■ Introduction

Chapter 1: Let's start with useless imagination.

Know, Use, Make
Creators are people who take on challenges
An era in which it is difficult for a 'maker' to emerge
Three Secrets to Becoming a Maker
Learn from the eccentric who rejects the ordinary.
In the AI ​​era, creators are ultimately the main characters.
AI makes the world look different than before.
Walk your own path without being conscious of other people's gaze.
Let's become people who have useless imaginations.
A positive attitude is necessary to seize opportunities.
We should ask 'why', not 'how'.
Let's have our own special talent
To find your specialty, you need to find a field you can be passionate about.
A way of thinking that starts with useless imagination
Instead of following the rules, create your own.
It's not easy to live in an ecosystem created by others.
Have the perspective of a manager, not an operator
Let's broaden our horizons and explore information.
Let's prepare for various cases
Let's clarify the area of ​​expertise that will secure our right to survive.
The power of creation is essential for living happily in the 100-year era.
Pay attention to information recommended by people connected to social media.
What I create creates a new society.
Let's be teachers, not learners from AI.
Imagine a huge amount of money burning every day.

Chapter 2: Let's start with useless imagination.

Success in challenges of any size
Whether a project succeeds or not depends on the persistence of its members.
Don't stop
Don't give up halfway through, in case you're too far ahead of your time.
Things to keep, even if they seem useless right now
It's easy to start, but hard to quit.
Software is taking over the world
Learn on the spot
An era where experience is far more valuable than knowledge
Let's study while being conscious of the big picture.
Let's figure out whether it's a temporary change or a new way of life.
Don't be fooled by status-based stories.
A building with a poor foundation will later become a big problem.
Let's set big goals first
Understanding your colleagues' needs is just as important as your consumers'.
Two Keys to Developing a Foresightful Vision
The habit of asking "Why?" is much more important than you might think.
Why did they adopt that technology and method?
Keep track of your competitors' trends and pay attention to their personnel information.
An era where you can start making things easily without any initial costs.
AI Eyes and Virtual Reality: The Second Cambrian Explosion
Virtual Reality: Infinite Opportunities to Transform Your Lifestyle
Behind the scenes of big technology lies a benefit for us.

Chapter 3: How to Use Knowledge and Ideas

Communication is much more important than you think.
It's difficult for people with different backgrounds to share the same premise.
Understand trends and proactively think about how to utilize them.
Let's keep checking information in our field.
Small talk is an important element in refining ideas.
Success is born from new combinations of existing elements.
Even if you've never tried it before, it's okay to try if an expert tells you to.
Let's seek success by combining resources and technologies from other companies.
To move from science to business
Deliberately breaking empty rules and past success formulas.
[Column 1] Open source must break free from the illusion of being "free."
Those who envision a diverse future with AI will move ahead.
From airplane parts to cultured meat, 3D printing is the way to go.
Networks are now a relic of the past.
The diverse future possibilities that 5G will open up
5G will bring a completely different look to the entertainment industry.
The day robots become your colleagues
Autonomous driving is a paradigm shift.
A business born in a world where autonomous driving is a given
The Internet of Things (IoT) is changing the world.

Chapter 4: If you imagine it thoroughly, you can create it.

Let's run 'Supari'
Japan's aging society is full of opportunities.
Age is just a number if you can make it.
Always have a backup plan
[Column 2] Create an exit, even if it's small, for your project.
The feeling that "it would be great if I could do it" transcends reason.
[Column 3] Overcoming the "Wall of Trials" to Create a New "Business"
To create a successful product, think of your users as children.
Let's imagine from the user's perspective as much as possible.
Choose the one that makes your heart beat
Innovation starts at the periphery, not the center.
[Column 4] Is Your Department Core, Peripheral, or Declining?
Let's stop the rigid PDCA process.
Colleagues are essential infrastructure.
[Column 5] PlayStation's Social Contribution
Even if there are no immediate profits, investments for the future must continue.
If you don't have it, make it yourself
Things to cherish even if they don't help you right away
Only professionals who love their work become first-class.
Even for the same product, the recipe keeps changing.
The product verification process should never be neglected.
Practice finding unnecessary things in what you are doing now.

■ Conclusion

Sony PlayStation development manager shares his lifelong expertise.
90 Golden Words for Becoming a Creative Person

The future belongs to those who create it.

“Will you use AI,
Or will we be exploited by AI?”

