CoLab Conf (Coracon) Event Report

Introduction

What is Colacon?

Supporterz CoLab's first tech conference, "CoLab Conf" (commonly known as "Colacon"), was held on July 13, 2025. Under the theme of "AI and Career," about 20 sessions were held with speakers active on the front lines of the industry to think about strategies for surviving the future. Everyone was famous this time, but there was also a big surprise at the end when Hiroyuki suddenly appeared in person (honestly, I was so happy, I was super hyped! lol).

I participated in this event.

https://supporterz-seminar.connpass.com/event/355775/

Below, I will share my thoughts and notes from the sessions I attended. I've written my impressions near the headings of each session, so please use them as a reference if you're considering catching up via the archives.

Survival Strategy for U35 Engineers: AI Evolution and Careers

This session asked us how we should think about, perceive, and utilize today. I learned about the summary of AI transformation from recent changes and was taught an overview of potential career paths and how to approach careers. It's an opening session that helps in grasping and understanding what Colacon is all about.

Content Notes

Changes in the AI Era

Acceleration of change speed (13 years)

• Extracting collective intelligence with LLMs → Acceleration
• Txt to Txt → Txt to Action

AI integration

• Devin for product expansion is tough, currently under consideration

• PR volume up 55% year-over-year by STORES

  • Integrating Devin into commercial products
  • While automated tests exist, not everything is being reviewed manually
  • Review process is breaking down

• Evaluation of software that changes probabilistically with LLMs

• 2008-2014 mobile changes

• This past year → Abnormal

  • On the other hand, what can be done right now is small
  • What will happen from now on is likely to be even more amazing

• Everyone has biases when a paradigm shifts

  • Reason why Microsoft grew → IBM outsourced the OS
    • At the time, hardware was important, and the kernel wasn't considered that important
  • It's important to think about biases and imagine the future
  • → Something software engineers can enjoy

Career Paths / Individual Traits and Personalities

Future directions?

• Deepening skills
  • AI x SRE
• Meta-design → Product design → Can be used for social design
  • AI PdM
  • Engineers also handling sales
  • Strengths will emerge because of deep technical understanding
• Likely increase in work similar to cloud engineers when AWS first appeared (Agent management)
• Engineer domains will expand in various directions
  • It looks fun for curious people
  • One individual might balance being both a goalkeeper and a forward
    • Traditional control: GK
    • Predicting uncertainty: FW

Software value is shifting from storage → execution

• Stored mechanisms and data → Value in execution
• Displaying data nicely can be done to some extent
• You can't use it unless you understand what "execution" is
  • Need to understand customer expectations and tasks

Imagining and discussing near-future software

• Think about what is unknown in the imagined future
• Example: Software doesn't move on its own → It likely will (Static → Dynamic)
  • Like choosing what you want at a vending machine
  • Abstraction and social implementation when the vending machine starts moving

Value Created by the "Co-evolution" of AI and Engineers

Co-evolution: Evolution by asking questions about expertise one lacks or things one doesn't understand

• Happening at a cultural level, but not systematic
• Must not cling to what one is currently doing. Change is necessary.
• Update world perception by having one's own expertise and multiplying it with others
  • Perceive oneself as an agent

In some jobs, support people might cross over into the engineering side

• There are scenes where that is faster and more accurate (maintenance development, etc.?)
• Go to environments where you can challenge yourself and use new things
• Old biases and changes: It seems risky not to use AWS. Clinging to on-premise seems risky...
  • It's fine as long as you can work with curiosity

Summary

Place partiality at the core of your career. Increase the resolution of that core for that purpose

• Interacting with various people will increase the resolution of your core
• Let's also think about multiplication with the core

Engineers are a profession close to LLMs and AI.

• Personality, traits, character. Enjoy uncertain situations with your own playbook

Fulfilling Dreams with "Otaku-Driven Development": The Career of a Fujoshi Who Learned Programming for Her Desires

I once saw a session at a Supporterz event and had the impression that Yomado-san (Chomado) was an interesting person who combines Otaku culture with engineering, so I attended this time as well. Anyone who is a pure "otaku" of something (which I suspect is most of you) should definitely try listening to her talk at least once.

