The Era of Individuality

Are you part of an “organization”? Or are you a distinct “individual”?

In the past, belonging to a large organization was a symbol of stability. Getting educated like everyone else, getting a job like everyone else, and retiring like everyone else. The era where that was the “correct answer” has collapsed with a deafening roar.

Now, we are welcoming the “Era of Individuality.” An era where you compete not with an organization’s signboard, but with your own name. This is an unprecedented opportunity, but simultaneously the dawn of a cruel survival era for humans who do not think with their own heads. In this article, we unravel the brainwashing of the old era and present strategies to explode the potential of the “individual” that is you.

Key Points

• System Failure: Technology has evolved, but education and organizational structures remain as they were 100 years ago. Only those who notice this “gap” can escape.
• “Average” is a Risk: Human resources who can do the same things as everyone else will be replaced by AI and robots. Sharp “bias” becomes the strongest weapon.
• Play Becomes Work: Logical and efficient work will be done by AI. Only the frenzy (passion) that looks like “obsession” or “waste” to others remains for humans.
• From Consumer to Producer: Discard the passive stance of just bathing in information, and turn to the side that creates value and transmits it.

1. Modern Society and the Era of Individuality: The Rules of the Game Changeed

The spread of the internet and smartphones brought the greatest revolution in human history. Individuals possess broadcasting stations (YouTube), individuals possess stores (EC sites), and individuals connect with the world (SNS). The privileges once held only by large corporations are now in the palms of individuals.

Walls of Organizations Melt, AI Becomes a Colleague

With the evolution of AI, things that were previously impossible without an organization (team) can now be completed by an individual. Excellent AI agents fulfill the roles of secretaries, legal, accounting, and even creators. You can move world-scale projects all alone without relying on the resources of the box called “company.” The walls of organizations are dissolving completely, and a new economic zone where individuals and AI collaborate is about to expand explosively.

However, the OS (basic system) of society is still not updated from “collectivism.” This gap is the root of modern people’s difficulty in living. The tools are the latest, but the mindset remains in the Showa era.

2. Vested Interests and Education: A System That Hammers Down the Nail

Why doesn’t Japanese education extend the “individual”? Because the education system itself is designed to crush individuality and mass-produce “usable parts.”

The Curse of the “Average Score”

In school, getting an average score in all subjects is considered “excellent.” However, in society, a talent who is “0 points in everything else but 200 points in programming” is overwhelmingly more treasured than a “70 points in everything” talent.

The education system scrapes off your protruding talents (convex) and forcibly fills your weak parts (concave) to try to make you a flat circle (average human). In the “Era of Individuality,” this is nothing less than a massacre of talent.

3. Time and Life Stolen by School and Company: Stagnation Named Stability

“If I just join a good company, I’m safe.” This myth vanished with the collapse of lifetime employment. Throwing your whole life at a company is now nothing but a risk.

Internal Value vs. Market Value

Are you only polishing skills that pass only within the company (internal coordination skills, unique document creation rules)? That is “Internal Value.” Value that becomes zero the moment you take one step outside the company.

What is needed in the “Era of Individuality” is “Market Value.” When the company signboard is removed, what can you do? Who will pay money to you? If you cannot answer this question, you might be in a state where you cannot survive without the life support system called an organization.

4. The Meaning of Living Your Own Time: Become the CEO of Yourself Inc.

Change your perspective. You are the Representative Director of “Yourself Inc.,” managing the life called you. Your current company is merely one of the “major clients” for your company.

Invest Your Time

Shift from the mindset of “selling slices” of your time to receive a salary, to the mindset of “investing” your time to increase your own assets (skills, experience, credit).

Time spent doing work you hate is a waste of life. However, if you can reframe it as skill-up for your future self, it turns into an investment. If it’s work that doesn’t become an investment, escaping immediately or handling it with minimum effort is a wise management decision.

5. Pursuing Passion: Geeks Become the Strongest Profession

In a future where AI and robots rise, what will remain for humans? Logical processing and efficient tasks will be handled by machines at overwhelming speeds.

“Obsession” is Value

What remains for humans is the emotion of “like,” “obsession,” and “frenzy.” “Things you do even if no one asks,” “Things you immerse yourself in, forgetting to sleep and eat.” This inefficient and irrational passion creates unique value that AI cannot replace.

Games, anime, outdoors, model trains—once considered “play.” The “Otaku” (geeks) who pursued these to the end are now generating enormous value as YouTubers and influencers. Mastering what you “like” becomes work itself. This is the truth of the Era of Individuality.

6. Turning to Information Selection and Action: Shift to Producer

As long as you remain a consumer, you are the side being exploited. The only way to survive the Era of Individuality is to become a “Producer.”

Obesity State of Input Overload

Modern people take in too much information. Even if you keep watching your smartphone and bathing in information like a shower, your life won’t change even by a millimeter. That is a state of intellectual constipation.

What is important is not “what you know” but “what you did” and “what you made.” Reduce input to 20% and increase output to 80%. Write a blog, shoot a video, make a work, plan an event. Even if unfinished, just put it out into the world. Only that feedback will make you grow.

7. Next Actions: Steps to Stand as an Individual

Concrete actions to live as an “individual” starting not from tomorrow, but from this moment.

① Multiply Your “Tags”

Like “Sales” x “English” x “Muscle Training,” multiply the elements (tags) you possess. It might be impossible to become a 1 in a million genius in one field, but if you multiply three fields, you can become a unique (one and only) existence. Create your own title.

② Take the Risk of Exposing Your Real Name (or Grow an Avatar)

Stop hiding behind the company signboard and transmit with your individual name (anonymous accounts are OK if operated as an individual with a personality). Do not fear criticism. Being criticized is proof that your opinion pierced someone’s heart. A kite rises higher against the wind than in no wind.

③ Have Multiple Belongings

Just shuttling between company and home makes the world too narrow. Online salons, hobby circles, side job communities. Belong to multiple communities (parallel communities) and disperse your identity. Being able to think that even if one place fails, there are others, births mental freedom (strength of the individual).

The era has changed. The key to exit the cage has been in your pocket from the beginning. Now, discard the illusion called organization and raise the flag of the “individual” that is you.