A Japanese shop is 1,020 years old • Hacker News Board

Re: A Japanese shop is 1,020 years old

#31

Post by kiddico » Wed, Dec 02, 2020, 10:09 PM UTC

jacobwilliamroy wrote: post #29

sriram_sun wrote: post #28

Do shops like these mostly inherited? I'm also aware of Japan's adult adoptions. Is there pressure on the next gen. to take over the family business? I would think yes. In my mind, just imagining operating for a Millennium, these institutions are more temples than businesses. Brings tears to my eyes just thinking about it. Thankfully the practice is not very widespread as I could easily have found myself taking care…

Oh no, owning property and having a place in the community. What a nightmare.

Or you can read it as "social pressure to do something for your entire life that you don't really want to do."

Re: A Japanese shop is 1,020 years old

#32

Post by iratewizard » Wed, Dec 02, 2020, 10:11 PM UTC

kiddico wrote: post #31

jacobwilliamroy wrote: post #29

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Oh no, owning property and having a place in the community. What a nightmare.

Or you can read it as "social pressure to do something for your entire life that you don't really want to do."

Like work?

Re: A Japanese shop is 1,020 years old

#33

Post by shrubble » Wed, Dec 02, 2020, 10:11 PM UTC

lapetitejort wrote: post #20

Michael_Sieb wrote: post #10

I don't think any tech companies will ever survive that long.

Could Nintendo be the oldest company currently involved with tech?

Kiewit is the precursor company to MFS and Level 3 Communications. Level3 merged with CenturyLink and is now known as Lumen.

Kiewit formed in 1884.

Re: A Japanese shop is 1,020 years old

#34

Post by tvb12 » Wed, Dec 02, 2020, 10:12 PM UTC

kbelder wrote: post #15

kstrauser wrote: post #7

Well, crud. I honestly thought a 10-bit `company_age` field would be sufficient. I'll add a Pivotal story to make the database migration.

Leave it, store the 11th bit in the top bit of the first byte of the company name. That'll future proof us.

I played a game that implemented something like this. A player could have 32 buffs simultaneously, and on release there were fewer than 255 unique buffs. The id for each buff was stored in one byte and was bundled along with all of the other buffs into a much larger packet which also contained other player data.

The game later surpassed 255 unique buffs. Rather than change the packet structure, they repurposed a group of 64 bits which had previously been padding. Each buff id could then be unpacked by using the nth pair of bits from the block of 64 as the two high bits, and tacking on the original byte as the lower eight.

Re: A Japanese shop is 1,020 years old

#35

Post by EB66 » Wed, Dec 02, 2020, 10:12 PM UTC

jacobwilliamroy wrote: post #29

sriram_sun wrote: post #28

Do shops like these mostly inherited? I'm also aware of Japan's adult adoptions. Is there pressure on the next gen. to take over the family business? I would think yes. In my mind, just imagining operating for a Millennium, these institutions are more temples than businesses. Brings tears to my eyes just thinking about it. Thankfully the practice is not very widespread as I could easily have found myself taking care…

Oh no, owning property and having a place in the community. What a nightmare.

Or more accurately: owning property and being told your place in the community.

Re: A Japanese shop is 1,020 years old

#36

Post by Barrin92 » Wed, Dec 02, 2020, 10:15 PM UTC

kiddico wrote: post #31

jacobwilliamroy wrote: post #29

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Oh no, owning property and having a place in the community. What a nightmare.

Or you can read it as "social pressure to do something for your entire life that you don't really want to do."

that's what maturation into adulthood is, taking responsibility for social institutions that are larger than oneself and endure longer than oneself, rather than being a 35 year old owning nothing and playing paintball, which is, in contrast to the business culture on display here the future sold to us by the beloved SV companies. Most of which if I had to bet will not last longer than this store.

Re: A Japanese shop is 1,020 years old

#37

Post by nkoren » Wed, Dec 02, 2020, 10:17 PM UTC

Damnit, last year I walked straight past that mochi shop without even realising it. And now I'm hungry.

(Seriously, though, the snacking in Kyoto is epic. Lovely temples and all, but when I go back, my first stop will be at a yatsuhashi shop, then mochi, then those red bean fish cake thingies, then maybe a cucumber on a stick. Damnit, now I'm REALLY hungry. Anyhow, these are businesses worth keeping around for a thousand years. They're just that tasty.)

Re: A Japanese shop is 1,020 years old

#38

Post by cr1895 » Wed, Dec 02, 2020, 10:17 PM UTC

The article lacked any detail on the “honor system” that sustained it for centuries in place of the fixed prices charged post-WWII. What does that mean...pay-what-you-like?

Re: A Japanese shop is 1,020 years old

#39

Post by felipemnoa » Wed, Dec 02, 2020, 10:17 PM UTC

jacobwilliamroy wrote: post #29

sriram_sun wrote: post #28

Do shops like these mostly inherited? I'm also aware of Japan's adult adoptions. Is there pressure on the next gen. to take over the family business? I would think yes. In my mind, just imagining operating for a Millennium, these institutions are more temples than businesses. Brings tears to my eyes just thinking about it. Thankfully the practice is not very widespread as I could easily have found myself taking care…

Oh no, owning property and having a place in the community. What a nightmare.

A lot of us do not want to work in the family business but rather want to pursue our dreams. You only have the one life after all.

Re: A Japanese shop is 1,020 years old

#40

Post by hn_throwaway_99 » Wed, Dec 02, 2020, 10:19 PM UTC

jacobwilliamroy wrote: post #29

sriram_sun wrote: post #28

Do shops like these mostly inherited? I'm also aware of Japan's adult adoptions. Is there pressure on the next gen. to take over the family business? I would think yes. In my mind, just imagining operating for a Millennium, these institutions are more temples than businesses. Brings tears to my eyes just thinking about it. Thankfully the practice is not very widespread as I could easily have found myself taking care…

Oh no, owning property and having a place in the community. What a nightmare.

The documentary Jiro Dreams of Sushi has a poignant commentary on this. Jiro's oldest son is expected to eventually take over Jiro's sushi place, so as a result essentially is toiling for his father into old age. On the other hand, somewhat ironically Jiro's younger son actually has more freedom, so he strikes out on his own pretty early and has his own very successful sushi joint.