Notes

DevRel: Developer Relations (A role similar to PR for technical people)

1. Find something you love and can immerse yourself in (Otaku-driven)
2. It's your life
3. Follow your heart.

Definition of an Otaku: Someone with an extraordinary love for their "Oshi" (favorite) who invests time, effort, and money into them. Giving your all for your Oshi.

The Dark Ages

Middle school era
Forced to be a "normal" student by school rules and regulations.
Sudden shifting of the goalposts like "Perms are prohibited!"
Got scolded for not following rules → Became a grind student (studying excessively).

Got hooked on Harry Potter and couldn't wait for the translations, so read the original books → Studied English.

Encountering Something to be Passionate About

High school, free-spirited school culture
There was one intense "fujoshi" in class, and everyone became one.
Devoted to "Fujoshi-evangelism" (proselytizing the culture).

• Falling into the rabbit hole by matching the needs of the other person.

Flip-phone generation. Read BL (Boys' Love) novels and manga.
Wanted to change from a viewer to a producer (Pixiv didn't exist, so was a lurker).

Watched on father's PC while clearing the history, but wanted to go somewhere I could use a PC in university.
Took the exams, but failed because of the latter half of the math section.
→ Went to the English Literature department.

University
Got a PC and a pen tablet as an entrance gift!!!
Initially started with site creation (an era where JS only ran on the front end).
Banner ads were annoying, so initially used display: none; improperly.
→ Server construction (Linux, VM, Apache)
Wanted to see evaluations, thought about using a bulletin board, but rentals had terrible ads.
→ Built my own (PHP)
Forgot to eat or sleep while at the PC (summer break) → Lost weight (drank miso soup when I thought I might die).

Initially couldn't even read "Understandable for [Beginner] level." One Google search led to 5 unknown things → Stack overflow of brain memory.
→ Tried asking on Twitter (no one around me in the Shakespeare major was doing it).
→ "Haskell is good!" (Properly transcribed a bit of code).
→ "Want to do more Haskell!" A: "You should read various books!"
→ "Want to start from the basics." A: "Introduction to Building Your Own OS is good!"
→ Felt too pure and sorry for not understanding. "Please tell me something more programming-oriented." → "Let's create a language!" (Impossible lol).
Thought I was stupid for not understanding. So sorry...
The more I did it, the more I didn't understand.

To learn the basics, took the Fundamental Information Technology Engineer Examination. Studied 8 hours a day (while failing many other units).
Also took the Applied Information Technology Engineer Examination. As a result, became able to understand the communication protocol of engineers.

Turning Point

Joined an SIer as a new grad. Hated job hunting so much I only applied to one company that welcomed humanities majors.
Talked about programming with various people during new grad training. Fun.
When assigned to the actual site, Excel screenshots and automation were prohibited.
Couldn't do what everyone else could (partly because I hadn't researched things beforehand; it didn't fit).
→ Adjustment disorder

Turning Point

1. The route of not quitting the company
   • Stay on the rails and be safe
   • Be like everyone else and feel secure
2. The route of quitting the company immediately
   • Get off the rails
   • Walk your own path

Q. Stable but can't do what you want OR unstable but can do what you want
A. Unstable but can do what you want
Joined a startup of about 20 people for smartphone app development. Xamarin, Azure - total vendor lock-in to MS.
Developed using only Vim.

Met the first IDE, Visual Studio, and C#.
Loved C#.
Wrote tons of articles about Xamarin. Side job as a manga artist (personifying programming languages).

Discovered by MS employees and invited to a recruitment interview.

Steve Jobs "Connecting the Dots"
Example: He only dove into typography because he liked it.
Windows had jagged text with just the engineers Bill Gates and Woz.
On the other hand, Mac is beautiful.

