balance passion, ability, societal needs, and practical considerations when choosing our life path.
Kintsugi
Kintsugi (金継ぎ) is a Japanese art of repairing broken pottery with gold powder. This repair doesn’t try to hide the damage but rather highlights its existence, making it part of the object’s history. This concept embodies several profound life philosophies:
- Accepting flaws and trauma
- Rebirth from failure
- Appreciating imperfect beauty
- Viewing setbacks as opportunities for growth
This reminds us that life’s setbacks and pain can be transformed into unique value.
Golden Circle
The Golden Circle is a concept proposed by Simon Sinek that describes how influential leaders and organizations think. This circle is divided into three layers from inside out:
- Why: Core beliefs and goals
- How: Methods to achieve goals
- What: Specific actions and products
This concept emphasizes that truly influential people and organizations start thinking from “Why” rather than “What.” It teaches us to clarify our core values and beliefs when making decisions.
The Feynman Technique
This learning method was developed by Nobel Prize winner Richard Feynman and consists of four steps:
- Choose a concept and explain it in simple terms
- Identify knowledge gaps
- Relearn and understand difficult parts
- Simplify the explanation and use analogies
The core principle of this method is: if you can’t explain a concept in simple terms, you probably don’t truly understand it. This method is not only useful for learning but also for testing your understanding of any field.
Time Machine Theory
The Time Machine Theory is a thinking framework that helps us make better decisions by imagining ourselves looking back from the future. The core of this theory is: imagine yourself standing at some future point in time, looking back at your current choices, and asking “Will I be proud of this decision?”
This theory encompasses three dimensions:
- Temporal Dimension: Thinking from the perspective of 5, 10, or even 20 years in the future
- Emotional Dimension: Considering how your future self would view your current choices
- Value Dimension: Making decisions based on long-term value rather than short-term benefits
Practical methods:
- Before making important decisions, imagine what your future self would say
- Ask yourself: “Will this choice make my future self grateful to my present self?”
- Consider the long-term impact of decisions, not just immediate results
This theory reminds us that the best decisions often come from clear vision of the future, not from attachment to the past.
Three-Trait Framework for Evaluating People
When assessing talent and potential partners, many successful leaders use similar three-dimensional frameworks. The common thread across these frameworks is that cognitive ability, execution capability, and moral character are all essential - none can be missing.
Warren Buffett’s Standards
- Intelligence: Learning ability and comprehension
- Energy: Execution capability and persistence
- Integrity: Moral character and values
Buffett particularly emphasizes: “If you lack the last one (integrity), the first two become dangerous.”
Y Combinator’s Founder Assessment
- Intelligence: Problem-solving ability
- Determination: Persistent execution capability
- Integrity/Ethics: Values and character
YC’s core philosophy is: All three traits are indispensable. Lacking any one will lead to failure:
- Intelligence without determination → Ideas never materialize
- Determination without intelligence → Wrong direction, wasted effort
- Both without integrity → Short-term success possible, but long-term failure inevitable
YC’s framework, in my view, offers better success opportunities because it focuses more on practical execution and entrepreneurial spirit, while emphasizing the indispensability of character.
Other Reference Frameworks
Ray Dalio in “Principles” mentions:
- Character
- Common sense / Intelligence
- Creativity / Ability to get things done
Peter Drucker emphasizes that managers need:
- Integrity
- Intelligence
- Energy and drive
Practical Application
When choosing partners, team members, or investment targets, I prioritize:
- Cognitive Ability: Can they quickly learn and solve complex problems?
- Execution Capability: Do they have sustained drive and ability to complete tasks?
- Character: Are values aligned and are they trustworthy?
This framework reminds us that exceptional talent must possess all three traits - none can be missing.
The Gervais Principle
The Gervais Principle is a profound theory about organizational behavior and workplace psychology that reveals the essence of power games within organizations. This theory, based on analysis of the TV show “The Office,” completely overturns traditional management perspectives.
MacLeod Hierarchy
Organizations contain three types of people who play different roles in the organizational lifecycle:
Losers
- Characteristics: People who made poor economic decisions—they abandoned pursuit of capitalist success for stable income
- Mindset: Pursue life happiness, unlike sociopaths who seek power, they seek joy
- Role in organization: Produce and create value, but don’t receive compensation based on the value they create—because their compensation is determined by sociopaths (under extremely unethical conditions)
- Options: Have two paths: choose to become sociopaths, or become those who do minimum work
Clueless
- Characteristics: Develop abnormal loyalty to organizations, even when clear facts show these organizations have no loyalty to them
- Mindset: Believe official organizational narratives, overly optimistic, construct fantasies based on idealized organizational concepts
- Role in organization: Middle managers, serve as lightning rods for sociopaths, used to buffer tension between sociopaths and losers
- Dilemma: Lack ability to move freely in economic system, unless facing irresistible external forces, will try to hold on until sociopaths and losers leave them behind
Sociopaths (Anti-Organization)
- Characteristics: Power seekers driven by Darwinian theory and Protestant ethics, who push organizations forward at all costs
- Mindset: Hold deepest suspicion of organizations themselves, have a stubborn unwillingness to hand control to organizations, desire to control everything rather than be led by others
- Role in organization: True decision-makers, able to enter and exit organizations freely at any stage, always pursuing power at all costs
- Strategy: In early stages, they promote development through creativity; in middle stages, they contribute through unique leadership; in later stages, they show cold-blooded side, driving decisions others dare not make due to fear or sympathy
Core Insights
Gervais Principle Mechanism
- Sociopaths consciously promote high-performing losers to middle management positions
- Train underperforming losers to become sociopaths
- Let ordinary losers who do minimum work fend for themselves
MacLeod Lifecycle
- Sociopaths can freely enter and exit organizations at any stage, always pursuing power at all costs
- Losers pursue life happiness, are loyal to individuals, willing to find fulfillment through work when opportunities arise
- Clueless lack ability to move freely in economic system, develop abnormal loyalty to organizations
Pathological Nature of Organizations
- Organizations themselves are pathological structures; organizational disease is not acquired
- Even idealized organizations, their so-called “perfection” is actually perfect pathology
- Modern corporate creative destruction lifecycle: any rigid, bureaucratic organization will be directly destroyed
Practical Applications
People Assessment
- Observe which level a person belongs to
- Understand their motivations and behavioral patterns
- Predict their behavior within organizations
Self-Positioning
- Honestly assess which level you belong to
- Understand your strengths and weaknesses
- Decide whether to change your positioning
Organizational Navigation
- Understand the real power structure of organizations
- Learn to survive and thrive within organizations
- Avoid becoming exploited
This principle reminds us that success in organizations requires not just ability, but understanding how organizations truly operate. It reveals why high-performing employees are likely to be promoted to middle management but struggle to advance further, while average-performing employees may be quickly promoted to senior executive positions.
