log 82: disconnect

culture

One of the biggest realizations I had after coming back to Japan was how much I have been disconnected from my culture. In a previous log, I wrote about how it was a breath of fresh air to come back to a place where I spent my childhood vacations. Well, it feels like much more than that now. For the new year, we went to pay our respects at our family temple near our house. There I felt a piece of me was restored. Spending the past 5 years in the US unlinked me from so much of my culture that I almost forgot it. It started to make me think. If I want my app and future business to target different populations around the world, I need to understand how different populations think. I used to think it was just about what their different wants and needs were, but now I know it’s so much more. I have to look at their culture, the generational sigmas behind certain aspects, and trends. There is so much to learn. No “one size fits all” model exists, but there must be some clever way I adapt my product to fit different consumers.