Looking back... English → Harry Potter. Drawing, fujoshi-evangelism, programming studies, cram school teaching.
Drawing and evangelism → Manga.

It's better to have at least three dots.
1 → Dot. 2 → Line. 3 → Plane.

Industrial Revolution

Washing machine example: When it came out, biased people said "You shouldn't take it easy. Washboard!" → None left now.
1st, Cars: Horse-related people said "It's impossible to put a life on a lump of iron!" → None left. They moved to other car-related jobs.
Intel Core i7 with 3.24 million times the integration of early versions.
3rd → Automation.
Now it's said to be the 4th Industrial Revolution (Autonomy).

Thoughts

Last year, I was just a collection of dots, and my otaku dots weren't connected to engineering for the most part. However, since they happened to connect this year through a certain opportunity, it became easier to produce results. Having done PoC and design during internships in my student days, it started with small-scale development, but I feel my growth has accelerated rapidly. However, as it stands, I am still not fully utilizing the dots of my various characteristics. "Follow your heart" and "Otaku-driven" are personal favorite concepts, and I will keep them in mind along with "Connecting the Dots."

Decisions pospome Made to Survive as an Engineer: Ideals, Reality, and Overestimation

This was a talk about what the U35 generation needs to do to become the kind of talent that will be in demand 10 years from now. I feel I learned how to make decisions and how to create the criteria necessary for those decisions by hearing about pospome's actual decision-making process.

Notes

Content Notes

How the False Image was Created

Personally, I think anyone could do it.

What is Engineer Growth?

1. Talent
2. Effort: The range that can be managed by individual will
3. Environment: Work environment (spending 8 hours a day → very important)

You can control 2 and 3 yourself.

pospome-san felt he couldn't win against juniors in terms of talent, but he was blessed with an environment and a love for web technology.
Environment: Was in charge of technical strategy and it was a "stretch" (challenging) role. Currently VPoE at Kaminashi (responsible for both organization and technology at Kaminashi).

Acquired necessary systems and technologies in large-scale services and organizations. Gradually moved to environments with "stretch" goals.

The true nature of the false image
It might just be a fluke because of the good environment or the love for web tech. Going forward, it might not always be like that, and the sense of "actual ability" doesn't catch up. No reproducibility. He became able to speak at conferences because he had been writing blogs and speaking records for a long time out of a desire for recognition.

Challenges and Decision Making

What it means to "do it" as an engineer:

• Not about losing your job, but about making a big impact on the organization.
  • If you do the same job as others, you can only become the same as them.

Reasons why it seems difficult:

1. Commoditization of technology (what was hard before is easy now)
   • Even if you can't reach 100 points, people can now reach 70.
   • → The value of engineers from the past has decreased (even just cloud vs. on-premise).
   • Feels like only a handful of people can make it.
2. Rise of talented young people
   • Recently, they are particularly talented.
   • Can build web services at the time of joining.
   • Can handle tasks given to each team.
   • Thinking about career paths.
   • In the past... couldn't make web services, couldn't handle tasks. Didn't think about career paths.
3. "The Real Deal" people existing on the internet
   • Can't become like those people... feeling mentally broken.
   • As you stay an engineer longer, you see the limits of your own ability.
   • Seen it in a negative sense.

It's tough to keep going. → Must win with total strength.

What was done

Got a spark at Mercari.

• Left documentation, and it was neatly organized → People told him development productivity was high → Awareness of maintenance costs.

Accumulation of small sparks.

Increase what can be done outside the technical field:

• Docs
• Communications
• PM
• People Management
• PdM
• Management

pospome's realization

• Image of escaping from the technical field.
• Surprisingly, there are people who can do Docs...?
• Many technical insights due to environmental factors, but...
• It's ironic not to write code despite being in "technology".

Summary

• Increase what you can do and continue to evolve.
• Avoid staying in a comfort zone in a negative sense.
  • Easy to work, but not good in the long run.
  • Always include a bit of "stretch".
• Risk hedge: if you can do many things, you won't be swallowed by the dilution of technology.

