Current Status

I attended an annual conference of “The Society of Risk Analysis Japan” over this weekend, and I made a presentation on the theme of material management at a section meeting. About one and a half years have passed since I joined to study the theme. After the presentation, I felt relief to find the time to contemplate a blueprint of my future activity.

On the other hand, after the conference, without any specific purposes, I searched my past colleague’s name on Google. I found one blog which she has been constantly uploading. According to the blog, she is currently working at a United Nation’s organization as a technical expert. She lives in Geneva, and has traveled for business to Asia, Africa, North America, and Europe for the past one and a half years.

When she was in my office, she said “my friends tell me that I have been lack of energy since I started working at this office.” After a while, she decided to leave my office, and entered a graduate university. She received a doctorate from the university, and started her career at the international organization.

We hit it off at first sight. We were both freshmen. I dropped out of graduate school, and she wanted to join graduate school. I explained that I lost my psychological balance when I was in university. She said that she had been energetic when she was in her master’s course.

I am vividly working at my office. I do not have a doctorate. In addition, I am in a domestic private firm. Compared with her current career, my current status seems less stimulating. However, I am vigorous now. My personality is suitable to my current job.

Limitation of Technology

If there is a problem, this is an opportunity for technological innovations. Technology has solved unbelievable problems so far. For example, although people in the past could imagine that they would land on the Moon and walk on its surface, they did not know how they could do. There were many problems to be solved. However, our modern technology could solve them, and accomplish the feat. This is how our technology has been developed.

When I heard a presentation on “Hearing Aid” by Mr. Seno at the CSIJ the other day, I learned that there are problems that cannot be solely solved by engineering. According to the presentation, with the help of hearing aids, people with moderate hardness of hearing can make conversations without severe difficulties. Actually, since my grandmother has weak hearing, I feel difficulty to communicate with her unless she wears a hearing aid. However, if she wears it, she can hear me if I speak loud. In this sense, a hearing aid can partly solve the problem.

However, Mr. Seno mentioned that it was difficult for people with innate hardness of hearing to communicate with people with verbal language even if they wear a high quality hearing aid, if they became matured. People with innate hardness of hearing usually understand human voice as just vibration even if they can get to hear human voice with the aid of wearing a hearing aid. Their brain is not trained to interpret the meaning of human voice. If people with innate hardness of hearing receive cochlear implant at around 1 and half years old, they gain a chance to hear and interpret human voice.

There are many people who have not received the cochlear implant at their early age. They communicate with people in sign language. So far, there seems to be no such technology that can solve this issue. Mr. Seno provided me with the opportunity to acknowledge the limitation of our technology.

 

This essay will be published on the homepage of CSIJ, probably after it is translated into Japanese.

Motivation for Work

When I took a walk with my friend on a holiday several years ago, we talked about each other’s motivation for working. I explained that my motivation for working was based on my curiosity about environmental issues. She said that she understood my answer very well.

She knew that I'd had a difficult time finding my current job. During my job hunting time, I applied for various kinds of industries and occupations. Every application was rejected except for the one with my current company.

I had intended to hold an academic position during my student days. After graduating from university, I entered a graduate school. After obtaining a master's degree in grad school, I became a doctor candidate. However, at this stage, I dropped out of my academic career.

I realized that I lacked the wisdom necessary to be a scientist. I thought that if I had become a scientist, I would have ended up conducting tedious studies in order to mass produce academic papers. What I had wanted to do was not to increase the number of academic papers, but to pursue the fundamental mysteries of the nature.

I am currently working as an environmental consultant at my company. My fundamental mission at my company is to earn a profit. Thus, a concrete numerical goal is imposed on my annual working plan. If I fail to achieve the goal, my remuneration will be reduced accordingly.

In order to achieve the goal, I need various capabilities. One of them is a deep knowledge of environmental issues. I have been curious about environmental issues since I was in university, though my expertise was biophysics in my grad school.

Therefore, I need to study environmental issues to widen and strengthen my environmental consulting service. I study it according to my curiosity. I think this is a good cycle.

When I became too tired due to being overworked in my office, I sometimes felt irresponsible for my work. However, every time such a situation occurred, I was reminded of the fact that this profession was exceptionally suitable to me.

