Japan's Human Resource Shortage, Moving Tips, lex Command, and expand

Hello, I'm incompetent.
Lately, I've had a lot of miscellaneous thoughts I wanted to write down, so here's a rough draft.

Japan's Human Resource Shortage?

Usually, when various indicators of human resource shortages are presented, if they originate from the human resource service industry, they often contain distorted statistics or lack sufficient information (though those with a small scope can be useful). So, regarding Japan's economy, I usually look at the Cabinet Office's "White Papers, etc. (Economic and Fiscal White Paper, World Economic Trends, Regional Economy, etc.)" and then read articles by macroeconomics enthusiasts (i.e., private institutions like Canon Institute for Global Studies), but
Chapter 2, Section 1: Increasing Sense of Labor Shortage and Corporate Sector Response - Cabinet Office

In recent years, as intellectual property such as software becomes more sophisticated, there is a growing need for human resources in specialized fields such as IT/programming and systems engineering who can handle these, suggesting a potential shift in labor towards a complementary direction.

Chapter 2, Section 2: Current Status and Challenges of Labor Mobility - Cabinet Office

Furthermore, when it comes to reskilling, the needs of the labor demand side, i.e., what kind of human resources companies are looking for, are important. In this regard, comparing the results of a survey on the abilities companies will seek from regular employees in 2019 and 2024 (Figure 2-2-10), there has been an increase in companies citing "communication skills/persuasiveness" and "cooperativeness/ability to collaborate with others," indicating a heightened importance of interpersonal communication after the COVID-19 pandemic. Additionally, the proportion of companies citing "ability to master IT" has seen a relatively significant increase. This result suggests that with the advancement of digitalization, companies are increasingly needing human resources to implement new technologies, and thus fields such as IT and digital are considered priority areas for reskilling.

Considering the History of Engineers

In the first place, I believe that IBM Japan strongly shaped Japan's SE culture, and the current situation seems to have arisen from the distortions during the progressive liberalization of software, moving away from the model of dispatching highly specialized personnel bundled with products.
Of course, there are other engineering industries, but if their origins stem from that, then many would have started with similar systems.

Openization and Distortion

However, as software increasingly becomes open source and the price of PCs themselves has dropped considerably, the barrier to entry has become smaller, and with abundant information available, there is now an environment conducive to learning, so I think it's not a problem to worry about too much. But I wonder to what extent the digital native generation, including myself, will bother to use PCs.
When I researched this before, I've forgotten the source, but the spread of smartphones certainly creates digital natives, yet it doesn't provide a reason for those digital natives to use PCs, which is my only concern, and it seems the trend is actually declining.
(Honestly, I don't even know why I bother typing away on a PC, and I feel like there's not much point to it – but that's just between us.)

So, if asked whether Japanese engineering has actually declined, looking beyond the information and communication industry, Sony has ultimately dominated the smartphone camera sensor market, and Nintendo and its associated gaming industry have achieved unparalleled value.
Optical communication might not have become so widespread without Jun-ichi Nishizawa of Tohoku University.

In conclusion, frankly, while the number of people is indeed decreasing, what companies are looking for is

an increasing number of companies citing 'communication skills/persuasiveness' and 'cooperativeness/ability to collaborate with others'

which is positive in the sense of betting on the future, and I don't think there's much reason to be pessimistic.

For programming and PC enthusiasts, even though the scope has narrowed, their inquisitive nature makes information sharing difficult, and since the usage of any language or middleware changes depending on the specific context, the quickest way is to understand the architecture, and then everything else seems manageable.
For example, Nginx, which was originally intended to run primarily as a proxy server, has gradually expanded its role to be seen as a web server.

Visualizing how things operate with the OSI reference model might inherently be an infrastructure-side perspective, but ultimately, even someone working on the frontend, if they're going to publish it, it's operating within a layered structure... In fact, I often think that if I had had an explanation of the OSI reference model back then, it would have been much quicker...

So, I still lack the ability to convey things to others, and I realize that unless I enjoy working with various people, I won't understand what it means to put things into words... These are my daily thoughts.

Moving Tips

Finally, I've found a place.
The incredibly cheap property I found last month had about 3 simultaneous applications, and I lost the will to participate in that bidding war, so I gave up.
20 square meters, within a 5-minute walk from the station, plenty of storage.
However, 4th floor, no elevator.

I compromised because it's just over 30 minutes to work by bike or train, and the spacious room is a big plus. If you want everything, like a proper washing machine space and a building less than 40 years old, the rent would naturally go up, so it can't be helped.

Choosing a Real Estate Agent

I inquired about initial cost estimates from all other real estate agencies listed on Suumo that had the property, and the cheapest one turned out to be the company that owned the property. I had heard from a former band member who later became an independent real estate agent that such companies are often more flexible and willing to lower initial costs, so I followed that advice.
As a result, the initial costs were about 50,000 yen or more cheaper than the most expensive option.

Moving Items

Yamato's single-person moving pack is cheap.
While other moving companies also offer similar services, Yamato's is recommended because its pricing categories are easy to understand, and it's easy to visualize the amount of luggage.
For me, if my washing machine and Karimoku 2-seater sofa from my previous place can fit, that's good, and I plan to fill any remaining space with as many cardboard boxes as possible.

By the way, whether buying a new or used washing machine, one with an inverter is better. The quietness is significantly different, so you should buy one with an inverter. As for power efficiency, there haven't been many dramatic changes since 2013-2015, so there should probably be good options even at a lower price.

lex command

I didn't know, but apparently, former Google CEO Eric Schmidt was involved in its development.

expand command

If you don't like tab characters, converting them as follows seems to be the quickest way.

expand file > dest