One day I went to Nagano to get a haircut I entered the shop and there were only 2 employees, one with a customer, one at the counter.
I took a seat and tried to explain to the lady how I wanted my hair cut, when a 3rd employee appeared from the back office.
So I was sitting there getting my hair cut, chatting along when I realized that all over sudden there were 6 employees in the room for us two customers. I had 5 different people washing, cutting, combing, my hair and it was not due to my conversational skills. Back then, my Japanese sounded like a four years old girl babbling.
In order to make some conversation, I asked if they know any bars, but they didn’t just answer that question. They drew me a map of the city, with all important sights, and 5 different bars and all in Kanji, which I could not read.

I did hear a few times what a pity it was, that I was not single, but they found your picture very adorable (don’t worry, I only showed pictures where you were fully cloth and not spitting or pissing at me)

The haircut was pretty good, and while I was getting to the counter, one asked me what I will do in Nagano, I said: “I want to go to a coffee shop.” So they started debating to which coffee shop I should go. Thats when the owner, an 50+ lady came out and said something along the lines: “Don’t send him there, send him to this cafe. Oh, he will never find that, draw him a map.”
That is when I got my second map drawn because it didn’t fit on the first one.

That’s what I call service.

The haircut was 4100 Yen and I gave the lady 5100 Yen. She was looking at me and chatting when she handed me 3000 Yen back as change. The idiot I am I pointed her mistake out and only took 1000 Yen back.

Four employees escorted me to the door, two escorted me to the street and one decided that it was irresponsible to let me go alone to the café, so she walked with me for 20 minutes to the coffee shop, but not before she brought me to the local Diesel shop (Diesel was a brand for designer jeans) because she saw me wearing a pair and I said I like Diesel.

I wrote that story down the day it happened, so it is 99% true. The 1% fiction is, my Japanese didn’t sound like a 4 years old babbling, more like a 3 years old, but I am not going to admit to that.

Being blond in Japan is pretty good for ones ego and well, I didn’t look that bad as well.

Well I suppose you reading this means, it is ca. 2030 by now and you have heard everything about 2001. When a few guys with Arab background decided to use 4 planes and kill Americans. From that day on the interest of the Western countries was on the Arab culture. Well the war in Afghanistan and Iraq just held that interest alive a little longer.

On a side note, is the former President of the US, Georg W. Bush Jr. by now officially the worst President of the USA ever? I guess unless some crazy chick named Sarah Palin didn’t win any elections, Georg W. must be officially the worst president ever.

Back to the topic, Arab cultures, as you might know I have friends in Arab nations. Well one very smart and close friend of mine asked me a question. I try to paraphrase: “Why are Arab nations not as economically successful as Western (US and EU)?”

I have no expertise in this topic, meaning it’s the perfect question for me to answer.

In order to make it work I will take the shotgun approach, this means I will give a lot of different explanations in the hope that one will get it right.

Before I answer anything, I try to put the whole Arab vs West into context. My friend lived in Morocco at that time. North African Arabs see themselves as superior to those savages in the south of the Sahara. As they are so close to the EU they think of themselves as being half European half African (especially the upper class). And this is where the conflict I am talking about occurs. As they see themselves as superior to other Africans, they see Europeans superior to their own nation. Well they don’t like that. This is where the question originated, now I will try to answer it:

What have the rich countries like US, western/northern EU in common? Celtic, Saxon, Germanic (I think they are all the same) ancestors, a centuries old culture that was based on farming, very similar climate. All are greatly influenced by Cristian ideology.

What have Arab nations in common? Ancestors are very diverse. Their culture is based more on herding and trading than on farming (compared to the EU). They are all rather close to the Equator, the climate is not as homogeneous as in the EU. All countries are influenced by Muslim ideology.

Ancestors

What has the Celtic, Saxon, Germanic ancestry to do with economic success? Nothing. I think they were just at the right place to the right time. I do not think that their genes provide any benefit, except for picking up chicks in Japan, those genes are very beneficial for that. But I guess you already know that…

Farming vs Herding cultures

Cultures are either based on farming, or herding / trading. I believe that is crucial for understanding the economical success. One of the most important factors for establishing a prospering economy is that one can trust that he/she will not be robbed. This security ensures that if I work hard today, earn a lot tomorrow, in 5 years I will still be able to benefit from my hard labor in the past, therefor I better work extra hard today.

It is very hard to steal from farmers compared to steal from herders / merchants. If you want to steal from a farmer when he is not watching, you basically have to harvest his field in the night. This is a lot of work and logistically almost impossible. If you want to steal from a herder, you basically have to kill one guy watching the cattle and you end up with all his animals. Easy to do.

