Effortless effort – Tokyo Engineer Talk

The title is my best translation of today’s inspiring topic. You can blame me for not remembering Japanese counter part of it.

Interesting talk started in a Sushi restaurant in Tokyo.

Meister Chef arranged beautiful Sushi dish in front of me.

‘Looks like magic for me’

My natural reaction seemed to satisfied my Japanese friend.

‘See? it’s beauty of Tokyo life’

And he continued, ‘I learnt much here about mindset of effortless effort’

 It’s not about secret effort

His point was how to get rid of tense.

We tends to end up with:

Why and why for problem identification

More sensors (find the issue!)

Huge amount of data unprocessed

They are nothing wrong. But can we give a chance for alternative way?

Sushi Meister has decades of training for sure. That explains his confidence and calm state even in this perhaps-busiest Sushi place in Tokyo.

On the top of that, however, he definitely has more dynamic excise:

Careful observation – Raw food material varies. He optimize each into consistent dish

No waste approach – No adjustment afterward

Every single move is swift – it still looks magic for me

And also, his workflow seems converging in every sense.

doesn’t look like effort – that’s a trick

‘This Meister knows way to finish long journey of food material’

His finishing word sounded too romantic.

But I still got inspired in an engineering sense.

We easily spread out the situation with highly tensed effort (and that itself gives job satisfaction).

This Meister wouldn’t approach like that.

He maximizes performance by  his own eye with gentle smile. And never use a sledge hammer to kill a mosquito.

I looked back my work before.

It was not coincidence I had less ‘waste’ after successful project – future sustainable approach with Sushi Meister’s discipline.

What can you tell from something already in hand?

Don’t forget to experience proper Sushi restaurant in your next Tokyo visit. you won’t be disappointed.

Author: Sergio T.

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