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Fan shares encouraging letter he received from Satoru Iwata back in 2013

What a class act
by rawmeatcowboy
07 April 2019
GN Version 5.0

Satoru Iwata may have left us years ago, but the impact he made and the spirit of the man himself will never be forgotten. Case in point, this lovely letter from Satoru Iwata that was sent to Twitter user Kumozawa1203. The letter comes from 2013, back when Kumozawa1203 was sending a letter as part of a school program. The program had children reaching out to people/businesses to discuss future work goals. You can see Mr. Iwata's full response to the letter below.

This is Iwata from Nintendo.

Thank you for the letter. I’m very happy that you chose Nintendo for your “Hello Work at 12” project.

In middle school, I developed an interest in computers, and before long I’d decided to study computers seriously in college. While I was a college student, I realized how fun it was to make video games, and chose that for my job. Making video games is a job that requires a lot of energy, but for me it was even more fun than playing them. That and the fact that other people could also enjoy what I’d made gave me a sense of purpose.

Game development requires the drawing together of many different fields. You need people to think up game designs, people to draw pictures, people to make music and sound effects, people to program, people to test the game, people to make sure that the whole team is working together well, and so on. That’s why I don’t think there’s a right answer to the question of what you should study.

I do think that you’ll be able to find what you’re good at by thinking deeply about all the things you’re interested in, not settling for spending your days without increasing your knowledge, making lots of discoveries, and repeating that process. While what you’re good at and what you enjoy doing might not necessarily be the same, I’ve had the experience of others recognizing things I’m good at, even if I didn’t actually like it at first. That’s one reason why you should continue studying and gaining experience without bias.

Please do your best.

[Link]