The influence of games is enormous.
The global gaming industry's revenue is three times that of movies and music combined.
Games captivate, immerse, and addict us.
It dominates many people's childhood and their entire lives.
Characters like Super Mario, Lara Croft, Angry Birds, and Pikachu symbolize the culture and atmosphere of an era in their own right.
Like a living icon.

Where does the power of a game come from? A high-quality story, compelling characters, matching visuals and music, repetitive practice, the joy and happiness of challenging and completing difficult missions, or even winning against someone as obsessed with the game as I am…
These are all elements that make a great game.
Games are a technological achievement that combines these diverse elements into software and hardware (console or PC and smartphone).
That's why games are called a comprehensive art form that combines technology, engineering, and art.
An endless amount of content, armed with all sorts of 'artistic' elements, housed in a vessel of cutting-edge technology, awaits us.

Among them, Sony's PlayStation series became a watershed.
First of all, it sold incredibly well.
With over 500 million units sold worldwide, it became the best-selling console in history.
It also brought about important changes industrially.
The PlayStation was also a game changer in the mid-1990s, firmly establishing a new standard in the gaming market: CD-ROMs, rather than ROM cartridges.
Not to mention the technical aspect.
The PlayStation's outstanding computing capabilities have been well-known from early on.
The US Air Force and Sony actually had a lawsuit over the use of multiple consoles connected to form a supercomputer.

This is what Masayuki Chatani, a true developer who was a member of the PlayStation launch team and served as the company's CTO for seven years, says.

“For a creator, work never stops.
If you find fun in something and create work for yourself and follow that path, your career will naturally develop.
Even if you don't set grand goals from the beginning, if you consistently engage in creative activities, unexpectedly good results often follow.
Anything is fine.
First, let's start with 'imagination'.
The thoughts in your head become concrete plans, and the plans become real results.
"The vague yearning and curiosity I had as a child eventually led to the creation of the PlayStation at Sony."

Given the dazzling success of the PlayStation, isn't this advice too simplistic and unpretentious? You might think so.
However, the important message of 『The Age of Creative Man』 is contained in the advice above.
Try to create something, and don't stop thinking and imagining.
In this book, he meticulously reveals his 30-year career at Sony, particularly his lifelong experience leading the PlayStation business for 16 years.
Above all, it provides kind and clear advice on how we should think and live in the rapidly changing world of the AI ​​era.

Masayuki Chatani teaches us the mindset and practical methods to become a "creative person."
This book, consisting of 90 topics, is full of surprises.
He speaks in a calm and unadorned tone, but his words powerfully touch on a point where we must fundamentally rethink our work.
The message is simple, but the examples and advice in the book are vivid and detailed.
"The Age of Creative Humans" is different from other business books.
This book is not a book that tells you the right answer.
This is not a book that preaches abstract and normative theories.
This book is more like a confession book in which the author honestly shares his experiences and insights over a long period of time.

He has 'lived' the life he pursues. For example, Masayuki Chatani was assigned to the handwriting recognition algorithm development team when he first joined Sony 30 years ago, and later returned to the United States to study computer graphics (CG) and user interface (UI).
At the time, artificial intelligence was considered cutting-edge technology, but its potential had yet to be fully demonstrated. CG was even more so.
He said that because it was a technology that had been treated as minor until then, there were people around him who looked at the research he was doing with skepticism.
Not to mention the PlayStation.
The office was located quite a distance from Sony's headquarters in central Tokyo and the offices of Sony Music (a joint venture between the two companies that developed the PlayStation).
He has faithfully walked the path of the 'non-mainstream' within the company.

But the author says:
This experience later became a crucial foundation for building his own unique capabilities, and the expertise he delved into with pure enjoyment became an irreplaceable asset over time.
What about PlayStation, once the company's "fringe business"? It achieved operating profits of 100 billion yen within three years of its release, and annual sales of 1 trillion won within seven years.
It is now a core business of Sony, accounting for more than a quarter of its total sales.

In this book, the author does not list 'words for words', but twists our common sense and presents specific action guidelines for carrying out his beliefs.
He was the one who made PlayStation a success because he refused to think what others thought and predict what others predicted.
How can we, like the author, create something that captivates people (even if it's not quite the PlayStation)? The author emphasizes that we must pursue what truly excites us, learn from extraordinary people, and forge our own path with unwavering determination and persistence.
He explains why:

“In these times of change, the value of creative people who break the mold and think of new things, like ‘eccentrics,’ is increasing even more.
“Because instead of computers or AI handling tasks that require machine-like precision and efficiency, humans will be able to demonstrate their value in more informal and creative areas, such as conceiving new ideas, creating original stories, and empathizing with people.”

