“Fly high” 高く飛べ

“Codex” Toshiro Yamaguchi

April 23, 2020

As the anxiety caused by the coronavirus crisis grows day by day, we continue to collect information endlessly to alleviate that anxiety.

However, even if we have only information and knowledge, if we cannot do it, we do not really "know" it.

K was one of my elementary and junior high school classmates in Japan. Not only was he outstandingly good at painting, he was also full of originality.

However, he did not go on the path of art and took over the family business of grape making.

My hometown has long been famous for white peaches and grapes. With K's ingenuity and creativity, the grapes have been made into a brand product that Japan can be proud of in the world. His grape making was often featured on newspapers and television.

Value depends on its rarity.

Naturally, it will be cheaper if there are a lot of similar products on the market.

Nowadays, cost performance has become the first virtue.

For example, "convenience store lunch-box lunch" satisfies the majority with the average maximum common divisor taste.

Moreover, because it is cheap, the cost performance is high. Because it can be mass-produced. The important thing here is how cheap a trader can make a dish with a taste that will satisfy the majority.

On the other hand, cooking for a small number of people at home takes time and costs more.

However, the taste of each dish is definitely different, and the improvement of that taste leads to the ingenuity of the next dish.

One of these bespoke strengths is the potential to create "things that a particular person is completely satisfied with."

Its taste has the potential to attract certain people from all over the world.

Naturally, the cost will be high because it cannot be done in large quantities.

However, it is not that it is delicious because it is expensive, but it is expensive because it is delicious.

The same is true for furniture.

According to a friend of mine who makes custom-made handmade furniture, "Roughly speaking, in the time when one person can only make one chair, 10 people can do 100 pieces by the division of labor according to the manual." The cost is also one tenth.

Even if they know that custom-made products are good, the common people say, "I can't buy expensive products because of the pressure on my life."

Certainly that is the reality at the global level.

However, in order to reduce the cost of products, labor wages will be reduced proportionally, or foreign workers will be hired at lower wages.

As a result, the common people become increasingly poor and have no choice but to buy cheaper products.

Worst of all, cheap products lead to a disposable culture, leading to environmental destruction due to wasted resources.

Material costs rise due to resource depletion. Nevertheless, the quality of commodities and labor wages will decline in order to keep commodity prices down.

Thus a spiral of poverty arises.

The joy of making creates originality, which leads to the rarity value of the product.

With that in mind, if we don't want a higher level, humanity will eventually die in the near future.

Isn't it possible to say that creativity enables coexistence with the natural environment?

コロナウイルス危機が招く不安が日に日に大きくなるにつれ、私たちはその不安を解消するために情報の収集を際限なく続ける。

しかし、私達に情報や知識ばかりあっても、実行出来なければ本当に「知っている」ことにならない。

私の日本での小中学校同級生にK君がいた。彼は抜群に絵が上手だっただけでなく、独創性にあふれていた。

しかし彼はアートの道に進まず、家業のブドウ作りを継いだ。

私の故郷は昔から白桃とブドウで有名だ。そのブドウを、K君の持ち前の工夫と創造性で日本が世界に誇れるブランド品に作り上げた。しょっちゅう彼のブドウ作りは新聞テレビで取り上げられた。

価値はその希少性によって決まる。

同じような商品が大量に市場にあると当然安くなる。

昨今はコストパフォーマンスが第一の美徳のようになっている。