The title may sound poetic, but what follows is something I have thought about quite seriously. The trigger for writing this article was an exchange with students. In the chat tool of a project (an extracurricular activity) where I serve as an advisor, someone raised the question: “Do general theories of organization really apply to student groups?” It is true that many organizational theories are written with “corporate organizations” in mind. However, I believe that student organizations operate under a set of premises that are fundamentally different from those of companies. If I add together the years I spent in student groups and the years I have watched them as an advisor, I have spent a fair amount of time observing this “gap.” ...

“AI utilization” is becoming commonplace in the engineering community. In such an era, I’ve been thinking about what kind of engineer we should aspire to be. On one hand, there’s the “Brilliant jerk” type engineer—those with overwhelming technical skills but who neglect teamwork. On the other hand, there are engineers with decent technical skills who excel at AI utilization and serve as team facilitators. Through extensive use of Claude Code, I’ve come to see that the latter has a brighter future ahead. Let me share my thoughts on “the future engineer archetype” based on my experience with AI tools. ...

In an Era Where Anyone Can Create, What Is Expected of Engineers? In today’s world of rapidly advancing AI, creating apps and tools is no longer exclusive to engineers. For example, you can describe what you want to do to ChatGPT, and it will generate specifications and code. With no-code tools, you can create functionality and UI with just a few clicks. If you have an idea or want to improve something, even someone without a technical background can turn it into reality. ...

Introduction Have you ever heard of Markdown? It’s a text language and file format that allows you to express the structure of a document using simple symbols. Engineers and people in technical fields are usually familiar with it, but it’s not widely used outside those circles. However, Markdown is rapidly becoming a practical and powerful tool for everyone. That’s why I decided to jot down my thoughts about it. Markdown and Plain Text Markdown is a type of plain text. ...

Summary 30,000 JPY per month is expensive, but it’s worth it. Especially, having 100 uses of Deep Search per month is amazing. Introduction On February 5, 2024, OpenAI released Deep Search. It seemed useful, but the ChatGPT Plus plan only allows 10 uses per month. Since that limit felt too restrictive, I decided to subscribe to the ChatGPT Pro plan (cutting down on food expenses to afford it). The Value of ChatGPT Pro One major advantage is the relaxed usage limits for models. ...

When writing technical blogs or articles, I often feel that the hurdle is high. Here, I will list the factors that make output difficult and suggest some improvements. Factors That Raise the Bar There are four main factors that make output feel difficult: Accuracy Overlap with existing articles Lack of ideas for output Writing skills I will summarize each factor below. Accuracy This is a commonly discussed hurdle. It is closely related to the fear of being criticized or “called out.” ...

Introduction This article is being written on a day off. However, I’ve spent most of it sleeping. The duration of my sleep is as shown in the image below: I slept for nearly half a day. It’s not that I’m feeling unwell, but I just couldn’t find the energy to do anything. I feel more exhausted now than I used to in the past. ...

About MarkItDown On December 14, 2024, Microsoft released something interesting. It’s a software called MarkItDown. It’s a tool that converts various files into the Markdown format. Quoting from the official repository , the formats that can be converted are: - PDF (.pdf) - PowerPoint (.pptx) - Word (.docx) - Excel (.xlsx) - Images (EXIF metadata, and OCR) - Audio (EXIF metadata, and speech transcription) - HTML (special handling of Wikipedia, etc.) - Various other text-based formats (csv, json, xml, etc.) - ZIP (Iterates over contents and converts each file) As you can see, it handles a wide variety of files. ...

Introduction Many people rely on search engines when conducting research. However, search results can be a mixed bag, ranging from genuinely useful resources to ad-laden, low-quality sites. I’ve shared techniques for finding the gems amidst the clutter in Struggling with “Just Google It” Advice . But how do we filter out the junk from the results? Let me introduce a tool I personally use. About uBlacklist uBlacklist is a browser extension that filters search engine results. ...

Introduction I recently came across a post on X (formerly Twitter). It described how a company that previously claimed to be fully remote had started requiring employees to come into the office. Reading posts about the challenges faced by people working in rural areas, I reflected on my own experiences as someone working at a “rural” university and as an engineer. This article isn’t about labeling urban or rural areas as inherently good or bad. I hope readers will keep this in mind while reading. ...