Week 4, 2020

I spent a few days in Ningbo and then Shanghai for a small family reunion. Wow, it’s been more than a decade since I’ve had a chance to visit mainland China and I was super curious to experience first-hand their mobile technology.

I found it’s the type of convenience that comes with a feeling of brittleness. What happens when the tech fails? Getting locked out of a WeChat account, losing access to an Alipay account etc. would grind your daily life to a halt. The un-traceability of cash and paper tickets is a nice option that I’d not really thought about before. Overall, the taste I got for centralized transactions was fascinating and disconcerting in equal measures. It’s a parallel universe to the Western-centric digital world that I reside in, and the majority of the population from either side don’t particularly seem to be concerned about that.

Sadly, it wasn’t the best timing to be exploring China. We made the decision to cut the trip short amidst mounting uncertainty about the new corona virus.

Reading:

• 直観の経営 「共感の哲学」で読み解く動態経営論 by 野中 郁次郎, 山口 一郎 (link) - I hadn't realized that Ikujiro Nonaka of SECI model of knowledge dimensions fame was still a prolific author! This book is about the philosophy of empathy, written with a phenomenologist.
• 引き抜き屋 1 鹿子小穂の冒険 and 引き抜き屋(2) 鹿子小穂の帰還 by 雫井 脩介 (link) - Skimmed through this novel about executive head hunters, to try something different. Shallow and unrelateable characters but interesting tidbits about this industry.