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In terms of raw impact on life, probably the Japanese language. In terms of "clearly weaponizable in one's business/career", it's "measurement and leverage" fr
by patio11 11y ago
In terms of raw impact on life, probably the Japanese language.
In terms of "clearly weaponizable in one's business/career", it's "measurement and leverage" from PG's wealth essay. http://paulgraham.com/wealth.html http://paulgraham.com/wealth.html
In terms of "things which I wish I had known when I was much younger", I'll pick "In most things you will become the average of your five closest friends, so choose your peer group carefully." and "Dating is a sales and marketing exercise, with all that that implies." (Granted, telling myself that when I knew nothing about sales or marketing probably wouldn't have helped that much.)
- _kyran 11y agoCan you elaborate on how Japanese has benefited you? I'm heading over there for a few weeks next year and am considering learning Hiragana/Katakana before I go.
- patio11 11y agoSubsequent to learning the language I immigrated to Japan, worked in a Japanese company for a few years (not recommended), married my wife (highly recommended, but sorry, she's taken), and in general built a happy little life here for myself which would not have happened absent learning the language. If you have a little bandwidth to study Japanese prior to coming you'll get the highest bang for your buck from drilling self-introductions and basic conversations ("$ITEM kudasai.", "Yoroshiku onegaishimasu", "$LOCATION doko desu ka?") until you're blue in the face. Knowing just hiragana and katakana is of limited utility for navigation, since the places where it suffices will likely be English-friendly. (They're great to learn for mind expansion, just tough to operationalize as a tourist.)
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