Two Selves

Now Dove again posts an interesting video on YouTube. Also, you are available to this experimental series on their site (all the sketches are available to see). The basic story of the experiment is that a FBI trained artist draws two sketches of each participant's face. One is based on his/her own descriptions to his/her face, while the other comes from what a perfect stranger who just met him/her describes to his/her face. Check out the result of it!

Now I want to guess about the background story of this experiment. In social psychology, there is a concept of the actor-observer bias that actors tend to attribute their own behavior to environmental factors, whereas observers are likely to attribute the same behavior to actors' own personality. Suppose that I pick a wallet at a crowded street. Then, I take the wallet to the police office. For my standpoint, although I want to take it without going to the police office (get the money), I visit there because I (the actor) am afraid to become a thief and get caught, and think there are so many people watching my behavior (situational factors). On the other hand, people around there or the police officer (the observer) may assume me as decent and honest (personality), regardless of whether or not I believe myself as honest. This asymmetric perception is similar to what this experiment shows.

In the video, many participants believe themselves as whatever such as beautiful, attractive, neutral, ugly, or terrible, but they are amazed when seeing the two sketches of themselves. This is because there are clear differences between the two sketches. What we think of ourselves and what others think of us are different. As Daniel Kahneman points out, we are an animal to believe "what you see is all there is". In reality, it seems  two selves are existing: one from my mind, and the other from others'.

*the title of this entry refers to Thinking, Fast and Slow by Daniel Kahneman, but my intent to use the word is different from his use (experiencing and remembering self).

Future Tense Is Annoying?!

Here is an intriguing study by Keith Chen that I found on TED and want to share. The study basically reveals a relationship between linguistic characteristics and savings rates, based on statistical analyses. The researcher focuses on  future tense using among languages, and for some languages like Japanese there is no future tense to describe future things, while others such as English use future tense. Instead of using future tense, Japanese language, for instance, uses present tense for future events.

Is this interesting? Yeah, it is for me.

I guess people who have experience to learn different language from the native one would get such feeling too. If so, let's check out the following clip. Find something interesting!



Now my little story is below.

For the first time when learning future tense at an English class, I just couldn't understand the concept because my native language is Japanese (no future tense). I thought when saying something for the future, for instance, I state it rains "tomorrow" using key terms like "tomorrow," so it is not necessary to use "will" or "is going to." I felt English is so annoying... much easier to say just adding "tomorrow", "future", or " later" instead of using future tense. And also, according to the aforementioned research, future tense users are less savings rates, health behaviors, and retirement assets. It seems to me using future tense has no merit?!

At last, one thing I want to mention is there is past tense in Japanese!

Online Lies

Which do you think more people would lie, online or face-to-face? Here is an interesting talk by Jeff Hancock on TED.

Although it is scientifically true, what he finds seems to be needed more evidence in order to prove his insistence, I think. For instance, people more easily write like "I'm on my way" on twitter than other social media or email, because tweets are usually assumed as not serious even if some of them lie or overstate.

Anyway, this is very inspiring!!

Spider Silk Strings for Violin

A Japanese professor, Shigeyoshi Osaki, made a new type of violin strings using thousands of strands of spider silk. If you wonder how it sounds and looks like, see below.



In general, violinists use an aluminium-cored or nylon string for their violin (I'm using an aluminium-cored string because they are cheaper than a nylon). A few violinists who can afford to buy use a gut string, but this is more expensive and likely to exhaust than an aluminium-cored and nylon. According to Pro. Osaki, a spider silk string is the best in those strings in terms of tension and sound. Unfortunately, I wasn't able to find any difference of sound in the video... Just it sounded like an ordinary violin to me.

At any rate, if this string is cheap and popular, I'd like to try it. However, it wounld take some time to be so.

Cherry Blossom

There are beautiful cherry trees in full bloom in Japan. I went to a neighbor park in order to see cherry blossoms today, though they are not fully blooming. Here are some photos I took.

