Yesterday, I did my month in review and mentioned that I was rereading The Little Book of Ikigai by Ken Mogi. Well, I managed to finish it today so I’ve been looking forward to rambling about the book now that I’m not writing a “proper” review.

If you’re not aware, Mogi’s 5 pillars of Ikigai are:

• Starting small
• Releasing yourself
• Harmony and sustainability
• The joy of small things
• Being in the here and now

I thought that was an interesting contrast to the Ikigai Venn Diagram, which comes from Mark Winn repurposing Andres Zuzunaga’s Venn Diagram of Purpose (found this info from Ikigai Tribe). In the venn diagram, Ikigai is seen at the intersection of the following four circles:

• What you love
• What you’re good at
• What the world needs
• What you can be paid for

The way I see it, the five pillars are ikigai are the Japanese view of things, while the venn diagram is the Western interpretation of ikigai. I don’t know if it’s a Western thing, but its interpretation of ikigai seems very closely tied to work and money, while the Japanese view seems to be more on small things and mindfulness. In fact, Mogi defines ikigai in the following way:

“It is about discovering, defining, and appreciating those of life’s pleasures that have meaning for you.”

Nothing about work or money!

By the way, I completely missed this definition of ikigai the first time I read it. It was nestled after a story about a handmade chair belonging to a professor and I thought the statement was about the story, not that it was a definition.

Currently, I prefer Mogi’s approach to Ikigai over Winn’s, not just because it’s the more authentic interpretation, but because I think that defining motivation in terms of money is quite dangerous. Hobbyiests and amateurs traditionally do things for the love of it. But we’re now in the age of “side hustles”, “hustle/grind culture”, and “make your passion your job”, which makes us unfairly rank activities by their potential income, not by the amount of joy they bring. I’m wondering if that could be why I sometimes feel guilty about unproductive days; because this idea that even leisure hobbies have to be monetarily productive is so pervasive it eats at us even if we don’t want to accept it.

By the way, I always thought this book was published more than a few years back, or perhaps I just never realised that Martin Scorsese’s Silence was released in 2016 and not like, in the last two years, so I was surprised to see a reference to the film in the book! I don’t know why I’m surprised but I was.

After I finished The Little Book of Ikigai, I started rereading one of the Kobo ebooks I bought – PreachersNSneakers. I read it when it came out in 2021, so not too long ago, but since then I’ve read a few more books critiquing various parts of American Christian culture so I’m curious if I’ll gain any new insights from this reread.