Sunday 25 May 2014

Life Update & Some Happiness Psychology 人生の出来事 & 嬉しさ的で心理学的な話

It's been far too long since I've updated my blog! Although I've been very busy, it's not like there was no way I could've made time to update it, but somehow I just didn't really get around to it. Regardless... here goes!

久しぶり過ぎる!凄く忙しかったにも関わらず、アップデート出来る機会が全然無かった訳ではないけど、なんとかしなかった。じゃー、行くぞ!

Looking back at the last 2 months, the main trend I see is that I've been extremely happy almost every single day with very few exceptions. I don't think this 2-3 month period will turn into super precious memories, like a holiday can for example, because there's nothing that has really made it stand out from the months before. However, I've been unhappy for I think less than 7 days total, since the start of March and extraordinarily happy for the vast majority of the other days. Pretty crazy, but awesome!

この先の二ヶ月を見直すと、凄く嬉しかった事が見える。七日以下以外毎日圧倒的に嬉しかった!珍しいけど、凄い事だ!

If you asked me why I think this is, I would say part of it is having no injuries and thus being able to go to the gym a lot. As a result I've been healthy and well rested for the most part. Secondly, I think I've gotten stronger psychologically. I think I've become better at steering my mind and thoughts in the right direction and thus become better at making myself happy on a day-to-day basis.

もし「何で」って聞かれたら、「怪我がほとんど無くて、運動する事が良く出来たし、心理がもっと強く成って来て、自分の考えを管理する事がもっと美味く成って来たし、最近凄く嬉しかった」って答えると思う。

Not everything has gone amazing. The outsourcing of the app development has been pretty bad and a few other things happened as well that were not great, but nonetheless I've been really really happy recently! :D

全部が良かった訳じゃない。アプリのアウトソーシングは良くなくて、他にも良くない事があった。しかし、最近は凄く嬉しかった! \(^o^)/

Business wise, I've unfortunately enough had to quit the entertainment project, because my main Language Link project has just gotten too busy and education is way way way more important to me personally than entertainment, so I made the choice to drop the entertainment project. Ideally I'd have 100 hours each and every day and do this project and 10 others, but this is not the case and I have to focus on what I most want to change in this world, which right now is education.

ビジネスはエンターテイメントのプロジェクトを辞めなきゃならなかった。メーンプロジェクトのLanguage Linkは忙し過ぎる様に成って来て、俺にとってエンターテイメントより教育の方が非常に大事なので、エンターテイメントの方を辞める事にした。毎日100時間以上が有るとしたら、勿論色んなプロジェクトを同時にするが、実際にそれを出来なくて、今この世界で一番変えたい教育を中心すべきだ。

Except for the User Acceptance Testing(basically bug fixing) of the application, the Language Link project is going well. Most recently I've worked very hard on working out the vision in more detail, especially for the near future(1st year or so). I've made financial spreadsheets, written documents about what it means to learn languages and the language education industry, done a competitor analysis, 1 year timeline, made early designs for some of the new features I want to add in the 1st year and last but not least created an investor presentation and executive summary. All of this will be beneficial in many ways:

  • It will help me convey my plans better to employees, customers, clients etc.
  • It has allowed me to make changes and fine-tune the plans in certain areas where it wasn't perfect.
  • If something about the plan changes(financials especially), it's easy to add it in there and see how it impacts the overall status.
  • I wouldn't say fully prepared, but I'm already quite well prepared to look for investment a few months after launch.
Language LinkってプロジェクトはUser Acceptance Testingしか何も良く進んでる。最近ビジョンを詳しくする事を頑張った。金融関係のスプレッドシートを作ったり、新しい言葉を学ぶ事って何かってドキュメントや言語教育業関係のドキュメント等を作成したり、一年間のタイムラインを作ったり、新しいフィーチャのデザインを作ったり、投資家に向けのプレゼンテーションを作ったり、エグゼクティブサマリーを作ったりしてた。色々なメリットがある:
  • ビジョンを従業員やお客さんやクライエント等に伝える事がもっと簡単に成る。
  • ビジョンをもっと詳しくて良くする事が出来た。
  • 途中で何か変わる場合には簡単にドキュメントを変えられて、含蓄が見える。
  • まだ完全って言えないかも知れないけれど、投資を受けるにもうかなり良く準備を出来た。
On top of all these documents and refining the vision, I've been searching hard for app developers and it's been going well! Planning to hire other people has also forced me to look for office space. Working from home and SB may have been okay so far, but to create an amazing work environment for my employees and to be able to communicate well and frequently, some sort of office is a must. Then again, we can't really afford a top of the line office as of right now, so I've mostly looked at co-working spaces, booths and incubators.