How to Resist Temptation

I moved to a new house a couple of weeks ago. When I was packing my clothes, books, and diary in the course of moving, I found a past article in my diary. The article was written about 6 to 7 years ago. Even though it was written that long ago, I was clearly reminded of my past psychological torture.

The title of the article was “Negative Aspects of a Condom.” The logic of the article was the following.

The invention of the condom has brought certain merits to human beings. The condom plays a central role in decreasing opportunities for unwanted pregnancy as well as preventing the spread of venereal diseases such as HIV.

However, I cannot neglect the negative aspects of the invention of the condom. One of the worst impacts is the propagation of psychological tortures arising from safety sex.

If there were no condoms, and society were to have an equivalent scientific and medical knowledge to our modern world, we would hesitate to make love, even with our beloved one. For example, our scientific knowledge would tell us that infection of venereal diseases and unwanted pregnancies result from making love. These facts would cause fear in people, and the fear would become a driving force for people to feel hesitant about sex.

However, we have invented the condom, and a condom can prevent the disease and unwanted pregnancy. In this respect, we could sweep away the fear. Accordingly, we can make love safely. This is good for people. Thus, the developed world and international agencies such as the World Health Organization promote condoms for all the people who need it.

However, I sense one negative impact originating from the invention of a condom. The condom has deprived us of the fear to resist temptation to make love. Premarital sex accompanies psychological tortures. Young couples have no other choice but to resist premarital sex, not out of a fear, but out of their own morality and patience. However, generally speaking, since morality and patience are not enough to prevent the desire for sex, young couples are easily trapped in a sex life. Premarital sex life produces complex emotions, which are not easily solved.

Human beings are weak. Thus, we are always in invisible fear of something. If one of the fears is wiped out, we will feel a strong gravitation toward the absence of the fear.

The Value of Books

I prefer Plato to Aristotle. Along the same line, I like Camus more than Sartre. Both Plato and Camus had published their books which had been written in simple terms and thus easy to read. I like reading their books. However, even though Aristotle nor Sartre had seemed to establish their permanent positions in literature and philosophy, I did not find their (Aristotle's and Sartre's) books interesting, thus I could not complete reading even one of their books.

Some people say that philosophers use difficult words. I agree with this opinion in some degrees because I cannot understand what Aristotle or Sartre wanted to express. This difficulty makes people avoid even trying to read books on literature and philosophy.

True philosophers should publish their thinking in simple statements. Thus, in the future, the fame both of Aristotle and Sartre will diminish little by little.

Writing

I came back to my home by walking from my office with my younger colleague. She has only about 1 year's working experience. When talking with her, I realized that I was no longer a freshman.

She said that she found it difficult to write business documents. If she could have a better ability in writing them, she said, then she would gain more opportunities to broaden her horizon.

When I was a freshman, I had a similar frustration to hers. I was terribly bad at writing business reports. Logic was not well constructed, and an adjective and an adverb were not placed in suitable positions in one sentence. My boss and my senior staff member often pointed out that I should improve my writing ability. I had an aspiration to obtain a better writing skills. I thought that if I could have the skills, then I would have more chances in my future carriers.

However, I have not been trapped in such frustration at least for the past year. During that time, I did not even remembere that I had such frustration. Although I have experienced many problems and confronted difficult situations in my business, I have not ascribed the origin of those problems to my poor writing skills. Instead, I have realized that communication skills were as equally important as personal skills such as writing skills. In the years ahead, I will realize other important factors which will be needed in my future business activity.

A Promise

When I was a student, I had a girlfrined. Like other couples, we left each other. Before the separation, we made a promise. We promised to do our best performance individually in the future. We believed that if we continued to do our best, then the records of our future performances would be uploaded on the Internet. We said that we could find each other's record if it was necessary.

Some years have passed since then. When I search my name through Google now, I can find my past records. Most of them are my professional activities on environmental consulting services. Until now, I have not broken the promise.

Even though I have not been conscious of the promise most of the time, the promise may constantly encourage me to sustain my motivation in the background of my mind. I made a good promise.