Minmaxing Life

Apparently, the good Dr Kawashima - who inspired the Brain Age games that sold over 17 million copies worldwide - does not want a single yen from the 22 million dollars in royalties he is due:

“Everyone in my family is mad at me but I tell them that if they want money, go out and earn it.”

he says, because

“to hear this may put you off, but my hobby is work.”

Score one for passion, zero for money!

Also interesting, his comment on work versus play:

“Having fun is not studying. Making them study is not to entertain children but to pressure them to make efforts. People fall to lower and lower places unless they are driven to go higher.”

This correlates with my own observation that strictly favoring fun over anything else prevents one from learning those skills that demand hard dedication and self-discipline. Unfortunately, there are some things in life we don’t (yet) know how to teach in a fun way but that still need to be learned…