Author: sin0928yano@gmail.com

I would love to thank God, give me a chance to take this book. And I seemed I was ready to enjoy reading this book. Bill Bryson describes the science from Big bang to Life. I am very impressed by this book and him. I am excited, I am not sure, how hard I have to learn to write this level of book. But, I am excited now.

You can enjoy each topic, carefully chosen and its good introduction in this book. He is good at writing motivate you read the topic. Actually, this book is relatively long, like 500 pages. But this writing is very inspiring. You will realize you read faster than you usually do.

I just am excited to read. Many physicists have been contributing to the science. A lot of geniuses were there our history. Each big innovation in science sometimes is not triumphant in short term but beautiful in long term. Sometime I am struggling for science not to have enough achievement though, I can see my work in long term now. Even if I do my best today but end up nothing today, I have tomorrow to pursuit as long as God gives me. I need to be careful to go up each scientific process, but I don’t need to be trapped by them. When I am tired, when I feel failing, I could see long term. Let’s challenge tomorrow again.

So as a scientist, I have 2 things I am pursuing. One is the study of magnetism. The other is development of experimental techniques.

The magnetism: In short, the physicists who are working for magnetism are trying to answer two questions. One is “What is the magnetic structure like?” The other is “Why is the magnetic structure?” There are many kind of magnetic structure though. I will use two of them here. The ferromagnetism which is every spin aligned in the same direction in the material, antferromagnet in which every spin aligned alternately in the material and we have several more kind of magnetic structures. Once we know the structure of magnet, the next thing we would love to know is why they aligned like this? To know this we hit one of spin in the material and make wave. By looking close at this wave we could know how the spins are connected.

Neutron scattering experiment techniques: I am using neutron scattering to study magnetism. Neutron is very useful study of material. Since neutron has no charge and so small. So it can penetrate inside of materials. And also neutron have spin, this spin have interaction with the spin in the material. Because, the spin is the source of magnetism, neutron can be strong tool to study magnet directly. I am also responsible for the development of experimental techniques. The neutron scattering has almost 80 years of history. However, we have still lot of things to do.

I am excited to read this book. Of course, I am a professional scientist. My first responsibility is to find out the origin of magnet by using neutron scattering techniques. But, I realized, I also want to know the history of this science. Like a puzzle game, what part of pieces I am going to fill for the collection of knowledge of science. And then, I would love to pass on the map for the next generation. I am enjoying science now. I really love to do that.

This book was written in 1989 by Bill Emmott who was Tokyo bureau chief of the economist. It is said that this book anticipated the bubble economy happened to Japan in 1989. At that time, He pointed out the problem Japan had that people overlooked. As Japanese, I have complex feeling because he pointed out everything very clearly. Why couldn’t Japanese do this? It may be because the people believed what the people wanted to believe.

And also when I was reading this book, I am not thinking about Japan. It seems there are a lot of similar problems are happening in China. And there is also difference, China also is ageing though, the problem is they are not rich enough to start aging society. To be honest, I can’t believe statistic from China but some says the fertility rate in China is 1.18, and too many man compare to the number of women because of one child policy. People want a boy for first born child because he has to run their family. The aging in China is much faster than that of Japan. I know how hard this aging society because Japan is now facing. I don’t know how China will be able to fix this. Also, there are a lot of promising things in their future, I would love to talk this later.

I believe that Bill Emott is brilliant. Unfortunately and surprisingly, he explained very well Japanese society and economy. Many things he pointed out became true in Japan, such as the problem about women work force, aging society, Japanese as reluctant to leader, and so on. Almost every problem, we are facing now was pointed out this book already. Why couldn’t Japanese fix these?

So then, I am very angry with the older generation of Japanese. A lot of problems he pointed out have never been solved. They just left this problem for our generation because they didn’t take things seriously. But, I want to change. I would never run away from the problem we are facing now. Our generation will stop this.

While honestly speaking, I believe Japanese can manage many problems described in this book. I am an optimist and I think Japanese can fix almost all problems, except this aging society. This is biggest problem in Japan.  There are several options to save, Japan should do everything. Frist step we could do is raising up fertility rate, we need to set up the society women are comfortable for working and having children. The second step is immigrant. Japanese is not taking immigrant officially, but the government started.

However, I am not sure immigrant policy is good for Japan. I don’t think immigrant policy in like Canada and Australia went well. I believe ever the U.S has a lot of problems with immigrant. But, basically the immigrant policy in the U.S. is working well, that is one of reasons the U.S. is strong. They can collect world’s best talents. Talents want to go to the U.S., because they have chances, they have opportunities, they have education, and they might get investment.

