Some more questions from sushidog, these are a little more personal (in the sense they are directed at me, rather than being part of the big list):
1. How do you think your time in Japan will affect your life in the long run? Do you think it will affect you as a person?
Of course it will have an effect, if I didn’t think it would I wouldn’t have bothered coming here. There are two parts to what I came here to learn, about the culture here and about myself (and, by extension, western culture).
The language barrier is causing something of a problem with learning about the culture – but I’m picking up bits and pieces here and there. An interesting (and good) side-effect of working where I do is that I am learning a reasonable amount about Indian culture too, since I’m working with some guys from India but we’re all outsiders here so we band together. Whenever I’ve worked with Indians before (back in the UK) they’ve been the outsider and not really wanted to mix – its just the way things work, not based on any racial stereotyping, they’ve mostly been good guys to work with but not wanted to mix in the social groups I do. That said my boss, Mal, at Symbian (I think he was second generation English Indian, not sure of his exact heritage) came along to a Manuskript gig, which freaked me out a bit, but, equally, was very cool.
As for what I’m learning about myself – well, theres a bunch of things. Communication skills are important, I find myself being the focal point of many meetings these days since I’m the most talkative native English speaker in my team. I was hoping to get a better perspective on where my career was heading, but thats not really coming together yet (the post about the future the other day was a part of that), I’ve got ideas, but they’re all mashed up at the moment, theres no coherency.
There was also an element of placing myself in a situation of need, to push myself to developing, since I was stagnating badly in Oxford. That hasn’t been as effective as I had hoped, since I’m basically too lazy. The concept is good, I just need to find effective ways to push and places to go that back that up.
2. Offered a choice of riches or love, which would you take?
Love. No question. Unless its false, in which case I’ll take the riches. No, wait, can’t I have both? I’ve got a plan for riches, it just needs a bit of programming and someone who’ll let me buy irrationally on the margin. Love is a bit more illusive. Falling in love with the wrong girls doesn’t help, and I don’t see how that is going to change anytime soon.
3. Do you have any life ambitions? If so, what are you doing to fulfill them?
Sure, independence to do what I want when I want. This contract in Japan was the first big planned step along that road. I need to figure out what I want to do when I have the freedom to do what I want – thats the difficult bit. I want to live in the countryside again, I really liked it in Buckland and would like to live somewhere like that again, only I’ll get the big house next time around. And I want to go on a cruise, since I love seeing cities lit up across the bay, there can’t be anything as exciting as having been isolated at sea for days and then pulling in to a beautiful city at night.
On a more hubristic note, I feel I have a lot to contribute to the software (and technology) industries, finding a sensible way to get that contribution used widely would be a good thing. There are plans for putting together a book, but that is really at very early stages right now, I need to do a good deal of reasearch on some of the ideas I have before that can be made more concrete. “Theres got to be a better way.”
4. What’s your favourite game?
Difficult question. Card game is probably Illuminati, maybe Grass. Boardgame, Britannia, but I no longer know anyone who has access to a set. Computer game, the Civilisation series (probably colonisation out of those, but that depends on my mood). PS2 game, Burnout. Party game, I don’t really do that kind of thing, but if I have to play the hat game again I’m going to go and sulk in the kitchen for a bit instead.
5. Do you make New year’s Resolutions? If so, what will they be this time?
Yes, of course I do. They normally involve a phrase like “I will sort out my life this year”, which is doomed to failure. So last year I resolved to sort out where my career was heading, which, so far, seems to be more on track than previous ‘life sorting’ attempts. I’ve not really thought about the set for next year yet, though it’ll probably be back to the sorting my life out thing. The whole idea that somehow it being a new year makes it some special time to make these promises to yourself seems a little odd, I’m getting into a habit of trying to spot things that need sorting out and getting on and sorting them, whether it be new year or not. Any ideas what I should sort out about my life and/or myself next?
Anyone else want to ask me some questions? Or want me to ask you some?
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