Spring is just beginning here!

One Year After The Earthquake

Landscapes of then and now in Tohoku. 

Remember still on the way of recovery in Tohoku, and Fukushima nuclear plants. 

More photos, if you want to see, click here. And, here is an article by the Japanese prime minister. 

How To Get A Seat: Smartly But Strangely

I was sitting on a seat. Woman was coming and then standing in front of me. With little courageous, I said to her "Would you like to have a seat?" And, I gave up my seat to her... because she is attractive or I'm a gentleman. No, just because she looked like pregnant! And, I sat on an inappropriate space. What I am talking about now is "priority seats." The priority seats are set up for those who are disabled, pregnant, or having babies to have a seat easily. (In Japan, a subway line have conducted a policy that all seats are priority seats...Even more, they are right now considering about making the most priority seats on the priority seats. What a mess...)

Japanese sign for priority seats on trains

Just in case you really want to get a seat, Try out the following way. In China,  there are 1.3 billion people living. According to some article, to get a seat on public transportation, some women wear a fake pregnant belly! Wow!

After knowing this news, I re-thought that woman whom I offered my seat was really pregnant, just a bit fat, or wearing a fake pregnant belly??

Too Many Choices

I traveled Taipei, Taiwan in last weekend. And, I got a lot of tasty food and drinks there. Bubble teas are one of the famous drinks from Taiwan, I think. Of course I had them during the visit, but I had some difficulty when ordering them. See below!

As shown in the picture, so many choices there are!! In mind, "How can I choose?" Even I thought I'd like someone to choose a great one! However, the staff seemed busy and even I can't speak in Taiwanese. As a result, I needed to choose by myself... What would you choose when you are facing such a situation?

Recently what I learned is that when facing too many choices we tend not to buy the item, according to a jam experiment by Sheena Iyengar. But, in my case, I really wanted to drink a bubble tea, so I chose one. That is, I didn't have the choice of not buying it. So, the problem is how I picked it. I think that we would follow two patterns under this circumstance; cautious or risky choice (I can't find any research of this related topic, so to describe the phenomena I borrow these terms usually used in the group think). The cautious choice means a tendency we choose ordinary, familiar, and safe one which we have already had or seen. On the other hand, I use risky choice to describe that we are likely to pick one which we have never had or even heard and seen. When I chose one, I was considering apricot kernel (cautious) or 養楽多 (risky) flavor (*養楽多 is Yakult, although I didn't know at that time. In fact, Yakult is a drink made by a famous Japanese company).

Well, eventually, I got the apricot kernel bubble tea. It's not provocative but tasted good! Although maybe it could be good, at that moment the Yakult one seemed to me mysterious and strange. Anyway, Taipei is a good place to visit. If you have time, go there. And, if you have an opportunity to visit Taipei, try to buy Bubble teas!

Which Is Which?

Last weekend, I went to a friend's house to be invited dinner. Her father was there at that time. Although I've met him a few times, I didn't know he likes wines and he was kind of enthusiast on them as much as collects them from all over the world. And, I drunk a bottle of wine which he recommended. It was fantastic, and tasted and smelled like what I've never had. However, I unfortunately do not have good abilities to remember that taste and smell for a long time. Actually, next day I already forgot what it tasted and smelled like, though I'm sorry for him.

For so long time, researchers have wondered whether we can distinguish ordinary wines from great ones. There are a lot of research conducted by many ways: http://www.freakonomics.com/2008/07/24/keep-the-cheap-wine-flowing/

The same thing happens in the music. Probably most people have heard of the name, Stradivari who is known as a great violin maker. His violin has been acknowledged the greatest and the most expensive one all over the world.

An article by NPR introduced an interesting experiment a few days ago. It was about a blind violin test, but the point of this experiment is a "double-blind" test. That is, all participants including players and listeners didn't know which one was a Stradivari violin. If you want to try your ability, go the link: http://www.npr.org/blogs/deceptivecadence/2012/01/02/144482863/double-blind-violin-test-can-you-pick-the-strad. You can also find the result!

