Letting Go of Evaluation and Devoting Life to "Small Joys": Kenichiro Mogi on How Geniuses Use Their Brains

We live daily within an invisible cage called “evaluation.” For students, it’s test scores and standardized test rankings; for working adults, it’s annual income and job titles; and in modern society, it’s social media follower counts and “likes.” These external metrics behave as if they were the very essence of our worth, unconsciously stealing our “attention” and “precious time.”

Yet the individuals truly called “geniuses”—those who moved the world and left their mark on history—lived on a completely different plane from these external metrics. What drove them was not others’ evaluations or social success, but an intensely personal and pure “small joy” welling up from within themselves.

The Little Book of Ikigai – The Secret Japanese Way to Live a Happy and Long Life, written in English by neuroscientist Kenichiro Mogi in 2017, has been translated into 32 languages worldwide. It sparked an explosive response overseas, including a long-running number one bestseller status in Germany. Why are people around the world now so enthusiastic about the ancient Japanese concept of “ikigai”?

This article delves into the essence of “ikigai” as explained by Kenichiro Mogi and decodes the “brain usage” practiced unconsciously by geniuses. It explores profound truths to help you break free from modern society’s conditioning and reclaim your own life.

What is “Ikigai”?—A Way of Life That Lets Go of External Measures

Mogi defines “ikigai” as follows:

“Ikigai refers to the inner joy of living, completely unrelated to others’ evaluations. (…) For instance, drinking coffee in the morning might be someone’s ikigai, or accompanying their dog on walks. These things are likely almost entirely unrelated to others’ judgments or income.”

Kenichiro Mogi

These words suggest how much we modern people depend on “external evaluation” to live. In capitalist society, we are constantly compared to others and placed within rankings. Company evaluations, annual income, social status. To obtain these, we continuously expend time and effort on things we don’t truly desire.

However, from the perspective that “attention equals life,” living while worrying about others’ evaluations is the same as sacrificing your precious “life time” to someone else’s standards. As long as your attention is directed toward others’ perspectives, you are not living your own life. The exit lies within the deeply personal joys that no one else evaluates, like the “morning coffee” or “dog walk” Mogi mentions.That is precisely the first step toward breaking free from external conditioning and reclaiming your attention for your inner world.

The Power of “Small Joys” to Liberate You from Others’ Judgment

Mogi cites “small joys” as one pillar of what constitutes a sense of purpose. The anecdote of a German journalist seriously asking, “Why do Japanese people get so excited just because cherry blossoms bloom?” succinctly captures the uniqueness of the Japanese spirit. Furthermore, there’s the story of an American journalist, raised in a monotheistic worldview, who tasted an egg sandwich from a Japanese convenience store and was moved, exclaiming, “Is there anything this delicious in the entire universe?”

Historically, Japanese people have passionately pursued and obsessed over extremely minor “small joys” – the difference between smooth and chunky red bean paste, the perfect grilling of takoyaki, the depth of ramen broth. This “obsession” doesn’t require understanding from others. It exists in a purely self-contained world where “it’s good because I think it’s good.”

The Good Heart Principle and the Limits of Metrics

Why is pursuing this inner “obsession” so important, rather than seeking external validation? The answer lies hidden within Goodhart’s Law. Goodhart’s Law is an empirical rule stating: “When a metric becomes a target, it ceases to be a good metric.”

For example, the moment “standardized test scores”—which should naturally follow learning—become the goal, the joy of learning vanishes, degenerating into a mere game of chasing numbers. The instant a company employee makes “stock prices” or “sales figures” the goal itself, creativity is lost, and they become fixated solely on manipulating numbers. Metrics must always remain a byproduct.

What directors like Hayao Miyazaki of Studio Ghibli, Satoshi Tajiri, the creator of Pokémon, and Shigeru Miyamoto, the creator of Super Mario, have in common is that they never set metrics like “winning an Academy Award” or “achieving a global blockbuster hit” as their initial goals. What they cherished was their personal “reason for living” – that “thrill of catching insects” or “building a world they genuinely found fascinating.”

In other words, even the fruit of massive social success rolls into the lap not of those chasing external metrics, but of those who let go of others’ judgments and immerse themselves to the extreme in “small joys.”

The Trap of Cost-Performance and Time-Performance Supremacy and the Power of the Unconscious

One of the powerful brainwashing mechanisms permeating modern society is the supremacy of “cost performance” (コスパ) and “time performance” (タイパ). It’s an era where watching movies at double speed, eliminating wasted time as much as possible, and achieving results efficiently are highly valued. However, Mr. Mogi outright rejects this, discerning that “cost performance and time performance are the logic of those being used.”

“People talk about cost performance or time performance when they’re forced to do work they don’t want to do, or when they’re forced to study something they don’t want to study, thinking they need to finish quickly. (…) But the creators, the truly capable people like Yasushi Akimoto or Yumi Matsutoya, they seem to take their time.”

Kenichiro Mogi

Top creators like Yasushi Akimoto and Yumi Matsutoya appear, at first glance, to be taking it easy and playing around. Yet, during that seemingly leisurely time, they are constantly and unconsciously inputting vast amounts of information and processing it.

