“ētto” Talk 3
What Is the Benefit of Inconvenience?

This is the third talk that uses our key phrase—ētto—as a jumping-off point to think about contemporary society. ētto is what we blurt out when trying to recall something, for example. The word in itself is thought to serve no purpose, but is that really true? Could something that appears useless at first glance actually be concealing some kind of value…!? In this talk, we invite you to join us in pondering this hypothesis with our guest Hiroshi Kawakami, who advocates “the benefit of inconvenience” (the idea that inconvenience itself can be good) and investigates it through the prism of systems engineering. What small but important benefits of inconvenience surround us?

Guest: Hiroshi Kawakami (Professor in Engineering faculty, Kyoto University of Advanced Science)
Host: Kyoto Experiment Co-directors