Fortunately, I would have musician's ears, which means I was able to pick correct one! It seems like hearing something is good fit for me rather than tasting and smelling.

Which Sports Is The Most Attractive For Writers

I'm a big fan of baseball, though, I would not mention it if visiting the UK. In the UK, I would pretend to like playing football. This comes from a result of the Books Ngram Viewers by Google. If you are wondering what Ngram Viewers is, see the following talk!



I tried several words in the Ngram, and then I found something interest by a combination of terms of sports. Here is my example:

English

I chose five sports for this analysis; (1) Baseball, (2) Football, (3) Tennis, (4) Golf, and (5) Cricket. At first, I picked several other sports like polo (I think this word is used not only for describing a sport but also for other meanings like polo shirts), wrestling, swimming, basketball, hockey and so on. But, I thought the five sports which I picked are interesting because of having well variations. At 2000, Baseball is the most frequently used in the above graph! Yeah! However, as you can guess, when this result falls into American and British English, ...

American English

British English

In the American English, Golf was the most popular for writers to mention during the early twentieth century. Also, before baseball was a popular sport in the US, cricket was in style in the late nineteenth century. It's surprising for me! Of course, cricket has been popular in the UK (+India) as shown in the British English, while baseball has been the worst attractive for writers who use British English.

One more thing I want to state here is the influence of wars on sports. Even my graphs show the evidence that  less frequent words regarding sports were mentioned during the wars such as WWI, WWII, and Vietnam War. In particular, compared the American to British graph at 1960, there is a big difference. For example, tennis indicates the opposite trend between the American and British. My explanation for it is that Vietnam War has something to do with the trend because US involvement to the war escalated in the early 1960s and also there was Cuban Missile Crisis in 1962.

Anyway, I recommend you play the Ngram!

Happy Thanksgiving

In Japan, there is no Turkey Day. My dinner will be white rice, miso soup, tuna (Japanese national fish? Maybe!), plus something. Well, If I had thanksgiving dinner, I would like to eat mash potatoes with a gravy sauce rather than turkeys. Anyway, have a good time!

via

This Is The Music Using Our Ability

Bobby McFerrin, who is one of the best-known vocal performer, conducts a wonderful impromptu performance below.



Some people who are singing in the video sound like little off-key at first, but they gradually adjust their key. Eventually, they create a beautiful harmony between them and Bobby.

Wonderful!!

Honne & Tatemae Everywhere

"Honne and Tatemae" is a famous word to describe Japanese culture. Honne is what people are truly feeling or really want to do. It is usually used for behavior and opinions. On the other hand, Tatemae refers to socially expected behavior and opinions, regardless of what the people actually think about and want to do. For instance, suppose you are invited to a neighbor's house, and the host says "Would you like to something to drink?" If you are Japanese, you probably say "yes," even though you are not thirsty (If you were like me, you would finish the drink and even say "it's delicious," regardless of whether it's really good or "not good..." ). This "yes" is known as Tatemae.

The reason the Japanese start using this custom is to avoid conflicts. In Japan, it is important to keep harmony among people, and harmony is assumed as a value.

Zits published November 4, 2011

Well, Honne and Tatemae looks like, however, not only for the Japanese, but also for everybody in the world. Zits shows a very well example of Honne and Tatemae. In the above comic strip, Jeremy (who is sixteen years old, a high school student, and wants to become a musician) tells his mother to thank-you for buying a new down jacket in the first and second scene. However, in the last scene, he is thinking "...said the giant purple hand grenade." It seems that his thought may be "Honne," while his thank-you and comment to his mother may be "Tatemae".

If you avoid conflicts, saying Tatemae might be good. If not, say Honne!

A more sophisticated explanation regarding this topic is available at the following link: http://www.kirainet.com/english/honne-and-tatemae/.

