Ikigai: the story behind the diagram
[NOT A STUDY, a pillar page on the author's own site, retrieved 2026-10-22. READ IN FULL AT SOURCE] Winn, M. 'Ikigai: the story behind the diagram.' theviewinside.me/ikigai. THE CLEANEST STATEMENT OF THE ERROR AVAILABLE. Page meta description: Winn says most ikigai diagrams online are not really Japanese, that in 2014 he added one word to Andres Zuzunaga's purpose Venn diagram, and that the page tells what happened next. Body: in 2014 Winn wrote a short blog post combining a Venn diagram Zuzunaga had drawn about purpose with the Japanese concept of ikigai, a reason for being, which he had met in Dan Buettner's work on the Blue Zones. He labelled the middle of the four-circle diagram ikigai and published it under the title What is your Ikigai?, and he is clear that he invented neither the diagram nor ikigai, only put them in the same picture on a small personal blog. Ten years later the image appears on TED slides, in HR presentations and on coaches' walls, which he calls the most viral thing he will ever accidentally make. His own statement of the error: the diagram is useful but, strictly speaking, wrong, because the Japanese idea of ikigai is not a career-planning tool and does not require work, talent and the world's needs to meet in one paid role. In Japan ikigai is often something small and domestic, such as a morning walk, a grandchild or a garden, whatever gives a reason to get out of bed. He describes the four-circle Venn as a Western purpose diagram wearing a Japanese name, useful and even beautiful but not the whole of ikigai. He publishes the image free with one request, that it be linked back to the page so that people who find the diagram can also find the story and the caveat behind it.
[NOT A STUDY, a pillar page on the author's own site, retrieved 2026-10-22. READ IN FULL AT SOURCE] Winn, M. 'Ikigai: the story behind the diagram.' theviewinside.me/ikigai. THE CLEANEST STATEMENT OF THE ERROR AVAILABLE. Page meta description: Winn says most ikigai diagrams online are not really Japanese, that in 2014 he added one word to Andres Zuzunaga's purpose Venn diagram, and that the page tells what happened next. Body: in 2014 Winn wrote a short blog post combining a Venn diagram Zuzunaga had drawn about purpose with the Japanese concept of ikigai, a reason for being, which he had met in Dan Buettner's work on the Blue Zones. He labelled the middle of the four-circle diagram ikigai and published it under the title What is your Ikigai?, and he is clear that he invented neither the diagram nor ikigai, only put them in the same picture on a small personal blog. Ten years later the image appears on TED slides, in HR presentations and on coaches' walls, which he calls the most viral thing he will ever accidentally make. His own statement of the error: the diagram is useful but, strictly speaking, wrong, because the Japanese idea of ikigai is not a career-planning tool and does not require work, talent and the world's needs to meet in one paid role. In Japan ikigai is often something small and domestic, such as a morning walk, a grandchild or a garden, whatever gives a reason to get out of bed. He describes the four-circle Venn as a Western purpose diagram wearing a Japanese name, useful and even beautiful but not the whole of ikigai. He publishes the image free with one request, that it be linked back to the page so that people who find the diagram can also find the story and the caveat behind it.
Written from the nOT A STUDY, a pillar page on the author's own site, retrieved 2026-10-22. READ IN FULL AT SOURCE.
What our sources record
Recorded when this source was checked, figures included, with page references and quotation marks removed.
theviewinside.me/ikigai. https://theviewinside.me/ikigai