Otmar Szafnauer

Hi there, welcome along to another episode of High Performance.

I'm here alongside my co-host, Damien Hughes.

Hello, Damien.

Hi, Jake.

How are you, mate?

You all right?

I am very well, thanks.

I've just got back from a few days in Madrid.

Before we go any further, though, let's tell everyone that you've just got back from Japan.

How was that?

I remember when I used to go to Japan often for the Formula One, the thing that stood out to me was when you're sitting on the train and the ticket inspector walks into the carriage to check your tickets, the very first thing they do is bow to the carriage and everyone bows back to them.

It's like there's a level of respect in Japan for other human beings that I think we've lost a bit in other parts of the world.

Do you know the phrase SONDA and what it stands for, Damien?

So Sonder is a neologism coined by a guy called John Koenig in 2012 for a project he was doing called the Dictionary of Obscure Sorrows.

And if I was to define it, I suppose it is this kind of profound realization you have at some point in your life that every random passerby

is living a life as vivid, as complex, as chaotic as your own, right?

They've all got their own ambitions, their own friends, their own routines, their own worries.

And this understanding that kind of we're just a background character in their story in the same way that they're a background character in our story.

And this kind of mindset that we need to stop treating everyone in 2D because they all live a life in 3D.

And I think that's something in Japan that still exists.