Concept tag
#wu-wei
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Is the “flow state” players reach in a good game the same thing as wu wei, or a false friend?
I design puzzle games for a small studio in Tainan. Our whole craft is building challenges that match a player's skill closely enough that they lose track of time. The psychologist Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi called this "flow": deep absorption, loss of self-consciousness, action…
Started by Huang Wei-ting6 replies284 views -
Nineteen years with one blade: Cook Ding and the discipline that wu wei is usually sold without
I make cedar doors and ceilings in the Andalusian style, the way my father taught me in his workshop in Tetouan. A customer from Europe, watching me cut a joint, told me it looked effortless and that I must be practising wu…
Started by Hicham Ouazzani6 replies236 views -
Translating wu wei as “effortless action” does more harm than good; better to leave it untranslated
I translate French philosophy and fiction into Vietnamese, and I spend my working life with words that will not cross borders. Wu wei is a strange case for me, because in Vietnamese it already exists as a Sino-Vietnamese word, vô vi, and…
Started by Phạm Quốc Bảo6 replies149 views -
Was Laozi the first laissez-faire economist? Why wu wei is not the invisible hand
I lecture in economics in Valencia, and every few years a student brings me a quotation from the Laozi with great excitement. "The more prohibitions there are, the poorer the people." "Governing a large state is like cooking a small fish": don't…
Started by Javier Morales6 replies318 views -
Wu wei for burnt-out founders: what did Laozi actually mean?
After Stoicism, I've been reading the Daodejing. One idea that hits hard is wu wei, usually translated "non-action" or "effortless action". Chapter 48 says that in pursuing learning you add something every day, but in pursuing the Dao you let something go…
Started by Rohan Desai1 reply81 views