Interesting Toy

The tool looks like very interesting. I'd like to play it. Some of the function seem difficult for children to use, but it also means that adults enjoy playing it. The last function is especially my favorite.

Virtuoso means...

According to my favorite dictionary, Longman Dictionary of Contemporary English, a virtuoso is defined as "someone who is a very skilful performer, especially in music". The reason I saw the word in the dictionary was that I checked a word, vis-a-vis, though.

I'm no complaint about the definition of a virtuoso, but I'm very curious about why the editor (s/he is her fan?) chose the illustration:

"violin virtuoso Vanessa Mae"

I think she is a great talented violinist. However, I do not have an image for her as a virtuoso. One of her performances is below.

What I believe as a virtuoso is Itzhak Perlman. Actually, when checking out the word on the Wikipedia, Perlman is one of the examples. The point I want to make is that my connotation from the term, virtuoso, is a  performer like Perlman. But, if the word reminds other people of like Mae, what's going on is, I think, that a virtuoso may imply like her performance. Although this is a mere example of using a word differently among generations, I feel a big difference between Perlman and Mae. Just in my opinion, Perlman is more an appropriate instance! Please check out a virtuoso in your dictionary!

Bystander Effect

The Street by Baltus

Here is a famous painting by Baltus who is French, 1908-2001 (it is available to see at MoMA in NY). Although at first glance it looks like just a beautiful painting, there is something wrong to happen in the painting. On the left side, the man is doing sexual aggression to the girl wearing a red cloth, but none of the people seem to notice it (or I guess they pretend not to).

This is a good example for the bystander effect (the large number of people witnessing the tragedies militated against anyone's helping). The reason that it occurs is that the people assume as the reasonableness and appropriateness of not helping by the other people do not help. In the above case, if we do not know what the man is doing, we may assume that is appropriate or even may not notice the weirdness.

The New Japanese President

The above graph shows GDP growth rate of UK (red line), JPN (green line), and US (purple line as a bench mark for global economy) between 1961 and 2010. In addition, red and green arrows indicate the succession of both Britain's and Japan's prime minister, respectively.

As you can see, the Japanese prime ministers change more frequently than those of UK. According to research on the managerial succession, there are two things regarding top management's changes. One is that poor performance in a firm is more likely to lead a leader to change than good performance. The other is that the more often a manager and CEO in a firm change, the poorer the firm's performance is.

As long as I can see the above graph, I think those facts may apply to this case (though I have not conducted a statistical test to the relationship between the turnover and GDP growth). If the relationship is true, what I expect the new Japanese prime minister, Yoshihiko Noda,  is to be in office as long as possible.

Even as one of the Japanese, I cannot remember the name of the prime minister anymore.

More Smile in Our Life

The more I smile, the less I need to eat chocolates (especially Bon Bons), according to the below talk. As a result, I would be more healthy. It's nice!! Yeah, more smile in my life!!

15 things I have still tried to learn

Two months ago (I think)  there was an article on the headline of Yahoo!. I'm not a child, technically...

Photo: Flickr

However, my behaviors are still like a kid sometimes. After finishing reading the article, I counted up how many manners out of 25 I know and carry out. I picked 15 manners from the article as follows (parentheses are my comments):