後はモバイルアプリデベロッパーを探して来て、良く進んでいる。従業員を雇ったら、オフィスが必要に成る。今まで俺しか居なかったから、自宅やカフェで働くのは大丈夫だったが、従業員に素敵な職場を作る為と従業員と簡単にコミュニケーション出来る為にオフィスが必要だ。ところが、現在高級なオフィスを借りられないから、コワーキングスペースやブーズやインキュベーター等を探していた。

Yesterday I visited a co-working space in Nagatacho, that (probably because they received government funding) goes far above and beyond what normal co-working spaces offer and although it is slightly more expensive than most co-working spaces it is still quite affordable. I haven't decided 100% yet and will have to discuss with my future employees, but I think the place is amazing! Of course I'll try to post pictures once I move in to an office/co-working space.

昨日、凄く素敵な永田町にあるコワーキングスペースを見つけた!普通のコワーキングスペースと全く違うが、もっともっと素敵なにも関わらずそんなに高いじゃない。まだ決めてなくて、従業員とも相談したいが、本当にめっちゃくちゃ素敵だと思う!勿論、入居してから、写真を撮って、乗せ込むよ!

I've also been looking for a corporate lawyer with mixed success so far, but it looks like there'll be 2 I can visit in the near future to see which one suits me best.

コーポレート弁護士にも探して来た。まだ見つけてないが、すぐ二人に訪問出来そうだ。最適なのを選べる。

All in all, I am very excited. Even though I've never worked at a company before, I'm very excited to be creating my own and I think it will be loads of fun 'going to the office'. On top of that, I'm really really excited to see what investors will say about my plans. If they think they're great, awesome! If they think they suck, awesome in a different way, because it will provide an amazing opportunity to learn and make my plans even better. And then in general I am actually super excited for everything I have planned. Once we continue development in house there will be some awesome stuff coming out!

つまり、気がめっちゃくちゃ立ってる!会社で働いた経験がないにも関わらず、自分のを作って、オフィスに通う事をとっても楽しみにしてる。その上、投資家は俺の計画に対してどう思うかも非常に楽しみにしてる。凄いと思ったら、勿論良い事だ。悪いと思ったら、凄く勉強に成れて、計画をもっと改良出来る!それに、計画を具体にするところも超楽しみにしてる! ^^


Another thing I briefly want to talk about is a happiness/psychology thing and how I've noticed the 'implied happiness EV' of certain things. For example, things like playing a video game, going to karaoke and watching a movie are activities that will generally make you happy for a little while, but next week it usually has no impact anymore on how happy you are.

書きたい事がもう一つある。嬉しさと心理学に関係がある事だ。最近、或る物の'implied happiness EV'に気付いた。例えば、ビデオゲームをやったり、カラオケをしたり、映画を見たりするのに嬉しくさせるけど、次の週はその嬉しさがもう消えてる。

However, certain other activities can have a much longer lasting impact on your happiness. An example of this for me is, fitness. Not only do I feel healthy and energised, but also the way I look after a few years of training is a source of happiness for me every single day. Another example is certain trips like the one to Vegas. And even though I didn't have that great of a time in Singapore, somehow I still think about that trip sometimes and in a way it provides me with some happiness as a precious memory.

しかし、嬉しさをもっと長く影響する物もある。俺にとってはフィットネスがそういう事だ。もっとヘルシーで元気を感じてる事だけではなく、数年間で運動して来たおかげでの体型にも毎日嬉しくさせてる。

旅行が好きじゃないにも関わらず、或る旅行は大切な思い出に成って来た。ラスベガスに居た夏も、そんなに楽しんでなかったシンガポールの旅行も偶に思い出して、嬉しくさせる。

I guess this probably is similar to what it means to raise kids. Everything you put into them probably accumulates and they become a source of happiness for the rest of your life. It also makes me understand a certain Ted Talk better that I recently watched. It talked about a certain experiment where they gave random strangers some money and 50% was told to spend it on themselves and 50% was told to spend it on other people. The 50% who spent it on other people was found to be happier a few days after. They did other research too and claimed that doing things for other people is longer lasting happiness than other forms of happiness. I can kind of understand this now.

子供を育てると近い気持ちの気がする。子供に入れる事が集まれば集まる程、子供が嬉しさの源に成る気がする。更に、最近見たTed Talkはもっと分かる様に成った。研究家は実験をしたんだが、知らない人にお金を渡して、5割に自分に使う様に言って、他の5割に他の人に使う様に言った。数日後、自分に使った人より他の人に使った人の方が嬉しかった。あの研究家はもっと色んな研究をして、他の人にする事に生まれる嬉しさの方が長く残るって言っていた。今なら、結構分かる。


Ok, I think that's about all I have to say this time. I'll try and not wait 2 months before blogging again, but no promises!

じゃー、今回ここまでだ。また2ヶ月でアップデートしない様にご遠慮しようとする! ^^