I hope that Chinese people are reading this, if they don’t and they are arrogant enough to believe they are doing well. That is relief for Japanese people. We don’t need to be afraid of rising of China. Because we know what would happen and the problem we are working now, we can do business to fix because we will already have already fixed that problem. To avoid, please read this, Chinese people!!

This is the memoirs of Lee Kuan Yew who became prime minister of Singapore in 1959 at 35 years old, Cambridge educated, and third generation of immigrant from China to Singapore. Singapore has been lucky enough to have this man on their country. He is strong, diligent, smart, open minded, reliable leader and a man of vision. I have any doubt Singapore is one of most competitive countries in the world because of him and the people.

He talks about what he had done to Singapore, and then talks about the relation between Singapore and the countries and their leaders. When I read this, I was thinking whether or not I could be prime minister by 35 years old. Most people might say “please wait”, I would say “please wait”, but he did. Of course I am scientist, I don’t need to be a politician but why shouldn’t I learn this attitude how we could contribute our own country. The country which lost this kind of men has to obsolete.

Since I am Japanese, I was interested in the section talking about Japan.  I realized that we young generation of Japanese had to take over everything from the older generation of Japanese whatever they had done good or bad.

For the bad side, I was reluctant to believe what Japanese had done to Asian countries. The cruel and brutal Japanese army had threaten to and beaten Asian people. Lee Kuan Yew says we did not apologize. I disagree with this though, at least this book changed something what I had believed.

On the other hand, for the good side, we could take over the richness the older generation left us. And I am proud of Japanese who came back from full of ashes in our country caused by air raid and nuclear bomb. Japanese have complex feeling for American about this. And also Japan has invested a lot to Asian countries to industrialize the country. Lee Kuan Yew was insightful enough to ask Japanese industrialize, not give soft loan to Singapore. Singapore had succeeded, and then Asians realized the value of training and knowledge, and were more likely to cooperate with Singapore and Japan.

Sometimes I say to Asian people, we should see the future of ours, that’s why we are here. We are here to create. That is the only thing we could do for now instead of complaining each other. At least, we are not complaining American anymore. I personally am responsible for the development of Asian physics. I am happy to serve the Asian physics when they need me. I promise I will do my best.

Unfortunately, I found this book at used book store and it was sold at just $1. Do you believe this? If many Japanese don’t read this book, Japanese shouldn’t have right to lead Asian countries. Japanese, please read. Not only this book, we have to read a lot more. I believe the strength of Japanese and the quality of education to survive this global world as Lee Kuan Yew believes us.

“If you want to be a writer, you must do two things above all others: Read a lot and write a lot. There’s no way around these two things that I’m aware of, no shortcut.”

I have nothing to say more. Fortunately, I love to read and I would love to write. So I just could enjoy it. But, I try to read a lot more. To achieve this, one thing I do is keep the record about what I read. As for writing, I am trying to write this blog, 500 words for a post.

“I suggest a thousand words a day, and because I’m feeling magnanimous, I’ll also suggest that you can take one day a week off, at least to begin with. No more; you’ll lose the urgency and immediacy of you story if you do.”

This suggestion would help a lot of writers. I am writing 1000 words. I am just writing something not story just for me. I think it is important to build the habit of writing at first, and then I will care more about quality of writing.

“Description is what makes the reader a sensory participant in the story. Good description is learned skill, one of the prime reasons why you cannot succeed unless you read a lot and write a lot. It’s not just a question of how-to, you see; it’s also a question of how much to. Reading will help you answer how much, and only reams of writing will help you with the how. You can learn only by doing.”

So then, good description is learned skill. For now, I could just enjoy writing and reading. But, one thing I have to promise is, even though I feel I have nothing to write and I am afraid of making mistake, I will keep write. I will read a lot, write a lot and never stop writing. I don’t know but I think I can because I am enjoying writing.

“The key to good description begins with clear seeing and ends with clear writing.”

I understand this. When I was writing paper, I could not write well if I don’t have clear picture of physics. We have to have clear ideas what to write and then you have to figure out how we can explain it to readers. If we are excited what to say,  we would care how we can make people understand.

“Writing isn’t about making money, getting famous, getting dates, getting laid, or making friends. In the end, it’s about enriching the lives of those who will read your work, and enriching your own life, as well. It’s about getting up, getting well, and getting over. Getting happy, O.K.? Getting happy.”

 Remember. Why are you writing? I am writing for fun and for me.

 Some of this book – perhaps too much – has been about how I learned to do it. Much of it has been about how you can do it better. The rest of it – and perhaps the best of it – is ha permission slip; you can, you should, and if you’re brave enough to start, you will. Writing is magic, as much the water of life as any other creative art. The water is free. So drink. Drink and be filled up.