1. Do not interrupt grown-ups who are speaking with each other unless there is an emergency. They will notice you and respond when they are finished talking. (Sometimes I cannot wait and help but interrupting until someone finishes talking...It's not good, though.)
2. If you do need to get somebody's attention right away, the phrase "excuse me" is the most polite way for you to enter the conversation. (I don't say "excuse me." Well, I suddenly speak or say a hesitation. Just because I didn't know this manner...)
3. When you have any doubt about doing something, ask permission first. It can save you from many hours of grief later. (I see. I forget to ask any permission, and should do it.)
4. The world is not interested in what you dislike. Keep negative opinions to yourself, or between you and your friends, and out of earshot of adults. (I know, but it's very difficult not to utter what I dislike.)
5. When people ask you how you are, tell them and then ask them how they are. (I have to follow this rule next time.)
6. When you have spent time at your friend's house remember to thank his or her parents for having you over and for the good time you had. (I know it's important, but sometimes I don't do that...)
7. When you make a phone call, introduce yourself first and then ask if you can speak with the person you are calling. (It's dependent on situations because now we can know who is calling through the display on a cell phone and phone. But, I should introduce myself first anytime. It's more appropriate way.) 
8. Be appreciative and say "thank you" for any gift you receive. In the age of e-mail, a handwritten thank-you note can have a powerful effect. (Sending a handwritten thank-you latter is a fabulous way to convey our appreciation. My mother always does send a handwritten thank-you letter, but I don't...Really I should.)
9. Never use foul language in front of adults. Grown-ups already know all those words, and they find them boring and unpleasant.
10. Do not make fun of anyone for any reason. Teasing shows others you are weak, and ganging up on someone else is cruel. (OK...But I'm not sure to follow this manner.)
11. Even if a play or an assembly is boring, sit through it quietly and pretend that you are interested. The performers and presenters are doing their best. (Yes...But, pretending is my weak point because I'm naive, honestly(?).)
12. If you bump into somebody, immediately say "Excuse me." (Don't retort, of course.)
13. As you walk through a door, look to see if you can hold it open for someone else. (And, lady first!!)
14. If you come across a parent, a teacher, or a neighbor working on something, ask if you can help. If they say "yes," do so -- you may learn something new. (It's a good way to start a conversation with someone as well.)
15. When an adult asks you for a favor, do it without grumbling and with a smile. (Smile plays a significant role in giving good impression. At least, we shouldn't express Pan Am smile. When we are asked something, we should do it with smile with "crow's-feet," according to a speech by Guy Kawasaki.)

Risk Preference

Recently I read a book "What I Wish I Knew When I Was 20" by Tina Seelig. This book provides a lot of fascinating examples and is well organized. I found and got some useful insights from the book. Also, it was very easy to read. I'd like to mention a thing from the book, anyway.

The author introduces a thought of risk in a chapter. According to the book, there are five types of risks:

1. Physical risk: such as being willing or unwilling to bungee jump off a bridge.
2. Social risk: like being willing or reluctant to start a conversation with a stranger. 
3. Emotional risk: revealing own emotion and feeling.
4. Financial risk: a big financial risk taker or not.
5. Intellectual risk: willingness to take risk in pursuing scientific inquiry.

According to the finance, risk is the probability that actual return on an investment will be lower than the expected return. And, suppose a financial assumption -- which is the more you take risk, the more you get the return, and vise verse -- is correct (For example, high-risk, high-return research is here). That is, the more we take risk, the more we will get something successful or big, as the following comic strip shows.

Comic Strip: Frank & Ernest published on June 23, 2011

With the above idea, I'd like to consider about my risk preference, that means which types of risks I am willing to take. I'm comfortable to take physical risks because I don't think about risk of fracturing a born which some people may worry, while taking social risks are uncomfortable for me as I confessed before: "Shy is not Shine". Also, I'm willing to take intellectual risks such as I like casting doubt on theories and common thought regardless of whether my critics for them are correct and pertinent or not, but I'm not a big financial and emotional risk taker so I may be a cheapskate and an expressionless face...

As Tina Seelig points out, although we are taking a big risk, we don't see ourselves as big risk takers on certain types of risks. For instance, unlike me, some entrepreneurs and bankers don't assume themselves as big risk takers despite spending huge money for investments. On other hand, if someone paid one million dollars for you to play a sky diving, you could never try it out. I think a message comes from these things. That is, "Don't be afraid of failure and shame." But, I know easier said than done. As for the first step of action, take a look at your own risk profile. Which types of risks are you willing to take and don't you see as a big risk? Though it is just a starting point, it would be easy and sometimes helpful for you to go ahead.