[Recommended Reading: Children's Books Edition #2] Even Nostradamus🔮 would be surprised?! "Momo," which predicted the modern era half a century ago
I decided to participate in #AutumnReading2025 📚
Hello, I'm a wannabe engineer.
Today, following my previous [Recommended Reading: Children's Books Edition #1] Westward! Westward! Let's go! Sun Wukong🐵 and his merry friends: The original RPG!🎮 "Journey to the West"
, I will deliver the "second installment".
~"Momo," a book of prophecy for the modern society of half a century ago~
Actually, this "Momo"—is not just a children's book.
👉 "DX fatigue, meeting hell, notification rushes... There is a children's book that predicted the existence of "
"time thieves" half a century ago.
──Its name is "Momo"!
────────────────
What is "Momo"? To summarize the plot──
It is a story about a little girl named Momo who fights against the "men in gray" who steal people's time.
The men in gray tell people, "Time is important in life, so you should save it," and people start saving time.
But in reality, the goal of the men in gray is to "deceive people and steal the time they have saved."
People who have had their time stolen forget how to spend their lives richly, such as "imagining things or talking with others," and end up spending their time constantly trying not to waste it.
At such a time, Momo, who possesses the
power of listening (active listening)
and the wisdom to live richly, stands up to the men in gray alone and wins the story.────────────────Protagonist: Momo
Momo's special move is "
active listening
".By just earnestly "listening
" to people, she lightens their hearts.
Active listening = The ultimate business skill
👉 A girl who had already mastered what we now call "1-on-1 meetings," "consultative sales," and "mentalism" half a century ago.
I thought it was a modern business guidebook, but it's actually a children's book!
Men in gray = An "invisible enemy" even for modern people
Don't modern people seem to be constantly fighting some kind of "invisible enemy"?
Waves of tasks, notification rushes, never-ending meetings...
In "Momo," that true identity appears clearly.
👉 Men in gray = Time thieves
👻 The fate of time-saving techniques
According to my research: There are tons of "time-saving techniques" on the internet, but
articles that say "As a result of using time-saving techniques, I was able to do X that I wanted to do!" are very few.
In other words──
👉 "Is the time that modern people should have saved with time-saving techniques being snatched away by the men in gray?" theory is plausible.
👻 DX of business? Are you actually falling for a "time savings scam"?
Time = Life. Once stolen, it cannot be recovered.
This is exactly what the men in gray are aiming for!
For example...
Creating a system to reduce meetings → For some reason, the meetings for that increase lol
Task management apps → Satisfied with entering data and finishing
Gathering information on SNS → Before I knew it, the sun had risen
👉 This is completely a "🐠phishing time scam".
It's the kind where your time gets taken if you click lol (laughs)
🤖 Pseudo-Engineer Explanation
Children's book "Momo"
📌 Release year: 1976 (Japanese version: but the content is already 2025-ready)
📌 Feature 1: Active listening algorithm → The 1-on-1s everyone is talking about? Momo introduced them 50 years ago
📌 Feature 2: Time-thief virus → Malware that cuts into your free time while shouting about "efficiency"
📌 Feature 3: Heart resource management system → The kind that makes you realize "richness cannot be measured by efficiency"
👻 True story:
I usually find myself chasing time by the minute, even on holidays, thinking "15 minutes until shopping, 30 minutes until lunch..."
And I thought,
"It's the fault of the
time thieves (the gray men) that appeared in Momo!"
When I told someone about that,
they said, "Isn't that not about being robbed of time, but just being time-poor⏰?"
...Yes, that's exactly right. *Sigh* (ToT)
👉 In other words, I thought my enemy was being robbed of time by the gray men, but it turns out I was just
time-poor lol
Summary
In this day and age, you might find your time being stolen by the gray men before you even realize it.
But in reality, you might just be creating your own "time poverty".
What you can learn from this book is
not just "how to use time well," but how to "spend time richly."
I hope everyone reads "Momo" and spends their life richly!
...Eh? Me 🤖?
If I were to spend my time richly,
it's obvious, isn't it!
I'll pour it into "time spent sincerely with alcohol"! 🍺(^o^)/🍺
※ Even if you protest "It's the gray men's fault!" when you were actually just time-poor,
we cannot accept any responsibility. (lol)
Michael Ende (Author, Illustrator), Kaori Oshima (Translator)
View on Amazon
■ Paperback edition: 2005 and Hardcover edition: 1976 are available!
If you are an adult who wants to read it, the paperback edition might be easier to carry around.
#BookReview
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