Saturday evening, on the way back from the airport, my daughter enthusiastically shared her experience in Japan. Plenty of them.
One part that keeps popping up in my mind is this. She said, "People whisper in public, on bus or in any public space. You never hear them talk out loud. They are very conscious of keeping their voices down. They are very polite. We had to whisper when we talked in bus. It gets to the point of feeling depressed."
I keep imagining myself in a culture where I can't raise my voice or talk out loud all the time in public. No doubt I would be totally done in by depression. No wonder Japan has a relatively high suicide rate compared to other developed countries. They must be super depressed! Yet, Japan also has one of the highest life expectancies in the world. The average life expectancy in Japan has been consistently high, over 84 years of LE! People must feel fit in this culture.
At the point this Chinese words surfaced in my head: 适者生存 (Shì zhě shēngcún). It means survival of the fittest. I am not aware of Darwin's own definition of fittest. My guess is those who can best adapt to their environment, be it natural or social or cultural, must have better chance of surviving and thriving than those who are poor at adapting.
Survival appears to hinge on adaptation rather than competition, especially in today's rapidly changing work environment, which includes the influence of AI and other technological advancements.