Patch Notes v1.0.0: Initial Release
v1.0.0 Initial Release
Nice to meet you. I’m Shoya.
As for my identity: Software Engineer, from Yamaguchi Prefecture, living in Tokyo, graduate of KOSEN (National Institute of Technology, a 5-year or 7-year engineering college in Japan), Master of Computer Science, lived in the US (Austin, Texas), DIY enthusiast, Karaoke lover, and full of curiosity and laziness. After working at Rakuten for three years as a new graduate, I moved to the US. I worked at Meta for a little less than three years, Google for three years, and now I am working at Kyndryl Japan.
With AI development reducing the cost of writing articles significantly, I decided to start blogging again. This blog is built using the Astro framework, and the majority of it was created by AI. It is much better made than things I have built in the past, which makes me feel happy but also a little sad… It feels like the loneliness of a one-of-a-kind handmade item being replaced by a mass-produced product. I wonder if the sense of attachment to self-made software will eventually disappear from society? But, if I can pour my soul into “What” I write with the time saved, maybe that is also a form of evolution. …as AI said.
Putting that aside, I would like to use this blog as a place to organize my daily thoughts. As the title “Shoya’s Patch Notes” suggests, it is like a “changelog” of my life and thoughts. If enough articles accumulate, maybe I can create an AI clone of myself someday? Will the day come when an AI clone writes this blog?
Since I have walked a rare path in life, I might be able to offer interesting content to those who are interested in my experiences and philosophy.
Brief Biography
I am from Iwakuni City, Yamaguchi Prefecture. It has a US military base and is right next to Hiroshima. It is a convenient city where the Shinkansen (Bullet Train) stops and has an airport. After graduating from public elementary and junior high schools, I entered KOSEN (National Institute of Technology, a 5-year or 7-year engineering college in Japan) at the age of 15, but my initial motivation was just a light admiration that “IT seems kind of cool.” In reality, until I was 18, I was a typical sports boy devoting everything to track and field (high jump). While at KOSEN, my concern was not “how computers work” but only “the form of my high jump.” While those around me were fighting with C language, I was fighting with gravity.
The first turning point was the summer of my 18th year, when I retired from club activities. I started studying seriously to get into a good university / grad school. When I started facing the specialized field that I had only touched “vaguely” until then, I began to realize the fun of connecting the theories in textbooks to systems that actually work. At the same time, this was when I started studying English from scratch with an eye on the future. “Technology” and “English”, the two wheels supporting my current career started running from this summer. During the four years until I graduated from the advanced course, my interest shifted rapidly from “jumping higher” to “gaining skills and expanding my world.”
The second turning point was entering the University of Tokyo’s graduate school. Based on the knowledge and experience learned at KOSEN, in addition to lectures and research, I gained experience in various hands-on activities such as lab server management, event network construction, infrastructure operation part-time jobs, software development, competitive programming, and CTF (hacking contests). This was the period when my foundation as an engineer was formed. As a result of having too much fun with various things, I had to fight the pressure of research with no progress at all in the second year of my master’s degree, leading to binge eating and drinking. I recorded the heaviest weight in my life and became a physique far from the stereotype of an Computer Science major.
After three years at Rakuten as a new graduate, I moved to the US upon getting married. This is the third turning point. The six years in the US became a time to deeply understand the culture of Silicon Valley companies and the diversity of American people. Fortunately, I was able to work at Meta for less than three years and Google for three years, experiencing the culture and philosophy of the world’s largest tech companies firsthand. On the other hand, my base of living was Austin, Texas. “Keep Austin Weird” is the slogan of this city. It is a distinctive city with BBQ, music, friendliness to dogs, and being a liberal area even within a politically conservative state. While there are many homeless people in large US cities, in Austin, the so-called “Bucket Guy,” who played drums on buckets at intersections, was earning tips overwhelmingly more than others. Furthermore, my wife’s hometown, Wisconsin, is vast and cold, famous for cheese and beer, a place just like Hokkaido in Japan. On holidays, everyone watches American football, screaming and drinking beer.
My wife and I decided to return to Tokyo in 2026. Now, utilizing my experience in the US, I am involved in cutting-edge AI-related projects while cooperating with global teams. What I enjoy after coming back to Japan is nature and food. I am fully enjoying hiking, viewing autumn leaves, fishing, etc. Also, Japanese food is too delicious, so the “Move to Japan and automatically lose weight” plan has made no progress. Rather, it is regressing.
Closing
So, I will write about my experiences and thoughts loosely like this. In the unlikely event that this blog gets flamed, I plan to blame it all on “AI Hallucinations”.
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