Thoughts

I understood engineer growth by drawing parallels with racehorses and various athletes. Based on that, it was an opportunity to think about what to do with the 8 hours of work time I have each day. How to connect my strengths, the direction of my efforts, and the points I've cultivated so far to control my growth. I felt it was a talk about how to compensate for the constant, unchangeable factor of talent. I listened to this after Yomado-san's talk, and combining pospome-san's talk on decision-making (which is close to the mindset of how to proceed in the future) with "Otaku-Driven Development" (to build my future self), my perspective on my career has become firm. Since Yomado-san's and pospome-san's talks complemented each other perfectly, I think those who can watch the archives will gain a lot by watching pospome-san's talk after Yomado-san's.

Custom-made Best Friend Built with AI

This session covered the basics and mechanisms of AI chat, but it was also a discussion that thoroughly explored the concept of "friendship," and I felt it had elements that connect to upstream processes. As an engineer, I aspire to reach the level of engineering demonstrated by Yoshiko-san.

Notes

Notes

What is Mastra: https://zenn.dev/serinuntius/books/4346a0fc6818f3/viewer/introduction
Default is local file DB

1. Creating a friend's brain
2. Creating a face. Vibe Coding opportunity. Moving from the management screen to the usual chat screen.
3. Creating memory
   • Chat AI like GPT → Since the entire conversation history is sent every time, it reaches limits.
   • → Reaching a limit isn't what friends do.
   • → Sol: Change to send only the last 10 (Mastra's default).
   • With 10 items, there's no long-term memory. I want it to remember if there's a connection to an old topic.
   • Create short-term and long-term memory → use mem0.
     • Let AI create topics with mem0 to avoid duplication or update them.
     • Free SaaS.
     • = Use of RAG.
4. Creating eyes
   • It's hard to convey scenery etc. via text.
   • Make the AI model multimodal.
   • Enable the AI to see images.
     • Upload images with Cloudinary and get the URL.
     • Send text and image URL to the AI model's API.
5. Taking it outside (Taking it out, making it feel like going out together)
   • Deployment.
   • If you don't want to make it public to the whole world → Authentication.
   • Vercel → because the timeout for streaming is long.
6. Getting even closer
   • Expanding context (adding current time, etc.).
   • Expanding search tools, having it operate smart homes via MCP.

Thoughts

I believe the definition of "friend" was possible precisely because of a high level of understanding of the human domain. I felt I learned how to translate real-world matters into systems and how to solve emerging issues by linking them back to the domain. The technical selection for problem-solving was also extremely logical and served as a great reference.

How Competitive Programming Helps in Practice: Practical Applications of Competitive Programming Thinking

I chose this session intentionally. On the other stage, there was an interesting talk by mizchi-san about his career and AI that I really wanted to hear, but I chose this to broaden my perspective, as I haven't had a very positive impression of competitive programming. This move was a great success, and it was a good session that changed my view on competitive programming.

Notes

Recent Competitive Programming

Heuristic exists. (Optimization problems)
In the algorithm division, based on benchmark companies, it's a claim for "Blue" rank. From the organizers' perspective, it's at a "Cyan" level.
Heuristic → AI is "Green" on average. SakanaAI's special Solver is "Yellow" on average. According to organizers, it's around "Green".

Next week, OpenAI and Humanity vs AI. There's a theory that they're coming because there's a prospect of winning in Heuristic.

Relationship with Competitive Programming

• kenkoo: Became able to think about computational complexity through competitive programming → related to performance.
• CraftBank CPO: Started in Technical College (Kosen) when told he could get credits just for doing if and for. Won the proper technical contest at Kosen Procon.

"Competition" is fun in itself. Fighting alone. Happy when winning, frustrated when losing. Glad to do it with favorite programming.
Competition → there is "play". Some are suited, some aren't. Recommended for those who are good at "learning while playing".

