After the last couple of weeks of frigid temperatures and record snowfalls, it was nice to have a spring day today (also melted all the snow, heh).
All in all, last week was a bit of a write-off in terms of RetireJapan as I was away for three days with the family and then had a lot of work to do for my wife’s school. My apologies. Should have some more content for you this week 🙂
YouTube
Thank you for your support of the RetireJapan YouTube channel. I shot a new video this week, but have not finished editing and uploading it yet.
Very much still a complete beginner, but I am really enjoying Davinci Resolve (a video editing program). It is on the same level as Premiere Pro or Final Cut, but completely free! Also very powerful. If you are trying to level up your video game and are willing to watch some tutorials I really recommend it.
The Forum
The Forum is doing well (25,856 posts so far). Here are the latest active threads:
This week’s links
- I broadly agree with the content of this, if not the tone. My impression is that the happiest people here have the greatest amount of autonomy/freedom (by being self-employed etc.): The One Thing You Must Give Up For a Happy Life in Japan
- Ted Chiang is not just a great sci-fi author, turns out he is also good at explaining things: ChatGPT Is a Blurry JPEG of the Web
- We’ll be talking to Alan and Katie on RJTV in March: The 3 Levers of Financial Independence, What is success?, Comfort, Awareness & Possibility
- I wonder if there are any acting/modeling jobs in Sendai? Acting in Japan: Where to Start
- This seems reasonable and will be my approach… indefinitely: Japan’s top COVID adviser suggests people carry mask in pocket even after rule easing
- Social media + finance = danger: Gurus Gone Wild
- Just found my next project: Want anonymity? Make a persona not a mystery
- I think I am more explorer than leader unfortunately: Explorers are bad leaders
- The new BOJ chief: Quick thoughts on Ueda
- And another perspective: Welcome, BoJ Governor Ueda
What do you think? Anything interesting in there?
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The Chiang article is excellent and basically pinpoints some of my hazy suspicions about ChatGPT’s utility and value. Thanks for posting that.
Re: #1, in my experience it’s actually possible to achieve something more like a best-of-both-worlds scenario if your Japanese ability is good enough and particularly if you have a specific interest in some specialized field of Japanese culture or business (more autonomy / self-employment could be either a blessing or a curse with regard to integration). But I do think it’s accurate that a degree of tradeoff is absolutely going to be involved: the more integrated you want to be, the less you get to play the “gaijin card”, and vice versa. You’ll never be Japanese (you don’t have the same experience to draw on, the same cultural literacy), but you absolutely can become very accepted and integrated if you can speak the language and want to make the effort, joining in the sorts of activities the writer would clearly rather not. I find that a little actually goes a long way. You do get to choose, though, and it’s perfectly doable to be an almost total “outsider” here. I always felt like a bit of an outsider in my home country, so it doesn’t feel odd to be “different” here, though; if your identity is historically more connected to “belonging” I guess it could feel more extreme here.
Loved #2 – Trust Ted Chiang to come up with the perfect analogy for what ChatGPT does and the limitations inherent in that model.