A Way of Life Cultivating the 95% Unconscious

Of the human brain’s activity, the “consciousness” we typically perceive accounts for only about 5%, while the remaining 95% is said to be governed by the “unconscious.” Pursuing efficiency through cost-performance or time-performance ratios amounts to nothing more than extremely shallow and impoverished optimization driven by this mere 5% of conscious awareness.

Truly innovative ideas or expressions that touch others’ hearts aren’t churned out by the 5% of consciousness crunching away at calculations. They emerge when vast fields of seemingly useless knowledge and experience (dots) are sown over decades into the 95% realm of the unconscious. These dots connect unexpectedly in a flash, manifesting as “inspiration.”

The societal paradigm of “cost-performance” and “time-performance” is a trap designed to strip us of the “useless time needed to cultivate our unconscious” and tame us into disposable, ready-to-use resources. To escape this trap, we must resolve to invest time generously in hobbies and learning labeled “useless” by society.

The mechanism by which doing nothing awakens the brain

The function of the “Default Mode Network (DMN)” is considered scientifically essential for cultivating the unconscious and gaining inspiration. Dr. Mogi calls this “one of the greatest discoveries in neuroscience over the past 10 to 20 years.”

The DMN is a brain network that activates only when the brain is “idling”—not focused on a specific task. During this time, the brain isn’t resting. Through the DMN, it performs the critically important task of organizing vast amounts of previously input information, connecting the dots, and maintaining and “organizing” the brain—all happening beneath the surface.

The “Golden Time” for the Brain, Stolen by Information Overload

The problem here is the overwhelming length of modern people’s “screen time.” We constantly grip our smartphones, chasing social media and news in any spare moment, continuously feeding information from the outside. This leaves the brain perpetually busy processing information, completely losing the breathing room needed to activate the DMN.

Shogi legend Yoshiharu Habu, known for his unbeatable skills, says he spends hours on his sofa on days off simply “zoning out.” To recover from the extreme mental exertion of matches and organize unconscious thoughts, he absolutely needs time to idle, completely cut off from all information.

Furthermore, the moment of waking and the drowsy, semi-awake state are also “golden times” for the brain when the DMN tends to dominate. Manga artist Naoki Urasawa reportedly, when pressed and unable to come up with a story outline (storyboard), would deliberately sleep on the sofa and gain inspiration the instant he woke up.

Continuously absorbing information is never the right answer. Intentionally blocking out information, walking without even listening to music (running or walking). This time of “digital detox” is the ultimate luxury in modern times and the only way to reclaim the unconscious power that has been taken from us.

Liberation from Inferiority and Living in the “Age of the Individual”

Mogi also makes a profoundly essential point about the feeling of “inferiority” humans often carry. We constantly compare ourselves to others, suffering thoughts like “I’m worse than that person” or “I can’t be like them.” This stems from our biological instincts.

In the past, everyone was measured by the same yardstick: test scores, running speed, communication skills, company sales performance. It was precisely because we were compared on that uniform scale that feelings of inferiority arose.

However, the times have completely shifted. The world where “everyone competes under the same standards” is crumbling.

People like Bill Gates, who may struggle with communication but possess an extraordinary obsession with programming, have come to dominate the world. Today, VTubers who never show their faces captivate millions of young people, while music created by artists like Grimes and Billie Eilish, holed up in their apartment rooms, sweeps the Grammys. No one knows the true face of Koyoharu Gotouge, the creator of Demon Slayer.

Breaking Free from the Brainwashing of Common Sense

School education and traditional social structures try to control you by forcing you into the same mold, instilling feelings of inferiority, to turn you into an “easily manageable cog.” But that’s an outdated fantasy of a society that no longer functions.

Everyone has weaknesses. Whether you struggle with communication, can’t read the room, or are a recluse, these are merely “characteristics.” On the other hand, you must have your own unique, almost obsessive “passions” or “small joys” that only you understand. Letting go of the illusion of inferiority and dedicating your life to those personal “passions” – things that might seem worthless to others – that is the most essential and free way to live in this coming “era of the individual.”

Awaken from modern illusions and reclaim true joy

Kenichiro Mogi’s world of “purpose in life” brilliantly confronts us with how much we’ve surrendered to societal norms and others’ judgments.

We run on tracks laid by others, chasing external metrics like academic rankings and annual income, dancing to the tune of terms like “cost performance” and “time performance,” while endlessly consuming information. As a result, our limited “life force (attention)” is depleted, and the power of our 95% unconscious mind is quietly decaying.

The actions needed to escape this massive system’s trap begin with something very small.

• Let go of evaluation: Stop chasing social titles and appearances. Absolutely affirm your own “small joys,” even if they seem meaningless to others.
• Abandon efficiency: Stop fearing “wasted time.” Dedicate time to hobbies and learning that don’t immediately serve a purpose, cultivating your unconscious mind.
• Create blank spaces: Intentionally block the “attention extraction” of information input from smartphones. Walk without music, just zone out on the sofa, reviving your brain’s default mode network (DMN).

Other people’s opinions? Don’t care. What society deems valuable? Irrelevant. The aroma of coffee, a dog’s panting, a single flower blooming by the roadside. We were born to purely savor these “small joys.” Simply bring your full attention back to them, and your life should regain its inherent richness and quiet awakening.