Next factor, all kind of crimes are most likely to be committed by a person known to the victim. This is true for crimes today, as it was true 100ds of years ago. In farming cultures, when someone stole from you it was 99% someone living close to you, 90% someone you knew. So it was an easy task to identify the thieve, get your stuff back + punish him/her.

In herding cultures many people had no fixed location. People were constantly on the move. The thieve could have come from far, and by the time the crime was discovered might have moved on.

Malcolm Gladwell describes this effect in his book “Outliers”.

Why did people in Harlan Kentucky kill each other in blood feuds but not in other regions of the USA?

Because their original settlers all came from the Badlands, an area in the UK and Ireland were people were predominantly herders.

As a herder you are only as good as your reputation. If you are known to kill anyone at sight and hunt down everyone who does you harm, you are less likely to be stolen from. If you are known to be a softy, well you just could have handed out your cattle to the first guy you met.

This mentality of honor and revenge is very strong in people from those regions in the US even today.

Here are two examples:

• USA – Southern court 20th century: A man was repeatedly insulted to which he responded with shooting one and wounding 2 others. The jury decided that the shooter should be set free, because “He wouldn’t have been much of a man, if he wouldn’t shot them fellas”.
• Students in the University of Michigan were insulted by being called “asshole”.
  • Men from the south of the US had a highly elevated testosterone and cortisol level, tighter hand grips and responded much more aggressive.
  • Men from the north of the US did not have any measurable response to the insult.

Far vs near to the equator

Cultures developing far in the northern or far in the southern hemisphere had to battle with the seasons, year after year. A cold and snowy winter meant that you will die a certain death, unless you prepare the whole year. There was a short window of time in the spring when all the seeds had to be planted and a very short window of time in the autumn  when they had to be harvested. If you missed it just for a few days your harvest might not have been enough to survive the winter.
The closer one gets to the equator the less important are the seasons. It does not make such a big difference if you harvest today or maybe even next week, you will still make it trough the winter.

Religion

That one is dangerous to talk about, but I do believe it is crucial for understanding economical success.
First off, the Catholic doctrine is very harmful to innovation = economical success. As an example just remember the medieval ages (I call them “mid evil ages). Catholic doctrine says that you as a normal person (“not priest”) can not connect to god, so he does not care how hard you work, he only cares if we (priests) like you.
When the Protestant ideology emerged the economy flourished. The Protestant’s fundamental believe is, “if you work hard you can make god like you”. Also the protestants were pretty liberal. They did not feel like beheading and burning everyone who mentioned that the world is round. They were open to innovation and encouraged hard work, the perfect mix to become rich on a national level.

Here is where it becomes dangerous, because I don’t know anything about the Islam doctrine. I think they encourage hard work and I think they are open to innovation, but I never read anything about it. What I do know is, that the Koran originated from the life of an allegedly successful merchant in an rather dry part of our planet. So I would not be all to surprised to learn that the Koran supports the whole “honor killing” thing (I don’t know if the concept of Jihad can be used in this context).

Also in Muslim countries the religion is displayed very visibly. As this alone is certainly not a negative factor, it has a subconscious effect. Living in a culture where one is less likely to be judged by others, makes it much more likely to innovate. Innovation is 99% mistakes and 1% success. Great innovations are almost always very controversial. In a culture where you are constantly reminded that all actions will be judged by a hundreds of years old moral codex, you might think twice before doing anything that could be controversial.

The next one is a far stretch, I am really just guessing on that one. You remember how the protestants and the Catholics were killing each other. It was a pretty bad time for Europa. After some time they decided that enough is enough, lets kill each other for other reasons. The Europeans discovered that they could compare each other for who is the best nation. (Nationalism the stuff that lead to WWI and WWII) This was actually a pretty good thing, because in order to be the best citizen of your nation, you don’t go to church 4 times a week, you rather serve your country by working hard and getting rich.
The Islam is also divided, the two main groups are the Shiites and the Sunnites and they don’t like each other. When they compare each other they check who prays more often, donates more to the church, all things which are nice, but don’t support the economy.
This is the point where I have the least amount of background knowledge so don’t take it too seriously.

For Muslim countries the fact that 50% of the available workforce are kept from the job market might be harmful to the overall economic growth. It is the perfect scenario for most women in Arab cultures to be a 100% housewife. This notion keeps women especially the middle and upper class away from the job market. So 50% of all inhabitants who have the education and the skills to improve the country are encouraged to stay at home.