How it helps in practice

Takeda-san's perspective

• Highly relevant.
• Paradigm shift related to AI. Deepening vertically = Competitive Programming.
  • Business-side people can build systems. Can't survive with just RDB details alone.
  • Industry-specific No-Code ERPs might become popular. (Using many trees, etc.)
  • AI will be able to handle unstructured data → Graph theory will be useful.
  • Industry-specific structures will be useful.
• Seeing the world through graphs and trees → being on the side that provides problems.

kenkoo-san's perspective

• Doesn't help directly.
• Helps in research institutes or R&D (algorithms in papers, optimization implementations).
• AI can handle simple tech → deeper tech might be required.
  • Web systems might be built by betting everything on Claude.
  • On the other hand, competitive programming and algorithms might survive.
• Likely to survive as the problem-solving side.

Why it's thought to be unhelpful

Cases when using AI:

• Vibe (Leaving it entirely to AI)
• Agentic (Review)
  • To ensure quality, high ability of the reviewer is needed → programming ability is required.

kenkoo-san's perspective

Might be naturally useful without realizing it.

• Unless it's DP, for-loops are basically unnecessary.
• Imagining the input for AI speakers (DP).

Takeda-san's perspective

• Things basically become tree structures, and abstraction itself should become a tree structure.
• Writing a lot of code should lead to that.

Tips

Devin → The top rankers of AtCoder, and AI itself is likely being made by AtCoder top rankers.

AI and Competitive Programming

• AI can give answers, but giving them randomly in one shot is boring.
  • Outputting something without knowing if it's right in one shot → hard to cooperate.
• Algorithm-related things become boring when done with AI.
• Heuristic might be fun to do with AI, but not recommended.
• If it fits the purpose, reasoning models (reinforcement learning) will play an active role.
  • Ordinary ones are Softmax, so they become one-shot types.
  • Things might change if it can do diagrams.

Thoughts on "Green" rank people joining?

• Green: Can output working code in 10-15 minutes.
• Depends on how they became Green.
  • Interested in the gradation of the stance.
  • If they are Cyan, immediate scout.

Summary

• Want them to do it, but it's okay if they don't (it's important that they like programming).
• Acquire abstraction ability (= removing duplication, meta-ability).
• Logic is clean (naming being clean is also important, but shouldn't be obsessed with only that).
• Quality assurance will be an issue (reviews, etc.).
  • Improve basic programming strength to speed up reviews.
  • Do abstraction well.

Thoughts

It's the competitive programmers who can't abstract that are problematic; basically, competitive programmers aren't bad. After listening to this session, I thought competitive programming is something to be used for training in abstraction. As chokudai-san says, detailed variable naming is of course important, but I think it's also important to implement with clean logic that meets requirements, not just focusing on naming. I finally started to see this a little bit after coding for nearly 14 hours every day for several years, so I strongly resonated with implementing clean logic and abstraction. I want to value the experience of writing a lot of code like Takeda-san, the experience of abstracting from that, and the perspective of viewing the world as a tree structure.

I'm Hiroyuki, Any Questions?

This was a Q&A where his side as an "engineer" was more prominent than the "Hiroyuki" the general public sees. He talked about everything from his usual mindset to the theme of Colacon, "Survival Strategy." I remember there was a massive amount of learning, and it was tough just to take notes! lol

Notes

What he uses

Gemini (using it for free through a reseller).

Prospects for AI tools

Mostly a lot of noise and liars.
No one knows what will become popular. It's fine to just use various things.
Doesn't want to spend money (tends to over-commit to one thing if he pays, so he deliberately chooses free options).

Increasing annual income outside of foreign-affiliated companies

If you do it within a company, you get exploited, so build apps.
Because you can earn in the hundreds of millions.
It's better to know what kind of customers foreign companies have and how they pull in money.

Things to do in your 20s

Native-level conversation is something AI can't do yet, so it's recommended.
Foreign partners are recommended.
For engineers, English for now.
Chinese engineering resources are also increasing, so that might unexpectedly be an option.

