I’ve had this release drafted for a while now, since, like the beginning of the year.
Yowzer, that’s embarrasing.
Originally, I was going to write something related to a friend of mine posting some excerpts of a Washington Post article heralding the death of fun right around New Year’s. You can find that article here, orrrrr flip through Em’s post below to get an idea of what I’m talking about.
But I don’t really like this article, actually. It’s a ramshackle device, and while I wrote a few sentences about it describing that further, I’ve just now deleted them because its unnecessary. It’s now like 2 months old or whatever, so this is a non-starter of sorts.
But fun, or playfulness, is an important aspect of my life, business or personal, and that’s come up in conversation recently, so I figure that’s a good place to start, whether I reference the above article or not. Probably not.
You see, now that I’m bothering to think about this critically, I was on a retreat I helped organize last weekend in which the attendees (international biz folx) got to do something novel: relax. We purposely planned this event with very little in the way of agenda - though AI was on the docket for discussion - and instead tried to just let ourselves and our feet wander about the temples of Kamakura, and our minds wander around the dinner table in Zushi, collectively, and see what conversations came of it.
Great experience all around, but there’s one segment that stuck out: playfulness in the workplace. For whatever reason, the word playfulness immediately conjures memories of ball pits at IKEA. To most, I think that that image of exploration and childlike wonder might not seem all too relevant to modern, mature workplaces and social scenes, but I strongly beg to differ.
At the core of my dissent is an engrained interest in niche cultures, fringe use cases, and concepts that might just be crazy enough to work. Things that are off and running are great - very much necessary, even - but sticking only to the tried and true things of the universe is a great way to go nowhere.
There are times when you just gotta let go. We’ve all been through them, they’re kinda frustrating and more than a little aggravating, I think. That’s one way to explore, but not one that I like all that much as it really removes a whole lot of agency. It’s passive, and suggests that the only control you have over your environment, nay, existence is to wait for something to happen to you, and respond.
Instead, I prefer to chase after novelty, when the time is right, and that’s not always as extreme as it might sound. In an almost dissociative sense, being able to view yourself as a tool for experience and drive it into circumstances that require its critical engagement is the best way to unlock nascent opportunities, ultimately bringing them into the mainstream.
And this is where playfulness becomes very important. You’re not going to chase after something challenging if it isn’t interesting, fun. These days, I find people in the upper echelons of business operations critically lacking in their understanding of what they find enjoyable - often, they default to relaxation, which to me is subtly but insidiously toxic as it implies that their “normal” mode is one that exhausts them.
I find this sad, or probably pathetic, actually. That folx are so preoccupied with practices that wear them down so much that their inner curiosity and playfulness isn’t even known, and that this is generally applauded, is, I dunno, dystopian and ought not be; what I strive towards is that place where my creativity is supported enough and I am comfortable enough that I’m able to go out there and actively hunt down fun and intense situations, and that - my own intentions - exhaust me, and for the better such that I bring it these experiences and learnings back with me to more stable environs.
I guess that’s a dialectical approach to business development. Neat, huh.
Newsworthy
Open Office @ Centrum for Japan FinTech Week
My favorite web3 workspace in Tokyo,
, is super stoked for Japan FinTech Week - which is kind of confusingly named given it is from February 27th to March 16th, and then there’s Japan FinTech Fest during the aforementioned Japan Fintech Week from March 4th-8th, but whatever - and have opened up their excellently-located office space at Shibuya Crossing for the entirety of that longer February 27th - March 16th window.So if yr interested, click through that above link to check out details and sign up.
Inaugural Delphi Network Off-site Success!
I’ve mentioned that I collaborate with Tokyo’s leading executive network, The Delphi Network, run by ex-The Economist journalist and director of The Economist Corporate Network, Dan Slater, and I am consistently impressed with the quality of organization and participation he has achieved with that select group.
I was glad and, honestly, a bit humbled to have had Dan approach me maybe 2 months ago about planning an off-site, as he knew of my activities in rural areas and has even attended some events I’ve put together. So we got to thinking, and ended up deciding to host a small group of 6 for a tour of Kamakura’s historic temples and an over-night at a private villa in Zushi, just south of Kamakura.
Sold it out, got some exercise hiking around, had some great sushi and wine, and excellent conversation throughout the entire experience. Very glad it went as well as it did, looking forward to the next one!
Camp #002 Complete
The weekend after The Delphi Network’s off-site in Zushi, I hosted a number of campers down in Yugawara at the Yugawara Onsen Campground run by a friend and the president of my Rotary Club chapter, Kamiya-san.
He’s a real enterprising guy, and one of his more recent ventures has been this campground, and my main purpose in selecting this site was to bring together disparate elements of local business into a single, solid packaged experience.
To that end, and in addition to the local onsen bath on the campsite, I enlisted the help of local brewery Humans Beer and my always favorite butcher shop, Yama no Megumi to give everyone a taste of Yugawara, and then some!
I’m a fan of the site, though its terrain can be a bit… treacherous... so bring a headlamp and be careful of yr footing.
Secret Message: Genthar’s Whispers of Cosmic Synchronicity
Say WHAT?! That’s right, folx, I’ve hit upon a new spring source of relentlessly esoteric and unapologetically outsider information on the nature of the cosmos, and have begun broadcasting those messages to a select few ;)
What are those messages? Well, you’ll just have to become a paid subscriber (acolyte?) to find out! Get those Guru Greenbacks, baby!
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