Another factor might be the great obligations one has to his extended family. A successful person will feel obliged to help all those husbands of daughters of sisters of his mother who just went bankrupt. This behavior is essential for survival in very harsh environments like the desert, but in a modern society it is less beneficial. People who use their resources efficient are constantly transferring resources to members of their extended family who will loos the money. This is certainly nice for the less fortunate, but the country as a whole will loose rather than gain.

Time orientation

Arab and Mediterranean cultures have a much slower pace of time than US, western/northern EU countries have. This means that people walk slower, it takes longer in the post office to send a package and public clocks are less accurate. This all has been found by a study called the pace of life. It might be the increasing heat in countries closer to the equator, it might be the culture that developed under those circumstances. In the end the higher a nation’s “pace of life”, the more economically successful this nation is. The highest pace of life is in Switzerland and Japan.

People can be mainly Past oriented, meaning they solve life’s problems with the solutions that worked before. People also can be mainly Present oriented, meaning they try to solve life’s problems by following their inspiration. Present oriented people given a puzzle will start to solve the puzzle they moment they lay eyes on it and solve it with an 60% success rate. The last group are Future oriented people, they solve problems by imagining the benefits vs the disadvantages. When those people are given a puzzle they look at it, stop and try to think of an solution, their success rate is 90%.

Kids that are future oriented get higher grades, will earn higher wages and live 2 years longer than past or present oriented kids. Future oriented people work harder than past or present oriented people. They do so in order to get a bigger reward in the future (big car +house + boat) than rather a small reward (sleeping in) right now.

Summary

If you have ever visited an Arab country the time difference will strike you. I am not talking about the time zone, I talk about the fact that you will wait 10 minutes longer before the waiter is ready to serve you. By no means are the streets in Rabat, Cairo or other Arab cities anything but hectic. When crossing a street you better run, or you just might not make it. The time difference I am talking about is, the contractor will not arrive between 3pm and 3:30pm, he will arrive this week. There is a different pace of life, which brings many advantages, but economically it is rather hindering. People are more focused on what is happening now and sharing stories about the good old times, rather than investing in an pension fund and planing on how to pay off their dept to the extended family members who they borrowed from.
This cultural trait may root in the fact that Arab nations are all rather near to the equator.

The Koran is a perfect guideline to live after, if you are an inhabitant of an Arab nation a few hundred years ago. For example, the tradition of Ramadan (not to eat during day-time) does make a lot of sense because originally Ramadan was always celebrated during the hottest period of the year. So you basically were hiding inside the house all day long and reducing your energy intake as much as possible. (Similar to the christian 40 days fasting in the spring. It had the effect to stretch the last food resources until the cold winter passed)
The Koran is more likely to convey ideology of herding cultures than farming cultures, due to the environment in which it developed.
Christianity also originated from the same region, but transformed completely once it spread through Europa and especially after the Protestant-Catholic conflicts.

The fact that 50% of the workforce (all women) are encouraged not to participate, certainly is disadvantageous to the overall national wealth.

Here you have it, my guesses why Arab nations are not as economically advanced as Western nation (EU + US). I hope you learned nothing I didn’t tell you before.
Enjoy the rest of your day, playing Starcraft 4, or Counterstrike 7 or whatever games are fun right now.

PS: thanks for peeing on my leg today. From your facial expression I could tell you felt much better afterwards.
The privilege to pee on your old man is not one you will have for a long time, I hope you enjoyed it while it lasted.

The opposite is true for the US. Where a CEO earns 600 times more than the average worker in the company.
The best gets much more than the average, in every field you may choose.

This incentive of money, and recognition of all your peers is what drives the American to achieve more than he/she ought to believe he/she was capable of.
It fuels the economy, the innovation.

In African societies, working harder then the rest may be rewarded with an extra cow, but whoever has earned his extra cow, has to share every last bit of it with family, friends and everyone they know.
In this culture there is no incentive to work harder, because you don’t get more.

So how can it be that Japan missing this seemingly essential ingredient for wealth ended up being so wealthy?

My theory is, that Japanese work so hard, because they are guilty.

Japanese are raised feeling guilty of being too loud, having the wrong cloths, playing the wrong games… Their biggest fear is that others in their group may think bad of them.
Japanese owe it to everyone in the country to work as hard as they can. As their parents worked hard for them to enjoy a decent life, they owe it to them to work as hard. They owe it to their children, they owe it to everyone who is, was, may ever be alive.

That is a lot of money. But it is a little price compared to the thousands of hours of fun and productivity I got out of those apps.

I asked myself; Why am I willing to spend money on apps, but not on Software?

Is it because Apps are inherently better?
No they are not.

Is it because it is harder to steal software for the iPhone?
No that would more be a challenge for me than a barrier.