If writing is hobby, that is good, you don’t spend money on that. I will drink as much as I can!!

On writing by Steven King, since I am not native English speaker, I am worse than bad write he mentioned. Even though, I could learn a lot from this book. I am a scientist. I have to be a good writer enough to describe the truth we found to the other scientist and sometime to general people. I will quote sentences from Steven King, which has encouraged me to write more and better.

 “When you write a story, you’re telling yourself the story’, “When you rewrite, your main job is taking out all the things that are not the story” (This is actually from Gould who is New England humorist or novelist)

When I finish my draft, I usually leave it at least for a day, and then I revise what I write. My first draft usually has a lot of mistakes that I have to avoid. I can find them with fresh eyes when I read next day. And more important, it usually has a lot of unnecessary words and sentences because I am ashamed of writing too little.

 “If you can take it seriously, we can do business. If you can’t or won’t, it’s time for you to close the book and do something else. Wash the car, maybe.”

I am writing. I need to be serious. No, I want to be serious. I want to be better writer because I like it. I do make mistakes and but I will improve. I prefer quantity to quality for now. Only I can do now is keep writing as seriously as I could be.

“Common tools go on top. The commonest of all, the bread of writing, is vocabulary. – – It ain’t how much you’ve got, honey, it’s how you use it.”  

 “Put you vocabulary on the top shelf of your toolbox, and don’t make any conscious effort to improve it. (You will be doing that as you read, of course … but that comes later.) One of the really bad things you can do to dress up the vocabulary, looking for long words because you’re maybe a little bit ashamed of your short ones.

When I was a student, beginner in English, I wanted to improve my vocabulary as many as I could. And, I was trying to use difficult words or phrase to impress someone. Yes, I was immature. We don’t need dress up by using the vocabulary we barely know. We just need simple sentences to express our ideas. For vocabulary, I also believe reading would help to improve a lot, not at once, but surely that would happen sometime.

“The subject is just letting it happen; you should avoid the passive tense.”

Mr. William Strunk said so in “the element of style”, and also Mr. William Zinssern wrote in “On writing”. They said the same thing. Think about it. If you have to read passive tense, sometime you need to read back. To let reader’s eyes move forward.

This is not end of book review, I will keep write this review later.

This book was written in 1975 in Japanese by Kenichi Ohame. The American version of this book was published in 1982. He was a chairman of the McKinsey & Company in Japan. He holds a Ph.D. in nuclear engineering from MIT. Since I am a scientist too, the way of his thinking are very comfortable for me. I happened to find this book in the used book store in Japan. Guess how much? Just one dollar!! While I was excited to buy, I was wondering what Japanese business men are reading now. What are they doing, while leaving this book at used book store???? They must have the Kindle version of this book, mustn’t they? Otherwise, we will fall “Lost 3 decades”

He was called Mr. Strategy. Even the strongest chess in the world Gary Kasparov referred this book. Anyway, this book consists from three parts, which are the art of strategy thinking, building successful strategy, and modern strategy reality. Even though he used Japanese companies as examples, you can easily adapt this idea. Why not trying?

I am writing this for Japanese business men. Japanese companies have to be innovative companies in this 21th century. I can tolerate if you can’t agree with this approach. That is fine. As Mortimer J. Adler or Charles Van Doren (The author of “How to read a book”) said, either way that you agree or you disagree with the book, you need to understand what exactly the author claims. But, if you don’t read this, you should not be a manager at top level company. Please don’t be.

If you read this 20-25 years old: You are excellent. This book is a little bit earlier for you, but you can try to apply this idea in you dearly life. When you start your work seriously, let’s apply this idea.

25- 30 years old: You are very good. You would be able to a manager in top-leveled company somewhere in the world. Since you are still young, you can watch who will win, who lose by looking up your bosses. You can use this idea to build your hypotheses, and test again and again. You can still have time to fail. And then, you have to be careful enough not to waste your time. You have to be most knowledgeable person about what you do in your company until you become 30. Know yourself, invest efficiently, and win.

31 years old: You are almost late, but there is still hope. You might just need to only adjust what you have done.

32 years old: I want to say you are late but you can do some. But, I want to point this out.  Dr. Ohmae wrote this book when he was 32 years old, you are reading now. Do you understand what I mean?

33-34 years old: I don’t know what to say.

If you read this book when you are older than 35 years old, you will never be a manager at top-level company.

This book was written 40 years ago. Just an idea in 20^th century, you are surviving 21th century, you need to acquire these kind of skills until you turn 30, and otherwise you can’t be an effective executive because the others can. Since I am leaving Japan, I can give you this book and explain it to you if you want. Please let me know.