Now it's time to talk about AI.
As the author cites, Sony founder Akio Morita told his juniors, “Always be a positive person to the core.”
Masayuki Chatani is the person who fits that saying better than anyone else.
He believes we can all become 'makers' and is confident that AI will ultimately serve humanity.
But if we don't stop thinking and imagining.
And if you don't neglect to translate those thoughts into concrete plans.
This is because the process of realizing that imagination is a uniquely human creative activity and art that AI cannot imitate.

Of course, our anxiety is well-founded.
The author also knows that many jobs will disappear in the future.
There is no need to mention today's global business environment where 'the winner takes all'.
The gap between the market leaders and the second-place and lower-ranking entrants has become overwhelmingly wider than in the past.
How will everyone, except a tiny techno-elite, earn a living in the future? Given this situation, how can we not fear the uncertain future that AI will open up?

But as I said before, the author is positive to the core.
If we can become creators—people who “conceive new ideas, create original stories, and empathize with people”—then we can become users and teachers of AI, rather than being used and learned by AI.
“If we look ahead to the next five or ten years, it is clear that we will enter a society where humanity is clearly divided into those who ‘teach’ AI and those who ‘learn’ from AI,” is the author’s view.

How, exactly? According to the author, you need to constantly envision the values ​​you pursue, remind yourself of your work's goals, and think about your ideas over and over again.
It is also necessary to confront the world solely through the power of one's own experience, intuition, and wisdom, without being bound by things like data, knowledge, common sense, and principles (which are AI's specialized areas).
No matter what others say, go your own way.
If you have thought about it for a long time and made a plan to put those thoughts into practice.
Just like in 1995, Japanese camera manufacturer CASIO changed the market landscape by adding a large LCD screen to its digital cameras.
Until then, it was common to take pictures by looking through the camera's small viewfinder.
Casio's adventurous challenge completely changed the industry's 'standard'.

Masayuki Chatani urges us to become people who can do away with the viewfinder.
We emphasize that we must become like a 'nail that stands out', like the famous job advertisement copy from Sony's early days.
He says the following about how we can survive as 'nails sticking out' in this AI storm:

“There’s an old adage in the software industry that ‘lazy people make good developers.’
Software development involves a lot of simple, repetitive tasks.
It's something that everyone finds annoying, but those who find it especially annoying are actively thinking about ways to automate or handle it more efficiently.
Ultimately, these efforts contribute to improving the efficiency of the entire organization.”

It may sound like a joke, but the author believes that starting from one's own inner desire ('I'm dying from boredom') and consistently pushing forward to achieve it are very important.
Such a generous heart is essential for someone who wants to create something.
To create is to bring something new into the world that does not yet exist.
Most people cannot properly evaluate what is not yet there.


As the above quote reveals, this book is by no means a stiff or grandiose economics and management book.
The author's business insight, gained through his involvement in the planning and development of the PlayStation series and his long-term experience in overseeing the business, is the most important point to enjoy in this book.
For example, Sony has long had a saying: “Give the work to the busiest person.”
People who are overwhelmed by work think about work efficiency and find ways to reuse existing results, which leads to better results faster.
It is a virtuous cycle that we all experience in our companies and organizations.


How about the saying, “Work is about dedicating yourself to the work itself”?
Isn't this a piercing quote that things go well when you focus on the work itself, not people or other secondary things? "Rather than being destroyed by another company's new business model, it's better to break our own conventions," a phrase the author often used at PlayStation, doesn't it brilliantly capture the nature of companies that can easily fall into complacency? Similarly, the book is brimming with inspiration: job changes across multiple companies aren't necessarily a bad thing; an aging society is actually full of business opportunities; everyone, whether employee, manager, or freelancer, needs to adopt a managerial perspective; small talk is far more important than you think; colleagues are your vital infrastructure; creators should maintain the attitude that "users are like children."

Earlier in this article, I used the expression, “This book is full of surprises.”
Surprising means that something is beyond patterned prediction and that it deeply touches the essence and truth of something.
It is also an essential difference between humans and AI.
For now (and hopefully always), only humans can be amazed.
Great games can be surprising too.
The same goes for great books, of course.
In that respect, 『The Age of Creative Man』 is truly an amazing book.