Hiroyuki's survival strategy

Engineers who write decent code will never go hungry.
(You might go hungry at poor SIers and such).
Just write according to trends and build services.

He tries things like Flutter based on trends.
If it looks interesting in the early stages → doing it first allows you to become a leading figure.

2ch → Because there were no bulletin boards at all, no one was doing it seriously. (Same for Nico Nico Douga).
Doing it early allows you to capture the market.
Doing things that seem like they'll trend allows you to differentiate yourself.

Decent engineers → People who can properly fix code produced by AI.

Catch-up method

Doesn't approach it as "I must catch up."
It was React three years ago, but since he can go with Gemini as a set, he's trying Flutter.
Provide the best answer at that moment.

Should U35s start competitive programming?

If you want to do it as a hobby, go ahead. Whether you can make a living from it is another matter.
It won't hurt because it can be used in trivia battles, but it will remain a hobby.
It's good to have connections with people who do it, as many are in good companies.

People who were amazing to work with

• It was interesting that they were more straightforward and normal than expected.

• During the Dwango era, it was full remote with once-a-week office visits, but they were straightforward.

• It's interesting to see someone who can give an answer like "it bugs out if you make it read code recursively," even if it's bad by textbook standards.

  • Judged that they could go to production.
  • Acrobatics.

• Typing code with a one-handed keyboard → interesting.

  • Monitor and PC are in a bag.
  • Writing without looking the whole time (fixing errors after they appear).
  • Writing while moving/traveling.
  • Writing on a flip-phone and sending via email.

Idea generation

How to think based on world needs, etc.

Stance: Knowledge and experience are not useful.
Catching up is no good; take the latest knowledge when necessary. (Best)
What do you want to make?

• Recently: Silly social games (ads with trends for each country appear, so use that as a reference).

When making 2ch

Playing with bulletin boards and thinking "I could probably make this" or "I wonder if I can mod it" was the origin.
An extension of things he was using.

The president of Wacoal (women's underwear) could do it because he was an underwear enthusiast.

How to work and provide value to others at a sustainable level

• If you are 26 and a nobody:
• Depends on skills.

App ads are fine, or article ads.
Try everything you might be suited for.

Since childhood, he thought he wasn't suited for a company, so he built a site.
It's more profitable to make others write than to write yourself.
Finding someone who can write code but has low communication skills seems best.

Communication skills required for engineers

• From an engineering perspective, it's better to find someone with no comm skills (because you can take a cut in the middle).
  • Do it for them instead.
  • They can't even do job hunting.

External and internal are different.

Who earns the most in engineering?

Men: Mr. Kawakami (Dwango founder), Horiemon.
Women: Ms. Namba (DeNA) (Doesn't write code, but you don't have to obsess over writing code).

It's good to have engineering thinking and leave the code to others.
Bill Gates also stopped having to write after losing to Japanese engineers.

Engineering ability is necessary, but you can't grow a company with that alone. Can you find excellent engineers or tell when they're lying?

SIers that will remain in 2025

NTT Data → because they do infrastructure like banks, power, and water.
Companies doing infrastructure can survive (whether they're profitable is a different story).

What to do about the meaning of meetings

Managers use them to shift responsibility (when something happens, blame it on everyone's decision. Blame someone).

• Make sure it doesn't come to you.
• Since you're not on the front line, pass/rotate the responsibility ball quickly.
• As a result, it's good to ensure it doesn't come to you (get verbal commitments) = can be used as a "錦の御旗" (Imperial banner/legitimate authority). Use it as verbal commitment to move people.
• Use it to get what you want to get.

Daily life changed by the emergence of AI

Almost never use it. Level of occasional search replacement.
Use it sometimes for work, though.
Doesn't like Siri or voice systems (tedious). When the answer you want doesn't come back, etc.

How to compromise when the required range of AI is expanding and includes areas you don't want to do

Since AI can do what anyone can do, hasn't work become easier based on the theory that you can do the difficult parts?
Engineers should do the abstraction that AI cannot do. Only do the truly interesting parts.
You don't have to do things you don't want to do.

