Yesterday, I was tidying up my Japanese travel notes and took note of the following two instances of great Proof of Work:
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One set of Wakasa-nuri-bashi chopsticks from Fukui prefecture takes one whole year to produce as it involves as many as twenty stages in a painstaking process powered by highly skilled human labour.
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Another great example of PoW. The Fukui Agricultural Experiment Station takes about 14 or 15 years just to create one variant of Koshihikari rice, arguably Japan’s best-known rice.
Learning this humbled me. I have always admired the Japanese for their strong work ethics, but still…spending one year on a single pair of chopsticks? spending 14-15 years to develop a novel rice variant? Note that hands probably will change along the way as people retire or leave their position, so they will hand over the baton to newly minted employees who have to take over the research and development process.
What’s your most prominent manifestation of Proof of Work? The one where you invest your blood, sweat and tears consistently for years on end?
Your college degree doesn’t quite count ah. Because society has conditioned us that a degree is integral to success in the workplace.
Parenting doesn’t quite count either hor. Because it is a one-way ticket once you sign up for it. I mean, technically, you can leave your family and shirk your responsibilities. But the thing is, you can’t quit parenting, so you are compelled to go all in.
I look forward to your responses!