Originally written in Traditional Chinese: Minerva Immersion Week 第 2 天：從 64 歲、80 歲，想到一個事業的二十年
Minerva Immersion Week, Day 2 (Oct 19): from age 64 to a 20-year vision in one day.
Context: Minerva's MDA is an online master's for working professionals. Immersion Weeks bring us to one city for a week. I have finished my MDA; Tokyo is my third and last.
10:10. A Japanese classmate told me Japanese audiences react quietly, so a foreign guest's warm, energetic response stands out and is remembered. Japanese speakers often open with a joke so the room knows it is allowed to laugh.
10:30. Project MINT. Its founder, an MDA alumna, turned her thesis on age bias into a company. In Japan, one in ten people is over 80. MINT stands for Mentor plus Intern: the wisdom of a mentor, the curiosity of an intern. "Intergenerational connection is not charity; it is social infrastructure."
11:00. "When I'm 64" design sprint with Minerva undergraduates. Write alone first so you don't follow the first idea. Choose a challenge, not a solution. Then include unrealistic ideas. Our team went from health-linked insurance pricing to an imaginary island nation of 75-year-old football stars. An engineer said AI makes coding easier but thinking harder, because you must keep judging whether its direction is right.
14:00. Reapra, a venture builder that invests before you have an idea. "The mathematicians who solve problems are not the smartest; they stay with the problem longest." When a whole market believes there is only one solution, step back three or four degrees. Write a 20-year vision, because your children make their own decisions at 20.
16:20. A World Wise classmate in Tokyo commercial real estate missed the day before, so he made time on a busy Monday afternoon just to meet us in person. That is the network.
On the walk back, we ran into the venture builder. She said: in Asian culture we often think sacrifice is the only way to love, and it is not true. I added that when one person sacrifices first, the other feels they must sacrifice back. Her answer: right, and no one is happy.
MDA if you want a degree that changes how you think without leaving your job; World Wise if you lead a team.
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