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oh I get what you mean. the first few years, I would protest and offer to help my mother-in-law do some household chores, but these days, I just take a backseat and let her spoil me. haha.
the Japanese omotenashi is real. I never cease to be amazed by how the service staff can anticipate my needs before I even come to that conclusion myself. Kiwi friendliness + Japanese meticulousness is a potent combination. I love how laidback and unassuming you Kiwis are.
Are you upskillinh yourself by dabbling with AI agents now? If so, is the learning curve steep?
Thank you for swapping life stories. Brings some cheer to the daily grind
People are laid back here for sure, but sometimes a bit too lack and not that motivated! Ask any American who has worked here, Kiwis are cool, but sometimes stuck in second gear.
AI, oh yeah, I am leaning into that heavily. My next business is going to be leveraging AI to do what I do, and be as productive as a team of 10 people, but without having to hire anyone.
Right now I spend the first 1.5 hours of my day learning AI, at the moment I'm learning Hermes. It's steep, but the gains are big I think. Cos I'm self employed I benefit from being more productive so am diving deep.
Glad you're enjoying the chat. Are you a teacher still?
I think I saw you mention once sometime that you were a teacher.
yes still a teacher. thanks for noticing haha.
I teach elementary English and Science.
being a teacher is fine, especially when my son is in the same school as me, but given the plethora of things on my plate, I find it hard to immerse myself in deep work. it’s nice that you can carve out 1.5 hours every day to live your authentic life
the "sensei" in the nym was a clue too.
yeah the deep work is harder than i think to achieve.
i work from home so there are distractions.
the price i pay for my first 1.5 hours a day is getting up at 5am!
good luck with everything and keep posting, i'm always reading.
My best life is my least authentic
I used to work in travel, profit margins are too slim
edit: people in Japan are not having kids either, in fact the population is shrinking
I feel like populations all over the world are shrinking. probably the African countries still meet the fertility replacement rate of 2.1
you are right about the profit margins, it was a great lifestyle but I never made lots of money. but i travelled all over my own country, and the world, with that job. all my friends with office jobs were very jealous.
you could make ok money, not finance bro money, but in the 90s and early 2000s, things were way more affordable. all the people i knew who worked as guides and travel companies bought houses, like everyone else. now, that's out of the question.
i love working in travel, so moved into IT for travel companies. better $$, way less seasonal and less prone to shocks.
how have your extensive travel experiences shaped you to be different from your countrymen? or the travel industry is important but doesn’t necessarily shape your identity?
One thing that is common in NZ is for young people to travel a lot. We have a saying here "OE", which means Overseas Experience. People will say "he's on his OE". All my friends have lived in many different countries, and then most return to NZ.
I know you live in SIngapore, but I'm not assuming you're Singaporean, but if you are you are probably similar in the fact that you don't come from a global power and your population is small, so you have to learn about the world.
We all grow up, and continue living, with the knowledge that NZ is small and there is a big wide world out there, very different from home and we want to experience it.
I grew up in a mid sized (very dull) city in NZ, and at 21 I went to the US for a year, then at 23 I was in Japan. Very formative experiences, but not actually that uncommon for Kiwis.
I just wanted to work in travel because I thought banks and insurance companies looked like really boring places to work. And we come from a tourism country, so there's a lot work around. When I started you could earn OK money, enough to survive and even buy a house, so we didn't feel like we were losing anything.
And the work experiences were unbelievable, helicopter trips into the NZ backcountry, hiking on glaciers, underworld rafting and caving. But the best thing was the people we met, I have visited many people I've guided over the years at their home in the US, Japan and Australia. And made lots of great friends from the people I worked with.
Good work stories and good friends.
oh I’m Singaporean.
can certainly relate to a lot of what you’re saying. Many Singaporeans love to travel and actively seek to indulge in their wanderlust. having said that, we are quite risk-averse as a people. you mentioned about exorbitant housing prices in New Zealand. the same thing happens here, hence we are conditioned to get stellar grades, graduate with multiple internships and degrees, make fuck you money in finance and tech, find someone to marry and buy a flat together. it’s all frightfully formulaic. But I don’t judge other people. Aside from my stint in Japan, I follow largely this prescribed route to “success” haha.
I feel that being a parent has prevented me from travelling much. I used to resent fatherhood so much because I thought it had stripped me of my freedom and identity. But on the other hand, I know that I’m blessed to have my kids come into my life. These days, I just try to gain unique experiences in my home country.
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i didn't know singapore was on the jet programme actually.
how do you think AI will change the "success path" for people in singapore?
and what about bitcoin in singapore, how do most people view it?
i remember a few years ago seeing some interesting statements from singapore govt officials about adoption of digital assets so i thought it may be advanced there. but then i also it's a very strict state, so i don't know how freedom money fits into that.
i've been thinking a lot about children lately, because both my parents died in the last 2 years and i saw how much it meant to them to have us around during their last days.
but we won't have that, so it's a trade off. most the travel i did was before meeting my wife, but since then we've also travelled a bit.
i'm the same, i try to have meaningful experiences with the people around me as much as possible.
hai, gambarimashou!
I’m sorry to hear about your loss.
my mum passed on more than 10 years ago, and I still feel a void.
We used to have Bitcoin ATM machines - maybe pre-Covid - but the government has since taken a tough stance on Bitcoin (and by default other cryptocurrencies). It is unfortunate that FTX collapsed, and along with it, the investments pumped in by Temasek Holdings (a governmental organisation that invests our money) vaporized. So, government officials issue warnings about being scammed via cryptocurrencies. They lump Bitcoin with shitcoins, so I don’t think Singaporeans will get to know this freedom money since we are conditioned by such propaganda haha
Do you have nieces and nephews? younger cousins?
This will be a problem for many people in Japan and S Korea and Taiwan
We were not lucky enough to have kids unfortunately. We still keep up ties with my wife's family by going back to Japan every year, she goes twice. I like very much having a home to visit in another country. I get very spoiled when I go there.
Yes, I pivoted away from the Japanese market, but not really because of the decline in that market but because of opportunities in other markets. The Japan lessons continued here too. After working to the high standards required by Japanese travellers (accommodation, dining, vehicles, service, inclusions) I noticed thought that other markets (notably the US and UK) would like the same level of service so launched a new company.
I described it as "Toyota efficiency in the backend with Kiwi friendliness on the front end", and it was a hit. Turns out American travellers like good service too!
But now I work more in IT for travel companies, over the years I've picked up a lot of tricks about websites and booking systems, so that's what I do now.
I still love the travel industry and guiding in the outdoors, but haven't guided a trip myself for 5 years.
Thank you for your stories here on SNZ!