Cost-Performance, Time-Performance, and Serendipity no.513

Cost-performance, time-performance, ROI, ROE, cost-effectiveness...

In today's era of information explosion, busyness, and the demand for efficiency, these terms are sought after, and...

Serendipity, "Yes or Yes, with pleasure," effectuation, the usefulness of the useless, planned happenstance theory, last-minute measures...

I think these terms are truly polar opposites.

The difference between cost-performance and serendipity

I think there are two major differences.

The first is whether the axis of judgment (perspective) is based on current values or future values.

The second is whether the time frame for judgment is short or long.

For example, taking a simple case like the decision to travel abroad,
if you look at it from the perspective of current, short-term cost-performance,

you have to adjust your schedule,
it takes time to prepare for this and that,
it costs money to travel,
it's a hassle to go,

and since it's inefficient, isn't online fine?
That becomes the judgment.

But if you look at it from a long-term or future perspective,

because you go there in person, you can feel
the differences in ways of thinking, the differences in atmosphere,
the differences in smells, humidity, and colors felt through the five senses,
and by feeling those things, your worldview expands,

and much later,
when working with people from a different world,
it becomes useful for the first time,
and you think, 'I'm glad I went back then!'
.

Useful someday

For some reason, ever since I was a student,
I've often thought,
'This might be useful someday,'and

during high school and university,
I was alwayssubscribing to the science magazine Newtonregularly, and

since university (I forgot the details),
I would also read or subscribe to specialized magazines like Nikkei Electronics

'Well, maybe it'll be a little useful someday'

with that kind of attitude.

When you look back, you can connect the dots.

Steve Jobs also said in his famous
"Stay Hungry, Stay Foolish!"
commencement speech at Stanford University,

you can only connect the dots by looking back later.

As long as you are thinking from the current perspective of
cost-performance and time-performance,
you cannot change or create the future.

Wishing to "change" while maintaining a
cost-performance and time-performance mindset

is, in itself, the act of trying to connect the dots
by looking at the future, which Steve Jobs says is impossible.

Try it anyway before you think.

If you are aiming for a big leap,
first, just do it. Start working on it.

If it doesn't work, stop.
And then try the next thing.

Repeating such efforts
will lead you to the person you aim to be.

My own scattered
business portfolio and initiatives are also,

the result of simply working on things
that appeared before me or that I was invited to do,

"I'll just go for it for now" or
"If so-and-so says so" while thinking things like that.

At that moment,
if I were thinking about cost-performance, time-performance,
or whether it would yield results,
I wouldn't be able to do it (lol)

If you don't try, you lose the ability to do it.

That kind of sensibility is
like a muscle that atrophies if you don't move it, and
if you don't use it, you lose the ability to do it.

Living your daily life without thinking or
getting used to moving within a large framework causes it to atrophy.

(Basically, within an organization,
you are inevitably required to have a plan,
and you are required to succeed,
so there is no helping that...)

Furthermore, humans
have a nature of fearing new things
and things they don't know,

and repeating things is easier,
and it doesn't consume cognitive resources,
so it is easier and safer.

That is why if you let your guard down,
you become unable to move. You become unable to move.
Just like water flows to lower ground.

That is precisely why you must move

That is precisely why if there is an opportunity, I move.
I dive in.

Around me,
there are many people who dive in or
move around whenever something happens.

In fact, since it is only people like that,
I end up thinking that is normal, and

someone like me is daphnia-level,
I haven't been able to move at all lately, this is bad.
I end up thinking things like that.

And only those who keep moving
will someday have the gift called serendipity come to them, I suppose.