Jim Grisanzio

There are billions of potential customers living at the bottom of the economic pyramid. Four to five billion of them, actually. And that market in aggregate is almost as valuable economically as the developed world. But building products and services to engage the billions at the bottom requires a vastly different engineering model than serving rich customers in the posh developed world. This is all outlined in The Importance of Frugal Engineering (pdf).  It’s a good read.

I’m not sold on the term frugal engineering, but the concept seems to make a lot of sense. Basically, you don’t build products for the bottom of the pyramid by redesigning existing products used at the top in an effort to reduce costs so the rest of of the world can buy your stuff. You don’t even use the old ideas, techniques, teams, and processes, ether. Instead, you start over. Design products from the ground up based on the unique needs of those who live in, say, China or India or Indonesia other developing nations. Updating existing and successful American or European products won’t cut it. That stuff costs too much (even when stripped down), and the features are all wrong. So, tear up the plans, get in a plane, and go to the market. You have to live there to understand what’s needed. Then build.

Even better, though, is that there is no reason why many of the concepts used to build frugal products for the developing world can’t also be used to build innovative products for segments of the developed world. Frugal engineering can be awfully disruptive to some big fat companies not paying attention. And besides, there are a lot of people in the developed world who need these products.

When men father children and then split their brains don’t change one bit. They are also pretty despicable human beings but that’s obvious. However, when they stick around and help raise the kids, fathers go through a period of neurognesis. Basically, they grow new brain cells and make new neurological connections specifically designed to connect to the baby. Perhaps that’s the chemical basis for the father-child bond? See The Brains of Our Fathers: Does Parenting Rewire Dads? in Scientific American. The catch to this biological change, though, is physical contact. You have to be immersed in the daily task of raising the kid. Every active father knows this deep inside. Every father knows they change — sometimes radically — when going through this, but I suppose now there is some research documenting the process. But the larger issue is even more powerful: this is more evidence that the brain keeps changing throughout life as needs arise, so if you change you can change your brain — and presumably many of the things your brain manages as well. Dive in. Change is good.

If you’ve never been to Japan you may be surprised at how often foreigners are called foreigners. Pretty much all the time. I came here from San Francisco and this whole “foreigners” bit was jarring for a while. Why would anyone care? Also, I just hadn’t heard the phrase in the U.S. among the people with who I mixed. Over time, though, I came to not particularly care myself. There are more important things going on, and the meaning of the term in context here in Japan is not at all what it implies to the western ear. Anyway, here is a casual conversation of foreigners (gaijin or gaikokujin) from Japan Podcast (notes and audio).

Well this should shock no one — The poor give more than the rich. Even though the rich obviously have much more give, as a percentage of their wealth and income, they don’t. The reason seems clear: the poor lack resources and, thus, can empathize with those who also lack resources. The rich don’t. Now, these statements can be gross generalizations going both ways, of course, but the statistics documenting those who give show a trend that has been well-known for a long time. However, new research points to a more interesting bit: it’s not the people who are inherently greedy or generous, it’s the circumstances in which people find themselves that changes their behavior. Again, it gets back to whether you live your poverty or whether you just see a little poverty on TV every now and then. So, convince rich people they are poor and they get more generous. Convince poor people they are rich and they get more greedy. I guess the rich and poor aren’t that far apart after all, eh? Except for the cash, of course.

I just tripped over Japan Podcast: Culture and Daily Life in Japan by two of my very good friends, Terri and Karamoon (both of whom are active community organizers at Tokyo Hackerspace and both of whom I met at various BarCamp conferences). Japan Podcast is a curious look at daily life in Japan for non-Japanese. If you are a westerner living in Japan or if you live outside and want a peek in then give a listen. Food. Nature. Culture. Community. Language. Everything. Everything that most people miss, that is. For westerners, Japan can be a fascinating but difficult place to grasp, and many times things aren’t quite as they seem. Find out why.

Is there such a thing as outgrowing growth? Economically speaking, of course. In other words, do countries (or companies or anything else, really) have to grow to be healthy?

The first I heard the term “outgrowing growth” was in this New York Times article: Japan and the Ancient Art of Shrugging, where Norihiro Kato argues Japan is heading into a new period of downsizing due to a declining population, a surging China, an emerging maturity, and a lack of drive to be #1. The older generations worked to excel economically and reach out globally, whereas younger people are not. The kids are frugal. They are uncertain about the future and not interested in global travel and international employment. Instead, they are more focused on the environment, staying home, living their own lives, and helping people less fortunate then they are. They recognize their limits.

I know many obvious exceptions to Professor Kato’s outgrowing growth bit, but the overall trend is obvious to see. So, I generally agree with the article, and I can see many good and bad points to the direction Japan is taking. For example, where Kato-san terms it maturity, others could just as easily call it apathy and I think both are correct (contradictions in Japan are normal). However, I can’t help but wonder how attitudes would change if Japan were an independent country. Kato-san does not address this dynamic at all, and I think the omission is gigantic. To explore Japan’s fascinating culture you have to live here (for a long time). But to understand Japan’s future — especially its global economic future — you have to dig deeply into the history and current relationship between Japan and the United States. An independent Japan may think quite differently about things than the current Japan.

Went to see some young taiko (太鼓) drummers tonight …

Here are 29 images from the Tokyo Linux User Group nomikai at the Mitsukoshi Rooftop Beer Garden last night. This was my first “beer garden” in Tokyo. About 20 people came by for TLUG, but there were probably over a thousand people up there on the roof for various events. Good food. Good beer. Really nice time.

I watched Red Cliff over the weekend. It’s long. It takes a weekend. Really excellent movie, though, with many basic and timeless lessons on strategy: thinking, leading, planning, fighting, innovating, and disrupting. The film also shows quite elegantly how power and arrogance blinds leaders and results in piles of people needlessly getting killed. And although the battles took place in China 1800 years ago every lesson applies perfectly to modern day. Some things never change. Must watch again.

Here are some images from the Tokyo Linux User Group meeting on Saturday. Many more images from previous meetings over the years here as well.

Last night I posted the schedule for TLUG’s August 14, 2010 technical meeting. Zev Blut will talk about Emacs and Patrick McKenzie will present search engine optimization. We’ll do regular introductions, news, and the auction as well. As always, anyone involved in open source community development is welcome. Also, we’ll have a short discussion about new meeting space requirements for the group. If you participate in the Linux or FOSS community in Tokyo, let us know if you have access to meeting space at your organization and are interesting in donating that space on a monthly basis for technical meetings.

I took a little airboat ride last week in Florida. I love feeling lost in the swamp with alligators lurking all over the place. I only took a few shots because it was raining and I didn’t want to ruin my new Canon G11. Really nice little camera. Right after I took these two images, though, we were totally drenched in a 20 minute pile of rain. It felt great plowing through all that water at top speed. We stopped at certain points and just drifted soaking wet in the wind as well. It was remarkably peaceful between showers. But as I looked around I couldn’t help but wonder how long you’d last if you took a little swim. How tempting. I was told that survival would certainly be possible but that “there was also a really good chance the gators would come up and take you down and eat you.” Ok. But just imagine how you’d feel if you survived?

Incidentally, I had this same impression back in San Francisco a few years ago. I mean, really, it’s not that long of a swim, right? Feeling lucky?