Is it because apps are ridiculously cheap, but deliver extremely much value?
Yup, that is it (for me at least).

If I buy an iPhone game for less than 1$ and this game entertains me for 10 hours, I consider that an amazing deal.
0.1 $/h = 0.1 $ for 1 hour of fun

If I would buy a beer in a bar, I would have entertainment and fun for 20 min for 4 times the price.
12 $/h = 12 $ for 3 beers to have 1 hour of fun

If I was to rent a movie, I would have 2 hours of entertainment for 2 times the price
1 $/h = 1 $ for 1 hour of fun watching a movie

I discovered I am not willing to spend more than 0.5 $ for one hour of fun.

For productivity that rate is somewhere around 2$ for 1 hour of enchanted productivity.

For education my rate is about 0.01 $ of an hour of education.

I guess I am not alone with my preferences. Fun time got extremely cheap and education is free if you have an internet connection. Productivity is what translates into increased income, so I am willing to spend much more on that. It is an investment.

If I was to buy a game for a PC it would be 60$ for 10 to 15 hours of fun, ridiculously expensive.

So it is very clear to me why Software companies and the Entertainment industry has a piracy problem: They are priced to high.

If they would lower their price to a 1/10 they could sell 20 times more software, TV-shows, music and so on.

To put it into Economical terms: The price elasticity of software overall is extremely elastic: Lower the price, sell much more. Increase the price, see your revenues plummet.

How I got there:

1. Every day I make push-ups until my arms shake.
2. I stop eating when I am not hungry anymore + don’t eat unless I am hungry.

Eat what you like, but never eat until you are full, eat only until you are not hungry anymore.

WOHA!  What a secret I just revealed.

There is exactly one way to loos weight;

Put less calories inside your body than you use.

The problem was, my Okaasan just served me too much food every day. And me, being polite, ate everything that came to the table.

Well, in Japanese culture you always cook for 1 person more. It is very embarrassing for a host if the guests have empty plates.

An empty plate means: I ate all you gave me, but I am still hungry.

In this spirit my Okaasan kept cooking more and more and I forced myself to eat it all, it escalated…

Oh, one thing about diets; they don’t work.

If you stop eating the food you like, you will suffer from malnutrition and just jump back to your old weight, the moment you stop your diet.

The thing about sport.

Have you ever wondered why the people who get really old, never did sports? And why an former athlete above 90 is virtually unheard of?

Because of the oxygen.

Jup, it turns out, people who do sports use their bodies, and that makes them age faster.

Those 15 kilometer runs every morning don’t make you younger. They improve your current situation, but you will have to pay it with a shorter life span.

The explanation is simple. Oxygen is like fuel to our bodies, but you know what oxygen and water does to iron. The two destroy metals by dissolving them, it is called rust. The same thing is happening in our bodies. Contact with oxygen shortens the telomere string and therefore decreases the lifespan of every cell.

“Sport ist Mord!” or

“No sports!” (Winston Churchill)

1. strategy is evaluating the gift for its practical value.
2. strategy is evaluating the gift for its socially perceived / implied value.

Lets say a few thousand years ago a hunter would receive a great new spear. Now he can hunt 10%  more and is more likely to become the alpha male in his group.

On the other side, if a female at this time was to receive a better knife, she might have been able to increase the amount of food she could gather by 3%. The amount of food gathered is a very bad indicator of the alpha position for a female, because it is an extremely time-outcome efficient method (compared to hunting). It would not have made any noticeable effect.

What was more likely effecting the position of a female within the group was the possession of rare goods. Goods which displayed the strong affection of the giver, or who’s possession was desired by the group in general.

This two tendencies are very well exhibited in stereotypical gifts for the sexes. The women get jewelries and the men get… well pretty hard to give a gift to a man… a tie! You can’t go wrong with the 20th tie you hand out to your father.

Jewelery as a gift can bring joy to the receiver in two mayor ways.

1. The receiver values the token of affection because it took the giver time and resources to acquire the present
2. The receiver values the increase in social recognition/status, due to the monetary value.

A new driller, laptop, smart phone can bring joy to the receiver just in one way:

1. more holes in all walls, shorter loading times of porn websites, porn on the go = you can do cool things with it = practical

Why men don’t have any idea why the crazy chick they are married to does not like the new vacuum? I mean, for fucking heavens sake, she is vacuuming all the time and if she does not like it, with this new vacuum she can get it done faster…

Because men give gifts they like: practical, efficient, effective. Well, females, they kind of don’t give a fuck about practicality: They want to see a man sweat while choosing the gift, spend more on it than on his stupid new power-drill and make sure she can show off with it to all her girlfriends.