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Nice summary. I've often thought about the Japanese interest in "continual improvement" as a reason for their success in industries such as car and electronics
by xiaoma 18y ago
Nice summary. I've often thought about the Japanese interest in "continual improvement" as a reason for their success in industries such as car and electronics manufacturing. The less structured American approach doesn't do so well there, but does a great job in fast changing fields like software and biotech.
>The second character (善) is Zen (quite literally)
Just a quick word of warning- 善 is pronounced "zen" or "shàn" in Chinese, but it's not the zen you hear about.
Zen, as in Zen (or chán) Buddhism, meditation or any other "zen" in common English usage is 禪 (simplified as 禅 after WWII).
- donw 18y agoI totally forgot about 禅! I usually associate 善 with those sorts of emotions, because of words like 積善 (the accumulation of good deeds) and 善導 (guidance in the direction of virtue). Goes to show where any of my religious feelings might lie. grin
- indiejade 18y agoDeming's bio is really interesting. To me it seems that Japan is already something like light years ahead of the US because it embraced this most logical long-term methodology for societies that rely upon production's means of consumption. Deming's Wikipedia bio; there's a lot missing, but it should be improved over time: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/W._Edwards_Deming http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/W._Edwards_Deming