How to increase the number of people who can write decent code

Isn't it quite difficult?
People who can assemble system specs and configurations from scratch in their heads.
People nowadays do it with AI, so it seems tough.
Areas requiring severe control like game programmers will likely remain.

Engineering communities might also thin out, but what preparation can be done?
Whether you want to build from scratch depends on the person. Few people started building there, and almost no one did it to the end.
People who were building things before becoming working adults will likely become good. Those who became engineers for what they wanted to do, rather than engineering being the goal, seem excellent.
People who can only do engineering seem more excellent. (Bad at daily life, etc.)

App production

Try making something that seems doable from the iOS app rankings + alpha, and give it a similar name.
The answer to what's trending is unknown, but iOS publishes trends for free.
Better to aim for what's accepted by the public.

Advice for no communication skills

Why not do everything remotely?
→ Conversely, you'll mess up.

• Mistake priorities, produce misinterpretations.
  • Is it because of communicating?
  • Boss's ordering is bad → have them put it in text.
  • Ticket system is good.
• What if there's no ticket system?
  • Have the boss text specifically what to do.
  • Reduce oral interaction.
• Increase chat interaction. Increasing text creates a trail of evidence.

How to describe yourself in one word? What happens next?

Someone doing what they want to do because they don't want to work. Curiosity (engineering, games).
Can turn what I want to do into a business.

Broad and shallow vs. Deep

• Safety is broad and shallow.
• You should become a leading figure in something where your app is known because you started early.

When it's tough with clients at a contract vendor

• You should stop thinking about how you want others to be.
• It's not your system anyway, so you could just finish it quickly and go for a drink.

LLM Unemployed

You can earn money just by introducing things, so betting everything on LLM is OK.

Want to marry as an engineer, but can't

Because I want to build a career.
Which is better, before or after?
If earning 7-8 million, age 27-28 is OK. (Most people at this level are already married. Over 30, women's eyes become more discerning, so it's a hassle).

• A move showing you have money by following connections is good.

Countries easy to survive in

Anywhere is fine if there's no war. If there's internet, you can endure. Only Cuba and North Korea have bad networks.
You can also set up a paper company and earn in foreign currency. Laws are generally loose.
Know Islamic culture. Western culture is good.
Georgia is the easiest (tourists can create bank accounts. Corporate registration can be done with a passport).

A word

Engineers will never go hungry.
US layoffs → because salaries were 20 million.
Japan is a "buy" opportunity. Because it's cheaper than foreigners.
Will continue to be hired. Serious engineers who receive orders from overseas can remain.

Thoughts

Hiroyuki-san has a very strong image of crushing people in debates, so I thought it would be like that this time as well. However, that wasn't the case at all; he was a highly skilled engineer and one of the great seniors we should be proud of. His stance of respecting the person he was questioning and waiting patiently, repeating questions for the audience when the mic happened to be off, and providing supplementary information while the mic was being brought to the questioner... He possessed not only a wide range of knowledge and skill as an engineer but also compassion and a spirit of service. Looking at his great example, I want to learn and first become what he calls a "decent engineer who writes code."

Overall Reflections

I attended Colacon thinking it was a conference about careers, and I participated while feeling that there might not be much to gain beyond career paths. However, that wasn't the case at all, and I was able to gain eye-opening perspectives from the presentations of individuals with proven track records. I myself had been feeling anxious about the uncertainty of the future, but it seems that was just a lack of perspective and an inability to organize my own vision for myself. Through my learning at Colacon, I want to work hard on self-analysis—or rather, self-organization and abstraction. The direction I'm setting for myself is to first become capable of "Otaku-Driven Development," and then to connect the dots of my experiences to form a plane, aiming to become a "decent engineer who writes code" while creating value.

It's recommended for those who feel a sense of uncertainty about their career or are worried about their next steps. Since it's a Supporterz event, it's also quite fun, so I think it's a great event for broadening your perspective or even just for the pure enjoyment of it.