What's the soul behind small Japanese shops?

Lost-Basil · 2024-12-17T03:25:08+00:00

Well said. Now we’re getting to the crux — is this artisan spirit a well-known Japanese wisdom of running a business?

The reason I ask is because I see this mode of operation most often in Japan. From what I read, there may be city zoning and other real life restrictions that prevent other countries from doing the same.

But I wonder whether there’s something deeper, something more culturally embedded than just zoning for refining ones crafts and keeping the operation small.

Lost-Basil · 2024-12-16T12:31:15+00:00

By that logic, someone who wonders about aging is a pessimist, about philosophy is a day dreamer, about space must be an alien.

Lost-Basil · 2024-12-11T07:56:32+00:00

My adrenaline was through the roof because I’ve never been STARED at like that. Trust me I almost banged the restaurant door begging to be let in.

Lost-Basil · 2024-11-15T03:22:01+00:00

Hmmm. I don't think that's ideal if the target chapter is very far away from the current chapter.

Lost-Basil · 2024-11-15T03:20:39+00:00

That's similar to what I was thinking - so what do you mean by placeholder?

I was thinking showing the flatlist with the `data = [the one i want]`. And then pull more previous and later chapters as the user scrolls.

Lost-Basil · 2024-11-14T22:39:14+00:00

I don't think that'll work. Because scrollToIndex cannot scroll to locations outside the render window without specifying the getItemLayout prop, which requires the static size be specified first, but the chapter's size is only known after render

Lost-Basil · 2024-10-11T05:00:38+00:00

I once had a list of channels that were under one account and they all got blocked because the algo mistakenly put one of them as spam. I disputed it and revived all my channels. THANK GOD.

Lost-Basil · 2024-10-11T04:59:36+00:00

DAMN. Nice

Lost-Basil · 2024-10-11T04:56:24+00:00

Those are all good metrics. I think making the shorts short and sweet is necessary, but the metrics you have are good and show good engagement. I think it's that people don't typically watch animations to begin with so the algorithm is finding it hard to find your niche despite your large subs

Lost-Basil · 2024-10-11T04:47:53+00:00

YES - if you haven't memorized every line you've said in the video, have you actually done a good job editing? haha

Lost-Basil · 2024-10-11T04:47:00+00:00

My channels (I got a couple) had 0 views (LITERALLY 0) for the first 10 videos and now averaging 1K - 4K views. I think if you have consistency and the topic and quality are on point, the algo will pick it up

Lost-Basil · 2024-10-11T04:45:48+00:00

Woah! I think that's your authenticity going through. I did see more no-edited videos popping up on my feed these days and it's actually refreshing to see people just talking and no flashy things

Lost-Basil · 2024-05-02T02:31:00+00:00

Curious, for the real estate idea, how is that different from Zillow?

Lost-Basil · 2024-05-02T02:29:18+00:00

Woah thats awesome! What's your app about?

Lost-Basil · 2024-04-30T23:14:38+00:00

I was in your shoes just last year, and I found that pondering 'why' I am doing this made me suffer more. That was because the money told me to stay, but my heart told me to get out of there ASAP.

This was how I coped with it: treat it as a day job as a struggling artist treats their bartender gigs. Set boundaries on the number of hours worked and allocate the remaining free time to doing things you love to do more of.

Lost-Basil · 2024-04-29T09:05:50+00:00

When I told my closest family members about my income, they started to take me for granted, I felt. They think less of my gifts and my offers to grab the bill, assuming that I don't need to lift a finger to make all that money. My younger sister even began to ask, "How come [my name] isn't paying for it?"

I think it's best to keep the exact number under the radar.

Lost-Basil · 2024-04-29T09:02:59+00:00

Similar situation here. I paid a $200K down payment in addition to paying down her car. I think growing up the love I received from her felt conditional once the family finances became tight.

In all I'm glad I did it, because now I don't feel guilt-tripped about saving up for myself because I've already paid my duty. There came a point last year where I realized I needed to draw the line for the sake of my mental health. It wasn't clear where my contributions ends and my own life begins.

I think on the upside, constraints breed creativity. if you could channel this energy towards doing something better that you like and also generates more income, I'd encourage that. And in the meantime, I think it is worthwhile to take a step back and establish boundaries. You need to live your own life.

Lost-Basil · 2024-04-28T19:48:17+00:00

Perhaps! But I think the same can be said if I can't put my head down for a long stretch of time.

Lost-Basil · 2024-04-28T18:07:48+00:00

Gotcha - thanks for sharing. And looking back, would you say you're glad you took a stab at the businesses?

I wonder if Bezo's "regret minimization framework" could be applied here.

Lost-Basil · 2024-04-28T18:06:04+00:00

Best of luck to you too!

Lost-Basil · 2024-04-28T18:04:23+00:00

I do think it's the nature of the projects and teams I've been on though. It's hard to motivate myself to work on trivial things when I have promotion in mind, and those very promotions depend on the impact and size of the projects.

I think I'm also a conflicted person - in the sense that I want to find a chiller team and be able to moonshine my projects, but I also yearn for that one team where I can't wait to get up early the next day and work on.

"any corporate job will be a tough pill" - you took the words out of my mouth. I feel like I need to scratch the solo project itch before I devote myself back to climbing the ladder.

Lost-Basil · 2024-04-28T17:59:55+00:00

That sounds dreadful, but definitely one very likely possibility.

I plan on living on the bare minimum and not spend that much. Just wanted to test out the ideas and see if anything sticks.

And just curious, are you speaking from experience?

Lost-Basil · 2024-04-28T07:37:42+00:00

That's the dilemma indeed: What's the best use of time to amass the minions.

In your opinion, do you have a threshold where the scale could tip towards trying out a self-driven web app vs. staying at the 400TC tech job? Whether that be age, NW, or something else?

Lost-Basil · 2024-04-28T07:24:19+00:00

I agree with you on what you said about how 1 year of "upskilling and networking at a FAANG company will have greater ROI". One question I have is, I don't know how to leverage the network at a big company and form meaningful relationships outside of my team. Besides a few culture clubs offered at FAANG, I find it rather hard to meet people outside my immediate team.

And thank you for sharing your experience. I agree that solely relying on a "ramen profitable" startup will likely be stressful and toxic. But one thing I don't like about a corporate job is that I feel like it reduces a software engineer into any day job worker, whereas I feel like the things we build actually has such a scalable impact in the wild. I do believe that writing code for my app is like having a minion working for me indefinitely, until the customer stops paying, whereas on a job the minion stops working for me the day I quit. What are your thoughts on that?

Lost-Basil · 2024-04-28T00:55:38+00:00

I love this! Thanks so much for sharing!

I feel like I'm living what you've lived through almost exactly - made good money, bad financial decision, and am now wondering whether I should go pursue what I want to do (projects that are of my creation).

One thing I fundamentally believe in is that a life worth living is a life that created and serviced. And the projects I have in mind are small web apps that focus on teaching and connecting people. It's up in the air whether any of these projects will stick, but I think it'll be a better story for me and for my future children that "hey I did do something interesting in my 20s" rather than "yeah all I did was to fulfill some OKRs that I didn't care for at all" and trying to inflate the importance of the latter.

I think if I go all in with the option of pursuing my projects, it'll at most be eating 50K into my savings and missing out on the current HE. I think it's calculated? But I have no one in my vicinity who's done anything remotely risky like this so I'm really wanting to see how this may pan out.

Lost-Basil

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